Scale Experimental Aircraft Models 80" Velocity XL

[Flyfalcons]

All control surfaces are hinged. I bought some pinned flat hinges but did a crappy job keeping glue off the pivot points, so by the time I got to the ailerons I said hell with it and used the included CA hinges. I hate hinging. Controls on this plane are scale and tiny!

 

[Flyfalcons]

The kit comes with fiberglass and microballoons for reinforcing the fuselage to former joints. I used thinned epoxy for the fiberglassing. Kinda turned out meh but the joints are plenty strong now. I still have to reinforce the two formers in the nose. The manual says it's very important to reinforce the former where the nose gear attaches so I can't skip that.

 

[Flyfalcons]

The main gear is predrilled but the gear mount on the fuselage needs to be drilled for the bolts. The gear attaches with a washer and locknut on the inside of the fuse, which becomes tricky for the rear bolts since there is a former right in the middle of the gear plate. A quick test fit of the main and nose gear shows everything looking pretty good.

 

[Flyfalcons]

Starting the servo installation with the rudders. The rudder servos mount to the wingtip plates, making the wingtips easily removable. The kit includes a servo saver type setup that allows the servo to pull the rudder horn, but not push it. A spring is used to center the rudder when the servo centers, however, I found that the spring doesn't do a very good job centering the rudder. I attribute this to too much friction on the servo saver, not allowing the pushrod to slide freely through the barrel on the servo arm. The geometry between the servo arm and control horn motion is pretty jacked and I don't think it's a good setup, so I will simply run two rudder channels and set up the ATVs to only allow the servos to move in one direction (outboard)

. This will allow me to use a solid rudder pushrod.

 

[Flyfalcons]

That's all for this week. I head home in a couple days and hope to keep rocking on the build. I bought mini size servos for the canards, but they proved too big so I need to trade them in on some HS-85mg micros like the kit suggests. The rudder servos are HS-82mg and I have Futaba 3010 servos for the ailerons. A standard size metal gear servo for nosewheel steering will round out the setup for this plane.

 

[Terryscustom]

Super cool to see something different

 

[Astrohog]

Hey Ryan, I can't wait to see if you can get that thing to wrap up in a ball like your Outlaw!!!

Astro

 

[pawnshopmike]

Super cool to see something different

+1

 

[BalsaDust]

Very interesting build. looks good though

 

[Len]

Hey Ryan,

Nice to see a Velocity out there. I have a NIB kit also, someday I'll assemble it.
On the other hand, I own a full scale Velocity XLRG 350hp
I get 230 MPH with the gear up and 2 people on board. A little less with 4 people.


Good Luck with the build

Len