Dynasoar Rocketry RC Rocket glider kits

Congratulations, Frank!

The weather is finally starting to warm up in Utah. I'm looking forward to the 2017 flying season.

Thanks! Did you get your StratoDart assembled?

aerostadt said:

Congratulations, Frank!

The weather is finally starting to warm up in Utah. I'm looking forward to the 2017 flying season.

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burkefj said:

Thanks! Did you get your StratoDart assembled?

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The Strato Dart went together pretty fast. It's a nice kit. I've been distracted by other things lately and I need to get back to the Strato Dart. I think I haven't worked on it for about 6 weeks. I want to put coverings over the servo's. They will be light and easy to attach, just section of paper body tubes. I am still debating launch lugs versus rail buttons, although I have bought the appropriate rail and read your website rail assembly instructions. I have white paint, but need to test it on some depron first. Also, I've got the Sticker Shock decals. So, I am pretty well set to go.

I'd really suggest leaving it in the white like it is, weight is important and the white depron doesn't need any paint, the decals should adhere as good or better on unpainted depron.
I'd also not bother with covers for the servos, the fuselage and skids stick down and will keep the servos high enough they should not get any damage. If you do paint, I'd stick with testors enamel or model master enamel only, one of my customers tried another brand and even though it worked fine on the scrap piece I include it did some melting damage to the foam, you could consider just masking and painting the cardboard tube only if you want to protect it some.

Frank

How 'squirrely' are these on boost. I've watched quite a few RC rocket gliders and almost to a tee they are over controlled and all over the sky (and lose a lot of potential altitude because of it) during boost. It's like someone forgot to say, expo! Or Low Rates on boost! Or is that not possible? Ideally one would have a preset on switch for boost. Something like
Low Rates
High Expo
Slight negative trim.

That would boost darn straight and at burn out, you toggle the switch to flight mode.
I am an (ex) R/C Glider Guider. As you know, or may know, there is a launch mode (on the winch), then thermal and speed mode (reflex), and landing (crow?) mode.

I guess what I am asking is do these boost reasonable well and are settings provided to get started? C/G... throws etc? And whats the best for starting?

Best wishes!



(Not that it matters but I would most likely use my JR 9503 DSM2 because it's easy to get micro bricks)

I think they are pretty easy on boost, I've never had to resort to expo or low rates but that might just be me. they do have a boost and glide trim setting that you put on the flap elevator trim. You can set them up any way you like.

You can see how they boost, look at my youtube channel

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmToWCQ4okdIYb848HJn_sQ there is a playlist for the kits or for other models I've done.

There is rarely dead air where I fly so you have to steer them a bit just to keep them going straight but it isn't a big deal.

One thing, they are a bit different than a glider on a line, as the CG is slightly tail heavy on boost and nose heavy on glide since the motor is in the tail, but that was by design as I didn't want to build pod and boom gliders.

yes, each kit instructions online has the boost CG, and boost and glide trim settings recommended for starting. These kits are much larger than you would use a microbrick on, and they are designed to handle normal 10 gram servos, a 1s 500mah battery and 6 gram receiver. The wing loading is around 5-6oz/sq foot so very light.

Frank

gdjsky01 said:

How 'squirrely' are these on boost. I've watched quite a few RC rocket gliders and almost to a tee they are over controlled and all over the sky (and lose a lot of potential altitude because of it) during boost. It's like someone forgot to say, expo! Or Low Rates on boost! Or is that not possible? Ideally one would have a preset on switch for boost. Something like
Low Rates
High Expo
Slight negative trim.

That would boost darn straight and at burn out, you toggle the switch to flight mode.
I am an (ex) R/C Glider Guider. As you know, or may know, there is a launch mode (on the winch), then thermal and speed mode (reflex), and landing (crow?) mode.

I guess what I am asking is do these boost reasonable well and are settings provided to get started? C/G... throws etc? And whats the best for starting?

Best wishes!



(Not that it matters but I would most likely use my JR 9503 DSM2 because it's easy to get micro bricks)

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The stratodart has the most wing but the hypersonic is close, they are pretty easy to put together, my website has a build video and radio install.

I painted the repaired SR-71 nose that was shown back on posts #310 & 313 with Model Master Flat Black FS 37038. It's now ready to fly again.

