Swap meet score???

[Frugalone]

Saita FA-65, P51, Futaba 72mhz radios. Owner claimed it was flown once in 1994 and it was too fast for him. The story goes that they clocked at 100+ mph.

040 trainer ??? 6 channel Airtronics 72 mhz radios. Last flown in the mid 90's.

I am very new to hobby and still learning to fly the electric foamies. I saw these at the end of a swap meet and the guy was not going to bring anything back home. He made me a package deal of these 2 planes and several boxes of misc. parts.

Obviously I am not going attempt to fly either one of these until I gain some experience but I really enjoy tinkering. Both the engines were seized from 20 years of storage. I have been able to free them both and would like to test the radios and get them running. I don't want to spend a bunch of money on batteries for the receivers knowing that they won't be flown for some time.

Has any one used a 2 cell LiPo with a BEC for receiver power?

 

[roversgonemad]

I run a 2S lipo with a BEC all the time in glow planes. I would either run two 500mah in parallel, or one 1000mah. Never had an issue. On a .40 size plane with four standard servos I get 20+ flights!

 

[Frugalone]

Thank you! I have an excess of 2s lipo's and was quite proud of myself that I thought of it. So much for thinking I had an original idea. �� Like I mentioned, I am really green!

Now to order a BEC, pick up some fuel and see if this old equipment is any good! The trainer came with a set of snow skis and pontoons. Hopefully by this winter I will have enough flight expeience to get out on the frozen lakes here.

 

[Frugalone]

I run a 2S lipo with a BEC all the time in glow planes. I would either run two 500mah in parallel, or one 1000mah. Never had an issue. On a .40 size plane with four standard servos I get 20+ flights!

Do you use a battery switch or take off the wing to diconnect the battery?

 

[fixnfly]

If you have any spare small ESC's with a built in BEC you could use that also. Be sure to put some work some 3 in 1 oil or after run oil through the carb and in the cylinder before you go trying to start the engine. It is also good to store engines after being oiled.

 

[tmack]

I'm not sure if that P51 goes 100 mph. It's fast and as a low wing not a trainer. If you have a Spektrum radio, go to eBay and pick up an AR6100e. I got a few at $5.69 each. Set dual rates and expo for that high wing trainer and get it in the air. I would not let that trainer sit around un used.

 

[Frugalone]

I have a DX6i radio for my other foamies but planned on using the radios that came with the plane. No spare ESC's laying around right now. I may need to go crash something!

The trainer will be flying soon. Looking forward to flying on the frozen lakes this winter!

Will the ar6100e handle the analog servos? Didnt want spend much on these right now. Like I mentioned, I am green and still learning.

Speed of P51 doesnt matter, it is just a really cool plane! The guy I bought these from claimed to have been flying for 40+ years and was full of really great stories. The motors were stuck but it didnt take much effort to get them moving again. Carbs were a bit tricky did eventually yield. Lots of WD-40 and even more patience. There were several bottles of after run oil in the boxes of stuff and both motors have really good compression. I believe the previous owner took really good care of his things.

 

[Mytmerc83]

I would double check the bearings, most times after sitting for long periods the bearing become pitted due to the nitro water absorption quality. Pull the prop and glow plug spin the motor over with two fingers slowly if you feel any rough spots the bearing is bad. You of course can run with a bad bearing, you will be down on power and if it the bearing comes apart it usually takes out the case. But it will run. So check them first then fly the heck out of them. I would pick up a foamy war bird or find someone you can buddy box with that flys war birds they tend to have bad tip stall and need to be flown in to land, little different than most planes. I'm a 3d guy all the way but war birds do look cool on fly by's.

 

[PsyBorg]

With coming from a nitro car / truck background I would HIGHLY suggest you check them motors out thoroughly before even thinking of putting them in the air. To be honest I would say get rebuild kits for them that have new bearings for the crank, piston, and possibly a new sleeve as I am nearly positive if you remove the jug you will see a nice pitted ring or some sort of scoring where the piston can catch and possibly snap a wrist pin. At the very least more then likely them seals are probably dried up and shrunk since back then I believe they were still using shellac to seal them.

