Garthwood

Pilot kit loadstar ????? We are mostly metric in Canada, but I'm familiary with both measurements. Good luck with your build.

Charles.

ir

we are metric as well but I still think in inches.

Loadstar.... an old kit from the 80s.

baldrick

I have a 1/4 scale MA-5 Charger with a ST3000. Wouldn't swap it for a 4 stroke at all. It has a home made stack and sounds nice.
What ever engine I select will be an O.S. I'll be having 7 servo's on flight controlls and 2 batteries so CG shouldn't be a problem to sort out. It's going to be about 6 months before I start her as wife has given me the hard word to finish a few other projects first.

slam beach

Can anyone tell me what (if anything)needs to be re-inforced to install aluminum/carbon gear on a goldberg ultimate,I am bending out the stock wire gear,and want to switch to carbon gear.

baldrick

Depending on the width of the gear I would apply a fillet of epoxy and carbon strands (not tow or matt) around the original uc mounting blocks.

tuwood

I just took a piece of plywood & cut it to fit between the two fuse halves where the normal wire gear would go.
I didn't reinforce anything, but it probably wouldn't hurt to put some glass on the inside of your LG mounting point.

Thinn

Looks nice!
I would put a couple of hardwood triangular supports under the ply bracket. And consider a couple more bolts on that UC... My recomendation would be two M4 (or similar) on either side pluss one in the middle fwd.
A hard landing will bend the UC backwards, forcing the front of the UC on the bracket up.

Picture showing my ZN Synergy UC bolts.

JohnMcGowan

My Feedback: (15)

If I may ask you guys that have this goldberg ultimate, I have a used one I picked up recently that I am in process of re-covering due to the monocoat is falling apart on the wings. It has a ys 120ac on it for power . What size fuel tank do I need to go with for this engine and also, where do I need to set the cg on this plane? The plane came with no plans so thats why the questions. Any other thing you can offer me would be appreciated. Its my first bipe, btw.
Thank you.
John

Garthwood

Hi John....................My Blue Hawk Ultimate 10-300 by Carl Goldberg I bought as an ARF. The ARF instructions in regard to determine the Center of Gravity , measure back on the fuselage 2-3/8" from the leading edge of the bottom wing. The C.G. range for this aircraft is 1-7/8" to 2-7/8". It is recommended that you balance this model upside down. Add weight if necessary to achieve the proper balance. Correct balance slight nose down (or level). Mine came with a 16 ozs. fuel tank.

It is important that you seal both wings, elevators and rudder hinge lines. The reason I'm saying this because on my maiden flight I experienced flutter, stripped two 9202 Futaba servos even though my hinge lines were as close as they can get. After sealing the hinge lines everything was just fine.
Recommended setting control surface travels:

Aileron: 10 degs. Gentle Aerobatic 12 degs
Elevator: 12 degs. Gentle Aerobatic 14 degs
Rudder: 15 degs. Gentle Aerobatic 23 degs.

Start with gentle throws this bi-plane especially if this is your first bi-plane.
Mine is equipped with a Saito 1.20 4/s take-offs are just wonderful, add a bit of right rudder input, wait until there is plenty of airspeed and gently rotate, but requires a bit of elevator from go time otherwise it tends to nose (about 1/8 -1/4 up elevator). Requires power during landings, can't cut the power off or it will just drop like a brick. Approach the runway at high idle and go to low idle about one foot above the ground flaring to a three point landing as you gently touch down> Hope this might be of help to you

Charles.

JohnMcGowan

My Feedback: (15)

Thanks Charles, all is good advice. Mine is a kit built plane so I wonder if the cg's would differ from kit built to arf?
So you have the 16 oz tank huh? Appx how long can you fly yours with the saito 120? As long as I can get 12 to 15 minutes out of mine , I'll be happy.
15 minutes is a really long flight for me.
Funny, I have the 9202 servos in mine as well for the rudder and elevator. It looks like Futaba 5101 servos are on the ailerons. I am not familiar with the 5101 servos- any info on those? The plane had been flying with the existing setup so I am just guessing that they are ok,but I dont know for sure.
Thanks again Charles.
John

Garthwood

Hi John..............I dont think there will be much difference between the two. Mine weighs about 10 lbs. Two Futaba 9202 servos in the wings. Two Futaba 9001 servos for elevators (back of fuse). One Futaba 9202 pull-pull for rudder. F9001 throttle.
I need one more test flight for this Ultimate (Don't know when actually, but it should be ok now). I have switched to a five-cell 1400mah battery. I feel that 16 ozs. will suffice, it should give you at least 12 mins. If it is a brand new engine, I stick with ten minutes. Mine is brand new, has about 5 flights so I won't be longer the 11 mins.

The kit I understand has one servo that runs on a bell-crank for the ailerons. The top wing also attaches a bit different. I had to do some mod. on the ARF to make it a bit easier to attach. Carl Goldberg idea of attaching the top wing is not the most friendly. I have seen other Ultimates that are much easier. I think I have posted some pictures on this thread of my Ultimate.

My fuel tank is set up on a three line. The third line being to fuel up and empty. (Fuel Dot).


Charles.

tuwood

I just dug through my old pictures & found one that has the CG point from the plans. If you notice on the bottom of the pic, it says "balancing range". So, if you invert it as stated before & stay ahead of the wing spar you should be fine.

