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General control line discussion => Open Forum => Topic started by: Don Jenkins on July 10, 2017, 11:01:49 AM
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I had "junk" in the new fuel tank on the maiden flight last week and it went screaming lean after a few laps inverted, so I flipped it upright and held on with both hands. I took the back of the tank off, cleaned it and flew again today. I flew the pattern twice with great engine runs, and this is by far the best flying plane I have!! I launched with the Stalker .61 at 8000 RPM and the 4-2-4 break was awesome, a 7-minute run on 4.5 ounces of fuel, 5.2 second laps on 63 foot lines and it turns sharp in both directions without stalling. I was even flying in dead air and it pulled hard through every maneuver. I wanted to fly more but my wrist said no. I'll get out again in a few days and start practicing because it is now my primary plane. The only adjustment so far was a minor tweak of the trim tab to level the wings, otherwise its ready to go.
Don
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Good looking plane!
Our club members have had a lot of problems with tanks they have purchased - seems like there often is "crap" loose in them. My solution: either buy a tank kit from Brodaks and put it together yourself or just build the whole thing yourself.
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Good for you Don.. It looks real cool.. What did it end up weighing?
Mike
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You needed only 4.5 ounces of fuel for a Stalker .61? That is very good fuel mileage.
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Nice paint scheme.
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Did you have a filter on the engine feed line ? Happy for you on the good flight report and the new Stalker surviving the lean run. Just this past weekend I made first flights on a new Stalker 66 in my old Chevelle. If I get things sorted out will refinished the Chevelle. Its about 10 years old, dope is faded and has some hangar rash including 3 holes in covering.
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Looks good shipmate
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Great looking airplane. Sounds like a winner!
Randy Cuberly
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Glad to hear your happy with it and it flies so well.
Congratulations and tear up the sky.
Shug
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Thanks for the kind words guys! In the future I will take the backs of tanks off and check them before use. This tank also had a blob of solder partially blocking the pick up tube! Mike, it weighs 62.5 ounces. Jim, the type of fuel used can significantly change run times. I have a 6 ounce tank on my test stand and the Stalker .61 ran for 4.5 minutes with Byron fuel (10%/20% half synthetic, half castor). It ran for 9 minutes on Cool Power (5% all synthetic lube). I'm using the 5% Cool Power, but I'm adding 3 ounces of castor oil/gallon. I'll use 10% nitro (if I can find it around here, its hit and miss with the local hobby shop) if I need more power as the temperatures rise, but it seems to run great on 5% for now in 90 degree temps.
Don
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One of the reasons I do a test run of my set up before first flights. I try my best to make sure tanks are clean. One tank I had took several tries before I didn't have to tear into the plane to clean the filter. Remember to always use a filter. Even now if I think an engine run is going a little lean, I check the filter. D>K
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Hey Don, whats the silver dot on right side of cowl. If its a functional part of tank plumbing do you have any pics of how it is set up inside cowl to the tank ?
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SWEET!! I know you will do well with it. See you in Carolina.
aj
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Hey Don, whats the silver dot on right side of cowl. If its a functional part of tank plumbing do you have any pics of how it is set up inside cowl to the tank ?
Allan,
Its a fuel dot. Its actually quite simple, there is a hole in the cowl that the dot retaining body gets pushed through and a threaded collar secures it from the inside. Then I have about a 6 inch length of fuel tubing that goes from the fuel tank overflow through the hole in the cowl and the dot plugs the tubing, then the dot is pushed through the retaining body and is held in place with an O-ring. This makes it easy to fuel, pull the dot and tubing out from the cowl (about 2 inches of tubing comes out) unplug, fuel, plug, push back in. With the tank I used and the rear exhaust engine, this was the only way I could figure out how to access the fuel tank overflow when fueling. With side exhaust engines I just had a long piece of tubing that I tucked into the cowl through the bottom opening. Although I sometimes tuck it in too far and have to flip the plane over and go fishing for it. The fuel dot works better for me. I hope this answers your question. Take Care.
Don
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4.5oz of fuel per flight should be alarming. A 61 should drink at least 5.5-6oz of fuel per flight especially when you fly 7.5min. But I may be wrong.
Before any maiden flight you should ground run the motor just in case you have these bugs in the fuel system. a lean run can kill a motor pretty fast.
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Don did all the things that all of you have recommended. He ran the motor on the stand and in the plane before flying it. Many times trash in the tank will not show problems until you fly the plane as centrifugal force will bring all the trash to the pickup. Don and I had problems with prebuilt tank this last year. I always built my own until two years a ago and then the problems started with bought assembled tanks. I got Don to open his tanks now so that problem is solved. I have used Brodak kits for a long time. I will get Don over to that soon.
He is getting good solid runs with the fuel he is using now.
Ed
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Allan,
Its a fuel dot. Its actually quite simple, there is a hole in the cowl that the dot retaining body gets pushed through and a threaded collar secures it from the inside. Then I have about a 6 inch length of fuel tubing that goes from the fuel tank overflow through the hole in the cowl and the dot plugs the tubing, then the dot is pushed through the retaining body and is held in place with an O-ring. This makes it easy to fuel, pull the dot and tubing out from the cowl (about 2 inches of tubing comes out) unplug, fuel, plug, push back in. With the tank I used and the rear exhaust engine, this was the only way I could figure out how to access the fuel tank overflow when fueling. With side exhaust engines I just had a long piece of tubing that I tucked into the cowl through the bottom opening. Although I sometimes tuck it in too far and have to flip the plane over and go fishing for it. The fuel dot works better for me. I hope this answers your question. Take Care.
Don
So who makes that "Fuel Dot" ? I don't see it at Sullivan, Dubro, or Great Planes. You got a p/n ?
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4.5oz of fuel per flight should be alarming. A 61 should drink at least 5.5-6oz of fuel per flight especially when you fly 7.5min. But I may be wrong.
Before any maiden flight you should ground run the motor just in case you have these bugs in the fuel system. a lean run can kill a motor pretty fast.
I have Stalker 51 in my Olympic, ~75 flights or so. It uses 4.0 oz for the pattern, 10% nitro.
Have a new Stalker 66, recently broke in and made first flights couple of weeks ago. Tank size is 5.8 useable, I filled it up on 3rd flight and it ran 10:15 min. That equates to 4.2 oz for a 7:30 min run time. This using 5% nitro.
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So who makes that "Fuel Dot" ? I don't see it at Sullivan, Dubro, or Great Planes. You got a p/n ?
d
Central hobbies has one similar to Don's , might be a different version , but close .
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and these, PSP fuel dots, available a few places
http://www.pspmfg.com/FuelDotsRegular.html
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So who makes that "Fuel Dot" ? I don't see it at Sullivan, Dubro, or Great Planes. You got a p/n ?
Hobbyking.com, Fuel Dot Gas/Glow, SKU: 017000018, $2.29 each
Don
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Don Kieth and I flew at Huntersville today ,Friday 8:30-12:00 No wind at all just slight drift.
Don pane is trimmed very well on very few flights. Motor runs are locked in perfect. 5.1 lap time.
Here is my Bearcat ready to eat up the Vertigo. It took a year buy I now have 100% reliability on the internal muffler and the ST/46 is tuning out good power. Bearcat flies great and needs no trimming.
Ken had his beautiful Ares with totally new controls system . You would never know he cut huge holes in it to replace the controls,bellcrank and all.
Ed
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Great you guys got some fights in. Hot with humidity. Stock car races canceled because temp got 100 degrees. Didn't feel that hot with breeze we have here.
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Here are Kieth,s planes. Both front row models.
It was 98 degrees on the drive home.