Len Todd

CG is done with EMPTY Fuel tank

RonTins

Would like to know the engine you are using for power and also see some flight videos of her. Congrats!!

eagledancer

engine is first place 2.3 plenty of power. no video of the first 4 flights. day was very overcast which made it a little difficult to see the plane if i let it get out very far. very nice flying plane. was very fun playing with flaps. mixed down elevator with flaps which helped with the ballooning. landings with full flaps required some throttle to keep from dropping in too fast then cut throttle in ground effect.

AndyF

My Feedback: (2)

I have a DLE 30 that I finally settled on for my 182. I haven't mounted it yet because I am working on other projects right now.

Andy

eagledancer

i DO know that len, i had a half a tank or so of fuel left in it and didnt feel like taking it out, its just a ARF anyway. so i figured slightly nose down to compensate for the fuel left in the tank and 2 finger balance is close enough for a ARF. trust me i dont do this with my giant scale projects but with a arf who cares close enough.
hope this post dont start a flame war, just my views of arfs and it does not say anything negative about anyone that flys them and loves them. just a throw away plane in my personal opinion, something to play with while a build is going on the bench.

AndyF

My Feedback: (2)

I wish I could develop that attitude, then I wouldn't be so nervous when I fly them.

Len Todd

I guess once you build a few kits, putting together an ARF could be seen as a bit simplistic. I Just don't have the desire, time or patience for building from a kit.

However, after I built a few ARFs, I have found I got more picky and start modifying things or making them a bit more complex (e.g. adding smoke or trying telemetry, etc.) or making them more user friendly (e,g, adding in a removable battery tray, actually even labeling servo leads, or adding air gauges that actually work, etc.) Each one seems to be a bit better than the last.

If I built from a kit or scratch and crashed the thing, I am not sure I would be allowed back on the field. Crash an ARF and its just an "Oh well! Guess that wasn't such a good plane after all."

Iflyglow

My Feedback: (79)

I just picked a NIB one up the other day with a robart strut. How will a ST 2300 handle this plane. It's a 1.40 glow and handles a 17-8. Plan on reinforcing the firewall at the strut mounting point and reworking the rudder linkage. Any other places to rework?

RonTins

I just looked up the engine specs. At 3.7 hp thats plenty horses to haul this baby around in the air. I have an OS FT-160 in mine and weighs in at 29LBS. It lumbers around in a scale-like manner. If you keep yours light you should enjoy every flight. Hope you share your build and maiden and congrats...

Len Todd

Mine is also an OS 160. Flies and sounds very scale.

Crazy_Pilot

So after two years and as many moves I'm finally settled into a new house and can get back to work on my Cessna. My original plan was to just push ahead and get it flight ready, but after reading over a few really detailed scale build threads I decided that I wanted to enjoy the construction phase a bit more.

To get the correct location of the door I ran masking tape around it's perimeter and then pushed a pin through from the inside flush with the ply formers. Connect the dots and voila, exact door outline matching the plane's structure perfectly. I'm slightly bummed that I can't achieve the exact scale shape (the floor is lower in the real plane), but oh well, that's what I get modifying a pre-built model. The cargo door will be a bit trickier to lay out - I'll have to make a series of scaled measurements to get it just right.

Once this plane is done it's going to become a floatplane. Being a cottager I love seeing Cessna's fly off the lake (a former neighbour had a gorgeous 185), and seeing a scale model skimming the water is a sight that's hard to beat. However, swapping over from floats to land gear is annoying. Soooooo... Amphibious floats it is! I've been casually designing the retracts in Catia for the past year or so and now that the bug has bit me again I got back to work. A friend has a 3D printer and offered to run off the parts for the prototype so that I can test the geometry and I'm happy to say it works nearly perfectly. A couple small changes to the design and it'll be ready to reproduce for real. Next step is to prototype the main gear and get it working.

My goal is to make this as close a replica as possible of a late model T182T, right before the JT-A model was released. This means glass cockpit, tan interior, proper antennae, all that jazz. Should be fun, I've never gone this in depth into a build before!

AndyF

My Feedback: (2)

That looks great!

akabek

I just picked up this plane for my son as his first gasser. It came with a Zenoah G26 and hitech servos all never used. I have not gone through it yet but the wing strut fairings are missing. Will that be a problem? Either I try to find them from a fellow modeller or I could make some. Is it strongly recommended I replace the front strut with either the Robarts or Sienna strut? Is the G26 enough or would it be a pain to swap it for a DLE30. The windows are already installed so a motor swap may be a real pain. Thanks in advance for any feedback or a source for parts.

