Back to Basics

There isn't much space for anything in the front bay of the Easy Glider. I wondered about using the generously moulded "canopy" to house the receiver and satellite. After cutting away a bit of foam, things got easier. The receiver fitted without fouling anything and the satellite fitted but has a bit of one aerial stuck out of the canopy. With the electrics looking tidier, I sat a while and watched a video of the Easy Glider 4. That model is a lot different! I replayed the video a couple of times to make sure of the way the aileron servo leads are connected. The Mk 1 needs a wire hook and some nimble fingers to get the connectors through to the receiver. Not much fun on a cold day. Suitably enthused, I cut slots in the lower wing seating and fitted a pair of sockets, ran the leads through the newly cut access slot and connected them to the receiver. Then the real fun started, I re-routed the servo leads so that they exited the wing in a spot clear of the fuselage, closed the slots with the scrap foam generated during the process. I cut the leads a trifle long "just in case". Using a new plug and terminals, I tried to fit the female pins. After something like twelve failures and no amount of adjusting the crimp tool made things any better. Now one set of leads were becoming clos to being too short. I had a final "go" using a length of wire from an old JR extension lead. Apparently I hadn't lost the knack! The failures were due to the Multiplex leads being smaller in diameter, this lead to the crimp tool crushing the terminals. As a last resort, I soldered on the original connectors, ugly but effective.

The Easy Glider flies, but only just. Lack of power from the Multiplex geared motor led to some interesting moments during the first flight. The control surfaces seem to be quite powerful, and set -up with generous throws, it was all too easy to overcontrol and induce a stall. Landing was surprising, power off and gliding in, the model got to a couple of feet and wanted to stay there. The first landing attempt had the model so far down the field I had to go round again. Today I removed the motor, lubed the gearbox and put a couple of drops of contact cleaner on the motor's commutator. With the motor back in the model, a test run showed a distinct improvement in performance.

The next part of the tale of the Easy Glider should be in "Tales of Stupidity". When I pulled the original NiMh battery out of the model, I assumed it was a six cell 7.2V. I must admit I didn't really look at it. Today the awful truth came to light, the battery is in fact an eight cell 9.6V item. No wonder there was a lack of power from the 7.4V LiPo that I'd fitted to replace it. I spent an hour or so vandalising the battery stowage to enable a 3S 2200mAh LiPo to be fitted.
On test, the motor is very lively indeed on 11.1V. I ran it for about fifteen seconds. There was a distinct smell of something hot and electric. The brushed motor was quite hot, and I assumed that the coating that had formed on it during years in storage had something to do with the smell. Anyway, I'm sure the cool clear upper air of Cashmoor will provide adequate cooling. Looks as though the flight pattern will be powering to height on modest throttle, then gliding as long as practical before powering up again. I don't think going brushless will be an option due to the slim nose section of the fuselage not providing enough support for a motor mount. Perhaps a 40mm EDF in a pod on top of the fuselage would be an option? Either that or a heat sink for the motor.

Dusted off the Se 5A yesterday, finished covering the wing tip of the upper wing and completed the covering on the lower wing. Today I thought would be a good day to install and set up the receiver. Unfortunately it didn't turn out like that. The original receiver was fitted into a recess built into the lower wing centre section, bit fiddly if the wing needs to come off. I fitted a receiver tray into the fuselage so that the receiver could stick up into the existing recess. That worked out, and I carried on setting up the servos. They were rather old Fleet types, they are a bit awkward sometimes due to the square output shafts, rather limiting on adjusting the servo arm position. Throttle and elevator were OK as were the two aileron servos. The rudder proved to be a problem. The servo wouldn't centre. I'd noticed that when I first picked up the model, the rudder was jammed hard over. I spent a while removing three Fleet servos and replacing them with JR NES 591s. Elevator was good, as was the throttle. Unfortunately the rudder servo was the same as before, it wouldn't centre and there's more travel one way than the other. Now I've spent half a day and ended up exactly where I started. Looks as though the problem might be the transmitter, don't suppose I can do much about that, apart from check it out on other models. I'll try that after I've had a chocolate digestive and a cup of tea.

I am not sure about NES servos but generally most servos consider centre as a signal of 1500ua although I believe Futaba consider centre as 1520ua. 20ua would not make much difference in your case. Swap servo or check TX again, sub trims?

Thanks Phil, I finally got the servo to centre reliably using the sub-trim function. I'm not really happy with that as something has caused the transmitter to alter. Perhaps the Radio Workshop at Southampton can advise.