• If you are new to GiantScaleNews.com, please register, introduce yourself, and make yourself at home.

    We're 1st in Giant Scale RC because we've got the best membership on the internet! Take a look around and don't forget to register to get all of the benefits of GSN membership!

    Welcome!

GSN GIVE-A-WAY Hangar 9 35% Extra 300X Assembly

Jetpainter

640cc Uber Pimp
I just got back and got everything put away after a very successful maiden day. We had a big storm roll through last night so it was quite a bit cooler this morning, and somewhat overcast early on.

I got to the field about 9 and assembled the airplane and then had two friends do a sanity check to make sure everything looked right and that I didn't do anything silly. After they gave me the thumbs up I fueled it and drug it out to the starting area. It popped on the choke after a couple flips, and started a few flips after turning the choke off. It idled great, had a clean transition and ran good wide open. I really like how it sounds. This time I actually remembered to do a range test, which is one thing I forgot to do when I maidened my scratch build, after that it was time to fly!

For some odd reason I was not the least bit nervous flying about flying it. Takeoff was smooth. Once in the air, it needed one click of right aileron which was too much. I need to change the steps in the trim settings. The DA120 ran well, though it had a surge at steady mid throttle. I checked the CG in a 45 degree inverted climb and it did fall off fairly easily so at first I thought it may be nose heavy, but after some slow, mid and full throttle passes I think it actually needs more down thrust. It's close, but it need more. When trimmed for level flight at mid throttle it's straight and level, but if you go wide open it starts to climb. The landing was nice and smooth.

Before the second flight I leaned the high end just a tad which helped my surge some. During that flight I tried some point rolls and slow rolls. It has a tendency to drop the nose when rolling, especially when rolling to inverted. It could use some aileron differential, and I think getting the thrust figured out would help that as well. I tried some PopTops during the second flight and man this thing does them nice.

On the third flight I tried a short hover up high just to see the pull out. For a pretty heavy airplane with a new rich engine it was very good. In knife edge it rolls out, but doesn't seem to pull to the canopy or the gear, so with some rudder aileron mix it should be good, but until the thrust is right I wont know.

In general, I'm very happy with the first day. The airplane needs a few tweaks, but nothing big. The sun came out around 12:30 and really warmed it up and shot the humidity up, so that was it for me for the day. And the sun really did a number on the covering, wow, the left wing and stab look REALLY bad so back to the iron with them.

20170723_124923_resized.jpg
20170723_124947_resized.jpg
 

Snoopy1

640cc Uber Pimp
Glad to hear that it all went well. A little bit playing and tuning and you have your self a good flying 120 for the summer.
 

stangflyer

I like 'em "BIG"!
That is so awesome. Looks nice in the sun! Really pleased to hear she flew good. I was wondering "ALL" day long how it was going. OF COURSE, I have been down working on the big Yak all day so I am just now getting a chance to get caught up on everything. Sure glad all your hard work paid off for you.
hand-clapping-smiley-emoticon.gif
 

AKNick

640cc Uber Pimp
glad to hear the maiden went well! Finally!! It seems like this ARF build has been quite the journey for you, but then again I think you were the right guy to take on the endeavor it led you down. Well done :joy::too-happy:
 

49dimes

Damn I'm hungry
Happy to hear success on both planes!:applause: (forgot about that beautiful racer maiden!:oops:) Your Extra maiden sounds almost identical to mine when I maiden the EF 104. Your subsequent flights were much better though (mine had an ignition flame out in a hover due faulty kill switch). Sounds like both the EF and H9 fly similar. I thought mine was a bit nose heavy too but it was actually slightly tail heavy. I never did check the up or down thrust and just went with the given built in to the plane. So cudos to you for not trusting a MFG expert design. Your flight report has actually shed light on my past experience with the 104 and knowing it was probably more a thrust issue I was having with it than a balance issue. Thanks for that ;). BTW my DA120 surged a bit to0. I think tuning is a bit more critical when running canister's and headers. And mine was a V1 with heavier pistons and the infamous "shaking" below 2K.
The fella who now owns my old 104 is flying it with a BE124 on stock mufflers. That took a bit over 2 pounds of weight off and still was able to balance with out adding weight up front but I see he had removed the pilot bust I did to get it to better balance. Plane is just over 26 pounds and I was flying it just over 28 pounds.

