Lost Plane at TEMAC - Found and replaced

gordonbw · July 01, 2006, 04:45:03 PM

My Sig LT-25 is on the ground, probably in many pieces, somewhere east of TEMAC. I believe it is on the far side of the road in the woods past the tree line. Michael R. and I spent about 45 minutes bushwacking for it this afternoon, to no avail -- how can such a big plane vanish so completely?

Anyway it would be nice to get the expensive bits back, and I'll generously reward any TEMAC member (or anyone else for that matter) who locates it. The plane has a sticker with my contact information on it.

Dolefully yours,

Gordon

Michael · July 02, 2006, 10:05:49 AM

Despite the Weather channel (and its website) indicating a SW 10km wind for the area yesterday, the wind was coming directly from the west, and causing serious down-drafts and thermals as it gusted in over the trees. It was trecherous flying and landing for Gordon and me.

I probably won't go fly today as I'll be doing minor repairs. Tomorrow, (Monday) if the weather is better, I'll go out to fly, and continiue looking for Gordon's plane.

Michael

gordonbw · September 17, 2006, 08:45:39 PM

It's Baaaaaack!

The LT-25 was found yesterday by one of the neighbours, narrowly escaping the threshing machine. Thanks to Glenn and Nestor for alerting me.

The airframe is a writeoff, mainly because of exposure to the elements. Damage from the landing in July was minimal. (I had asked permission back then to search the field where it was found, and was denied because of concerns about trampling the crop.)

The 3s Lipo battery shows 4.1 volts per cell.

The Axi 2826 motor has some superficial corrosion on the case. Inside looks clean.

The receiver, esc, bec and Liposaver all look OK.

A couple of the servos look a little dicey from corrosion.

I'm going to give all the components a thorough going-over, but I'm optimistic that most are salvageable.

rkhoo · September 18, 2006, 10:48:27 AM

Glad to hear your LT is back.

gordonbw · September 26, 2006, 11:13:59 PM

All the equipment from the LT has checked out fine. Most of the bits have now been installed in an old Sig 4*40 that I bought from Alex Lee earlier this year. The provenance on this airframe is kind of interesting -- it was originally built by Andre W's dad Eric.

The 4*40 weighs 4 lbs. 4 oz fully loaded. With a 12.5" prop and a 3s lipo it's drawing 35 amps and putting out just over 300 watts. I am hoping that Andre or Glenn will be around to help me try it out on Thanksgiving weekend (I'm going away this weekend).

Gordon Braun-Woodbury
"How on earth do I land this thing?"

Ex14th · September 28, 2006, 09:41:29 AM

Gord,

You should be fine flying it yourself - I have full confidence on you. The 4-40 is a xxxxycat (being political correct here, afterall, this is a public forum) and it was purpose-built by Eric for electric, so you should be ok, but then, you made a very good choice in asking Glenn to maiden it if you so inclined.

In the meantime, I am still putt putt with my slimmy stuffs -that's a general term referring to gas models by the purists. My planes however, no wipe down after flights with the Amsol 100:1 and 93 Octane gas mix on the DA150. Ooops, sorry, forgot this is an electric forum.

gordonbw · September 28, 2006, 07:41:01 PM

Interesting that Eric built it for electric. I was expecting an AUW of around 5 pounds, and was pleasantly surprised that it's closer to 4. Reflects the excellent skills of the builder, I guess.

Anyway, Alex, it's really nice to hear that you have full confidence in my abilities. Unfortunately the record shows otherwise [

]. I'll make sure I have expert supervision available before I maiden it.

- Gordon

gordonbw · October 04, 2006, 11:50:11 AM

4*40 update....

The plane was maidened successfully on Sunday, October 1, with Glenn's help (thanks buddy!). I think it needs a little more power to be really comfortable.

I did some bench testing with different props last night and got some interesting results. The MA 12.5 x 8" prop I was using draws 35 amps and produces 290 watts. When I switched to an APC 13x8, the amps dropped to 31 and the watts increased to 310. I've heard that MA props are not always the best; this seems to confirm it.

I plan to try a couple of alternatives:

- parallel the Lipo pack and increase the prop size to 14".
- use 12 NiCD cells and decrease the prop size to 11"

We'll see what works best.

Gordon Braun-Woodbury
"How on earth do I land this thing?"