Drone hobbyist Transitioning to RC airplanes

[Coltaine47]

Greetings! From the Beautiful Northern land of Canada!.

i have been flying RC Helicopters since i was 14. (i Remember my Parents getting me my first one. Cranked it full throttle and hit the Ceiling and broke it on the first day) and been flying Hobby Drones since i was 18 and now Starting to get into RC Airplanes (Probably at the worst time too sadly) Bought the SE Biplane and the Tiny Trainer. The Tiny Trainer Got held up at Customs and the SE biplane ended up being my first Build and the Elevator Servo popped off as i was testing it for it's maiden (Was lucky it wasn't in the air). Just wondering how can i get at it to reglue it back on since it seems almost impossible to get at it to fix it

 

[rockyboy]

Welcome to the forums! And it's certainly not the worst time to get into the RC Airplane hobby. Er... maybe that didn't come out right... how about "I certainly hope the worst time to get into the hobby has passed us"

As for reattaching that servo that came free, you can try cutting an access hatch directly across from it in the fuselage (I'm assuming it's mounted sort of tailward in the fuselage like the Tiny Trainer). If you cut the hatch free with a bevel it will be easy to glue it right back in place once you get the servo reconnected. Make sure you peel any stickers off the side of the servo and scratch the heck out of the side that's going to get the hot glue - that will help it hold on better.

I've had this problem a couple times too and now I like to create a little servo tray from a scrap of foam that has rectangular holes to drop the servos in, and is sized to fit between the fuselage sides. This way the twisting force of the servo is pushing against the foam structure, and not just trying to tear the glue off. This might be a bit tricky to retrofit though.

 

[Grifflyer]

Welcome to the forum Coltaine47, I hope your maiden goes well. As for reattaching your servo I agree with rockyboy, that you should cut an access hatch to reglue it, but just a quick tip when you reglue the servo make you that your elevator is still level with the rest of the h stab. One time I had to reglue a rudder servo and the rudder was deflected pretty severely to the right and I finally noticed it after I re glued the access hatch I had made, so just make sure everything stays level.

 

[kdobson83]

I am literally building the se5 right now. As both the rudder and elevator servos are accross from each other in the fuselage, you may have to remove the deck to get to em. If you haven't painted it all up yet, some simple alcohol will lose up your hot glue. Peel off the deck, fix your servo, reglue. Make sure you scuff up the back of the servo to make sure the glue holds. Hold the servo tight while glue dries too. You can squeeze/glue some foam in between the two servos too, like a brace, help hold them in place. Honsetly, there is no easy way to get in there to service them. You may have to cut if you already have both wings on. Good luck.

 

[sprzout]

Welcome to the forums and have fun with these builds! I too, came over to RC airplanes from flying drones, and the one big thing I had to readjust for was LESS use of the left stick when turning, especially when flying a vehicle without a rudder (like say, the Versa Wing, or my latest acquisition, the Strix Nano Goblin), whereas with the quadcopters, that's pretty much the ONLY way to turn left or right!

The planes are great fun. I've killed a few, mostly due to weird things (Loss of signal, battery cover of my MiG sliding off into the prop and causing the plane to "explode" in midair, a freak gust of wind that came up on landing and flipped the plane over just as I'd touched down on the runway), but because they're so easy to rebuild and create, it's not something I stress over too much.

 

[PsyBorg]

I built an SE 5 too and have fried two servos trying to get that in the air. Replacing them is a chore indeed. What I did with mine was to cut a maintenance hole in the top in front of the cockpit and partially under the top wing. I used a pipette to drip alcohol down around the bad servo and then maipulated it with a pair of hemostats. It is not an easy task but does minimal damage to the air frame.

 

[sprzout]

I built an SE 5 too and have fried two servos trying to get that in the air. Replacing them is a chore indeed. What I did with mine was to cut a maintenance hole in the top in front of the cockpit and partially under the top wing. I used a pipette to drip alcohol down around the bad servo and then maipulated it with a pair of hemostats. It is not an easy task but does minimal damage to the air frame.

View attachment 106387

Ok, gotta ask - how'd you fry two servos? Electrical short? Something get caught while the servo was trying to move? Or was it that the servo got too hot from not enough air around it?

 

[PsyBorg]

Still to be determined. I have an idea that has one or two possible issues. I either have a short on the receiver that may be touching the metal landing gear wire even after a generous smathering of hot glue to isolate and insulate. That or I messed up the radio set up by going further then needed and remapping only three channels somehow. I will be revisiting it once I get the three things left on my list before it caught up.

What happens is I power they system on, the esc does its beepy goodness, the servos snap to attention in the position they need at center. The instant I do any input from any channel the rudder freaks out pins itself in one direction and dies instantly. no smoke no whine.. just dead.Did not have replacements on hand at the time so it was shelved for the completion and hopefulness of the FT3d.... (yeah Ok thats likely) That was air borne twice now and nearly flew.

Its gotta be a psychological thing at this point.. its not like I can't handle the sticks gently at this point after hitting gaps with a quad.