CK1

My Feedback: (60)

The Robart nose strut is good but I would go with the Sierra nose strut , I liked it better . The G26 will work but doesn't give you much reserve power. I started with a Z g26 and quickly changed to the DLE 30. It is a little more work after the windshield is in place , but can be done. As far as the strut fairings , you could easily mold some with lexan or a plastic drink bottle and fill with epoxy or perhaps search around for some on the web . The fairings help things look a little more pleasant but the important thing is to get the strut mounted securely.

Crazy_Pilot

So progressing with the un-building of my Cessna...

I've been thinking of picking up a set of Robart fowler flap hinges and fitting them in place of the standard ones for a more realistic look and motion. However, to do this I would have to open the lower wing skin, which is something I haven't done before. Does anyone have any tips for removing a chunk of balsa skin with minimal damage to the surrounding structure? My thoughts so far are to make clean cuts in the skin, remove what comes off easily, and then gradually shave/sand away the ridge that will be left glued to the ribs.

akabek

I found the website for the Sierra strut which is $126. No mention if it is still available. The Robart is $70 and available. Unfortunately the exchange rate is not in my favour so I would add another 25% on to the US price. The Sierra is a nice heavy duty strut but I have not read any complaints on the Robart.

I will take a closer look one night this week. When I pickedup the plane today all I could see is the fuel tank from inside the cockpit. I guess I would have to remove the gas tank to ge to the engine mounts....it looks like a pain of a job.

Are the wing strut fairings cosmetic? They are no longer available but I am sure I could make something.

trickpony4

My Feedback: (14)

A G26 will fly the heck out of that plane!! I had one in mine,,,,,,,,no problem!!

Crazy_Pilot

Making a little more slow progress on mine. Got the big Saito 220 mounted up and it fits nicely. There is maybe 3/16" of room from the carb to the firewall. This thing should pull it around with no problems, even with a heavy and draggy pair of floats underneath. The muffler doesn't fit very well though so I'm going to be investigating a custom Pitts-style one with duel tips that will fit inside the cowl and exit in the scale locations.

On the scale details front, it's awesome what technology can do today. A G1000 instrument panel, from a picture off the internet, to 3D CAD model, to a 3D printed part all in an evening. This is just the trial version, I'm hoping to have the whole thing lit up eventually. I know there are LCD screens available for this but the pricing for those puts them out of my budget. Plus I love the DIY side of things.

RonTins

Very impressive and will be following your build progress.

Crazy_Pilot

Threw the instrument panel in for a quick test fit. Looks great!

RonTins

Are you going to design a working LCD panel yourself? With that awesome instrument panel, you might as well go all out.. I like it!!!

Crazy_Pilot

Well it won't be an LCD panel per say, but I would like to have a coloured overlay on the screens that I can backlight to produce the same effect. I'm also investigating using a transparent plastic in the 3D printer. With that I could paint the whole panel and then scratch away the paint in any area I would like to be illuminated (around buttons and whatnot). To take that idea even farther, we have a laser etcher here at work that's used to identify tools... With the right file format and some tuning I might even be able to use that to remove the paint and get super clean, accurate lines.

Speaking of 3D printing, I finished the prototype main landing gear for the floats. The actuator is an off the shelf Robart one, the shock is from a rock crawler truck with a much stronger spring, the wheel is one of the Cessna's stock main wheels (although I want to get a slightly larger one), and the rest is off the 3D printer. This is just the first try to see how things work but I'm very impressed by how strong the plastic parts are. I'm going to test this one to failure to see what load it will take before things break, but if it's enough to satisfy then I'll just make the real ones on the printer instead of having to get them milled out of aluminum.

Crazy_Pilot

As part of my quest to add more scale touches to the Cessna I bought a set of Robart Fowler hinges. These allow you to mimic the movement of the real 182's Fowler flaps which travel back as they deploy. I built a quick ply mockup to see how they come together before committing to cutting holes in my wings and flaps and I'm certainly glad I did. Several problems became clear:

-The fit between the plastic tracks and the bushings is extremely sloppy.
-The tracks appear to be laser cut, and being plastic this resulted in a raised melt bead around all of the cuts which Robart didn't bother to deal with. These raised edges snag on the steel brackets as they slide.
-The slop, combined with a single point actuation, results in the flap skewing as it's pushed or pulled.

My first order of business will be to 3D print a new set of tracks with a tighter fit to the slide bushings. Once that's done I can re-do the mockup and see if that solves the problem or if the single point actuation is really just a deal breaker.

RonTins

Beautiful!!!

Tom in Cincy

My Feedback: (16)

Need a little help... My wing tube went missing (it was thrown out by a despicable person )... No longer available from H9 there are guys selling carbon fiber tubes. Can someone give me the OD and length of theirs?
Thanks..