1:4 Scale Foamy Albatros D.Va – Flite Fest 2022 Dawn Patrol Challenge

wilmracer

I build things that fly (sometimes)
Mentor
Life has been keeping me busy (as usual) but I have continued the repairs. I've cleaned up the front end in preparation for the new motor install, opened up the cowling to allow for more airflow, added a pair of small air intakes on either side of the motor, and just wrapped up construction of the new spinner and backplate to accomodate the 22x10 prop. I've added a pair of recesses to the backplate that allign behind the propeller. My hope is that these will allow at least some additional airflow into the cowling. The fact that I won't be heavily taxing the motor, combined with the oversized ESC (with its own fan) leads me to think that I will be just fine in terms of cooling.

Fingers crossed.

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wilmracer

I build things that fly (sometimes)
Mentor
Life continues to be stupid busy, but I squeezed in some time this weekend to squeeze the ESC, BEC, and start mounting the new motor. Removing the fishing weights from the dummy radial took quite a while but I wanted all of them out so I'm starting with as little extra weight as possible. I actually don't think I'll need extra noseweight with the bigger setup but that remains to be seen.

To allow for future modifications I used XT150s on the ESC even though the math shows I won't exceed 80 amps. I made an extension to the battery tray that switches to XT90 and I'll use existing series harnesses I have to run a pair of 6s 8000s at 12s. I'm probably going to have a bit more of a gap between the fuse and spinner than I'd like but that will help with some extra cooling along with the added intakes. The ESC has a fan that is wired to one of the two leads coming off the Castle Creations 20 Amp BEC (although at 12S it only gives about 8Amps). I'll have to keep an eye on that and decide if I need a dedicated receiver pack, but there are really only 4 standard digital servos in this thing.

I REALLY want to have this ready to fly (and maybe test flown again) before the 2nd week of August so I can share her with some family I'll be visiting. We'll see. I still have to redo much of the rigging and add the turnbuckles, but I think that will only take an evening once everything else is done.

She still has a THICK layer of Ohio dust on her as well. :D
 

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wilmracer

I build things that fly (sometimes)
Mentor
More repairs/upgrades. The tailskid had snapped during the ride out to FF, likely because there wasn't enough flex in the bungee cord. I've swapped that out now with softer hair-ties and reattached the trailing section. there is a steel pin that runs through the crack, CF splints on the outside, and it is wrapped in kevlar thread soaked in CA.

I also fabricated a small steel plate that wraps around the area that makes contact with the ground. I drilled through this for an axle and added a SMALL tailwheel that I painted brown to match the repair. The tailwheel doesn't caster so it likely won't really help much with steering, but it will offer some improvement (I hope) in takeoff and landing rollouts. Plus it should help take some of the stress of the skid as well.

Flying wires have all been equipted with turnbuckles now too, so that will help keep the wires snug and will (hopefully) make assembly/teardown faster.

I did a few runups on 12S today and while I still need to balance the spinner better it is a BEAST. With 12S 8000 mAh I may need to add a touch of tailweight. 12S 6000 may be the sweet spot but we'll see. I do have a pair of matched 6S 5000s that I could use for test hops.
 

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The Fopster

Master member
So... This is the reason I haven't been able to get around to getting the D.Va back in the air yet (that and the covid I'm laid up with now)...

That’s gonna need some big servos. I’d go with the metal geared ones if I were you. For safety. 🤣