110" TIMBER Assembly Thread

[Snoopy1]

Thank you!!

So the maiden. I had a good friend taunting me to fly it and get the maiden out of the way lol. ok ok. To my surprise I didn't even have to touch the DLE55 needles, It ran well, a little rich on the low end but just gurgly. Skies were calm with the occasional light rotating gust and 50F. Fall is here in full swing.
Take off, a little squirrely for me. I think it was a combination of things, loose tail wheel springs being a large factor, ground control when up on the power didn't feel locked in. Once the tail came up it wanted to go left. Tonight I re adjusted the tailwheel and tightened the springs, we will see if that helps.
Airborne it was nose heavy, nine clicks of up elevator. I later added 1.5oz of sticky weights in the tail and lowered it to seven clicks of up elevator. I'm thinking of moving the fuel tank aft to where the batteries are and maybe put the batteries next to the tank sides. With a half a tank and the sticky weights it's balancing level the aft side of the wing tube. I think shooting for 1/4" behind the wing tube would be ideal.
Flying on low rates, it felt like a big heavy responsive cub. Nothing special, slows down great with flaps and has a predictable sink rate. On low rates I did some stall tests, nose up no flaps/with a little flaps both with the same result. Nose would come down followed by a left wing drop and a spin. No joke. Fairly steep angle and a decent loss of altitude with a half turn. My guess is this has a lot to do with the CG/extra payload and If I were putting one together I would hang it from the tube and the tail should be below the nose. Mind you the stall tests are with a bit higher nose attitude and the plane coming in on final approach slows down nice, and feels good. Especially with a little bit of flaps it's very nice. Even at 40 degrees it has plenty of tail authority and doesn't balloon like crazy.
DLE55... I have not tried 3D with it. It will. Gobs of power. 1/2 throttle is all you need to fly the plane. It's a fairly high drag airframe and at full throttle it speeds up slowly but scoots along pretty darn fast. Ten minute flight with my 17oz tank left it just below half tank. Not bad. If you were flying 3D or up on the power that would be less, but sunday flying breaking in the motor... My timer was at 8min now it's at 11min.
2x Pulse 2250 2S batteries w/TechAero direct via Booma pin flag switch... After four ten minute flights both batteries were at 7.8V roughly 60% capacity left. I think that equated to a little less than 400mAh per flight. A lot like my 35cc 3D birds.
I will definitely need to get some more time on this bird, figure out my rudder control/p-factor, and CG.
I think 35-50cc is a great choice, I would love to get my hands on a GP38cc when ever it comes out to put in this birdie. So far I have no complaints with the DLE55, just that the plane is a little nose heavy with that extra HP up front and sprung gear.
I have some poor video I'll need to edit and post when I get a chance from the second flight. Till then, this is what I have to share

Does not sound like you were impressed with the plane, it will be interesting to see how it all improves as you get some details corrected and sorted out. One thing I do remember your weight it was up there. Keep us informed, also once you start really using the power you have in the plane things will change.

 

[AKNick]

Does not sound like you were impressed with the plane, it will be interesting to see how it all improves as you get some details corrected and sorted out. One thing I do remember your weight it was up there. Keep us informed, also once you start really using the power you have in the plane things will change.

It hasn’t blown my socks off yet. My OAW is up there for sure. CG will be key, and will make or break any plane. It flies pretty well. I did not like my stall test result, but once again CG can change that. I like the plane, don’t get me wrong. Just need to fine tune some things before I REALLY like it.

3.5” offset arm I would be ideal I think for your rudder.

 

[Snoopy1]

It hasn’t blown my socks off yet. My OAW is up there for sure. CG will be key, and will make or break any plane. It flies pretty well. I did not like my stall test result, but once again CG can change that. I like the plane, don’t get me wrong. Just need to fine tune some things before I REALLY like it.

3.5” offset arm I would be ideal I think for your rudder.

The weather is really starting to turn it is getting cold. Which is giving me the urge to build. And yes the 3.5 is on order from JR.
Be really interested to know the CG location you end up at. And Cg can make or break how a plane flies.

