Guided Mite

[pease1]

Here's another one for your enjoyment...

http://pease1.sr.unh.edu/aew/rc/mite/DSCN1016.jpg

More information can be found on my
Guided Mite Page (http://pease1.sr.unh.edu/aew/rc/mite/)

[corey c]

I like this plane and I have actuall downloaded the plans a while back but have not yet built it. You will let me know how it flyies because I have about the same kind of radio gear as you. The motor from DJ-Aerotech is an N-20 with 4.2-1 gear drive and a Gunther 5x4 prop.

[pease1]

ahh thanks for the stats on the motor! I'll definately let you know about the flight charateristics if the wind ever lets up - gusting above 20mph today :mad:

I'm hoping the N20 will be enough juice for this. If not I can always open up the nose and put in a GWS-A - I have tons of those lying about!

Al

[corey c]

Gotta hate that wind! I have an n-20 motor with a 2.5-1 gear system running a 3.5" prop,mx 6800 reciever, two mx-30 servos, 3-cell 50mah pach; my plane came out at 1.7oz. With this combo the thing "just" flew,not enough power! I'm sure with your 4.2-1 gears and larger prop it will fly good,I was about to order some gears from cloud nine to get this gear setup because I thought it would make my plane fly good. Best of luck!

[jimwalker]

Pretty slick!

What's the motor/prop combo you used? What's the all up weight?

[losiboy]

Do you have plans for it ?

[pease1]

You can get plans (they're pretty simple) via links from my page - just follow the links.

The motor is one of the D.J. Aerotech 'roadkill' ones. I'm not sure exactly what motor this is, but they sell them on their site for $15 for motor and gearbox asselbly so it's a good deal.

I need to get a scale to give you the all up weight and wing loading.

Al

[pease1]

Update 6/3/01

Put enough flight time on it to run through 4 9-volt batteries. Motor needs more downthrust, under power it gets twichy, trying to climb too much. On glide it is a great flier, very docile and landings are a breeze. No amount of adjustment of the CG would get it to fly under power without putting itself into a overly-high angle of attack that's why I think I need downthrust. Turning and climb control is good. This one will be a winner. The N-20 is a bit weak for it so I'll find something a bit stronger to mount in it since I have to add the downthrust anyways.

With some more power this plane will be quite nimble. With the N-20 I could do a deep dive and coax it into a nice tight loop. I might go for a GWS with carbon brushes direct drive, or something else. Will have to research it a bit. With the ability to try different wings easilly this might end up being my test bed plane.

This plane is just too small to put functional gear on that will work when flying outside. I'm losing the gear and I'll fashion a landing skid to protect the underside of the fuselage.

Anyone have any ideas of a good motor to use to upgrade from the Geared N-20?

[corey c]

How about a kj-66 turbine! [hee hee hee]. I have not used the gws motors but i've seen some planes fly direct drive that are about that size plane as yours and they went well,kinda quick too. I heard that firecracker motors put out almost the same thrust as the gws but weigh quite a bit less and draw less amps. How about a twin mite with two n-20's ? I know this was not much help but I like your project and wanted to reply.

[pease1]

I like the looks of the firecracker, but aren't they brushless? If so I'm not sure I can hack the price. $60 for the motor and $65 for an appropriate ESC? I'll get there eventually, but when I do it will be for a scale plane. This is a fun plane.

I already ordered a carbon brush GWS motor so I'll try that direc drive with the prop that came with the N-20.

I appreciate your response!

-Al

[nolasco]

If you can get the same pinion gear as the one used on your N-20 gear drive (try Cloud9 or David Lewis), you can attach another N-20 on the same gear drive. If not, you can always get one of those dual N-20 gear drives sold by Kenway, Cloud9, or Todd's Models.

Jun Nolasco

Originally posted by Allan Wright:
<STRONG>Update 6/3/01

Anyone have any ideas of a good motor to use to upgrade from the Geared N-20?</STRONG>

[pease1]

I also ordered a Dymond Max-1 motor/gearbox to try out. The GWS direct or the Dymond should work. I'll leave the motor mount open until I settle on a powerplant. Thanks for the tip on the dual N-20 - those are DEFINATELY worth checking out.

I am so encouraged by the performance of this that I'm firing up the cad to work on an original design similar to it only with nicer lines - Something like the old Midwest Esquire.

