Thermik XL-e

[chiadennis]

My biggest build ever.

[msc]

You are just bad........too much poison!!
BTW, she's a real beauty!

[Sunstorm]

well, according to Carl's Jr advertising, SIZE DOES MATTER.
Nice glider. 3.5 span? Share more details...

[randomtask]

Add a "few" more cm's and you're there

[Cycross]

I miss my plane!!! okie...it's not mine anymore...

[VinCopter]

This one?

[Ghostfit]

Ooool ! ...plug in nosecone !!!

[chiadennis]

I didn't do any progress report as since this my glider. Unlike my other build where the owner might like to know my progress.

Installation of the servos were straight forward. I cut off the mounting lugs and tape the servos with masking tape and epoxy directly onto the wings. There's enough height that you may not need to use thin wing servos. It fit up to 12mm thickness.



Only the air-brakes I am using HS125 with servo frame. The servos is mounter on the outboard well and I needed to align the linkages so that the flap servos will not touch it.



As for the flaps servos, it's mounter on the servo cover. The flaps servos covers are very stiff for 1mm thickness. The servo is push off center so that one side will not touch the brake mechanism. Oh yah, the servo wires need to tape down so that it also doesn't touch the brakes linkages.



Using MPX 3 pin connectors, for the ailerons connection.



The alignment pins is a pain. Drilling to get a perfect alignment is a headache. I original intention was to use a brass sleeve but was not able to get a good fit. So next alternative was to drill a bigger hole, using scotch tape the pin and it's surrounding area, pour in epoxy mix with micro-ballons. Get the wings to align and place the wing upright so that the epoxy fill around the pins. Thank God that my living room have high ceiling or I won't know how to put it vertical. After the epoxy harden this is what I got.



After the wings alignment done, I proceed to doing the linkages and the wing wiring. This is a big ship and all the servo extensions needed to be custom make. In total I used 7m of wires, 14 connectors.



Interface between the wings and fuse.



The elevator servo is mounter at the tail fin and again it's mounter on the servo covering.





The most scary part is chopping off the nose for the motor. I don't have any photos to show on how I do it but I will try to explain.

Using a 1/8 balsa sheet, I drew the spinner diameter on it and cut it off. In another words, I made a 40mm hole on the balsa sheet. I set the fuselage and mounted the center wing on my rigging board to get my incidence at zero. Using the balsa template, and some plastercine, i push the template all the way into the fuse nose. Using my bevel box, I slowly gave the template 2deg down thrust. Using a thin marker, I drew on the fuse where 40mm diameter will be on the fuselage. Now comes the scary part, I sat back think of the entire porcess. Cock it up and I am dead . Being KS, I decided to cut 3mm before the line and slowly sand my way to the 40mm mark. It was a great relief at I got it correct. I made the firewall for 3mm carbon sheet with 1.5mm glass sheet laminated together. This is a mess with fiberglass all over my legs. Final product.





Mounted the rudder servo.



Mounting tray in with all the wires done.



Linkage adjustment can only be done 1 wing at a time.

[Serpent]

A very nice ship

[chiadennis]

I have been trying to figure out my radio setup for the pass 2 nights and can't seem to get it right. Maybe someone can give me some advice? I am on Futaba 10C.

• The aileron setup is suppose to be 15mm up and 10mm down. (Not a problem as I use Aile-Diff to get the setting)

• Flaps requires 10mm up/down. (Aileron --> Flaps mixing)

• The max the aileron can move before it start to bind is 25mm. (I use end point to set the max throw)

• Butterfly is need 40mm down flaps and 20mm up ailerons. (Butterfly setup page)

All these looks straight forward. All values look good at normal flight mode. At full butterfly, when I input aileron stick, I get over travel pass 25mm (ailerons) set by end point. Any idea how at full butterfly and full aileron deflection it won't pass 25mm up ailerons? If I use end points to reduce the throw, at normal flight mode I don't have enough throw for ailerons.
I use DR to lower the throw but this also effected flaps as ailerons. I increase end point maximum for flaps but I can't get the value needed.

In another words, for ailerons I can only go max 25mm up. Butterfly, full aileron stick deflection all need to be below 25mm. Any idea????

[Serpent]

You might find your answers from here

http://www.2.4gigahertz.com/faq/faq-10c-2_4ghz.html

[chiadennis]

There were some concern from my fellow gilder kaki about the amount of downthrust i getting. From the picture, it looks like i have some up thrust instead but I've check 5 times and the bevel box show 2.5deg down. even spirit level also shows down. any input? Joe??

[joe yap]

Trust the instruments. There may be some design features on the fuselage that can create optical illusions. Many modern gliders F3J have droop nose designed for lawn dart style spot landings, and the feature could also be carried forward to thier electric versions.

The reference for angle of incidence and downthrust are often taken from the fuselage alone. However, the horizontal stabilizer does a critcal part in flight as well and it can be a more accurate datum than using the fuselage itself, especially with fuselages that looks like banana. Most planes are designed to cruise with thier horizontal stabilizer at 0 degress. You can use the norminal stab position for such full flying stab design, as the zero.

[chiadennis]

Gurd gave me a call yesterday and mention about the thrust angle. He recommended maybe something higher instead at 2deg. So Last night I added washer between the firewall and the motor to have it point down a little more. Now got it at 3.2deg. No side thrust.

[chiadennis]

Trust the instruments. There may be some design features on the fuselage that can create optical illusions. Many modern gliders F3J have droop nose designed for lawn dart style spot landings, and the feature could also be carried forward to thier electric versions.

The reference for angle of incidence and downthrust are often taken from the fuselage alone. However, the horizontal stabilizer does a critcal part in flight as well and it can be a more accurate datum than using the fuselage itself, especially with fuselages that looks like banana. Most planes are designed to cruise with thier horizontal stabilizer at 0 degress. You can use the norminal stab position for such full flying stab design, as the zero.

Had another call from Gerd.
Re-think on how to get the incidence right. I tried to get the elevator as neutral as possible. Stuck some blue tag on the LE of the elevator to the fin. Fitted the incidence gauge and got the zero deg for the elevator. Transferred the incidence gauge to the main wing and found that it 2deg up incidence. Re-check the motor angle and got 2.5deg downthrust @ zero elevator. Hope this is enough.

Since I could not get the aileron to what I wanted, I decided to do away with butterfly setting. After all I was told the thermik air-brakes is very effective. I dial in some flaps only down so that if the air-brake slow down too much, I have some camber to float it. Have no experience with this setup but hopefully it will help.