Simon's 4S Balsa Rigger

[Simon.O.]

Patrick’s is glued to the water at 70 odd mph and mine will not see over 60 until I get a better battery pack. Never mind all that, I have another idea.

A better sponson.

I believe that the Xzess-3 sponson is aerodynamically forcing it onto the water and with the wide ride surface is robbing the hull of its true speed potential.
I will now make an aero-neutral sponson with a narrower ride surface.
The big issue is to make the sponson buoyant enough so that at rest the rigger still floats. This should not be too hard and I’ll start work on a new set of sponsons soon.

I will make these new ones with a steeper entry angle and then on to the existing lower profile. My 2S rigger has sponsons that are more aggressive on the lower and less on the upper so I will use some of those observations for the new design.

Given the damage that the existing ones have sustained I will build the new ones a lot stronger.
All I need now is a lot of wood and a lot of time...................I have both so it is draw and build time.

[Simon.O.]

Todays test.

Recipe
Pair of Zippy Flightmax 5000mAh 2S 20C series
Fiegao 7XL
Octura 637 preped by AndyM
One dodgy balsa rigger by Simon.

Tape down, control check and launch.
Part trigger to get it up and out to the back straight, .....F-me that is moving......round the end bend and onto the front straight (dam wall ) Full trigger

%$#@&^%$#@!*&^^% THAT IS HONKING !!!!!!

If it is not at 60mph or 100 km/h then I am a monkeys knob.

I managed two more circuits before I bought it in for temp checks.

All was fine.

Retape and go. There was a good chop 1-2" so it was a very angry rigger but is totally mind blowing at speed.
Slight frontal lift given 5 deg AoA but fine on the straight.

I will wait for fine weather and get down to the Quarry where it is calmer and the surface has less leaf debris.

I need to get this one down to Hakanoa to be timed to be sure where I am at.

A 30C pack will get this thing moving even better, I now have a can on the bench that is accumulating coins for a 30C pack
SAW sponsons are still in the design phase. I am still loking at a lot of photos

More to come.

[Xzessperated]

Todays test.

Recipe
Pair of Zippy Flightmax 5000mAh 2S 20C series
Fiegao 7XL
Octura 637 preped by AndyM
One dodgy balsa rigger by Simon.

Tape down, control check and launch.
Part trigger to get it up and out to the back straight, .....F-me that is moving......round the end bend and onto the front straight (dam wall ) Full trigger

%$#@&^%$#@!*&^^% THAT IS HONKING !!!!!!

If it is not at 60mph or 100 km/h then I am a monkeys knob.

More to come.

Great news Simon. It sounds like you are a happy man.
How are the seams holding up under speed? I think you sheeted it with light ply so debris on the pond should not punch a hole in the balsa unless you hit something big.

[Simon.O.]

Happy is one word for it.

The tub is 4mm varnished balsa, very little armor there.
The bottom of the sponsons have .8mm ply mainly for rigidity but it does not dent when it hits a ducks head. This I KNOW !!

The duck is fine as I stopped the boat and watched the duck for as long as it take me to have a smoke. The duck is fine.....for now.
It is duck shooting season here so he may be better of playing chicken with riggers.

Back to topic.

Paddy, yes i am happy and we all know that this would never have happened without your help.

Now for a 30C pack. !!!!

The ducks would so well to sit at the edge and applaud as it goes by.

[andym]

Great news Simon, it would not hurt to sheet the bottom of the tub. Balsa is not known for its structual qualities!!!!

[Simon.O.]

Great news Simon, it would not hurt to sheet the bottom of the tub. Balsa is not known for its structual qualities!!!!

I'll look at armor plating this bugger when I do the SAW sponson upgrade.
That will be a while away now,
I need to save, spend on a 30C pack AND design the new sponsons.

Then I need to build the sponsons and I will build them tougher and heavier that the existing ones.

It would not hurt to have the weight (Cg) a little more forward than now.

I am working on it.
And
an offshore tug
a hydro-cat-rigger thing, twin powered of course

[tylerm]

Good work Simon, umm in reply to your PM speedruns are 28th of this month, so make sure your free. Apparently i missed your appearance on Outdoors with Jeff!

