FT Bushwacker BUILD

[BATTLEAXE]

Hey all, so I finished cutting out the bushwhacker! Except for the wheel fairings, that is. I’m planning on modifying them similar to what @BATTLEAXE did to his, except even more since I’m going to make the landing gear “swappable” so I can use it as skis too. I’m stoked!

Is it going to be swappable LG like the whole assembly comes off or just the wheels?

@BATTLEAXE - great looking plane - sharp build as usual!

Thx man. Truth be told this plane was a curse from the beginning, I just wanted to finish it before anything else went wrong lol. Just waiting on servos and props now

 

[OliverW]

Is it going to be swappable LG like the whole assembly comes off or just the wheels?
Thx man. Truth be told this plane was a curse from the beginning, I just wanted to finish it before anything else went wrong lol. Just waiting on servos and props now

Looking good!

 

[The Hangar]

@BATTLEAXE the whole assembly will come off and I will have a separate ski set. Do you have wheel collars to make swapping tires and skis easier?

 

[BATTLEAXE]

@BATTLEAXE the whole assembly will come off and I will have a separate ski set. Do you have wheel collars to make swapping tires and skis easier?

Yea i do, I found that with the swappable assembly, as convenient as it is, was susceptible to leveraging the LG wire inside the fuse upon harder then perfect landings and start to tear apart the fuse on the inside, as I have noticed on other planes and is happening to the Sportster. The Sportster I did reinforce the hell out of it because I wasn't so concerned about the weight as opposed to the durability of it. I added stuff like plywood instead of FB to create the pocket the gear slides into and skewers to physically connect the two pockets for the floats and a skewer across the front of the wire in the folded FB around the top of the LG itself. Even all that I still have a broken plywood pocket liner in the front from the wire leveraging the top of the LG forward. Actually the best thing I did for that one was the skewer in the LG FB tab, but it wouldn't work so well if the rest of it wasn't in the plane.

The BW LG was something I wanted to try to see which design would be better. The way I have this plane set up I am confident it will be better then the Sportsters design in that respect. Time will tell. I do have to say I have punished that Sportster a lot and I am really impressed with it. It still hangs on the wall and not in the trash so that is a good sign. If you want to keep it light I would say the fixed LG with the removable wheels only option is the way to go if you plan on 3point landings every time, but unexpected hard landings are part of the hobby, for me anyway lol.

 

[The Hangar]

Yea i do, I found that with the swappable assembly, as convenient as it is, was susceptible to leveraging the LG wire inside the fuse upon harder then perfect landings and start to tear apart the fuse on the inside, as I have noticed on other planes and is happening to the Sportster. The Sportster I did reinforce the hell out of it because I wasn't so concerned about the weight as opposed to the durability of it. I added stuff like plywood instead of FB to create the pocket the gear slides into and skewers to physically connect the two pockets for the floats and a skewer across the front of the wire in the folded FB around the top of the LG itself. Even all that I still have a broken plywood pocket liner in the front from the wire leveraging the top of the LG forward. Actually the best thing I did for that one was the skewer in the LG FB tab, but it wouldn't work so well if the rest of it wasn't in the plane.

The BW LG was something I wanted to try to see which design would be better. The way I have this plane set up I am confident it will be better then the Sportsters design in that respect. Time will tell. I do have to say I have punished that Sportster a lot and I am really impressed with it. It still hangs on the wall and not in the trash so that is a good sign. If you want to keep it light I would say the fixed LG with the removable wheels only option is the way to go if you plan on 3point landings every time, but unexpected hard landings are part of the hobby, for me anyway lol.

Good points. I think I’ll glue it in then and see if they have the right sized wheel collars at my lhs when I go.

 

[BATTLEAXE]

What size of wire are you using

 

[BATTLEAXE]

Pieced together the rest of the Bushwhacker and here is the maiden

Probably the best maiden I have ever had, so impressed with this plane

 

[Grifflyer]

Nice flight, that was really smooth!! Next time try coming in to land at a shallower angle, and try not to pull back on the elevator unless the nose starts tipping over, or if you need to bail out.

