Sport Beautifying the Beast

[Krazy Kanuk]

Looks great Brian. Have you every thought about linking both elev halves to one larger servo? Would be relatively easy to do now that you're inside of everything.

Earle I sure wish I had seen your idea before I pinned the Elevators with the bamboo rods. I tried on a scrap piece to drill out where the bamboo is located and it just made a mess of the balsa wood. So I'm going to stay with the dual elevators.

BUT PLEASE keep coming with the comments, your advice is greatly appreciated.

Now onto the landing gear changes!

 

[Bartman]

By using this technique I have moved 6 1/2 ounces from the tail to a position much closer to the CG of the airplane.

by moving that large mass closer to the CG you've also removed a lot of momentum from the tail making it easier/faster to start and stop maneuvers

 

[Pistolera]

Brian....here's a thought. Set up one larger servo in the fuse (where you have located the one shown in the pics) and use a "Y" shaped CF pushrod that would link to each elev horn?

 

[Pistolera]

BTW - here's a perfect profile shot of Bryan Jensen's Beast. You could probably scale the gear measurements from the fuse length.

 

[WMcNabb]

Scale drawing from our friend Mirco

 

[Krazy Kanuk]

BTW - here's a perfect profile shot of Bryan Jensen's Beast. You could probably scale the gear measurements from the fuse length.
View attachment 42503

That's a great picture. I'll do as suggested and determine the landing gear height. It looks higher than the one I purchased. See next comments.

 

[Bartman]

I'll do as suggested and determine the landing gear height.

just keep in mind it's probably the HP fuselage which is a little shorter than the plans built fuselage. I'm not sure what the HP fuselage length is.

 

[Krazy Kanuk]

1. No sure what happened with this post. I can't get rid of the number "1."

 

[Krazy Kanuk]

MAIN LANDING GEAR

There are two problems with the landing gear that comes with the kit. It is too weak and the aluminum flexes too much and for my Valach Engine it doesn't offer enough ground clearance for a 30 or 32 inch prop.

I found a Carbon Fiber Gear at SDS Hobbies that gives me another 1 inch in ground clearance, is stiffer and does offer a bit more width for a slightly easier landing.

To strengthen the axle assembly through the CF gear, I installed a Sinter Bronze Flange Bushing. Sintered Bronze is an extremely hard material and it is impregnated with oil to give it good friction reduction properties. I get mine from Canadian Bearings.

For the axle assembly I found a chrome plated 1/4-20 Allen Head bolt that looks good and fits perfectly through the wheel.

I had a set of White Rose Wheels from the crash of my Extra 330SC that I am going to use for this plane. These offer me another 1/2 inch in clearance, and their metal bushing assembly feature offers me a more durable assembly instead of the plastic bushings on the Hanger 9 wheels.

The CF landing is wider than the aluminum one so that required me to open up the area where the landing gear sits by 3/4 of an inch. To further strengthen the landing gear section I installed an aluminum cross plate made from 1/16" by 1 1/2 inch by 1 inches. This cross plate helps transfer the load if you land on one wheel, so that the whole landing gear plate absorbs the stresses imposed on it.

 

[Krazy Kanuk]

BOTTOM HATCHES

As I am going to be putting the Valach 4 stroke engine onto this airframe, I do not have to use the bottom hatches for either a canister or pipes.

I also plan on using a much more simplified way to attach the lower wing, so having access to the back hatch is not necessary.

I made from 1/16 inch birch plywood two hatches that go over these areas so that they will remain clean, yet I am able to get inside if needed to get at my wiring.

I saw one Beast last summer that after a year of flying was very dirty inside these hatch areas, these open areas also produce a lot of drag (although that might not be important for this plane).

As the front hatch will house the carb of the Valach (pictures to come) I fuel proofed this area in case of the carb wants to spit out fuel. I also added some aluminum louvers to help remove some of the heat from the engine that will migrate back here.