Hangar 9 ASW-20

[French1]

So after a long week end playing with my new toy here is the Cumberland test verdict :

this is the fourth aerotow with that plane for me this year, I flew it about 14 days between maiden flight on my field, the MRCA aerotow, the WRBP Aerotow, HH Aerotow and Cumberland Summer Aerotow.

Durability is quite good, had couple hard landing without big issues, I just stripped one of the blind nut of the stab and replaced it. Fuse is holding well together, nice improvement from the Blanik, didn't had to put any re enforcements in the fuse.

Couple of useful advises :

The prop is very nice but according to the fact that it is quite long, DO NOT BACKUP your plane using the tail, one of the blade will stick in the ground and damage the end of the prop. Either use a rubber band to get the prop locked on the fuse and remove it before flying or mount a small spring to keep the blade folded, last option, keep a spare set in your toolbox!

Sans titre by steffruelle, sur Flickr

Tow hook : Like the blanik, the piano wire can bend, better to use a stiffer one, and as this wire is far from the epoxy skin, there is quite some leverage on this skin that lead mine to split at the seam and can still hold the towline even if the servo has released it. Corrective action : Enlarging the hole up to the plywood and fill the gap between skin and plywood with epoxy and filer (curing tonight...)

Sans titre by steffruelle, sur Flickr

Sans titre by steffruelle, sur Flickr

Canopy lock : the mechanism is short but you can increase length as the brass tube is screwed on a threaded piano wire. So unscrew it to the proper length and set it in place with a droplet of CA

Retract doors : The plywood hook to close the door using a rubber band is not offering enough surface to hold the landings, both of mine are gone and have been replace by some small music wire stuffed in the epoxy

Sans titre by steffruelle, sur Flickr

That's it for now

Stéphane

[lenb]

Good update and tips Stephane.
Watching that plane fly this past week sure exemplifies the effort that was put into getting this sailplane as perfected as possible before they released it.
Jim flew his also this weekend and said he enjoyed the way it flew. We should hear more about that soon.

LEN

[JimD]

I got the maiden flight and one more in late in the day Wednesday...totally a none event, meaning no drama...it flew just like I had been flying it for a hundred times before!

The third flight was on Monday. Bob gave me a nice high tow with his Bidule 170 and we were able to work the light lift for a good ten plus minutes. The landing approach and touch down were totally predictable and the spoilers are very effective.

This sailplane is like an old pair of comfortable shoes, you know the flight you are about to make will feel good and you can be relaxed while flying. The design and final product are a hone run.

My only issue, a very minor one, was with the rudder pull-pull cable installation. We made a slight modification to the crimping procedure and got the cables to be much more secure and with proper tension.

[GliderGuyz]

How did you change the crimping procedure?

[French1]

After picking up a dolly at Cumberland I decided to mount it and to keep it foldable.

Used for that 1/2x1/2 poplar stick, CA and wood screw on one side and Bolt and wings nuts on the other side.

It will let me be able to fold it and pack it in the car if I am driving far, for flying at the field around it will stay up together

here is couple pictures, hope to have some video this week end

Sans titre by steffruelle, sur Flickr

Sans titre by steffruelle, sur Flickr

Sans titre by steffruelle, sur Flickr

Stéphane

[BobR]

Stephane,

Here is my projected set up any thoughts?

Bob

[French1]

bob,

it will work for sure but I am not sure you will get more performance than the recommended setting, you are using a lower KV motor running less amps with more volts.

the recommended motor is running the same prop with kv 470 and 6S @ 80Amps so 1600W

For more power I would increase the prop with your setting it will probably reach 2000W without going too far for the Hacker motor

Stéphane

[BobR]

Stephane,

Very good point I want to run the standard setup which I believe you are running versus what I provided you (my proposed build) earlier. Here is what I found. eCalc estimated a + or - 10% so who really knows.

Your set up - power 60b (470), 80 amp, 6 cell 30c, please notice the warning on over amperage, over temperature, and over limit of motor. Yes you seem to be right as it indicates 1764 w at .80 to 1 thrust. very good. I ask you if that is what you are really seeing? It indicates that you can only run at full power for 15S max. Is that true? What is the maximum watts you are really pulling. hum this is interesting. As I said earlier we are + or - 10% very interesting.

