pgoelz
Veteran
Location: Rochester MI
My Posts This: Topic Forum | OK, it's been a while but just the other day I decided to get serious with the 500D. Here is what I have found and where I am:
1. The wooden spacer stacks are not the stupid design I thought they were after all. I thought the design buried the attachment screws after the stacks were glued together. But I missed the fact that there are two different spacers with different sized slots. Start with the narrow slot, add enough of the wide slot spacers to get the right height, then add the bottom (wide) spacer. Done this way, you can attach the spacers to the landing gear mounting points on the chassis using the allen head screws from the original landing gear and a long allen wrench. The spacers themselves can be screwed to the floor of the fuselage also using the same kind of allen head sheet metal screws. I angled the rear screws so I could reach them with a long allen wrench.
2. I too had to mount the rear cyclic servo from the inside and use spacers to move it even farther inwards. It still contacts the inside of the fuse but it is a minor interference.
3. The tail servo and pushrod..... wow, what a PITA! I ended up mounting the servo partially inside the frame, but did it by drilling a hole in the frame and using a sheet metal screw to secure the servo. It is only held in with one screw but it is secure and solid. And the tail pushrod geometry is pretty good actually. The only issue is that ID of the fuselage boom is too small. Because of the distance between the actual boom and the tail belcrank ball, the pushrod is bent upwards where it exits the fiberglass boom. My current plan is to just live with it. I'm using a CF pushrod that is fairly flexible. I am hoping that if I make a guide for it from small diameter tubing and tape it to the aluminum boom a couple inches forward of the exit point, the pushrod will just flex and not bind too badly on the fiberglass boom casing.
4. Anyone found a better way to remove and replace the chassis? I can't figure out how to do it without disassembling the tail casing each time because you can’t remove the chassis without removing the tail case and you can’t get at the belt from the chassis end…. You have to take the tail case apart and disconnect the belt from that end.
5. The idea of using screws to attach the front of the fuselage after inserting the battery bugs me so I’ll use super magnets unless I can arrange a way to install the battery without opening the fuselage.
So that's where I am..... hung up on the tail pushrod. I think once past that, it will be ready to test fly.
It is interesting that while the fuselage was clearly designed around the Trex, there are many small details that were overlooked when it comes to actually mounting the chassis and equipment.
Paul
Paul Goelz
Rochester MI USA
http://www.pgoelz.com |
