HK Guan Li Canadair CL-415

[quarry44]

I,ve always liked twins,and float planes,so I thought I'd try this model.First impressions were good.It's bigger than I had imagined,and the quality is as good as I expected for this sort of money.
The instructions are virtually useless,so it's perhaps better suited to people who have built a few models.
Accessories provided are fairly complete,though the rudder pushrod was missing from my kit.
I'll be using 2 of HK's AX2306N bell motors,20A esc's,and 2200 lipo.I 'm also going to put in a ubec,as I don't want to end up with a dead model in the middle of a lake.
I've started putting it together:


The engine pods were already glued together in the kit,though the instructions show them in 2 halves.This means a bit of juggling is required to insert the motor wiring.I also want the esc's inside the fuse,so I've extended the wires to run along the bottom of the wing.Curiously,there are no channels in the wing to run the cables from the pods,so I'll just tape them in place.


I've read a few reviews of this model,and they all mention the lack of rudder authority on the water.This is not surprising,as the rudder throws are fairly limited,and the water rudder just doesn't cut it.
I had thought of shaving the front edge of the rudder to increase the throw,but some people have used differential motor speeds to steer on the water.I may go with that,if I can figure out how to program it into er9x.
Back to the batcave.

[aidan284]

looks good. keep updating

[quarry44]

Did a bit more today,mostly soldering all the plugs,etc.Glued the servos in the wing with a dab of hot glue at each end.


One slightly off-putting item,neither the servo covers nor the tip float brackets were painted.Tut-tut,Guan Li .Luckily,I have some enamel that's a close match,so no biggie.


More tomorrow.

[cynr100]

Very much interested quarry, keep them coming please.

[quarry44]

Spent most of the day in the shed,and here are a few pics of progress.
The engine pods glued to the wing:

I sanded the wing surface a bit to improve adhesion.Some pressure is required to hold the pods close to the wing,so i stuck them in my workmate.I would have used old phone books,but I threw them out last year.
Here's the 2 wing halves glued together,and the wiring taped to the bottom.

These are the esc's and ubec I'm using.Esc's are 20A,and ubec 3A.Servos are HXT900's.(4)

Instead of cutting the red wire out of the harness,I simply removed the pin from the plug,and taped it back on the cable with masking tape

I fitted the ubec to the side of the battery compartment with velcro.Wonderful stuff!

Next pic shows the esc's velcro'd in place just forward of the wing opening.

However,I've found the cg is a bit too far back,so I might move them further forward.Every little bit helps,right?
It does mean I might have to extend the cables a bit more though.I hope that won't affect performance.
And here 'tis in all it's glory.


Altogether I've probably spent about 8 hours putting it together,but if you're a fast worker,you could probably do it in four.
Now to find that info about differential steering,using the motors separately.I'm sure it's possible by using some sort of rudder mix.I'll be using the Turnigy 9x with Frsky and ER9X.
I left off the water rudder,as I think it's so small ,it will be next to useless.
I will add fiberglass tape to the bottom of the hull so I can land on grass without making too much of a mess of the foam.Tomorrow I will test run the motor,and correct the cg.

[pldb64]

Here is a starting differential thrust mix for ER9x you can start with:

http://9xforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=119

Credit goes to Gyro Gearloose on 9x forums.

[cynr100]

That is a really cool looking piece of kit

[quarry44]

To quote Dick Dastardly,drat,drat,and double drat!
I realized,after looking at pics of the real thing,that I've got the tip float supports mounted back to front.
The floats are supposed to sit at an angle of possibly 15-20 degrees upwards.Now we'll find out how good that hk glue really is,as I used that to glue the floats to the supports.They're glued into the wing with epoxy,so I'll leave them in there.Once I get them off, i'll saw a piece off the bottom of the support to get the angle right.
Another thing that bothers me a bit,the wing bolts are quite difficult to engage into the t-nuts mounted in the fuse.
Haven't decided what to do about that yet.

[quarry44]

I removed the floats without too much trouble or damage.




Cut the support at a 20 degree angle.Sorry'bout the rubbish photo:


Re-fitted floats at a better angle of dangle:


I made some new wing bolts,using 3mm threaded rods,with nuts soldered at one end,and a pointy bit at the other.Still not the best,but one does what one can:


Another thing,the spinners are the worst pieces of crap i've ever seen.They are horribly distorted,and would no doubt shake the motor out of the aeroplane!Throw them in the bin.;


I'll look around for some better ones,or maybe make some aluminium ones.

Did a test run with a watt meter connected.290-odd watts at 25.4 Amps.I did notice that both engines started slowing almost immediately.Is that normal?I'm using the HK recommended motors,and 20A HK esc's.2200 mah-3cell battery,3A sbec.
I'm starting to wonder if those motors have enough power to fly this plane.

[cynr100]

Can't believe you haven't had an answer yet from Bruce or Bill or egocentric so I'll throw some limited knowledge in.

Is that 25Amps per ESC or measured at the battery (assuming you are only running one), does your battery have C rating higher than 25. How warm were the ESC's after the test run, anything above comfortably warm then they are underrated and your power loss could be due to overheat. I have a SS25-30A ESC in my AXN (the original 20A I destroyed just in bench running) and even it gets warm.
I have no personal experience but mulling through the posts (here and on their own web site) reveals that HK generally under equip a lot of their ARF and RTF models.

Sorry mate, unless someone comes up with a definitive answer you could end up being (after expending some more money) the go to guy on the HK Canadair.