I lightly painted the StratoDart with Model Master Custom Spray Enamel -Classic white. It did not hurt the depron any. I tried to stay off the wings, just spraying the body tube to hide the spiral and also the rear wings on the back side to cover the graphite rod. Again, spraying was very light in order to keep the weight down. The hiding of the spiral and the graphite rod was helped, but nowhere near complete. I did put shroud coverings over the servo's. After painting I put on the rail buttons and the Pan Am decals from Sticker Shock.

I found that the small mistakes that I made on the nose cone with Black Sharpie could be removed with a sharp Xacto-knife.

Very cool, looks great, I also use an exacto to remove little oopsies on the cone panel lines, sometimes the molding is shallow and the pen doesn't stay in the groove. I really like the covers, look like engine intakes. Hopefully they don't get grabbed by the ground on landing and pulled off since they are now about the same level as the bottom of the body tube. Probably won't help drag as they have increased your wetted surface area, but they do look nice.

Frank

Well done, aerostadt. I also especially like your servo covers. Are those cut from a rocket tube?

Crawf56 said:

Well done, aerostadt. I also especially like your servo covers. Are those cut from a rocket tube?

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Yes, I think that they are from thin BT-70 body tube. I cut them lengthwise from a 3.2" section of tube. One half was actually slightly less than half, so I remove enough from the other side to make the same. There is plenty of room under the shroud so that there is no interference with the servo arms.

Aerostadt are you going to mount the little included skids in front of the rail buttons, it will help protect them on landing. BTW, what is your ready to fly weight?

Frank

burkefj said:

Aerostadt are you going to mount the little included skids in front of the rail buttons, it will help protect them on landing. BTW, what is your ready to fly weight?

Frank

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Frank, you are very observant. I have been holding back on putting on the skids, because I fly the gliders out on the Utah prairie or the Utah Salt Flats. I did not think that the skids were a priority. I notice that you usually land on asphalt runways and your landings are much more of a fast incoming glide than my landings. It would not be difficult to put the skids on and I kinda don't like putting them in my inventory drawer.

The weight of the body without the motor, nosecone, and receiver is 6.646 oz. The receiver is 0.375 oz. The nosecone with 3.7v battery is 2.005 oz. So, I get a total weight of 9.026 oz without the motor.

It all depends on what you land on. If you land on soft grass you don't need them, if you come in hot and may hit a stone or something hard I'd put them on, they should not interfere with the rail buttons so it doesn't hurt anything to have them on. Worst that happends is you rip out the t nut and have to install it further back or forward and fix some tube damage.

Weight sounds about right, once you add the motor which is about 1.75 oz loaded, should put you around 11 oz depending on how much nose weight you need to add to balance the model.

Frank

aerostadt said:

Frank, you are very observant. I have been holding back on putting on the skids, because I fly the gliders out on the Utah prairie or the Utah Salt Flats. I did not think that the skids were a priority. I notice that you usually land on asphalt runways and your landings are much more of fact incoming glide than my landings. It would not be difficult to put the skids on and I kinda don't like putting them in my inventory drawer.

The weight of the body without the motor, nosecone, and receiver is 6.646 oz. The receiver is 0.375 oz. The nosecone with 3.7v battery is 2.005 oz. So, I get a total weight of 9.026 oz without the motor.

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I'm starting to move my rocket gliders from the old Orange TX to the new Spektrum DX6e, which is an interesting process. Some of the program features on the old Orange are similar to the DX6e and some are different. I found that for radio binding the procedure on the Orange Rcx was about the same. I put the power from the battery into the AUX and the binder plug into the Orange battery/bind port. For Aircraft Type on chose Elevon on the Wing and Normal on the Tail. After binding with the DX6e I found that the elevons were going in the opposite direction from what I wanted. Rather than use the Reverse option, which requires re-binding, I reversed the Aile & Elev connections on the Orange Rcx. This worked fine. Now I need to figure out how to set the flap switch for gliding after boost.

Hi, I can give you specific settings I use(other than sub trims which you need to fine tune yourself)

In general you want delta for the wing type, flap active, flaperon off, below are my settings for my stratodart, I use the aileron/elevator dual rate settings to set the total travel instead of adjusting endpoints and I use the same settings for both switch positions, but these are dependent on the length of your servo arms, so you need to set these for the travel recommended in the instructions but these should be close) and I show my boost/glide elevator trim settings under the flap menu. If flap is active, you go into the mixing menu, and one of the mixes is flap/elevator and it has a predefined window, you can go and set the elevator trim for each flap switch position. Note I show my servo directions for aileron/elevator that I use. BTW, I've never had to re-bind just to change servo direction, I've never had to do that, but I use spektrum receivers.

