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Habu 32 df -----from Eflight
This will be an electric version of the plane. This is a blog style file so look at the bottom of the file to see the order I used.
1/24/12
First day out of the shop. I took it to the local field and the grass was long and lumpy from several weeks of warm and cold weather. This was a perfect opportunity to taxi test the gear upgrades to see if they can take a beating and still work well.
I went through the final steps to fly
----- Full charge on the plane and the transmitter
-----Range check with motor on and off
-----Cycled the landing gears to test them
----- Check everything for tightness and completeness.
I put it down and taxied it on the rough ground for several runs down the 600 foot runway and the plane gained speed very well. The rough grass punished the landing gears and kept the speed below flight speed even at full throttle. Everything continued to work on the plane in spite of the bouncing and rattling of the airframe. This sounds like an undue punishment of the plane but my experience has shown that the rough test before flight will reveal problems in the plane.
I returned to the shop and cleaned up the plane and gave it a complete check. Everything looked fine and the plane was ready for the first flight from a smoother surface. The weather report is not real good for the next several days and we will wait it out.
1/23/12
The main landing gears were installed and lined up. The wires were then run so that everything worked as planned.
With the construction done, the final steps were done to ready the plane for flight.
The center of gravity was set per the plans and the main battery is the best way to adjust the balance. When I found the proper position for the battery, I put a mark on the main board to show where to position the battery after it is charged. This is key as the plane will not fly right if the battery is out of position.
The lateral balance was checked and adjusted so that there was not a heavy wing.
I took the plane out for a taxi test and lined up all the tires so that it went straight. The main motor was tested and the power and the time of run all looked good.
After the taxi test, I inspected the plane and found several small things to improve.
1/ 21 and 22/12
The retract upgrade material arrived from Tamjets. If you are reading this thread and thinking of buying one of these planes with the upgrade landing gears, here is a tip for you. You can buy the retracts from tamjets and they will be ready to install in the plane, or you can buy the retracts and then buy this kit to rebuild the gears. Do not buy the upgrade kit unless you are a machinist or a tool and die maker as there is a good bit of machining to install the upgrade kit. I am a tool and die maker so the work went smoothly.
The kit began with the original retracts that are wire landing gears with a retract mechanism bolted to the plane.
The retracts were disassembled and machined to accept the much stronger strut landing gear system
Some of the moving parts were replaced with metal parts and the landing gear blocks were shimmed down 1/4 " to make the plane sit properly on the ground. In total the entire upgrade requires about 10 hours to complete. The result is a much stronger landing gear that looks far better than a wire gear.
I installed the nose gear first and it was connected and tested. The steering servo was bolted in and the rod made to operate the steerable nose gear. The direction was checked and all was well with the gear.
1/171/2
The session started with wiring from the motor area up to the front of the plane. There are 4 circuits that needed to be run and each one had a "Y" attached to it. Most of the plugs were shrink wrapped to prevent them getting loose later on. Some of the plugs will be used when the wings are removed and those were not shrink wrapped, but were color coded to be sure all of them can be plugged back in.
The circuits are the aileron -- Flaps -- retracts -- and elevators
The wires were fished up to the front through tight spaces.
In the shot below you see the wires as then were run around the air ducts and over the speed control.
The elevator servos were then installed in very tight quarters. The push rod and rod holder were adjusted to point at the servo arm and the servo was centered with the transmitter on. The servo was bolted down and the rod was connected to the rudder and to the servo.
The elevator servo on the other side was then installed and the elevators adjusted. The wires will be organized later in the process as the retract wires are not yet in place.
Next the rudder servo was installed and wired to the front of the plane. The linkage was adjusted and centered with the transmitter.
All the surfaces were then checked and adjusted so that they were centered and worked properly. The channel layout was finalized with all the channels connected to the receiver as labeled and the Aux 1 channel used as flaps.
Above you can see the cockpit assembled from the parts supplied
The cockpit was then fitted to the fuse and there is a nice spring loaded fitting at the rear of the cockpit that holds it to the fuse without any bolts. This will make servicing the equipment very easy.
Since the speed control has no switch on it ( I think that is a good thing for safety) the cockpit will be removed and the battery plugged into the speed control. This will energize the entire plane and all the systems.
With these steps done, there is no more to do while I wait for the retract upgrade from Tamjets.
1/16/12
Work continues on the flying surfaces with the stabs. There were carbon fiber spars for the stabs much like the ones for the wing. I used a similar process to get the spars glued into the stabs.
