Arcfyre

Elite member
I looked up your motor, and some "back of the napkin" math says that your power setup should be adequate. You may try a 6x5 or 6x6 prop, looks like your motor can handle it and it may increase your thrust a bit.

To check your motor shaft straightness, remove the prop. Then line the motor up over a straight edge (like the edge of a table) and spin it at max power. Eye the shaft relative to your straight edge. The shaft, if straight, should basically look like it's not moving at all relative to the edge of the table. The only clue that it's moving should be the sound of the motor spinning. If it wobbles at all, you will be able to see it, as the shaft will appear to grow larger in diameter as it spins quickly. This would indicate a bent shaft.

Now with the prop back on, you should not feel any vibration in the fuselage when adding power. Wind noise from the prop biting the air is normal, but a loud buzzing or rattling noise would indicate a bent shaft or damaged prop adapter. You can also check the plane of the prop in a similar way to the test above with the bare motor shaft, but be careful and wear eye protection. When viewed from the side, the spinning prop should appear as a basically flat, tapered disk, thickest in the middle and thinning towards the tips. If it looks more like a figure 8, you have a bent motor.

2/3 power should be enough for takeoff and a steady climb. At that power, holding the plane up ready to throw, it should feel almost like you could just let go and it would fly. Try a shallower climb out to build airspeed before turning, and avoid if possible making turns until you have achieved flying speed and have some energy in reserve. Keep in mind also that the heavier an airplane is, the faster it will need to fly to avoid a stall. The more repairs an airplane has seen, generally the heavier it is. That glob of hot glue may not seem like that much, but the smaller airplanes especially are very sensitive to weight.
 

mayan

Legendary member
WOW Arcfyre thanks for all that info I’ll be checking it out today after I drop the kids off at school.
 
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mayan

Legendary member
Me happy because I found a better place to go practice flying it’s on the border line of the city in which I live and next to the crop fields I mentioned in one of my earlier posts. I did get a chance to go practice today as planned but had to cut the day short cause the motor screws came loose and I didn’t have a screw driver to screw them back into place :(, considering the fact that I only had 30 mins before I’d have to pick up my daughter from school. Fixed that up a few moments ago as well as re-enforced the power pod nose again. While my son was helping me examine the “CRAP” I have come to see that the rudder and elevator part of the fuselage broke and I did manage to fix that too, so I can go practice flying again tomorrow too :D. I do have question though because while practicing today I find myself coming back to the same problem that makes me crash the plane. While trying to gain altitude the plane takes a dive to the right (like you can see on many of the videos I posted yesterday) and when trying to get it back to a stable straight line it starts to dive faster and I can’t stablize it to gain more altitude. I guess I might be cutting down the throttle when it happens which gives me no chance to get it back up to altitude but I am not certain about that. Any suggestions as to how I can figure out this issue? Also if the plane takes a dive to the right should I take the rudder to the left or to the right? Assuming that if I move the gimble to the right the rudder turns right and if I move it to the left it moves to the left.

As always all feedback / questions are welcome hoping that this learning process thread will help newbies like me learn to build better and fly better.
 

Arcfyre

Elite member
I assume that since your TT is built as a three channel, you have the rudder servo wired into the aileron slot on your receiver. This setup would mean that your throttle would be on the left stick, and your elevator and rudder would be on the right. Another way to think of it is that your left stick controls speed, and your right stick controls direction.

Before we address your issue, lets make sure your controls are correctly oriented. Set the plane in front of you on the floor on its belly, with the tail closest to you and the prop furthest away. Looking at the plane from above, moving your right control stick to the right should make your rudder deflect towards the right wing. Pulling back on the right stick should make the back end of the elevator move upwards. Your left stick should control the throttle.

Assuming that those settings are correct, when your plane begins to dive and turn to the right, your corrective action should be to apply LEFT rudder and UP aileron. These inputs would be made by moving your right stick back towards you for UP and to the left for LEFT.