Model stratodart
flaperon off
Delta? yes
Flap? act
ailDR 85/85
elevDR 125/125
ail ^
elev ^
ail travel 100
elev travel 100
Elev/Flap trim dn 4 up 160

aerostadt said:

I'm starting to move my rocket gliders from the old Orange TX to the new Spektrum DX6e, which is an interesting process. Some of the program features on the old Orange are similar to the DX6e and some are different. I found that for radio binding the procedure on the Orange Rcx was about the same. I put the power from the battery into the AUX and the binder plug into the Orange battery/bind port. For Aircraft Type on chose Elevon on the Wing and Normal on the Tail. After binding with the DX6e I found that the elevons were going in the opposite direction from what I wanted. Rather than use the Reverse option, which requires re-binding, I reversed the Aile & Elev connections on the Orange Rcx. This worked fine. Now I need to figure out how to set the flap switch for gliding after boost.

Click to expand...

I'm starting to move my rocket gliders from the old Orange TX to the new Spektrum DX6e, which is an interesting process. Some of the program features on the old Orange are similar to the DX6e and some are different. I found that for radio binding the procedure on the Orange Rcx was about the same. I put the power from the battery into the AUX and the binder plug into the Orange battery/bind port. For Aircraft Type on chose Elevon on the Wing and Normal on the Tail. After binding with the DX6e I found that the elevons were going in the opposite direction from what I wanted. Rather than use the Reverse option, which requires re-binding, I reversed the Aile & Elev connections on the Orange Rcx. This worked fine. Now I need to figure out how to set the flap switch for gliding after boost.

Click to expand...

Since doing this my two 600 mah 70C 3.7v (1S) Lipo's have gone south. They have enough power to bind with the Orange TX, but not enough power to drive the servo's. I guess I did not store them properly over the winter. I have another 700 mah 25C 3.7v that I took out of the package and charged, but it is behaving the same way. I have new batteries on order.

I have one Eflite 2S 800 mah 7.4v with a BEC that has enough power to bind the Orange Tx & Rcx and drive the servo's. Before I was able to bind with the DX6e successfully, but now the servo's chatter when binding with the DX6e and then don't connect at all with the DX6e after removing the binding plug, etc. This is using the Orange Rcx. Perhaps, the 7.4v is losing capability or I need to buy the AR610 Rcx's (listed in the DX6e manual) or both?

Chattering and not moving are an indication I think of low voltage. Odd they are all bad though. I use the AR-400, you don't need the 6 for these. Just 4 channel with aileron/elevator if you think the rx's are the problem. I haven't had good luck with orange products myself.

aerostadt said:

Since doing this my two 600 mah 70C 3.7v (1S) Lipo's have gone south. They have enough power to bind with the Orange TX, but not enough power to drive the servo's. I guess I did not store them properly over the winter. I have another 700 mah 25C 3.7v that I took out of the package and charged, but it is behaving the same way. I have new batteries on order.

I have one Eflite 2S 800 mah 7.4v with a BEC that has enough power to bind the Orange Tx & Rcx and drive the servo's. Before I was able to bind with the DX6e successfully, but now the servo's chatter when binding with the DX6e and then don't connect at all with the DX6e after removing the binding plug, etc. This is using the Orange Rcx. Perhaps, the 7.4v is losing capability or I need to buy the AR610 Rcx's (listed in the DX6e manual) or both?

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After several days of no binding with my new Dx6e all of a sudden this Tx has bound right away with the Spektrum AR400 (about $20) and the AR610 (about $40). I have no plans trying to bind with the Orange Rx again. I am wondering if doing that somehow corrupted the Dx6e. In both cases I am using 2S Lipo's with BEC's. I just tried the 1S Lipo after getting things to bind and the 1S could just barely move the servo's. I've got some relatively cheap BEC's (about $9) and they work fine. I did hook up one Castle BEC (about $20) and it works fine. The great thing thing about the Dx6e is I now have the little lever working for 1) boost, 2) cruise, and 3) landing. It works like a charm.