 

[AKNick]

Yesterday I ended up with 1.5 Oz on the tail. 3oz today and it flies better. Tightening up the rudder springs helped a ton. Still think they are too weak. I have to really be on the rudder to prevent a ground loop, especially on landings. Moving the fuel tank under the wing tube will be my next move. With 1/3 flaps this puppy floats. Take offs and landings are easy, other than my tail wondering around. Got some more video. You’ll see soon enough! I am liking the plane more and more. The extra 1.5oz in the tail helped the stall out a bit so it’s not so violent. CG needs to be behind the tube without a doubt. 4 more flights logged of putting around.

 

[AKNick]

Relocated the fuel tank back as far as it would let me. Soon realizing my batteries needed a better spot... made a balsa shelf for each battery while adding a little fuselage structure. Win win.

Hopefully I’ll have time to fly it tomorrow!

 

[Snoopy1]

Could it be the large wheels on the front that are making it difficult to steer. They are like to big flywheels when coming into land and you need to get them up to speed when you touch down. Just thinking out loud..

 

[AKNick]

Could it be the large wheels on the front that are making it difficult to steer. They are like to big flywheels when coming into land and you need to get them up to speed when you touch down. Just thinking out loud..

Could be a factor for sure. Lots of tail draggers handle differently with large bush tires. The geometry changes in relation to the CG and the tail will be less responsive on the tail and will walk away from you. Maules have quite the short coupled tail and ground loop easy with a less experienced pilot.
No flying today at the field USFS had it on lock down... expecting a few buses to use the lot and I doubt they ever did. LOL oh well. Got to go to the lake and show my flying buddy what flying off a mirror feels like. he loved it!

 

[Snoopy1]

Could be a factor for sure. Lots of tail draggers handle differently with large bush tires. The geometry changes in relation to the CG and the tail will be less responsive on the tail and will walk away from you. Maules have quite the short coupled tail and ground loop easy with a less experienced pilot.
No flying today at the field USFS had it on lock down... expecting a few buses to use the lot and I doubt they ever did. LOL oh well. Got to go to the lake and show my flying buddy what flying off a mirror feels like. he loved it!

Have to agree float flying of a mirror is something special, it is not often to get that chance but when you do it is great.

 

[WMcNabb]

Have to agree float flying of a mirror is something special, it is not often to get that chance but when you do it is great.

Just posted in another thread, but fast forward to 8:26 to see footage of the Timber 110.

http://giantscalenews.com/threads/awesome-video-thread.4490/page-35#post-229780

 

[AKNick]

Got a couple more flights on this baby yesterday. Flew better with the tank further back, stall was less violent. Still will slowly drop a wing, slow down and then begin to spiral if you don't give the stick inputs to recover. Moving the CG back was key. I am considering adding the LE devices now.
Added 23% Elevator down to Flap mix. 20 was close, 25 too much.
Tried crow out for a bit. It ballooned like crazy so I need to play with the deflections.
Added a couple more ounces of sticky weights to the tail... I think I'm up to six ounces. Still have five clicks of up elevator.
I'm now thinking of making a tailwheel bracket for a 3" rubber tire.
The plane has hovered high on low rates, and half throttle.
Flew a knife edge and as you can imagine, it pulls to the gear, and wants to stay on it's feet like a cat. LE devices may add necessary drag to help with the coupling.
I added a bunch of expo to the rudder. normally I leave it 30-50, may have gone up to 60... helped with the tail handling on landing, I was going to far to fast.
Looking at my gear, I don't think they are aligned, there is some uneven camber that I don't like.
After my second flight I noticed one of my wing struts was hanging off the top of the wing. My fault. I did not use a lock washer. Lesson learned, so let this be a PSA! Don't forget to add a lock washer!! Last flight of the day it flew like this and for scale flying it was fine. I did bounce it pretty good too!
Also, my spinner cracked. I was careful installing it doing the two finger method, but the little rim that fits inside the groove cracked. Noticed it wobbling. So it flew it's first flight of the day without it.
Lastly I have a video from my second flight all prepped and ready for download this evening. Took a while to compress 15min to under five. The subsequent flight (3rd flight)was more exciting and will work on that one as well.
I am now over ten flights. Love the power for STOL takeoffs, and how easy it is to start the DLE55RA. Very pleased with this motor.
The plane is still nose heavy, trimmed out it's fine. Slowing down you can feel the weight of the plane enter a quick sink rate as the nose drops a little tiny bit at idle with a tiny bit of flaps. Predictable. The more the CG goes aft, the better this will feel and with the LE devices it may even go away all together.