Hope this helps
 

mayan

Legendary member
I actually have the rudder on the left stick along side with the throtle which might be the reason why I am having troublecontrolling and fixing the direction of the plane during the dive. I can't recall how the rudder works in terms of directions when moving the stick with the tail being in closests to me and I am at work so I'll be able to check that only when I finish my shift in about 5 hours. Will keep you posted about that. Another question that came to mind in the mean time, is there a way to check that the motor is giving max power, meaning that the ESC and tranmistter have been successfully calibrated?
 

cranialrectosis

Faster than a speeding face plant!
Mentor
I run an emax 1806 with 5030X3 or 6045s with a 1300mAh 3s lipo and have plenty of go at 1,920 meters above sea level. Arcfyre is correct. Your power plant is sufficient.

I suspect your ailerons or rudder are reversed in your transmitter.

If there is any confusion from Arcfyre's instructions, make a short video taken from the rear of the plane showing the transmitter and the flight controls so that when you move your rudder control we can see both your sticks and the rudder move. Do this for all flight control surfaces you are running. Let us see it for ourselves.


The only way I know of to know if an ESC is calibrated is to calibrate it. :)

Don't forget to take the props off before attaching a lipo for testing purposes.
 

mayan

Legendary member
Like always thanks for all the information. I'll be sure to do the testing and post about it right after get back from work and have droped off the kids at school.
 

Hai-Lee

Old and Bold RC PILOT
It might be a silly question but I will ask it anyway! When you look at the motor from the front of the plane and apply a little throttle does it rotate clockwise or counter-clockwise? It makes a great deal of difference because the standard kit or plans are designed for use with a motor that spins counter-clockwise. If your motor is spinning clockwise in order to give proper thrust direction then you should remove the powerpod and refit it upside down.

The powerpod has an angled firewall to compensate for the propeller wash and its tendency to push the rudder/fin sideways. Without the side thrust angle on the powerpod a CCW motor rotation with try to turn the plane left and a CW motor rotation will try to turn the plane right!

Silly question is over now!

Have fun!
 

mayan

Legendary member
It might be a silly question but I will ask it anyway! When you look at the motor from the front of the plane and apply a little throttle does it rotate clockwise or counter-clockwise?
It's not a silly question at all. Looking at the motor from the front it is spinning CCW, and the firewall does have an slight angle. :)
 

Hai-Lee

Old and Bold RC PILOT
It's not a silly question at all. Looking at the motor from the front it is spinning CCW, and the firewall does have an slight angle. :)
Just as it should! The angle should point the motor to the right, (in the direction of travel viewed from the top)! If it does then the motor thrust angle is not your problem!

Have fun!
 

mayan

Legendary member
Just got home from work. Have to take the kids to school and soon after that will post a video showing the rudder and elevator movement based on the transmitter stick movements.
 

mayan

Legendary member
Hey all. After finishing the stuff I had to do this morning and right before I go rest after my night shift here are the videos.

Motor:
6F8EBF7C-9875-443B-84DF-E21CDA298F62.jpeg



Rudder and Evalvator:

Looking forward to your feedbacks :)
 

mayan

Legendary member
Thanks. Although I am with very little sleep after my night shift yesterday I hope to be able to go practice some more today. Will keep you all posted on how it went.
 

Arcfyre

Elite member
Glad we figured out that the rudder is reversed! You may find it easier to fly if you plug your rudder servo into the aileron channel on your RX. This would set it up so that you can move all your control surfaces with your right thumb. The choice is yours obviously, but I found it easier to fly this way.

In other news I may put together a TT in the next few days when I have some free time. Maybe then I can give a little more input based on actual experience with the model. I'm headed to work myself, but I look forward to seeing if the results of your next practice flight.
 

cranialrectosis

Faster than a speeding face plant!
Mentor
That'll do it every time.

The more you tell it to turn left, the harder to the right she turns. Maddening isn't it?

Good luck today. I hope the breeze is calm and your TT flies straight and true.
 

mayan

Legendary member
Had an exhausting day plus it’s getting dark so I won’t be going to practice today. I’ll try to go tomorrow but probably will have to wait till Friday when the kids are at school. Will keep you all posted how things go when I get a chance to go practicing again. I am really waiting for the day I’ll be able to post a video of me flying the plane rather than crashing it :).