Once the spars were fitted to the stabs, I assembled the surfaces on the fuse. The shot below is from the bottom of the plane and shows the stabs in place.
The spars slide into the fuse and each side is secured with two bolts into a carbon fiber frame in the body of the plane.
The shot below shows the jet flow plastic being bent down and the four bolts that hold the stabs in place. The stabs have negative dihedral and that was checked and adjusted before the spars were glued in place.
With the surfaces all on the plane, I began the installation of the ducted fan. The control rods for the elevators needed support so I added the frame shown below. It holds the white control rod outer so that it can connect with the servo that will be in the hole next to the rod.
Below is a shot of one of the elevator servos in place.
Above you can see the gray intake vent for the air to enter the ducted fan and the clear jet flow duct that will carry the air out the back of the plane. The motor and fan were fit into the space between and wired up.
Below you can see that the size of the fan assembly makes this task a little tricky to make happen. The clear duct was slid out of the way a few inches and the motor worked into position behind the gray duct.
After the install was done, the wires were routed to the front of the plane and the duct was sealed with clear tape to be sure all the air flows as we intend it to.
Below you see a view of the fuse right side up and the three motor wires routed to the rear of the battery area.
The speed control was upgraded from 80 amps to 100. The 100 had no connectors on it so I made plug connections for the motor and to the main battery. The last lead is to go tot he receiver to control the motor.
The speed control was then installed in the rear of the battery compartment and connections were made to the motor leads. Velcro was used to hold it in place.
1/14/12
The wings were next on the list and the spars were fitted to the wing roots and to the fuse.
The spars were bolted to the fuse and aligned to the wings. The wings were test fitted to the fuse and checked for flatness.
The wings were then checked for incidence and for tramble and adjustments were made to line them up properly.
Once the wings were right, Epoxy was used to glue the spars into the wings.
With the wings on the plane, the bolts (shown below) were tightened to hold the spar in position while the glue dried in the wings.
To hold position, tape was used to clamp the wings to the fuse at the proper angle. The epoxy was allowed to dry.
Next the ducted fan was assembled from 9 components and the finished fan with the motor and wiring is shown below.
1/13/12
The hatches on the wing were identified and marked. There are four hatches and they each needed to have servos mounted on them. The tolerances are close as the hatch had to be able to be assembled in the wing and the servo had to be positioned so that the hatch would close properly.
Each servo was clamped in place and wood blocks were made and glued to the hatch before the screws could mount the servo.
One servo shown below is mounted in place for the aileron and this was done on all four of the hatches.
The shot below shows the wings on the plane and all four hatches in place. The links were made and installed and the surfaces were centered so that they operated with the transmitter.
1/11/12
Most of the parts are in so the work began.
The control horns were first and slots were cut in the wings for the fiber control horns to fit in. The slits were then taped to prevent the glue from adhering tot he surface of the wings and other surfaces.
Epoxy was mixed and worked into the holes one by one and the horns were set in the holes and checked to be perpendicular tot he surfaces.
After the glue was dry, the tape was removed and the control hours were stress checked to be sure they were at full strength and that there were no glue spots.
This was done on the ailerons, elevators, flaps and rudder
Next the servos were prepped by assembling them and setting the arms in place. Each servo was energized with the batteries and the receiver to be sure they were centered and then the arms were bolted in place taking care to be sure which side the arm went on depending on the location of the servo. This was done an all 7 servos.
1/10/12
All needed parts were put on order and will arrive tomorrow afternoon.
1/9/12
The boxes arrived and there is nothing quite like opening up a kit and learning what is inside. The plane arrived in a double box that I hope will be used to send the finished plane on to the customer. There were no marks or dents in the outside box or the on inside and that is a good indicator
Along with the box, the brown truck also brought a box of parts. They included the Ducted fan with motor, speed control and battery. There were electric retracts and a pilot figure for the fuse and wiring items for the inside of the plane.
All the accessories arrived in good shape so it was time to see if the plane made it OK. The instructions include an inventory so I removed all the parts and checked against the inventory. The kit was complete as I expected it would be.
I started inspecting the fuse. It looked very nice with some surprising detail on the outside.
The under side has some hatches that are welcome for installation and service of the components inside the plane. The canopy looked nice and it is equipped with a very high quality latch that will allow us to get into the equipment area without any bolts.
The wings were inspected and found to be in good shape. I did not see anything that needed to be returned or repaired.
