Building of the 30cc Slick 540 from Redwing RC!!!

[Jwmav528]

I must say that green really is the new black. Well it is for me at least. I preordered this back in August when I first saw it because I was on the market for a 30cc plane and have been poking around the Redwing's website for a few months doing plenty of drooling. Out of the box, I really like this airplane. It is gorgeous, is built strong, and should be a fast build (by design). Here are some of the features that I like: It has a ringed cowl, recessed wing roots, carbon accessories, turnbuckled metal servo pushrods for easy adjustment, and precut holes for switches and fuel dots. Here are some initial pictures.

 

[Jwmav528]

Some things that I forgot to mention in my previous post are the cannister tunnel and the aluminum reinforced cannister tunnel plus a complete hardward package.
Now here comes two criticisms that may or may not be actual issues but we shall see. The first issue I had is the manual. It uses the same manual for multiple models similar to 3D Hobby Shop using the same manual for their Extra and their Slick. The issue I have in this instance is that it is a combined manual for three different models across two sizes. Some models have some features listed in the manual while others do not. I do not consider this a serious issue though because I went to YouTube and looked up RedwingRC's channel and Tim Pastor posted some great build videos that should make this build fly by. So well done on the build videos Redwing. They really help!!!

My other criticism is with the wheel pants. The paint job on them is absolutely gorgeous but if you are lucky enough like me to fly off of asphalt, you'll actually want to put them on your airplane. The issue is they are a hard plastic and I am worried about cracking them up over time. Now I also don't consider this a serious issue either because I know that many of you fly without wheelpants due to their catching in grass. I also go to a lot of local events during the season on grass fields and will have to take mine off pretty frequently as well.

So off to building!

 

[Jwmav528]

I am running my build pretty close to how Tim built his MXSR in the build video series on RedwingRC's YouTube page. So my first post pretty much follows what was completed in the first video.

You can see here that the hardware pack includes painted double truss phenolic control horns. Just like in the video, I cut the bottom tabs off of each one and dry fit them all. I had to cut just a hair more than the bottom tab off of the rudder horns because they were interfering with one another from fully seating in the rudder. I also took this time to dab some Vaseline onto the hinge points of the Robart style hinges so that I wouldn't accidentally epoxy them. I mixed up some nice slow 30 minute epoxy so that I would have enough time to do everything at once. Between seating everything properly and ensuring proper hinge gaps, I had to move quick. I did not want to do that so I just quit halfway through the process and made a second batch of epoxy to finish the job. In the future, I will leave this as two separate steps. It all went together fairly easily so far. Here are the results.

 

[Tomyk89]

It looks awesome!

 

[cardenflyer]

Looking good! The new 30cc schemes are just awesome looking. Let me know if you have any questions.

What equipment are you planning on using? Motor, servos, batteries?

Also, my wheel pants on the 50cc are holding up great. They seem a little cheaper but actually they are more durable I think. I'm guessing 40 flights and on one of my last ones, motor died, put it in the beans, it was flipped over and no damage, thought for sure the wheel pants or gear would have had damage. We are talking beans that need harvested not nice green mid summer beans.

Jake

 

[Jwmav528]

I'm running a DLE 35 ra with hitec 5625 servos. I like the torque of the servos but I'm worried their speed might be a little slow. I'm going to break in the engine with them in but I might switch to something faster like Savox 1258s, Align ds610s, or XQ 4013s. I don't know much about XQ though so I'm hesitant until I find someone who uses them enough to give me some feedback. I have some time to decide though. For batteries, I have a pair of 2100 mAh life packs from Redwing so I'm more than set on that front.

That's good to know about the pants. I have updates on the build that I'll post after work tonight. I worked on it until pretty late for someone who wakes up a at five.

There's a gear cover that came with the kit that wasn't mentioned in the manual or any of the build videos. Based on the hardware provided I made a best guess as to how to mount it all. I think I got it right but I'll post a picture tonight showing what I did if you wouldn't mind checking my work.

I had a little trouble fitting the wheel pants to the gear. The hole in them that slips around the bolt that you use to tighten the axle to the mains is tight and I had to make sure the orientation of the bolt was such a way for the pant to slip on easier but it was tight. The bolts that secure the pants were also a little long and I had to reposition my wheels on the axles for clearance. I'm debating going back and cutting the bolts down for better clearance but it's all attached now.

 

[cardenflyer]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4liJjvcIlYg&feature=youtube_gdata_player

That's me and my 50cc xq4020 on all surfaces and a 4013 on throttle. Great servos.

 

[TimP]

Nice job on the thread so far Jeff! Keep up the good work. glad you are liking it.

Yes, we have a more advanced manual that is on the Yak 55 that may be more appropriate. I'll attach it here
but we do keep the same manual for a couple differnet versions. I'm sure you'll find this one much more detailed
Tim

 

[Jwmav528]

That manual is much better. Thank you for the link!

Sorry for the delays in updates. Between working into the wee hours on this plane and getting ready to travel this weekend I've not been able to get on as much as I'd like to update. At this point I have fuselage servos mounted and linkages to elevators connected. I'll post on that later. For right now I'll post to catch you all up.

Pictured is the bolt on stab. I was originally going to use split lock washers to keep it removable (I drive a Rav4) but I didn't like the idea of assembling and disassembling the servo linkage at the field so I ultimately used blue locktite. Each stab slides onto the carbon shaft and then bolts on with two bolts. The holes are covered initially but be careful cutting them open as there are blind nuts pre-installed. The slit for the rudder cable was precut.

 

[cardenflyer]

I don't even lock tight them, I just check them in preflight. But a lot of guys do. Or use rubber bonded washers. Here is a thread on GiantScaleNews a good friend of mine started. He's building an orange one.

http://www.GiantScaleNews.com/forums/showthread.php?t=86133