Upscale Aurora Clipper rc rg for G12 motors

[burkefj]

The problem is nose cones and the overall weight. Most of my other upscales require custom 3D printed nose cones that have to be extremely light and they're still right on the edge of what I consider maximum lift off weight so if someone does something different they're going to come out too heavy. I designed this one with the bt80 tubing so that would have give some margin for some heavy-handedness, I don't want to have to stock 4-in tubing either and 3 in is generally a little bit heavier than I like as well. The foam and the rest of the parts would work for a 4-in orbital transport glider like I made but again you need to source a nose cone.

 

[tab28682]

I was thinking you keep the same nose cone and only change the Depron shapes.

I have got to hook up with our local motor guy and get a couple of H13s!

 

[burkefj]

I picked up an Apogee F-10 at a good price from a local dealer and found I could swap the nose cone out for one with less nose weight(1.5 oz instead of 3 oz) and fly the F-10 on a rtf weight in this model of 22.5 oz. It flew nicely to 600' and had about 1:15 glide, nice and floaty...

 

[burkefj]

 

[aerostadt]

I flew the large Aurora Clipper again last Saturday on an H13. It was a beautiful day in Utah with little or no wind. Flight was good with no damage. My flying skills are wanting and so I had a long walk back to the flight line. I did some bench testing this morning on the large Aurora Clipper and large Colonial Viper and it looks like my left/right turning may be confusing me. This could end up sending the glider further away from the flight line. (Turning may be different with the flap switch D "on" or "off")

 

[aerostadt]

It was a long walk back.

 

[burkefj]

It was a long walk back.

Great to hear although there shouldn't be a difference in turning with elevator trim in boost or glide setting. If you were using flight modes you can have different roll and pitch trim in each switch position which could be causing a difference but if you're just using the flap elevator trim whatever trim you have on the model in boost should maintain for glide.

 

[aerostadt]

Great to hear although there shouldn't be a difference in turning with elevator trim in boost or glide setting. If you were using flight modes you can have different roll and pitch trim in each switch position which could be causing a difference but if you're just using the flap elevator trim whatever trim you have on the model in boost should maintain for glide.

Perhaps, that is the problem. I checked both the Colonial Viper and the Aurora Clipper this morning. The glide trim using the D-switch (0, 1, and 2) behaves the same for both models, but the left/right turning is different on both models. I'll probably have to dig into the settings (roll, etc.) as you say. I'll send you a PM for any advice you can give me.

 

[aerostadt]

I flew the Aurora Clipper again last Saturday again on an H13 and had another long walk after a successful landing. Unfortunately, I have only one picture.

 

[tab28682]

Pretty hard to keep RC flying skills up to date when you are only occasionally flying RC rocket gliders.

Are you flying any other types of RC models?

 

[burkefj]

Here is mine doing some short hops on F-23 and F-27 motors

 

[aerostadt]

Here is mine doing some short hops on F-23 and F-27 motors

That is interesting. I ran some numbers. My H13 Aurora Clipper weighs 24 oz including a 4 oz nose cone (nearly 11 inches long) and no motor. My Clipper may be on the heavy side. I'm figuring that a H13 motor weighs about 7.17 oz. I get a thrust to weight ratio = 1.5 . I see that even though the F23 and F27 have lower total impulse with a shorter burn-time, the average thrust is higher. If I could find a light nose, say with a weight of 1 oz instead of 4 oz, I could reduce my RTF weight without motor from about 24 oz to 21 oz. The average thrust for the F27 is about 6 lbf. With these changes I get a thrust to weight ratio = 3.49, more than double of the H13 flight. Looking at your video for the F23 and the F27 the lift-off does seem to be faster.

