Forza 2.5

[Wayne]

Awesome! You are going to love that plane!

 

[Doc J]

Michael Genshiem Maidened his E-Forza. He looks like a happy camper.

Quotes Michael: "Maiden Flight of the Forza (electric fuse) at freezing temps. Love it! CG needs to go way back further. Can‘t wait for the pure glider fuse to arrive for slope soaring."

Some Video here: https://www.facebook.com/.../40116463322.../user/1186333507/

Cheers,

Doc.

 

[Grover100]

She’s now ready to fly…

radio installation is complete and the throws, mixes and curves are programmed in.

CG set at 99mm with 2 small removable additional weights to maiden at 96mm.

Final RTF weight is a 2160g.

Still weighting )) for the brass rod for the ballast to arrive though.

Martin

 

[Grover100]

Hi all,

I’m a bit worried about having the 2 antennae mounted inside the nose, as i usually take them through the fuz and into clear air.

They are mounted 90 degrees between them - 1 on the bottom, running along the seam and the second pointing upwards. The bare end sections are inside the 2 white plastic tubes. See photos…

What do you reckon?

martin

 

[Wayne]

It looks good and should be fine, but one warning, you need to make sure that the white tubes are electronically invisible. Being white, they probably are. To test take some extra tube and pop it in the microwave (with a cup of water) and run it for 15 seconds. If the tubes are warm, do not use the, they have some metal in the plastic and will reduce range.

 

[Doc J]

It looks good and should be fine, but one warning, you need to make sure that the white tubes are electronically invisible. Being white, they probably are. To test take some extra tube and pop it in the microwave (with a cup of water) and run it for 15 seconds. If the tubes are warm, do not use the, they have some metal in the plastic and will reduce range.

Thats a damn good test!

Doc.

 

[Shoelace]

It looks good and should be fine, but one warning, you need to make sure that the white tubes are electronically invisible. Being white, they probably are. To test take some extra tube and pop it in the microwave (with a cup of water) and run it for 15 seconds. If the tubes are warm, do not use the, they have some metal in the plastic and will reduce range.

Wow... The more you know...

 

[Grover100]

Great idea Wayne - 20 seconds in the microwave and all is good

I have made some lovely shiny ballast for the wings and fuselage - 2 x 144g in the wings and 6 x 90g in the fuz, giving up to 828g. Should be more than enough! Just need to make some dowel spacers for the fuz ballast. One minor tweak for the instruction manual - my wing ballast tubes are 215mm long, not 165mm. As usual, measure first before cutting.

As per my calculations, 6 x 38mm slugs works perfectly, allowing the cg to be set at 99mm and the loading slot to be in the right place within the cockpit.

Maiden should be in 3 weeks time, when I go to France. In the meantime, I’ve got a couple small jobs to complete:

- Foam spacer to keep the fuz ballast in place.
- something to protect the elevator linkage whilst in transit without the stab fitted.
- final checks/ check cg with ballast fitted. Range check, set fail safe.
- admire the good looks…

Martin

 

[Doc J]

Great idea Wayne - 20 seconds in the microwave and all is good

I have made some lovely shiny ballast for the wings and fuselage - 2 x 144g in the wings and 6 x 90g in the fuz, giving up to 828g. Should be more than enough! Just need to make some dowel spacers for the fuz ballast. One minor tweak for the instruction manual - my wing ballast tubes are 215mm long, not 165mm. As usual, measure first before cutting.

As per my calculations, 6 x 38mm slugs works perfectly, allowing the cg to be set at 99mm and the loading slot to be in the right place within the cockpit.

Maiden should be in 3 weeks time, when I go to France. In the meantime, I’ve got a couple small jobs to complete:

- Foam spacer to keep the fuz ballast in place.
- something to protect the elevator linkage whilst in transit without the stab fitted.
- final checks/ check cg with ballast fitted. Range check, set fail safe.
- admire the good looks…

Martin

View attachment 21732

Heave ho!

Doc.

 

[Grover100]

Well, she’s ready to go but the weather has been calm for weeks now

I decided to add a brace across the top of the elevator servo, just in case.



I also made a simple balsa and dowel gizmo to protect the elevator linkage whilst travelling. The two halves just push together either side of the fin, with dowels going through the joiner holes. Allows the fuselage to go into a glider transport bag without the danger of damaging anything.





Martin

 

[Wayne]

That is a good idea.

