Estes Stratoblaster (F and G powered) build thread

The bottom part of those cf horns embed into fore /aft slots in the control surface.

190 mph is fast. When go really fast i go to double truss. 2 of these horns side by side with the ball between them.

mr_matt_II said:

190 mph is fast. When go really fast i go to double truss. 2 of these horns side by side with the ball between them.

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That's a neat idea. Do you get balls with a screw coming out of each end?

The saving grace of this high speed is that it happens on the way up, and mostly in zero-lift configuration. My piloting skill is nowhere enough to actually fly an R/C plane at that speed.

Ari.

iter said:

That's a neat idea. Do you get balls with a screw coming out of each end?

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Well they make ball links where the ball comes out and the link can snap over it (called an adjustable ball link) or you can use a regular ball link and thread a screw through the whole affair.

Here is the wire running down the leading edge. I turned out acceptable, if I did it again I would cut the false leading edge like I did on the elevator

At this point the fabrication is basically done. The hardest part of the build is still to come. Attaching the tail. The plans do not give any critical measurements of incidence which is very bad.

I wanted to get about 1.5 to 2 degrees positive incidence between the tail and the wing, I got close.

First the wings are dialed in with an incidence meter, the trailing edge on the port side is held on temporarily.

The covering is oracover light. This covering is a lot lighter than monokote but is not that opaque. Here is the tail glued together.

The servo wire fishes down the boom first. I added the tri stock reinforcement later. Everything is referenced to the top of the booms, This time I glue up on glass to make sure the booms are flat and even

Now the wire has to snake down another trough in the trailing edge to go into the fuse. At this point I was fully aware of what a colossal waste of time it was to run the wire this way but in for a penny in, for a pound.

After the wire is run the booms are glued on with epoxy. While drying I cut the covering off the tail in preparation to add the last of the triangle stock.

Matt, your workmanship and attention to detail are outstanding. Looking forward to the flight!

Ari.

iter said:

Matt, your workmanship and attention to detail are outstanding.

.

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Well you are too kind, I can assure you. If it were not for the strict weight limit I had to hit, I would not have had to go through much of this.

And I have a_lot_of old 32 mm motors to go through!!

I know many people have flown these built stock but I could not bring myself to do it, and putting these servos near the surfaces made the CG situation even worse. So it was really down to gross weight and CG. I had to hit them both or I had nothing.

iter said:

Looking forward to the flight!

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Hopefully someone will get some pics at a club launch coming up, we will see.

Here is the triangle stock on the tail. If I only did one mod, it would be this. There is also triangle stock between the vertical and horizontal stab as well. This strengthens the tail immensely.

Final shot of the elevator servo after adjustment. This whole assembly weighed about 11 grams, and given the moment arm, this required about 20 grams of nose weight to balance. Without my mods it would have been more than twice that amount in the nose.

First shot is the business end of the 32 mm mount. I need an adapter as I have some old D-11P that I could use on cloudy days or if I need to trim it or something.

I guess I need some sort of centering rings or something, I am really not much of a rocketeer, maybe my club can help me out next launch!

Next shot you can see how the wires came out of the leading edge of the wing, that was tricky. If I loose a servo I will loose the plane or it will just hang from the ceiling cause I can't get them out!!

Last shot, I use a Vexa to set the servos up. Maybe overkill for RCBG, but handy to have. This lets you move the servo, set the pulse width, test the set up etc.

mr_matt_II said:

I guess I need some sort of centering rings or something, I am really not much of a rocketeer, maybe my club can help me out next launch!

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32mm is kind of an oddball size--hard to get off-the-shelf adapters for it. I lazer-cut my own. If you PM me your address, I can mail you a pair of CRs. I imagine you can get 24mm tube where you are.

Ari.

Set up with a 2 cell 320 mAh Lipo.I balanced per instructions for first flight. With this battery and a Futaba 617 receiver it needed about 17 g of nose
weight.

My guess is this will be a bit nose heavy but safe, I can drop nose weight later.

Picture after maiden flight. In my book it is bad luck to take beauty shots before a maiden!

I plan to change out the aileron linkages, trim the horn bolts, change out the elevator EZ connector and drop some nose weight. I will then add some stickers if I can get my wife's cutter running.

Hopefully at the next launch I can get someone to shoot some pics or video if I remember to bring my camcorder.

Cool! Congratulations on your flight. Looking forward to video!

Ari.

mr_matt_II said:

Picture after maiden flight. In my book it is bad luck to take beauty shots before a maiden!

I plan to change out the aileron linkages, trim the horn bolts, change out the elevator EZ connector and drop some nose weight. I will then add some stickers if I can get my wife's cutter running.

Hopefully at the next launch I can get someone to shoot some pics or video if I remember to bring my camcorder.

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I totally spaced out, here is a video from one of the early launches, with an F-16 blackjack. I don't try for much duration but usually just dive and maneuver hard.

https://youtu.be/YWevA2c9nFI