 

[burkefj]

Flew some F-20s from 1988, I think the oldest motors I've ever flown, even with a good core reaming they still chuffed for about 10 seconds before they got off the rail and gave me about half the height of a normal launch, even though I replaced the copperheads with modern igniters. I also flew a couple of f-25s today too, so now I've flown this on f10s f20s f23s f25s f26s f27s g12 and h13s

 

[aerostadt]

I flew the small Aurora Clipper and the small Orbital Transport, both E6 models, yesterday. They flew well, but the OT handles much better, which I don't quite understand. They both have the Spektrum AR400 receiver and the OT has the old HiTec HS-55 servo's, while the Clipper has Spektrum AR3040 servo's. Even in static testing I can see that the Clipper servo's have a delayed response. I need to check this out further. I found a new place in-town to fly. The sky was clear with no wind, but temperature was 38 Degrees. My son was able to catch the OT for a few seconds on his cell phone video. We were able to pop off 2 flights pretty quickly. I may need to buy more reloads soon.

 

[burkefj]

I flew the small Aurora Clipper and the small Orbital Transport, both E6 models, yesterday. They flew well, but the OT handles much better, which I don't quite understand. They both have the Spektrum AR400 receiver and the OT has the old HiTec HS-55 servo's, while the Clipper has Spektrum AR3040 servo's. Even in static testing I can see that the Clipper servo's have a delayed response. I need to check this out further. I found a new place in-town to fly. The sky was clear with no wind, but temperature was 38 Degrees. My son was able to catch the OT for a few seconds on his cell phone video. We were able to pop off 2 flights pretty quickly. I may need to buy more reloads soon.

Some servos may not run that well on a 1S battery with the reduced voltage the high-tech servos seem to do fine.

 

[aerostadt]

Some servos may not run that well on a 1S battery with the reduced voltage the high-tech servos seem to do fine.

I just tried a 2S battery and that works a lot better. Thanks.

 

[burkefj]

I just tried a 2S battery and that works a lot better. Thanks.

Careful that may fry the servos theyre not designed to run at 7.4 normally with a two cell battery you'd use a Bec with that just check the specs and make sure you're okay same with the receiver

 

[burkefj]

My big Aurora Clipper rocket glider flying on F-25 and F-26 motors today.

 

[sr205347d]

Careful that may fry the servos theyre not designed to run at 7.4 normally with a two cell battery you'd use a Bec with that just check the specs and make sure you're okay same with the receiver

I had problems with jittery HS-45 servos until switching to 2S LiFe batteries that have 6.6v nominal.

 

[aerostadt]

After I switched to the 2S battery on my small Aurora Clipper (with AR3040 servo's) I became concerned about too much voltage. I do have some BEC's around here, so that high voltage doesn't have to be a problem. However, for some reason several weeks ago I put a 1S battery back in and the Clipper worked fine. I just tried it now and it is still working fine. It pays for me to check out the gliders before any flight.

 

[aerostadt]

I flew my large (3" diameter) Aurora Clipper last week with the Aerotech H13. I really like the Aerotech H13 with the thrust ring, just a short piece of tape around the thrust ring is needed to quickly secure the motor in place. The weight is about 24 oz without the motor, so with the motor I have a lift-off weight over 31 oz. It seemed like the Clipper wanted to pitch towards the West shortly after lift-off and since I didn't want a long walk, I immediately gave some stick correction to keep it straight up. I was planning ahead time to pitch towards the East, but I just felt the model was sluggish, so I just did some rolls on the way up. It was pretty easy to roll. After arcing over I turned on the D-one switch, which I have set to about 5/8" up flap (tip of the flap above the wing, my wing is about 1/2" thick). The model seemed to level off right away, but later several times it seemed to dive and I needed to intervene with the stick to get the nose up. Towards the end of the flight I went with the D-two switch, which is about 1-1/16" up flap. Then the model just easliy floated to a nice landing. I am thinking next time I might just go with the D-two switch right away for the glide.

 

[burkefj]

Right on, rolls on boost! Yes fly it all the way, your second switch setting looks like what I use.

 

[aerostadt]

I got another successful flight on the large 3" diameter Aurora Clipper with an H13 last Saturday. This time I used the No. 2 setting on the D-switch or about a 1" fixed up-flap after transitioning from boost to glide and the glide was much better.