My proposed set up hacker A5016L on an 8 cell 70c, and yet my thrust to weight is 81%. you are correct.

So the real question is can, should I stretch the motor some more? Is it worth the extra expense to put together my set up? It is all very interesting to me. I look forward to your advise?

​Bob

[French1]

Bob the number that I state are my readings on my setup during flight. I extracted data from my ICE 2 80HV

I run motor for runs of 30s and found no problem with it

You should be able to be more pushy with the hacker, usually they have a decent margin with their max settings, is it Worth is, just you can answer to this, depend if you like to experiment then do it or to fly then go with what works

Stéphane

[BobR]

Stephane,

I see, all very interesting, with the set up that I am proposing, what would you personally do to improve performance? increase size of prop? Do you ever run more than 30 seconds?

​Bob

[French1]

Bob,

I would increase prop diameter, try to simulate this with ecalc to se the amps on a 17x10 or 19x9

I have probably on my setting run it up to 45 seconds, but I have no temperature measurement to say if it then get too hot.

[BobR]

Stephane,

Question 1: When you were performing weight and balance in accordance with CG with the standard Hanger 9 electrical configuration, did you have to add weight? If so how much? Where - front or back of sailplane? Also I was interested to know if you also weight your wings - was there any deviation in weight?

I am finding the requested information priceless as I can hop up the airframe but I do not want to do it at the price of having to balance the air frame with lead I don’t want dead weight. Functional weight is Great!

Question 2: I see that you added 9 pin connectors in wing. Great Idea! How did you pull that off. Honestly I have no idea how you would do that so it centered each and every time. My question is how did you mount them and then center them.

I am dying to here of your response. Thank you as always

Bob

[French1]

Bob,

no weight added, wilth 8S should be easy to balance without weight. The only issue is for the cockpit as you my need to put batteries further back the seat pan may be cut significantly

Weight Wise, I always weight my planes so wings weight 1870g each, same weight for each!

For the DB9 plugs, the male are fixed in the wings by slotting the plywood, on the fuse side, the plus are not mounted on the fuse but are just shovelled in the wings plugs

here is how it works on my SZD

IMG_0425 by steffruelle, sur Flickr

Stéphane

[BobR]

Stefhane,

I would like to thank you for your advice and assistance. I sincerely appreciate it as you have much wisdom to share. Based on your input, I have already began to modify my original planes and will keep you up to date as I make progress.
As for the radio set up (I use Spektrum) – I used to setting up a full house with butterfly crow, reflex, camber, full flying trailing edge. Are you doing the same or are you keeping it purely scale in its function?

Bob

[French1]

Bob

My pleasure to help and share, this is what I like the most in that hobby!

If you are using a DX9 or DX18 I can send you my ASW-20 program,

For the moment I have not used the crow as the spoilers are very effective! I usually use the flap on landing approach in order to slow down the speed and adjust glide path with spoilers.

I set up a mode switch where I have a thermal / cruise / speed setting

thermal has a lower rate for flap and ailerons and a mix flaps -> ailerons

cruise has higher rates and no mix

speed high high rate and mix aileron -> flaps to du some aerobatics

No fancy other mix

Stéphane

[BobR]

Your set up would not be to far from what I would do as I am not sure of the effectiveness of spoilers. Nice to here they work well. My Plan is to purchase the DX9, when I do I will ask for the SPM.

[ARUP]

This is a great thread! In lieu of rubber bands or coiled springs put a torsion spring to keep retract doors closed. Mine are of 1/32" wire and about 16cm long and have 'L' bends at their ends so that one end can be epoxied to door near rear hinge and other into the fuse. You will need to drill a hole in bulkhead for springs to pass. Mine are bent to 'pre-load' the spring and help keep doors shut while in flight (I hope!). The spring passes under the 'lip' that the door recesses into. That way the wheel/ retract won't catch them as it might a rubber band or coiled spring. I epoxied the fuselage end first so that any tension in spring is accounted... torsion taking care of the rest.