Now for the real question:
Shrubsmacker or Bushwacker If you had to choose one what would it be

 

[BATTLEAXE]

A 150% Shrubby all the way. I was gonna say this is my big Shrubsmacker in the vid, give you shout out.

Thx for the tip, I have done it before with the Sportster, still a little rusty on the sticks. I was gonna try it with the flaps and I should have switched to low rates but I was to excited to remember my name. Besides I can't make them all pretty, that would be boring.

 

[Seahunter]

Hi Battleaxe, I really enjoyed your bushwacker build. Love your mods on the fuselage and really impressed by your maiden. If your airframe survives long enough, consider a set of Timber wheels for it, mine work super but I doubt they would help much in that field, I attached a thumbnail of mine. I have couple of old threads on it in this forum. I also modified the fuse including removal of tail skid and narrowing the width of the fuse. Steerable tailwheel is for use on our clubs paved runway.

 

[BATTLEAXE]

Hi Battleaxe, I really enjoyed your bushwacker build. Love your mods on the fuselage and really impressed by your maiden. If your airframe survives long enough, consider a set of Timber wheels for it, mine work super but I doubt they would help much in that field, I attached a thumbnail of mine. I have couple of old threads on it in this forum. I also modified the fuse including removal of tail skid and narrowing the width of the fuse. Steerable tailwheel is for use on our clubs paved runway.

Thanks for the regards buddy. Nice BW by the way. Your right the Timber wheels look way better.

This isn't my usual field, but it has way more space then the one I frequent, I just went there for the maiden of the past couple planes for the space it offers. I have a lot of flying to do with this plane to get to where this will take me. Judging by how much I enjoyed it today, if I trash this one, fingers crossed I hope I don't, I am sure I will make another. I would do some of the same mods you mentioned like a narrower fuse, maybe not the tail wheel though.

 

[whackflyer]

Very very nice maiden @BATTLEAXE! I knew you’d love this plane. Next you need to find a smooth field where you can do STOL takeoffs and landing without tipping over, and some touch and goes too. Your paint job also looks very nice. I have the plans printed for a 54” bushwacker, my Tundy is soon to donate her electronics to it🤣. I got a cool idea for my landing gear. I’m going to use some RC car shocks, and use erector set pieces for the wire supports in the fuse...

 

[Grifflyer]

A 150% Shrubby all the way. I was gonna say this is my big Shrubsmacker in the vid, give you shout out.

Thx for the tip, I have done it before with the Sportster, still a little rusty on the sticks. I was gonna try it with the flaps and I should have switched to low rates but I was to excited to remember my name. Besides I can't make them all pretty, that would be boring.

When you try flaps, you have to make sure you leave some throttle on, or your tail surfaces will lose lots of authority.

 

[BATTLEAXE]

Very very nice maiden @BATTLEAXE! I knew you’d love this plane. Next you need to find a smooth field where you can do STOL takeoffs and landing without tipping over, and some touch and goes too. Your paint job also looks very nice. I have the plans printed for a 54” bushwacker, my Tundy is soon to donate her electronics to it🤣. I got a cool idea for my landing gear. I’m going to use some RC car shocks, and use erector set pieces for the wire supports in the fuse...

I haven't been back to my usual field since it has snowed but I did mow down a runway there this summer so I have a smoother surface to land on in the winter instead of having shrubbery and grass sticking up everywhere. I will go check it out today when I take it up.

I am looking forward to seeing how this new BW of yours goes together, especially the LG. Erector sets, never thought of that, brilliant idea. Why is it that you want to go bigger, is the Tundy larger then the original BW?

When you try flaps, you have to make sure you leave some throttle on, or your tail surfaces will lose lots of authority.

Yea that's what I figured, seeing how much it pitched up at half flaps in the maiden and how much elevator it needed to keep it at a level altitude makes me think that the down pressure on the elevator at landing will help make for smoother more controlled landings too. That way I am not depending on the natural tendencies of the surfaces at neutral or a stall with back pressure at a certain airspeed to land the plane, it's my input that does the landing. Does this sound about right?