**edit**
Found a pic of my CG prior to covering. I don't know the measurement, but you can see about where it's at.

JohnMcGowan

My Feedback: (15)

Tu, best I can tell from your picture, the spar is the rear limit for the cg, is that right?
Thank you for that!!
And Charles, mine is set up with two aileron servos-one in each wing.

tuwood

Yep, that's how I read it

iflyfisher

All guys talking about your Ultimates inspired me. I thumbed through much of this thread last night. Tuwood, did you ever finish your other Ultimate? I covered a Goldberg Ultimate for a friend 7 or 8 years ago. He put it in his garage and never did anything with it. When I was leaving the area several years ago, I asked if he wanted to sell. He did. So I bought it. When I picked it up, it had a little hanger rash. One of the elevators was broken as was one of the struts. I fixed the broken parts, which still need to be recovered. I purchased a Saito 150 to power it. Also got glass pants and cowl as well as aluminum gear from Stans. There the plane and parts have sat for the past two or three years. Maybe I'll hunker down and get it done.

I need to install the control rods linking the ailerons. I picked up some carbon fiber units from Central Hobbies. I need to install the aluminum gear and mount and paint the cowl. The servos are all mounted on a couple of strips of wood. I'm debating making a ply mounting board to use instead. The kit must have been built about a dozen years ago, but the construction still seems solid. It was built pretty much per the plans.

How do you guys get a cowl over those big 150 mounted horizontal? Only way I can figure is to button down the engine after the cowl is over the heads. Then button down the cowl.

Garthwood

Hello iflyfisher..................a friend of mine who like yourself bought the CG Ultimate from a buddy complete with a Saito 150. The thing is that his Saito is mounted inverted, so you can't see very much of the engine. He has an onboard glow driver that comes on while taking off and during landing. He feels that the Saito 150 is too much for this bi-plane. On landing it needs to land quite fast, it will drop the nose if power reduced. My Ultimate 10-300 Blue Hawk (pictures on this thread) has a Saito 120, which is quite normal for this kind of bi-plane to weight ratio. If I'm not mistaking his weighs about 10-1/2 lbs., mine came out to around 10 lbs., that's only because I had to add some weight to the nose. With two servos at the tail and 4-40 pushrods increased the wt. All pushrods are 4-40, and pull-pull rudder. His was built from a kit, mine is an ARF. There could be some difference in the building.

Charles.

Garthwood

iflyfisher.......................see page 5 for the Blue Hawk. Engine mounted sideways, my preference for performance and reliability. Less onboard equipment......................weight, weight weight is the bottom line.

Charles.

tuwood

Not yet.. I finished the wings & all the tail feathers last summer, but got distracted on a couple other projects when I was waiting on some replacement aileron stock from Goldberg.
We had a few people quit from my team at work, so things were crazy through the winter which kept me from doing much of anything RC related, but I'm starting back strong again this summer. I do still plan to finish Ultie 2 and may crank it back up here in a few weeks when I'm done with my current project. I've got a 65 size profile on the building board now and will have it done in the next 3 or 4 weeks.

Ironically this thread still gives me motivation too.

iflyfisher

Finished patching up the hanger rash on my Ultimate this evening. I put the wings on it and dropped it on the scale along with the spinner, prop, rx battery, rx, fuel tank, servos, wheel pants, canopy, and a few other odds and ends that will need to be added to get it flight ready, and it came in at 8.75 pounds. The cowl and pants need paint yet, and I need to add the control rods to link the ailerons, but I'm optimistic I'll be under 9.5 pounds. I also don't know how the weight of the wire gear compares to my aluminum gear, which I haven't installed yet. I haven't checked the CG, so I don't know where it is going to come in, either. The Saito 150 actually weighs less than the 120 by a few grams, so it should cost me nothing more than a bigger tank for more fuel.

The plane was built with nyrods on the elevator and rudder. I'm thinking of yanking the control rod for the rudder and see if I can retrofit a pull/pull setup. I have some carbon rods I'll replace the elevators with but plan on keeping those as push/pull. It looked nice all put together, so I snapped a picture and included it below. Sad that this plane has sat around for so long without being finished.

Ken

tuwood

That looks really nice Ken, can't wait to see the flight report.

smchale

My Feedback: (67)

Keep at it...the Goldberg Ultimate is a great plane. One of my faves. Here's a pic of mine (RIP) with a ST90 for power. Replaced it with a Patrick Ultimate with a Moki 1.8. Once you have the Ultimate bug you always have it!

jrbmoto

Hey Sean,
I love the color combination on your first Ultmate! What covering did you use? That yellow doesn't look like Monokote.

-Johnny-

JohnMcGowan

My Feedback: (15)

Sean, if you dont mind me asking, what happened to your ultimate? I noticed you said RIP-thats never good
Thanks,
John

smchale

My Feedback: (67)

Thanks for the comp. The ultimate was covered with silkspan and painted. That's why the yellow doesn't look quite the same as monokote. it's also the picture....it could be better.

As far as the ultimate's demise goes, it was 'dumb-thumbs'. I pulled it into a hover too close to the groud and when it fell out i was too close to the ground and as i went to pull out it 'pancaked' in. it pushed the gear up through the bottom wing and damaged the fuse. the down side of painting it was that it wasn't going to be an easy repair so i retired it. [] i'll build another one day for sure.

here's a couple more pics of the GB ultimate. Animal survived and now flys the Dave Patrick version. [8D]

JohnMcGowan

My Feedback: (15)

Another question for you guys please.... the wing hold down bolts that runs thru the center section of the bottom wing and bolts the wing to the fuse; are you using metal bolts or are you using nylon bolts to hold the wing on? Mine didnt come with any bolts and I 'think' that they are a 6/32 size, someone chime in if Im wrong.
Thank you in advance!!
John