The ship is now complete but I am waiting on a new HobbyStar 2814 - 950kV motor. This will be about 2.5 ish oz. lighter then the HobbyStar 2820 -1000kV and similar to what others are using in Ringmasters. I received the TP 5S 1350mah battery packs and this should save another 2.5oz over the 4S  22000mah. All up I expect to be around the 31 oz. mark ready to fly. One thing I added was a strip of clear vinyl over the first open bay next to the battery area. This is to protect the silkspan from a battery lead smacking against it and popping through. Hope the motor gets here around Christmas week and I should be able to start test flights.

Best,   DennisT

The ship is complete and I thought ready to go but when I put the ship on the storage rake in the shop I got a look at the wing trailing edge and saw the outboard wing had a warp. I had just completed all the ground checks and the 5S  1350 mah TP pack worked great with the HoppyStar 2814   920 kV motor. I have the CC ESC set for fixed rpm of 11K (this is the minimum the ESC will go in governing mode) in control line mode with all the settings on medium. I found a RC Timer carbon fiber 10x5 prop that give a ground amp load of 16 which should be around 14 or less in the air. That was a gold to make the 5 minute flight time with the 1350 mah capacity.

So finding the warp I set up a jig and weights and set the ship in place, did the heat, soak, heat again and put it in place with the weights on the trailing edge. It has a little twist past the point of straight. I will be re-heating a few time over a couple days and hopefully this will get the wing straight, if not I will add a tab.

Best,    DennisT

Today I finally got the lap time to 4.9 sec, with a 9x6 APCE depitched to 5.5, with the 11K rpm. So far the use of the 5S  1350mah pack with the 2814  910kV HobbyStar motor has worked well now that I have the right prop. Next, will add flight time and sneak up on the full flight time of 4m 50sec for OTS and keep a check on motor and ESC temperature.

Best,    DennisT

Today I got in a few test flights with the forward battery and trim wedge. The forward battery got the CG moved to 1 3/4" back from the leading edge. The trim wedge worked well but it needs a little more thickness as once I flipped it over in a lazy eight it got a bit soft. The wedge is like a trim tab but is simply a section of trailing edge stock turned around and put on the bottom of the wing panel that needs lift. I first saw this used on gliders and it is very neat way of doing this.

Best,    DennisT

Well my rescue Ringmaster has just become the "6 Million Dollar" Ringmaster. Was out doing a feel out flight and doing quit well. Finally got the pitch (10x6.7) right to get the lap time at 4.6. All felt good, wings were level, new BadAss 2320  820kV with a 5S  1350mah pack. Then it happened. While performing a vertical 8 the upper outside loop was a bit big and I felt there wasn't enough air to complete the inside, so I held the down climbed a bit then went to complete bottom loop and boom! I got a little up wind and a gust hit it in just as it got to the 5 o'clock point and lost tension and boom.

That was the bad news, fortunately the damage was mostly to the fuse. All the rest of parts were easy to fix, one little tear in one panel of the wing. So I can rebuilt it better!!! After looking at the fuse I decided I would need to build a new one. Turns out this part was really heavy at 5+ oz. So the goal is to drop at least 4 oz off the old 36oz flying weight. The new fuse is cut out and getting ready to do the motor mount which will be a lot lighter then the old IC conversion.

Also steamed out the twist in the outside wing. I had tried using a heat gun but that didn't work. Today I used a simple old tea kettle with steam out the spout. I did the steam think and jigged it up. I had it weighted for 5 hrs and needed to move to a new location, DAM it worked!! I didn't think it would do anything that the heat gun didn't do but I was WRONG, steam works, don't really know why but it does.
 

Best,   DennisT

DAM it worked!! I didn't think it would do anything that the heat gun didn't do but I was WRONG, steam works, don't really know why but it does.
 Best,   DennisT

Relaxes the grain in the balsa.  When it dries it will stay where it was wet.  Just like molding stays molded.  We used to call that taking the "Girr Out".

Ken