snobdrs
Senior Heliman
Location: coatesville,pa-usa
| This weekend i got a good solid day to work on the Bat 50. During the week i was picking at it and ran into a few problems. I decided i would take the kit up to QWW and have them look it over. This is the first customer built Bat50, i ran into a few instruction manual errors, which QWW will correct for production kits, I also made a few errors.
So continuing with the build, upper side frames were closed up. I squared them to a mirror and they were a touch off. A little pressure was required while i tightened the screws to pull the frames square. I left the clutch/main gear loose along with the counter gear assembly as these will need to be set when installing the main gears. I also left the center main shaft bearing block loose as these holes are slotted and figured it had something to do with centering the main gear.
Next was the tank mount. Assembly was straight foward and i really like this setup. There are no sharp edges for the tank to rub on. There was a little extra space so i added some foam to center the tank. This probably isnt needed but a little extra insulation dosent hurt. I took a little bit of time to get the lines out of the tank correct. i angeled them to come through the cut outs in the upper plate. You can see this in the pics. The one thin i did notice was the for and aft plates( the ones with the QWW cut into them were a touch oversized. I sanded the top and bottom of both plates a bit to fit between the top and bottom of the tank mount. Also as the front of the tank mount fits between the lower side frames the sides of the front tank mount plate needed sanding. I just assembeled it and used a file untill the carbon was flush with the aluminum uprights.
Another note is if you look in the pictures of the tank mount you will notice 1mm shims where the tank mount connects to upper frames. QWW had not recieved the correct pieces from their manfacturer when they packed my kit. Some of the first kits may also be that way depending on when you buy your kit. If your is like this the easiest way to put these in is to CA them on before assembly. Also you will note the rear and middle aluminum tank to frame mounts are the same as the front one. In the production kits these will be longer and screw through the carbon into the uprights. On mine i had to counter sink the inner holes and insert counter sunk screws from the bottom and nuts on the top. All this hardware was included with the kit.
The tank mount was attached to the upper sideframes, the finishing washers had to have a flat filed on them to fit in but no biggie there. The front aluminum was also mounted.
If you take notice in the pic of this assembly you will notice the rudder belcrank mounted on the right side. and if you look at my earlier post of the upper sideframe assembly you will notice it mounted on the left. This is one of the mistakes had made.
I wanted to get the main gear assembly in and check alignment of everything, and locktite in place. This is where i made my second mistake, and i think others may have done the same. No matter what i did i couldnt get a proper fit. The lower gear had about a 1.5 mm gap between it and the upper gear, and thus wouldnt fit in the frames. I ended up adding 1mm shims to make it work. A call to QWW and i get the usuall "flip the gear" I looked at the instructions again looked at the gear, and came up with nothing. I would put my money it being correct and just not fitting. I took the assembly up to QWW and as soon as they saw it, They told me the gear was upside down. I took it apart reversed the gear and what do ya know, it fits now. I took a few pictures for everyone to see. The pictures are of the correct mounting. A note here, do not crank down on the cap screws that mount the lower gear. Aside from pulling the gear crooked they also squash the gear out and will contact the upper gear hub. I installed the gear into the main frames, Adjusted the center bearing block to center the gears in the frames, locktited and tightened. Once installed the lower and upper gear did rub slightly, most likely this would wear in after flight, but i prefered to adjust it now. I pulled the gears, pulled the bottom gear assembly apart and sanded one of the 2 carbon spacers a bit, reassembeled and was perfect. Some of this also may have been because of overtightening the gear screws, but all is well now.
There were a bit of a high spot on the gear so i set gear mesh to this point, after a flight or so i check and adjust as necessary.
I have more done but dont have time to write about it just now. But will update soon.
      
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