IF you feel confident they wont grind themselves apart and want to risk using them in the air you should at the very least stress test them on a bench mount after a few tanks of fuel have been run thru them to reshape and seat everything as well as a good re tuning.

 

[roversgonemad]

I ran it through the receiver switch. I'd leave the BEC powered while the wing was on, but shut off power to the receiver when not flying. It never seemed to drain it much when the receiver was off.

 

[Frugalone]

I would double check the bearings, most times after sitting for long periods the bearing become pitted due to the nitro water absorption quality. Pull the prop and glow plug spin the motor over with two fingers slowly if you feel any rough spots the bearing is bad. You of course can run with a bad bearing, you will be down on power and if it the bearing comes apart it usually takes out the case. But it will run. So check them first then fly the heck out of them. I would pick up a foamy war bird or find someone you can buddy box with that flys war birds they tend to have bad tip stall and need to be flown in to land, little different than most planes. I'm a 3d guy all the way but war birds do look cool on fly by's.

I had the plugs out to free things up. Both turn over easily and feel really smooth. I have no reason to believe there is a problem but will tear them down if you think it best.

Good idea on the foamy war birds! I would be sick if I wrecked this one.

I have buddies with flight experience but they all fly new computerized radios. They have plugged into my DX6i and helped a ton but are little help with the nitro and old radios. Finding a 72mhz buddy box cable could be a challenge. Would I be better suited converting the receiver? I like the idea of flying the old school radios.

 

[Frugalone]

With coming from a nitro car / truck background I would HIGHLY suggest you check them motors out thoroughly before even thinking of putting them in the air. To be honest I would say get rebuild kits for them that have new bearings for the crank, piston, and possibly a new sleeve as I am nearly positive if you remove the jug you will see a nice pitted ring or some sort of scoring where the piston can catch and possibly snap a wrist pin. At the very least more then likely them seals are probably dried up and shrunk since back then I believe they were still using shellac to seal them.

IF you feel confident they wont grind themselves apart and want to risk using them in the air you should at the very least stress test them on a bench mount after a few tanks of fuel have been run thru them to reshape and seat everything as well as a good re tuning.

Thank you! Both motors feel good but I will dig deeper. I have several motor mounts in the box of extra goodies and thought of running these on a test stand anyway. Can you recommend a good source for engine parts? Repair manuals? The thought of tearing down a tiny 4 stroke sounds like fun as my last engine rebuild was 1954 John Deere tractor!

 

[mjmccarron]

The Saito is a little tricky to get just right but Horizon has parts as well as several sellers on eBay. I have a book somewhere on overhauling saito's and in fact, I recently did a FA-65. It's a great engine. What is the other engine in question?

If I can find my book I'll scan the important pages for you.

Good luck,
Mike

 

[Mytmerc83]

Frugalone if it was me I'd convert them to a new 2.4 RX of your choice. Don't get me wrong I still fly a couple of my older nitros on 72s but the chance of interference is high in today's world. For the cost of lemon or spectrum RX why not. In early summer I picked up an rc lot, had 4 planes three tool boxes and two cardboard boxes of odds and ends. A couple of the nitros where in very similar shape to yours, the one plane had a os 46 ax newer motor!! The carb was gummed closed, but spun over ok pulled it down needed bearings bad. But then again the saito 125 that had a stuck valve fired right up and still flys the heck out of the sons showtime. So up to you but I second the running on a test stand before in the air, dead sticks suck!! Good luck.

 

[PsyBorg]

I am not sure on that particular motor. I always had OS engines in my air frames and Ofna's on my Cars and trucks. They are all pretty much the same. Its just specific sizes of things like seals and bearings as well as multiple sleeve types for different performance characteristics.

I would go with MJ and check his suggestions to start. I am sure at this point someone somewhere has done a rebuild video on these. If not your specific one a video to use for reference at the very least for what is involved.

 

[PsyBorg]

Well that's a first.. double post from lag..