Again congrats on the Maiden:).

Here are "before and after" pics. Flies much better:) but I think that has more to do with the new owners hands:rolleyes:. Definitely tell some weight was shed between owners!:happy:

12573078_1294231737269616_5486543366099056684_n.jpg
17098186_2231735797051832_3014534299429008414_n.jpg
 
Last edited:

Jetpainter

640cc Uber Pimp
Last night I squeezed the airplane back into my workshop and got it on the bench. I pulled the cowl off to make sure everything survived maiden day, and other than one Teflon coupler leaking just a bit it all looks great.

I need to add some down thrust so I spent some time figuring out just how I wanted to do it. I decided to take one of the plastic spacers that came with Blazing Star mount and sand it into an angled shim. I'm going to put it between the mount and the firewall, so that way the engine is still bolted to a nice flat piece of aluminum. Today at work I sanded the spacer and it turned out pretty good. I'm not sure how much down it will give me, but I'll try and check it tonight.


Stock Spacer

20170724_230423_resized_1.jpg



Sanded Shim.

20170725_113446_resized.jpg




I also have a nasty surge when flying level and steady half throttle. It's not a burble, but a surge like your moving the throttle that I need to deal with. It could be several things, starting with tuning. Other causes could be air flow/air pressure at the carb, or header length, and a few more things. It's more than likely tuning, but there is a big hole in the cowl right in front of the carb so it gets a lot of air blown right on it. The common fix for the air pressure problem is to put a fitting in the diaphragm plate and run a hole into the fuselage. Another fix I've seen is to add a flat plate in front of the diaphragm plate to keep the air from blowing right on it. My DA120 has the red aluminum diaphragm cover with the holes in the top and bottom which is supposed to help stop that problem. But as you can see, this carb gets a pretty big air blast.

20170724_213429_resized.jpg


Now I could close the hole in the cowl, but I don't want to for several reasons. It's how I set the choke, It's how I see the needles to adjust them, and it's a straight through flow for air to cool the cans. Now I know a lot of people say they should be closed to help the air flow for cooling the engine from the front of the cowl and the baffles, and they could be right, but I like to get more air flowing over the cans since they are directly under the fuel tank and the batteries. I am planning on adding more exit vents, since I think I don't have enough.

Tonight I'm going to make an aluminum plate that bolts on over the original diaphragm cover with some small standoffs. It will block the direct air blast from the holes in the diaphragm cover and hang low enough to keep it off of the choke blade and throat as well. Will this help the surge, maybe, if it's an air pressure thing, but chances are it's tuning. But since I like to make little things out of aluminum, and it 's free, and it wont hurt anything I'm going to build one. ;)


Here is one that Richo from DA Australia posted a picture of.

IM000006.jpg
 

capthis

70cc twin V2
I made a cf plate on my DA150 in my Sukhoi to help the airflow over the carb plate issue. I spaced it with short pieces of brass tubing and some longer bolts. Runs well after the MOD.
 

Jetpainter

640cc Uber Pimp
I made a cf plate on my DA150 in my Sukhoi to help the airflow over the carb plate issue. I spaced it with short pieces of brass tubing and some longer bolts. Runs well after the MOD.
I did some testing last night and the spacers for ball links make perfect standoffs with the countersunk holes in the red aluminum cover. And since the screws are 4-40's I shouldn't have any trouble finding the right length. :)
 

Snoopy1

640cc Uber Pimp
I had the red cover plate on my DA and I had surging just as you explained. Made a cover plate did not work spoke to DA and they looked at and said make the plate a little bigger about 1/4 all the way around did that all my surging was gone never looked back. But I also did the brass nipple and tube into the fuselage and that worked great as well if I do it again it will do the brass nipple and tube it seems to work better but that is just me.
 
Top