I've got lots of stuff for the Orange Tx and Rx. The stuff works good and the Tx is relatively simple to learn; the parts are relatively simple to use, but I cannot get that little lever for flight mode to work.

That's weird your 1s isn't working, I've had no issues on 2 servos and an ar 400 but maybe my eflite 500 mah batteries are holding charge better, in any case bec and 2s always works.
Btw what is your cruise versus landing setting? There are only boost and glide settings needed.
Frank

I have some new 1S Lipo's coming in soon. So, I will try them. I now have enough of the 2S and BEC's to power all my models, if I want.

For cruise (number 2) on the Sky Dart I've got about 3/8" to the top of the elevon (too much?) from the flat wing surface. Of course, due to the depron thickness, the bottom of the elevon is less. For landing (number 3) I've got about 1/2" to the top of the elevon surface. For boost (the number 1 lever position) I was planning on keeping the elevons completely flat, because there is no lower option available, if that looks like too much. I was thinking that I could give the model a little manual down elevon towards the end of 5 or 6 seconds. I was thinking of using the same settings for the SR-71 and the X-15.

Hi, each model required settings are different. However you only need a boost and glide setting, having a landing setting is only going to cause you problems. If you have the proper glide setting, it should stay that way all the way to the ground and just a minor pull up of the stick as you get close to the ground, if you put that on a switch, it will most likely just cause a stall when you don't want it.

for the skydart, flat controls for boost and 1/4-3/8" up is correct starting point. Measure from any starting point you want, but the difference between starting and ending position is the 1/4 to 3/8".

The SR-71 does not need as much up trim typically 3/16" or less.

The X-15 needs approx 3/8" at the TE for glide.

Boost settings for the SR-71 and X-15 should be close to neutral, but may require some trim depending on how straight the models come out.

Frank


for the

aerostadt said:

I have some new 1S Lipo's coming in soon. So, I will try them. I now have enough of the 2S and BEC's to power all my models, if I want.

For cruise (number 2) on the Sky Dart I've got about 3/8" to the top of the elevon (too much?) from the flat wing surface. Of course, due to the depron thickness, the bottom of the elevon is less. For landing (number 3) I've got about 1/2" to the top of the elevon surface. For boost (the number 1 lever position) I was planning on keeping the elevons completely flat, because there is no lower option available, if that looks like too much. I was thinking that I could give the model a little manual down elevon towards the end of 5 or 6 seconds. I was thinking of using the same settings for the SR-71 and the X-15.

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Frank, for the advice. I will make adjustments. I just tried my new 1S Lipo that came in about an hour ago and it works fine. So, I tried my 3 old 1S Lipo's and they all work fine. So, I now have plenty of workable batteries.

Just a quick update, now sold out of the Wolverine kit, there won't be any more of those.

Frank

Interceptor III kits are now sold out as well.

burkefj said:

Just a quick update, now sold out of the Wolverine kit, there won't be any more of those.

Frank

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I launched the StratoDart on Saturday in conditions of almost no wind with good results using my new Spektrum transmitter. (Must resist urge to launch on windy days. Must resist.) The launch was majestic and nearly straight up. The wings really show up good at a distance against a clear blue sky. Unfortunately, I need a new and better camera, so I don't have any flight photo's. I did not touch the controls on way the up, but sometime shortly thereafter I flipped the lever for glide mode and the model straightened out into a glide immediately. I think I should have kept my hands on control to a minimum. The model had gone way over to the back side of the flight line and I was thinking of trying to bring the model back. However, in the process it seemed that I lost a lot of altitude quickly. Some spectators thought that the model looked nose heavy, but perhaps I was getting to close to stalling. As the StratoDart got near the ground the view was blocked behind the line of cars. As the model looked like it was going nose down before it went out of view, I gave quite a bit of nose up on the controls. We had to walk some distance to get to the StratoDart, but when we got there, it was fine.

The rail launch system is patterned after Frank's design. I bought parts from Lowe's. I could not find the threaded 2" pipe. Although, the unthreaded pipe is a little bit hard to put apart after assembly, it is manageable.

Well done, sir! Congrats on a successful flight. :flyingpig:

The 'lightness' of the Dynasoar kits makes for good launch and flight performance. But I have also struggled, at times, to get my glider back to the launch pad. I think it mainly takes experience in flying the model.

Glad it worked out, if its balanced right with the right trim it shouldn't drop quickly but hard to know without video. Maybe next time.