Rebuilding a Kyosho Valencia 1800 power glider.

[Frank v B]

This was from the first Pilots Meeting when Roger had a neighbour donate an old Kyosho Valencia to Temac.   My job is to re-build it and put it on a diet.

From the post of the first Pilots Meeting:

Took the whole plane apart and weighed the parts:

bare fuse- 9.0 oz.
motor and wiring harness 8.1 oz.
1 RX, 1 switch harness)- 9.2 oz
battery pack (6 cell, 7.2 volts, 1200 mah)- 10.5 oz.

Have stripped everything out including the battery tray, servo tray (plywood), landing gear aluminum plate.

Note how the fuse is cracked about 3/4 of the way through at about the CG point.

Now for the re-build to see how much weight can be shed from the original weight of  53.2 oz.

Frank

[Frank v B]

Step 1- repair the cracks in the fuselage.

When re-building I always glue the parts together so everything aligns properly then strengthen it.

Glued 3/8 square balsa on either side of the cockpit to strengthen the breaks.  Used 5 minute epoxy (what else?).  When dry, I will add carbon veil inside the fuselage to cover the break.

Photo 43 - shows the severe cracks in the fuselage
Photo 44 - balsa glued and clamped in place.

Frank

[Frank v B]

Bracing the landing gear mount.  There is a crack in the fuse there as well so it does double duty.  One layer of good 1/16" plywood and one layer of 3/32 lite ply.
Yes, epoxied in place.

Frank

[Frank v B]

Well that did not work.  The glue did not hold onto the plastic so had to revisit this one.

Found the instructions and discovered the hole in the bottom was not for air but it was the missing landing gear mount.  The owner screwed the landing gear farther back after a crash.  Made a plywood plate to straddle this hole so it could be screwed in from the bottom using existing holes.

Frank

[Frank v B]

Installing the motor:

step 1- make pieces for the motor mount.  It had to come out of the firewall by exactly 1 inch - photo 49
step 2- add plywood to cover the hole in the firewall.  photo 51- glued in place
step 3- glue the pieces together and install screw the motor onto it.  photo 52
step 4- put epoxy to the back of the motor mount and the face of the firewall.  photo 53
step 5- roughly put the motor in place, add the cowl and slide the motor over until it sits in the centre of the hole in the cowl and let dry. photo 54

Motor is in place and curing overnight.

Frank

[GuyOReilly]

Looking great, should fly great too!

[Frank v B]

Thanks Guy.

Gotta keep going......
- attached the motor
- installed the two servos
- connected the 25 amp ESC
- installed the pushrods
- installed the cowl
- replaced the rudder control horn.  It was too short in my opinion so I installed a longer one so the angle was better.

The stabilizer was a problem.  The center piece had come loose.  I drilled a 1/16" hole, inserted glue and pushed in a piece of wire to help strengthen the joint.  Clipped the wire after the glue dried.  Yep.  5 minute epoxy.

Frank

[Frank v B]

Forgot to post my handy-dandy ESC wire fishing rod to pull the ESC wires through the firewall.

Soldered a bullet connector to a piece of piano wire.  I feed it through the firewall, connect it to one ESC wire at a time and pull all 3 through.

Frank

[Frank v B]

Final steps
- the stab was missing the red plastic tip.  Fashioned one out of balsa and covered it with red covering.  Photo 85.  The new tip is visible in photo 86 (port side).
- fuse with canopy in place (no fasteners yet).


.... and now for the final weigh-in:

Original model with brushed motor, full size servos  1200 mah Nicad batteries....   53.2 oz
New updated model with brushless motor, micro servos and 3 cell 1200 mah lipo   32.6 oz

Total weight saving 20.6 oz or 39%.  It will be a different airplane!!  Oh, yes.... almost forgot- double the power

DONE!

Frank