Lucky-13 Build

 I was going through some pics today, and found this batch of build photos for the Electric Lucky-13 build, from back in 2014. They're in no particular order, but you can see what I did with it. This was a great flying bird, wish I could find another!

 

 

Building a new flight battery for the Lucky 13...

Wow, I'm still checking and repairing batteries. This is a great time of year for this sort of work, since I'm not real keen on flying in cold weather :-) The Lucky-13 flight battery was shot...a 3000 mAh battery that was checking about 800 mAh...not good! I still have a bunch of cells in a RC car pack that cycle nicely. I set my Accu-Cycle up to test single cells, and test them all, one cell at the time. Here, I chopped out a nice 5 cell pack that tests at about 3500 mAh. I installed the connector from the old pack, slipped it in a piece of sleeve, and shrank it down. Here it is, ready to be reinstalled into it's new home. Once that's in place, I'll move on to the next bird and check it's flight battery. 

Two chunks of 3600 mAh NiMH batteries broken apart, testing each cell, separately.

5 cells, all tacked together. Next, it's time to install the power connector.

 A final test, with all 5 cells in series. It cycled out at about 3500 mAh.

Fresh heat shrink covering installed, ready for installation in the airplane.

Dave AMA119484
http://www.RCDave.net

Preflight checkout, Lucky13

I'm wrapping up this cleanup-checkout of my Lucky13 that has been parked about 2-1/2 years. Other than needing a RX battery, the bird seems fine and ready to go. Here's a quick clip of all of the servos in operation. Time to hand it up and move on to the next one. Getting the itch to burn holes in the sky!

Another one pulled from the dust!

Here's another bird that's been unused and hanging in the ceiling for at least 2 years. It's called "Lucky 13" and was sold by East RC for several years (http://www.EastRC.org). It has a 64" wingspan, a flat bottom airfoil, and weighs about 5-1/2 lbs. I set this on up with a Hang-It RC XTRM 3520/06 motor, 12 x 6 e-prop, and fly it on a 4 cell 4000mah LiPO. It flies very scale-like on 4 cells. I've seen others with a similar setup and 5 cells, and it would fly straight up, out of sight.

I put a new 5 cell 3000mah NiMH receiver battery in it before it was stored (it needed the nose weight in my setup, anyway), and now it only cycles at about 1100 mah...so I guess it's time for a new flight battery. Oh well, it's still good for a flight or so, as long as i watch the charge closely. A new flight battery is on the "to get" list for this beast. Here's a few pics...

This is a 800rpm/volt motor, and swings a 12x6 like a .50ish sized glow motor. 

I added some color to the wing to help with visibility, using some scrap monokote I had laying around, and used the iron on about 225 degrees. 

It breaks down for transport pretty easily, and the wing also comes in half from it's internal round aluminum wing tube. 

A pic showing the tip of the wing & airfoil profile. 
 

Time to get back to work...maybe I'll have a day off soon to actually get out and fly this airplane! :-)

Dave AMA119484
http://www.RCDave.net