[ 06-03-2001: Message edited by: Allan Wright ]

[corey c]

The firecracker motor is only $10 from cloud 9 and comes with prop and spinner! I think you are thinking about the astroflight one or maybe I have the name wrong, anyway its in the cloud 9 page.

[pease1]

Thanks I'll go take a look. How does the firecracker's performance compare to the Geared N-20?

Al

[gjohnson]

If you are looking at the Kenway motors, either the dual-motor N20 or the single motor version, be sure and know what you are getting. There are several versions. The ones Todd's Models is selling (at present) have bushings, not ball bearings, and require the motor to be mounted backwards. Plus, the prop mounting is left up to you (probably push on). Cloud 9 sells the new ball bearing versions with a nice prop mounting screw system. I like it much better. Plus, Cloud 9 sells both high and low voltage versions. Cloud 9 doesn't have pictures on their site, so you have to do a bit of research on your own. If I get a chance, I'll post close-up pictures of all the Kenway motor/gearbox variations I own (several). I'm also starting to do some static tests. I'll post those results too when I get them done. Hope this helps.
--Gordon

[pease1]

Much appreciated Gordon!

[pease1]

Update - flew 2 more flights tonight with GWS motor direct drive with a 4X2 prop (leftover from Cox Viper conversion) and this thing really goes nicely now! Mind you it's still a slow flier, no balistic maneuvers, but it really pulls along fine. It flies only slightly faster than my Lite Stik, but seems to handle the wind a little better.

I put the motor on an adjustable mount by wrapping it with rubber bands and wedging it into a slot made in some foam in the nose. I tried varrying angles of downthrust. While 2-degrees or so helped a little, the darned thing still wants to over climb at more than 3/4 throttle. It maintains altitude at 1/2 and can climb ok between 1/2 and 3/4, but anything over that the thing really noses up.

Could I have too much wing incidence? Misaligned stabalizer? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Like I said it flies like a dream up to 3/4 power, over that it gets nose up.

If I can get this last bug worked out I'll consider this a prototype and cad up some plans based on it with an original fuselage design. This could make a nice beginner parkflier. I can control it and I only have a few months stick time.

Al

[ 06-07-2001: Message edited by: Allan Wright ]

[Ralph B]

Allan:
I just looked at your Guided Mite pictures again. Since the wing is mounted with rubber bands, you can quickly adjust the incidence angle by puting a shim under the trailing edge of the wing. Just slip a small strip of 1/32 or 1/20 thick balsa between the fusalage sides and the trailing edge of the wing. If it still wants to nose up, add more shim. If it starts to dive, you have too much shim. If it had been nosing down, or not climbing well, you would put the shim under the leading edge.
Ralph B.

[pease1]

Thanks a million! I'm using 1/16" sheet for the stab and rudder so no lift there. I'll bring some scap balsa strips of different thickness to the field next fly. Your suggestions confirm what I suspected.

You're right though - this thing is a beauty in the sky. Makes my lite-stik seem like a hard plane to fly!

[Ralph B]

Allan:
I think I may be able to help you with your trim problem on the Guided Mite. The original design uses a lifting stabalizer, which is why there is so much incidence. This was OK in 1958( when the model was published) since the Pee Wee 020 had no throttle availabe at that time, and the model was going to fly at a constant speed. When I decided to build a modern version which would use throttle, I did not use the lifting stab. If you don't ( or didn't) build it with a lifting stab., you need to reduce the stabalizer incidence to 40 or 50 percent of what is shown on the plan. I fly mine rudder only on gear drive (which will tend to be slower) and set the incidence at 50%. Since your direct drive version will be flying a little faster, I would set the incidence at 40%. The down thrust you are using should be fine. I can't tell from your pictures weather or not the stab. is flat or lifting, but the tendency to nose up on full power sounds like you my have a flat stabalizer with the origanal incidence angle. I hope this helps.
I really enjoyed your web page, and I am pleased to see someone else has discovered what a great model the Guided Mite is. Bob Coon really gave us a winner when he created this one.
Ralph Bradley

[pease1]

Well I went out to work on the wing incidence and broke the only 4x2 prop I had on my first (easy) landing. So I ordered some GWS 4x2.5 props from Todd's models. We'll see how they work on the carbon brush GWS motor direct drive.

Al