Installing receivers and fuel tanks???

I pack mine in foam and use balsa sticks (sometimes with glue and sometimes without) against existing bulkheads to hold them in place . Just be careful your receiver pack is securely attached to something more than the wire. If it comes adrift the life of your airplane usually becomes short and exciting.

I just use foam to wedge both of them in place. Never had a problem. Steve

snipped-for-privacy@webtv.net wrote:

I tried that more than once and never was satisfied with the results. I wound up eating a Byron Pitts when the rubberbands quit. I have seen two problems. The first is that the rubberbands put tremendous stress on a lightly built airframe which means they wind up NOT holding things in place during violent manuevers. The second is really much more insidious than that, the rubberband ages (in the hot Texas weather) poorly and that leads to unexpected releases and figure 9's. BTDT

I like to put a couple well places scew hooks in the bottom, and use them to hook some rubber bands around the foam packed items.

For tanks, place them in soft foam and make sure that the fuel lines are not kinked. For receivers, wrap them in foam and then either pack them into the fuselage with extra foam or use rubber bands with some hooks glued to teh fuse bottom. Not too tight! You need to protect both from vibration.

"Six_O'Clock_High" wrote

Valid points. #1, check your rubber bands, and change when needed. Doing that, never a problem.

Added weight? I try to pick attach points all ready to use, like wing doublers, and landing gear blocks. Simply add a small piece of light ply, (if not hardwood), and you are good to go.

If none of that is handy, it really does not take much added weight to hold it all. After all, you would have to add something, if it was too big for wedged in foam.

I have started using velcro to secure recievers and batteries. I simply glue the velcro negative to the fuse and make a velcro strap from 2 different pieces that leaves the positive velcro side out and pop it in place. Can't hardly pull it out!!! But you can swap recievers easily too. The velcro that goes around the reciever also holds the foam it's wrapped in. Works for me. Eddie Fulmer

On 1/11/2004 5:53 AM Ted shuffled out of his cave and grunted these great (and sometimes not so great) words of knowledge:

What you are saying is 100% correct.

A couple of suggestions - For longer receiver life, put the receiver IN BACK of the battery. In case of a "Semi-Controlled" landing, the receiver stands a much better chance of survival. IF you have to put the receiver (or battery) under the fuel tank, after you have all your leads connected, put the receiver in a baggie to protect it from any accidental fuel leakage.

I've used the same method on all the planes I've built. It calls for some foam blocks like you might find a hard drive packed in for shipping. I cut a block to fit snugly (length X width) inside the rx chamber, and make it fill 2/3 of the depth. Then, with a fresh #11, I cut a pocket in the middle of the block just big enough for the rx to fit snugly, and completely, into. Cut a top block just like the other one, wedge it in place, and you have a rx mount that will absorb all the shock you can throw at it. Well...with the plane still in one piece, anyway. The weight penalty for this is an ounce or two, depending on the density of your foam. But, seeing as how the rx is usualy near CoG, it hasn't been a problem for me.

FWIW, Kev

I like the idea of Velcro and foam, thanx, ken

Lotsa folks use Velcro, and it works.

A word or two of caution, though . . . .

A recent article in one of the Brit mags showed models re-kitted due to Velcro "failure".

More correctly, Velcro "contamination".

One gent uses Velcro to hold his battery packs in the model.

The failure in his case was that the battery pack had its Velcro fully loaded with _dog hair_.

Any fiber will do that . . . dog hair, cat hair, carpet fiber, lint, you name it.

Make sure your Velcro isn't busily loading up with something that might prevent it hooking to the mating strip. Cheers, Fred McClellan The House Of Balsa Dust

Thats what he gets for letting his dog install the battery.

Instead of rubber bands to hold things together, substitute plastic straps, the ones where one end slips into the other and won't pull out. If too short, put two together and wrap one end into the other. Never need to worry about rubber bands again!

Don

Depends on your configuration and how much space you have. On my latest plane, I have suspended the receiver with rubber bands between two crosspieces. Really takes the vibration out of it. I usually pack foam around a tank to hold it in place, however, on my latest I had a ply platform and used zip ties to hold it in place.

John VB

Yeah, that is what I started using after I got lucky and discovered the problem on a bird.