elder 40 - gold edition(top flite) review · “ultra metal” 3000 nimh panasonic packs. when...

MODEL AVIATION CANADA DECEMBER 2002

35

mounting screws, lock-washers,washers, and blind nuts. Then Idrilled out a 1½” hole in the fire-wall at the center on the motormount to let the motor’s wire pass.Finally, I drilled out three ½” airholes in a horizontal row so aircould flow through, keeping thebatteries and speed control cool. Iwas careful to locate the air holessafely above the motor mount, andin a way that would not impact thefirewall’s structural integrity. Happywith the fit, I removed the motorand proceeded to cover the roundedcowl area. Once all was installed, Iused some filler where needed andsanded everything smooth.

Once the fuselage, wing, andtail feathers were sanded and vacu-umed, I spray painted the openstructure and landing gearbrown. Then I coveredthe rest of the partswith “Flat finish”MonoKote,installed aWilliams Bros.pilot and gun, andTop Flite’s superblycrafted wire wheels. Ithen CA’ed in some thinblack elastics (that I purchased ata fabric store) for the flying wiresand aft fuselage rigging.

I used a Futaba T6XA radio, aFutaba receiver, and three Futabaservos…power would be suppliedby the 21-cell flight pack. I cut offthe section for the throttle servo onthe servo tray, and installed the traybetween former four and five, sim-ply to ensure that I had enoughspace for the three 7-cell Duratrax“Ultra Metal” 3000 NiMHPanasonic packs. When gluing inthe servo tray, I made sure that ser-vos had plenty of room betweenthem and between the wing hold-down bracket.

Then I reinstalled the MaxCimMaxN31-13y motor (with a 3.33/1MaxCim gearbox, an APC “E”14x10 prop, and the MaxCimMAXU35D-21 BEC speed con-trol). I drilled out two holes for thecontroller switch and indicator

light, and connected everything up.I changed the connectors on theDuratrax batteries to Anderson or“Sermos” style connectors to mini-mize current loss, and standardizeall of my connectors. Before final-izing where the batteries would sit,I balanced the plane with the threebattery packs. Once balanced, I“TY”-wrapped them in place.

FlightIt was +2°C with winds about

5kph and a beautiful sunny sky.Using an Astro Flight 110 Dcharger I peaked my flight pack.(This charger came heavily recom-mended, and after using it I knowwhy … it was simple to use andworked great). I armed the sup-

plied fuse.

Please be careful: just because theprop isn’t continually turning (ason a glow engine) doesn’t mean itisn’t dangerous!

After snapping a few pho-tographs, I turned on the switch,performed a range test, and turnedthe radio over to good friend andfellow reviewer, Paul Grenier.

Paul started to apply throttle,and the plane tracked straightdown the runway. The Elder was airborne at half throttle and justkept on climbing – as easy ascould be. A few trimming passesshowed Paul that he did not needone click of trim!

Slow stall was impressive. TheElder nosed over gently, and didn’tshowing any bad habits. Paulaccelerated (with power — whichsurprised both of us), and did aseries of rolls, loops, invertedflight, and so on. Stall turns needed

work, and it wouldn't knife edge,as it was obviously not designedfor aggressive aerobatics. Halfwaythrough the flight, Paul throttledup, pointed the nose straight upand, with some corrective rudderand elevator, the Elder just kepton climbing! A few low fly by’s,and a touch and go showed justhow gentle this plane was. If youplan to fly from a hard surface Iwould definitely recommend atail wheel instead of the tailskid.

Paul kept flying until the beckicked in — at around the 10-minute mark! He simply pulledthe throttle stick back and took it

around to land. As he was onfinal approach, he gave it atouch of throttle and had asmooth landing.

ConclusionI don’t think I can express

just how pleased Paul and I werewith the Elder 40. It flew abso-lutely beautifully, looked great,and had no bad habits. Our choiceof power appears to be a perfectmatch, and definitely a good wayto start if you are thinking of get-ting into big electric!

For those who know whatelectric flight is like, my AstroFlight Watt meter gave me read-ings of 38A, and 890 Watts (about114 W/lbs) when the flight packwas freshly peaked…very impres-sive considering this plane weighsin at 7 ¾ lbs.