Heres more info on the runs

http://www.rcboats.co.nz/forum/viewtopic.php?t=428

Ty.

[Simon.O.]

50 !!!!!!

I tried the new gps today, Garmin101 compliments of Paddy (Xzessperated)
It was windy so I set the front for 4 deg AoA to keep it under control.
The PQ pack that I was donated was not a go so I setup a pair of 2S 5000 20C Zippy packs. These have 12ga wire and 4mm bullets.

I blew a solder joint after about a minute but got two good passes in first on the 637 prop. Fair call as the bullets were whacked on in haste. Bad call on my part.

Untape and peek at the garmin. 82.6 kmh. On my pond with me the ducks and all the other floating sh1t I am happy to call that 50mph.

I have a new Rhino pack 25-30C 4S (8-10ga leads) on the way from HK.
I will fit that up with 5.5's and give it a whirl.
There may be another PQ pack on its way and that will get a whirl too.

I want 100kmh and I will get it.
I am not in the position to drop the coin on new PQ or Elite packs, CC speedies and Nue motors.
I will achieve my target on a more modest budget.

There will be another grenade of a motor on its way as soon as the owners mate can find it.

I am happy to sit and have a beer even though it is only 1.30 in the afternoon and celebrate pulling 50mph.

There will be more, speed and beer.

[Xzessperated]

Great to hear the news Simon. Congratulations. You will find the gps of great benefit when testing. I never send my boats out without one now.

[tylerm]

Good to hear Simon.
Lucky you running boats on a beautiful day like this! I'm sitting at home with the flu

[crabstick]

Nice work Simon.

well worth a beer I say.

[crabstick]

looks like you have got your powertrain setup.

Now time to build a race boat and come and race with us, Racing is SOOO much more fun than running on the lake by yourself.

Boats also handle different in race water with all the wakes etc that the other boats create, I think we may have a meeting in a couple of weeks.

[Simon.O.]

I have a new set of sponsons on the build now.
The main "chassis" is 35 mm (1.4") wide thus the ride surface will be 35mm as a minimum.
These are longer than the originals as I need to keep in mind the bouyancy of the sponsons while at rest on the water.
I will add to the sides, yes both in a symetrical format so that I end up with about a 70mm wide semi-teardrop shape.

The side plates are 5mm amd there is a wad of hardwwod in there for the sponson boom reciever tubes to go through.

These will have the same mounting points that the origianl ones do and the AoA should match up too. This will mean that I can swap sponsons in about 10 minutes.

I want to keep the originals becase they look nice and I can use them for running a hot oval or while the new sponsons are in for repair or re-build which I am sure will be needed.

Pics of todays work. I shot a few pics of the hardwood recievers but the camera had a blond moment so they are not here.

[Fluid]

I want 100kmh and I will get it.....I am not in the position to drop the coin on new PQ or Elite packs, CC speedies and Nue motors.....I will achieve my target on a more modest budget.

I'm certain you will. Several years ago I held the IMPBA SAW record for P Hydro of over 85 mph with a homemade rigger, a Feigao 7L, 12 GP3300 NiMH cells and an Octura v940/3. That's too much motor for LiPos or for sport running. The point being, you can go very fast with inexpensive components. All you need is a motor with enough Kv for the voltage and a prop with enough pitch....experience and luck don't hurt either.



.

[Simon.O.]

I'm certain you will. Several years ago I held the IMPBA SAW record for P Hydro of over 85 mph with a homemade rigger, a Feigao 7L, 12 GP3300 NiMH cells and an Octura v940/3. All you need is a motor with enough Kv for the voltage and a prop with enough pitch....experience and luck don't hurt either.
.

I am working on the hull / sponson at the moment as I can do this type of work for very little monetary cost. This set of sponsons will cost me about $20USD

I am interested in the higher pitch props !!
My feeling is that for this application 42mm is the max.
I have a 642 from AndyM and that is a weapon on my mono but I think I need more pitch for the Rigger.

Will a 9 series be a good idea?? Say a 937/3 or more !!
Do remember that I have a Mystery ESC and Fiegao can on a 062 wire.