 

[Doc J]

Well, she’s ready to go but the weather has been calm for weeks now

I decided to add a brace across the top of the elevator servo, just in case.

View attachment 21875

I also made a simple balsa and dowel gizmo to protect the elevator linkage whilst travelling. The two halves just push together either side of the fin, with dowels going through the joiner holes. Allows the fuselage to go into a glider transport bag without the danger of damaging anything.

View attachment 21876

View attachment 21877

Martin

Nice one, Martin!

Good luck for the Maiden.

Please post pics,

Cheers,

Doc.

 

[Outlander51]

Hello to all. Can't really remember how I found out about the Forza but once I discovered it I had to have it. This is a step-up from my X-Ray that I bought off Wayne a few years ago when I visited Aloft and no doubt it will provide the next level of adrenalin and satisfaction that I'm after. The only problem is I'm not the most accomplished composite builder and a few parts of this build are causing me to scratch my head. So if anyone can help me iron these little dilemmas out you'll put me that much closer to a maiden. So many thanks in advance.

So for now, the first head scratcher is the note in the instructions of the rotation of the aileron servo arm 2 clicks towards the TE. My servo arms are at a 5mm radius which I'm assuming is the distance from the center of the arm to pushrod hole and I've rotated the servo arm 2 clicks or splines towards the TE. However this takes a lot of the throw out of my push rod which now seems to rotate beyond a point at which it can provide additional movement to the aileron surface (it almost makes the aileron surface come back a bit in the wrong direction). Have I understood the instructions correctly or by moving it 2 clicks are the instructions referring to subtrim (if it were subtrim it would all seem to work)?

My next question is about the length of the pushrod. How long should it be all up including the clevices or is that up to me so long as both aileron pushrods are the same length?

Also when I try to attach my clevises to the aileron horn I've ended up over opening them whilst trying to attach them because the horn is so wide. They now won't close properly. Is there some sort of a trick to this? I note that the horns are so wide that I can't use a 2/56 clevise which I have many of.

Apologies for these inexperienced questions guys but some help and direction would be helpful.

Myles

 

[Red]

Hello to all. Can't really remember how I found out about the Forza but once I discovered it I had to have it. This is a step-up from my X-Ray that I bought off Wayne a few years ago when I visited Aloft and no doubt it will provide the next level of adrenalin and satisfaction that I'm after. The only problem is I'm not the most accomplished composite builder and a few parts of this build are causing me to scratch my head. So if anyone can help me iron these little dilemmas out you'll put me that much closer to a maiden. So many thanks in advance.

So for now, the first head scratcher is the note in the instructions of the rotation of the aileron servo arm 2 clicks towards the TE. My servo arms are at a 5mm radius which I'm assuming is the distance from the center of the arm to pushrod hole and I've rotated the servo arm 2 clicks or splines towards the TE. However this takes a lot of the throw out of my push rod which now seems to rotate beyond a point at which it can provide additional movement to the aileron surface (it almost makes the aileron surface come back a bit in the wrong direction). Have I understood the instructions correctly or by moving it 2 clicks are the instructions referring to subtrim (if it were subtrim it would all seem to work)?

My next question is about the length of the pushrod. How long should it be all up including the clevices or is that up to me so long as both aileron pushrods are the same length?

Also when I try to attach my clevises to the aileron horn I've ended up over opening them whilst trying to attach them because the horn is so wide. They now won't close properly. Is there some sort of a trick to this? I note that the horns are so wide that I can't use a 2/56 clevise which I have many of.

Apologies for these inexperienced questions guys but some help and direction would be helpful.

Myles

Hi Myles,

By moving the servo arm a couple clicks (splines) aft you are setting the proper linkage geometry. Ideally the angle should be as close to 90 degrees between the servo horn and pushrod as possible. This also helps prevent the clevis (if you are using one) from binding on the servo output shaft. The pushrod length should also be adjusted accordingly so that when the horn is adjusted 2 clicks towards the TE, the aileron stays centered. Do not do this with sub trim, physically remove the horn from the servo, leave it centered and move it one or two splines. This is done before the linkage is made, not after. So if you imagine your servo horn pointed towards the bottom of the wing with the pushrod angled up to the top of the wing to the control horn that should make sense, as close to 90 degrees at both ends as possible. There is a good drawing floating around, I'll se if I can find it and attach it here. Wayne also carries Tomas Liu Studio clevis that has a relief cut out in them to clear the servo output shaft if you are running into that issue.