Quiet, clean, and very realistic.What more could you ask for? TheElder 40 is a great looking planeon its own, and would be a won-derful model with a glow engine.With this MaxCim motor combi-nation (MaxCim motor, gearbox,and bec speed control, hooked upto three 7-cell Duratrax packs), itwas absolutely awesome! â

REVIEW

Hits

R Looks awesome

and has

amazingly gentle

flight.

R Parts fit very

well.

R No bad habits.

Misses

Q Gear seemed a

little too rigid.

Top Flitewww.topflite.com

Futabawww.futaba.com

Duratraxwww.duratrax.com

MaxCim Motors Inc.(716) 662-5651www.maxcim.com

Astro Flight Inc.(310) 821-6242www.astroflight.com

Williams Bros. Inc.www.williamsbros-inc.com

MODEL AVIATION CANADA DECEMBER 2002

34

Elder 40 - Gold Edition (Top Flite)

In 1932, back in Italy, mygrandfather painted a littlewater colour of a plane. I

wanted to build and fly a model ofthe aircraft, but the painting isn'tdetailed enough. However, theplane does look very much likethe Elder 40 on floats. So whenthe newer, revised Elder 40 “GoldEdition” came along, it felt like itwas time. I would build this planea little differently though … Iwould build it as an electric!

What’s in the Box?The box is filled with clean

bundles of sheet and stick balsa,and some nice light ply, with dieor laser cut parts. Full rolledplans, a very detailed manual, andmost of the hardware is included.You will also need a fuel tank,wheels, radio, and engine, a cou-ple of rolls of MonoKote, plus afew other small odds and ends, ifyou plan to fly it with a .46.

ConstructionI really like to build, and I

could see by the quality of thewood and how clean all the die cutparts were, that I was in for a treat!

Because of my decision to goelectric, I had a choice to make. Icould try to lighten up the planeduring construction, or build it asdesigned and see how theMaxCim motor would do. I choseto build it as designed.

I started by reading the manualand looking over the plans.Everything was clearly detailed,so I started with the tail-feathers.Once all my sticks were cut andthe die cut parts located, it wassimply a matter of sanding andgluing. I liked the gussets for thehorizontal stab so much that Iduplicated the technique on thevertical fin.

Next came the wing. The ribspopped out of their balsa sheet

with such a nice finish that Ididn’t need to sand them. Icut the basswood and balsato the lengths recommendedand, following the manual,put everything together.Everything fit perfectly. Imade one minor adjustmentwhen gluing the two winghalves together … I addedsome short ¼” balsa sticks

in the corners where the ribs andthe dihedral brace were connected.

Next, it was time for the fuse-lage. I located the fuselage sidesand glued them together as out-lined in the manual, put them asideto dry, then sanded. The openstructure was easy to do. I laid theprepared basswood longerons andpinned them to the plans. I markedand cut all the longeron bracesabout 1/16” longer than neededand sanded until they fit. Once theaft open pieces were dry and sand-ed, I glued them to the waitingfuselage sides.

From here it was simply amatter of gluing in the formers toone side and, once dry, bringingthe two sides together. Then Isheeted the top and bottom,added the upper and lowerlongeron braces, and let it all dry.I mounted the firewall exactly asthe manual recommended, butagain added some ¼” balsa stickon the inside corners. Once thefuselage was completely dry, Isanded the aft section and addedthe remaining gussets.

Finally, it was time to install theMaxCim motor mount. I lined upthe MaxN32-13Y motor to makesure the prop shaft was where the0.46’s shaft would have been,marked the motor’s location, anddrilled out four holes for the 4-40

MODEL NAME:Elder 40

MANUFACTURERTop Flite

TYPE:Sport Scale

WINGSPAN:65 in. (1650 mm)

WING AREA:778 sq.in. (50.2 sq dm)

WEIGHT:5.5-7.0 lbs (2500-

3182g)

WING LOADING:16-21 oz/sq.ft

LENGTH:49.5 in. (1257 mm)

NO. OF CHANNELSREQUIRED:

4 channels w/4 servos

ENGINE SIZE RECOMMENDED:

0.40-0.46 2-stroke

or 0.52 4-stroke

AIRFOIL TYPE:

Flat bottom

TYPE OF WING

CONSTRUCTION:Balsa

by Dean Eusepi

REVIEW

PHOTO TAKEN WITH A KODAK DX 3600