3DHS 48" vyper

[Buick Mackane]

hi Gary, i'm assembling my 65" red vyper. did you have any issues with the elevator snagging on the pull-pull cables? i have a hacker a50-16s motor and am concerned about moving the rudder servo to the aft port because the hacker isn't a very heavy motor. i may have to experiment with the configuration to see if i can move the battery forward enough to off-set the weight in the tail. happy new year

 

[gyro]

hi Gary, i'm assembling my 65" red vyper. did you have any issues with the elevator snagging on the pull-pull cables? i have a hacker a50-16s motor and am concerned about moving the rudder servo to the aft port because the hacker isn't a very heavy motor. i may have to experiment with the configuration to see if i can move the battery forward enough to off-set the weight in the tail. happy new year

[MENTION=2]SnowDog[/MENTION] is still flying his so his advice might be more current, but with mine, I only had the elevator servo in the tail, and the pull-pull worked fine. I also had a light motor in mine, the motrolfly 4320.

 

[Buick Mackane]

thank you

 

[SnowDog]

hi Gary, i'm assembling my 65" red vyper. did you have any issues with the elevator snagging on the pull-pull cables? i have a hacker a50-16s motor and am concerned about moving the rudder servo to the aft port because the hacker isn't a very heavy motor. i may have to experiment with the configuration to see if i can move the battery forward enough to off-set the weight in the tail. happy new year

@SnowDog is still flying his so his advice might be more current, but with mine, I only had the elevator servo in the tail, and the pull-pull worked fine. I also had a light motor in mine, the motrolfly 4320.

Hi Mike I saw your post the other day but never could get back downstairs to check my setup on my 65 Vyper. I just did that and I see that I have the same issue...at full down deflection on the elevator, I see the corner of the elevator does rub against the hardware of the pull pull rudder system. This issue has never affected the flight or control operation of my Vyper, and the contact is so slight that I'm going to continue to ignore it...I don't think it will snag the cables at all, and if I was going to do anything about it, I would carefully shave off the edge of the elevator that is contacting the pull pull hardware. All it would take is about 1/8" off the very edge to clean it up...other than that, I don't see a way to fix it. I honestly think it will be fine if you do nothing...the area that rubs will wear down soon enough and the problem will go away. I've flown mine for two seasons and I don't see any rubbing on that corner of the elevator.

Regarding the reason for pull pull vs. push pull, it is for balance. You would need a very heavy motor on the nose to offset the weight of a rudder servo at the very tail end of this airframe, or you would potentially have to add dead weight in the nose, neither of which are choices that I would make.

 

[Buick Mackane]

thank you SnowDog. that sounds like a good solution. i may have to shave the elevator on mine because it can get bound up a bit at times. it appears i would only need to remove 1/8th of an inch. i appreciate the advice.

 

[jamief1777]

Hi Gyro & Snowdog,

I finally got out to fly today after being under the weather for a few weeks. I was doing some hammerheads and humpty dumpty's and probably didn't have enough airspeed at the bottom or just pulled out a little too steep and tip-stalled it into the ground. It happened so fast that I didn't even realize I was in trouble.

I thought 3dhs sold fuselages but didn't see any on the website.. Maybe they don't.. Both wings survived, and I was hoping to buy a new fuse, and both tail-feathers, but I guess you can't buy just a new fuse...

 

[gyro]

Hi Gyro & Snowdog,

I finally got out to fly today after being under the weather for a few weeks. I was doing some hammerheads and humpty dumpty's and probably didn't have enough airspeed at the bottom or just pulled out a little too steep and tip-stalled it into the ground. It happened so fast that I didn't even realize I was in trouble.

I thought 3dhs sold fuselages but didn't see any on the website.. Maybe they don't.. Both wings survived, and I was hoping to buy a new fuse, and both tail-feathers, but I guess you can't buy just a new fuse...

Damn, that sucks! Really sorry about the mishap

They do sell fuses, but I think in this size class, selling the fuze separately wouldn't be cost effective, in that you'd just be a small amount away from the new plane price.
The 51" Slick costs just a little more than the 48" Vyper, and the fuse kit is 2/3rds the price of the new airframe ($160 / $240). The fuse kit doesn't include cowl, canopy, or tail feathers.

If you're going to stick with the Vyper, the easiest route is to buy another airframe, and keep what you have left as spares.

Sorry...

 

[jamief1777]

I had tried moving the CG from being more nose-heavy back to the recommended (nose heavy) setup for sport flying.. I thought it might help the KE flight but I had not tried KE yet.. The wind was 10-12 mph and was on my 2nd battery and hadn't tried to see how the KE would do yet.. I still have an Extra SHP and a bunch of fuel'ers in the basement so I can still fly them. Thanks to you and the others on this forum who have given me some good inputs on the Viper and also batteries.. I sent an email to Ben, so I will see if he might have a spare fuse somewhere.. Like you said, it starts getting close to the price of a new bird when you have to replace too may major parts..

 

[gyro]

I had tried moving the CG from being more nose-heavy back to the recommended (nose heavy) setup for sport flying.. I thought it might help the KE flight but I had not tried KE yet.. The wind was 10-12 mph and was on my 2nd battery and hadn't tried to see how the KE would do yet.. I still have an Extra SHP and a bunch of fuel'ers in the basement so I can still fly them. Thanks to you and the others on this forum who have given me some good inputs on the Viper and also batteries.. I sent an email to Ben, so I will see if he might have a spare fuse somewhere.. Like you said, it starts getting close to the price of a new bird when you have to replace too may major parts..

Good luck with your quest for a fuse. Please let us know what Ben says.

 

[SnowDog]

ouch sorry to hear about the crash jamief1777

maybe you can post some pics to show us the damage? most people want to write off an airframe that is sometimes completely repairable. The Vyper is especially easy since the fuselage is box-like.

if you post the pics maybe we can talk you through fixing this puppy?