 

[Grifflyer]

...Yea that's what I figured, seeing how much it pitched up at half flaps in the maiden and how much elevator it needed to keep it at a level altitude makes me think that the down pressure on the elevator at landing will help make for smoother more controlled landings too. That way I am not depending on the natural tendencies of the surfaces at neutral or a stall with back pressure at a certain airspeed to land the plane, it's my input that does the landing. Does this sound about right?

Yeah pretty much, there are some good tips in this video

 

[whackflyer]

@BATTLEAXE, the Tundy is almost 52". I figured that I could build a similar sized bushwacker that weighs the same or less then the tundra, and 120% happened to be 54" so I did that...

 

[BATTLEAXE]

I just got back from the field I frequent where there is the runway I mowed, it isn't very smooth as far as son goes, patches of grass mixed with areas of 1-2" of snow. It is a bit breezy as well so lining up the flight path for approach was difficult, even into the wind, I just need more time with it. I probably wouldn't have been able to do it with the Sportster either, which has more weight and a shorter wingspan then the BW. I will wait till later this evening to try again, maybe the wind will die down. I did do some practice on controlling the plane with half flaps, seen a little progression there, but I also saw some surprises as well. With the flaps deployed there was a noticeable reduction in roll authority even though the ailerons are full wing, probably because the flaps block 1/3rd of the control surface.

In the air I did find the for the surface area of the ailerons the roll was somewhat anemic compared to planes with shorter wingspans but the large rudder took care of that and snapped it to attention.

On my last landing/controlled crash lol, I noticed a weak spot in the TE of the wing where the elastic bands wrap over. i did use a skewer to line the TE so the bands don't tear through but area just and inch and a half ahead where the TE of the bottom plate meets the top has developed a slight fold, propping up the back of the wing. This i will reinforce with pop sticks running parallel to the center line front to back. I wish I would have foreseen this in the build before folding the wing, I could have put it on the underside so it would be hidden. Don't matter though i will use a sharpie to color it black and keep on trucking.

I did do 3 rougher landing and I will say the gear, even though it nosed over every time du to uneven terrain and lack of skill, held up really well considering. There are a couple small stress wrinkles in the side just above one LG strut but I think it is just taking up a little slack in the airframe between the skewers and the pop stick reinforcement on the inside. Any thoughts or suggestions are welcome

Stay tuned

 

[The Hangar]

I liked your flight video and I’m excited to fly mine! One tip for flaps - with the flapperons on my cub, you saw how it pitched straight up. I tried them later with no changes, but this time SUPER slow and she flew just normal. I think if you have too much speed that causes the pitching up. I’m not saying that was your problem, but I’m just passing on what I experienced. Good luck and have fun!

 

[BATTLEAXE]

but this time SUPER slow and she flew just normal.

I flew it this morning and I did some flap practice and I noticed the same thing, just a little down elevator till it slowed down and it leveled out some. The flaps pop out quick too so it is kind of expected. I think the 9x6 prop might be a bit much to maintain control. I am thinking if the prop turns to slow at that pitch it becomes ineffective causing the plane to lose to much airspeed and stall. Maybe a 10x45 will give me more resolution on the speed so I can dial it in easier with more room for error. Just a theory

 

[The Hangar]

I flew it this morning and I did some flap practice and I noticed the same thing, just a little down elevator till it slowed down and it leveled out some. The flaps pop out quick too so it is kind of expected. I think the 9x6 prop might be a bit much to maintain control. I am thinking if the prop turns to slow at that pitch it becomes ineffective causing the plane to lose to much airspeed and stall. Maybe a 10x45 will give me more resolution on the speed so I can dial it in easier with more room for error. Just a theory

On my planes I can tell a huge (good) difference when I go from the 9x5 to the 10x4.5 and also the 11x4.5 props. Just more power and response. Are your 10x4.5 props here yet? On my tx I can slow the speed down that the flaps deploy. It might be something for you to look into as it seems your DXe can do most the stuff my DX6E can do through the computer. Also, are you using an external bec? If not, what’s the size of the bec that is in your esc. I’ve heard people say that the typical esc bec’s can’t handle 6 servos...