The first thing I noticed when unwrapping this ARF
was how well it is made. The quality is truly outstanding.
None the less, improvements were made. I do not like rubber band
hold downs
on wings, so I engineered a bolt-on wing. The hardware for
bolting the motor to the firewall was not
that good and used Phillips head screws. I prefer cap screws, but
had no metric ones on hand. So, I
knocked out the metric blind nuts from the firewall and replaced them
with 6-32 blind
nuts and cap screws. The landing gear
was okay, but I happened to have two sets of landing gear from a Rascal
40 - one with Dubro skis and
one with wheels and wheel pants. So, I mounted them
instead. Once the snow melts, the wheels will go on.
I did install the flaps on this model. There are instructions for
doing same in the kit, but no hardware.
The vital statistics are:
AUW with Battery: 6 lb. 1 oz. (97 oz.)
Manufacturer's AUW Forecast: 88 0z. *
Wingspan: 73 1/4 "
Wing Area: 848 sq. in.
Wing loading: 8.74 oz. per sq. in.
Motor: Axi 2826/12
Propeller: 13 x 8 called for with 3 cell battery, used 12 x 8.
ESC: Castle Creations Phoenix 45
BEC: Medusa 5 amp.
Servos: 6 Hitec HS-422
Receiver: Spektrum AR7000
Battery: 3S1P 4400-5000 LiPoly
* This surprised me. Their finished weight would be mine minus my
flight battery.
After the first flight - safe and sound on the ground.
It flew beautifully. What can you say? It is a Telemaster.
This prop is one of my last few of the old Master Airscrew
wood props for electric.
This is a 12 x 8. It should be a 13 x 8, but it flew fine with
this size, and besides I
have less ground clearance with the skis on.
Here is the pattern for the central rib I made from 1/8"
aircraft plywood. Each side of the "hook" is doubled.
Although this is my design, I was inspired by an Ezonemag.com review
and some other solutions from
other modelers I saw on Ezone.
The finished rib before installation. The wing is one
piece expoxied together.
Here is the rear hold down with two bolts going into a plate
of 1/4" aircraft plywood.
The removable hatch on the front is what an electric model
needs. The battery box is just the right size.
I added my own Velcro strap instead of the large Nylon tie that came
with the kit.
The front hold down can be seen. The "hook" slips in
with balsa blocks to center it. The blue item is the Medusa 5
amp. BEC.
Even though I am now using a 3 cell battery and do not need a BEC, I
use one to make sure the six servos have power
and I can slip in a 4 cell or 5 cell battery (with a different prop
size)
any time I want to. And, I do not have to
worry about the AR7000 resetting due to a voltage drop.
I made a plate of 1/4" aircraft plywood and used the original
landing gear mounting bolts to mount it. I drilled and
threaded the plate for
Nylon bolts to hold the landing gear to it. I could have drilled
into the fuselage and put a threaded block
on the fuselage floor, but that would have necessitated removing the
battery box. This works fine and was easier.
The aileron and flap servos can be seen here. There was
a thread built into the wing to pull the wires through, and it worked.
In Flight Photos Taken March 16, 2008 by Joe Gilbert at the KVMA Field
in Sidney, Maine.
Telemaster Electro on Wheels
The landing gear came from a Sig Rascal 40.
The wheel pants really look nice and add character to the model.
These photos were taken in late April 2008 by Joe Gilbert. A
month before, the above pictures were taken,
and the field was covered with a thick blanket of snow. I have
two sets of landing gear, and it only
takes undoing two nylon bolts to switch from one to the other.
Click here
for a video on Youtube.com taken from this model with a FlyCamOne.