Pushrods should be trimmed by you to the correct length to center the control surface after you have;
a. centered the servo
b. rotated the servo arm towards the TE (by physically removing the arm from the servo and repositioning - not sub trim)
c. use sub trim only after you have run out of mechanical thread to adjust center of the surface, or to make left and right side servo horn position match exactly.

As for the clevis being too wide you have a couple options. You can gently squeeze the base with needle nose pliers to bend back, or make a keep by cutting a sliver of fuel or other tubing to slide over the clevis to hold it closed. On my Aeroic models I like to use Tomas Liu Studio hardware which the horns are too wide for, in that case I use a Dremel tool and a flat file to carefully narrow down the control horn. A bit of work but makes things much easier in the end in my opinion.

Red

Please any more questions feel free to reach out.

 

[Doc J]

Another E-Forza maiden in Europe from Markus Thewes - slope video coming soon, I'm told.

 

[Outlander51]

Hi Myles,

By moving the servo arm a couple clicks (splines) aft you are setting the proper linkage geometry. Ideally the angle should be as close to 90 degrees between the servo horn and pushrod as possible. This also helps prevent the clevis (if you are using one) from binding on the servo output shaft. The pushrod length should also be adjusted accordingly so that when the horn is adjusted 2 clicks towards the TE, the aileron stays centered. Do not do this with sub trim, physically remove the horn from the servo, leave it centered and move it one or two splines. This is done before the linkage is made, not after. So if you imagine your servo horn pointed towards the bottom of the wing with the pushrod angled up to the top of the wing to the control horn that should make sense, as close to 90 degrees at both ends as possible. There is a good drawing floating around, I'll se if I can find it and attach it here. Wayne also carries Tomas Liu Studio clevis that has a relief cut out in them to clear the servo output shaft if you are running into that issue.

Pushrods should be trimmed by you to the correct length to center the control surface after you have;
a. centered the servo
b. rotated the servo arm towards the TE (by physically removing the arm from the servo and repositioning - not sub trim)
c. use sub trim only after you have run out of mechanical thread to adjust center of the surface, or to make left and right side servo horn position match exactly.

As for the clevis being too wide you have a couple options. You can gently squeeze the base with needle nose pliers to bend back, or make a keep by cutting a sliver of fuel or other tubing to slide over the clevis to hold it closed. On my Aeroic models I like to use Tomas Liu Studio hardware which the horns are too wide for, in that case I use a Dremel tool and a flat file to carefully narrow down the control horn. A bit of work but makes things much easier in the end in my opinion.

Red

Please any more questions feel free to reach out.

Red,

Thanks very much for your advice. I’ll work through it over the next week to get the ailerons installed. I’m using KST HS08A servos for my ailerons. I wonder, does it make any difference how long the push rods are or do they move the control surfaces the same same amount regardless of length? I only ask so that I can manage the placement of the servo in the bay in case it has an effect. Also where the instructions talk about linear movement of the aileron and flap servos what does this actually mean and how or where l do I measure this?

 

[Outlander51]

Head scratching!! Here is what my servo arm position will look like 2 splines back towards the trailing edge. Hmmm if I were to apply right aileron the horn would rotate towards the top of the wing and past a position where it would actually move the aileron surface in the desired direction. In fact it might even end up bringing it back the other way… perhaps I should reduce the servo end positions from 150 to 100%??

 

[Outlander51]

Other Angles

 

[Hill Hobbit]

Hi Myles, I’m pretty sure the recommended 2 splines round is for a servo with much finer (smaller) splines. Your servos have quite coarse splines, so I’m pretty sure 1 spline round will do.

 

[Red]

Red,

Thanks very much for your advice. I’ll work through it over the next week to get the ailerons installed. I’m using KST HS08A servos for my ailerons. I wonder, does it make any difference how long the push rods are or do they move the control surfaces the same same amount regardless of length? I only ask so that I can manage the placement of the servo in the bay in case it has an effect. Also where the instructions talk about linear movement of the aileron and flap servos what does this actually mean and how or where l do I measure this?

Pushrod length differences will have only a very slight effect on throw left to right, not enough to fret about in this instance. Just try to get left and right arms centered as closely to each others mechanically (you might have to try several arms) before you resort to sub trim. By linear movement it means that the pushrod will have to move back and forth by that amount to get the amount of surface angle required for the ailerons and the flaps. Hill Hobbit is correct about the spline count as well, I'd heed his advice.

Red