We’ve now had a few opportunities to fly our Chocofly DG800. We’re still tinkering with the settings, but are close to the final result. It’s a fun plane. With the large wingspan and short fuselage it’s very manoeuvrable and the airfoil allows both for good thermalling and faster flying. Without pushing it too much I got to 235kmh – more should be possible. At the same time it likes a bit of camber and can be thermalled really nice and slow. Here’s a video that I made from our flying yesterday. The air was very gusty and choppy, so not the best conditions for flying, but the DG800 dealt with it very well. Also note that the mix of the rudder and ailerons isn’t optimal yet, the plane should be more stable when we get that right.
Category Archives: DG800 (Chocofly)
Chocofly DG800: maiden flight
This spring has not been good for flying so far – the weather has been all over the place. On 8 April I did however finally get a chance to maiden my Chocofly DG800. My mate Georg, who also built one, maidened his two days earlier. Unusually, he struggled a bit to get it flying well and had to play around with the throws, incidence and center of gravity. I greatly benefitted from his experimenting and was able to maiden mine with much improved settings.
We’ve changed the incidence significantly (reduced it to around 1.2 degrees by applying five layers of masking tape under the front of the tailplane) and moved the center of gravity to 68-69mm. It also needs a lot of differential on the ailerons.
With these setting the plane flies very well. It has the perfect combination of light weight (easy hand start), good thermaling and a lovely acceleration, exactly what I was looking for. Unfortunately the wind changed to a northerly breeze early in the afternoon, so we were unable to experiment further. The settings are thus still preliminary and will need to be fine-tuned. More details once I get the chance to fly it again.
Chocofly DG800: ready to maiden
My new Chocofly DG800 is now also ready for the maiden flight. Finishing the canopy was quite a bit of work. I wanted to have a “hidden” lock (under the left wing) – as I do with all my larger scale gliders. I also needed to cut out part of the seat pan for the motor. Fortunately the seat pan was a really good fit, as was the canopy, so glueing it together wasn’t too much of a hassle. I wasn’t sure what glue to use – my mate Georg used canopy glue – but decided to go for thickened and whitened epoxy resin. To avoid epoxy getting onto the fuselage I put clingfilm into the fuselage and some grease on the canopy lock and pin at the front. I then applied a thin layer of epoxy resin to the side of the seatpan, installed the seatpan onto the fuselage and then carefully put the canopy on top. With a bit of waxtape I fixed it into position and waited for the epoxy to cure. Instead of painting the canopy edge I used vinyl tape. Chocofly kindly sent me the plotter file for the canopy frame so that I could plot it on my trusted Cameo 3. Applying the sticker required a steady hand but went well. Canopy looks fine.
I also finished installing the electronics in the fuselage and added the decals. My mate Georg’s DG800 is also ready for it’s maiden flight – hopefully we can maiden them together in the next few weeks. More pictures to follow then.
DG800 and Avanti: Decals!
The DG800 deserves some cool decals and the Avanti needs them to cover up the repairs and repainted nose. So I set myself to work. Dani from Chocofly kindly shared with me some of his plotter data for the DG800s, which I modified and adapted for our version. As we are building two of these (Georg and myself) we decided to use the same basis, with a small difference in colour – as we did with the VT-16 Orlik (red and blue). I also decided to push my Silhouette Cameo 3 to its limits by plotting smaller pieces and to try two-coloured decals. Let’s see if they will hold :-).
Chocofly DG800: installation servos and motor (FES)
As mentioned in my earlier post, this is a pretty quick build. The servos in the fuselage and wings are installed. I used the Chocomotion 10 and 8mm Servos with the new Chocomotion LDS system, all of which I’m familiar with from previous builds and which work perfectly. There is no play on the wing control surfaces whatsoever and I’m able to use the full range of all servos, with sufficient throw.
I also installed the motor bulkhead. I was a bit nervous about this one, as Chocofly now uses MIGflight motors with a new type of bulkhead that’s glued in from the front. This no longer allows me to use my usual method for installing the motor. It turned out to be easier than feared. I first did a rough cut and then sanded back the nose, repeatedly fitting the motor and bulkhead to see if the fit was right. In the end I fixed the bulkhead (with motor) in the right position using a few dots of 5 minute epoxy. I then removed the motor, covered the front of the bulkhead and the nose of the DG with wax tape and fixed the plane with the nose down. Using a small pencil I first added some white coloured resin on the sides of the bulkhead (from the inside), wrapped in a thin carbon roving and then filled up the rest with somewhat thickened epoxy resin. Curious to see how it comes out tomorrow. I do hope that I got the downward angle of the motor (usually somewhere between 3 and 4 degrees) in the right range.
In-between: Chocofly DG800
I’ve got too many unfinished projects in my workshop (a pretty common “problem” among aeromodellers I think). As the monerai is now in a phase where it requires long waits for paint to dry I have time to tacke the other projects. One of the unfinished projects is a brand-new Chocofly DG800 that’s been sitting in my workshop since Autumn and that I’m keen to get ready in time for the start of the new flying season.
The Chocofly DG800 is the successor to the DG600 (still available from RCRCM). The DG600 was one of my favourite planes and also the glider that got me into slope soaring in Hahnenmoos. I sold mine a few years ago as I wasn’t flying it enough, I wasn’t entirely satisfied with the build quality from RCRCM and one of my club mates was keen to buy it from me. I did however miss my good old DG600. When Dani (Chocofly) raved about his new DG800 I ordered one, together with my flying buddy Georg.
Georg has started building his DG800 and kindly given me his notes (see also below, downloadable as a PDF file in the correct size). As a results my build can be pretty quick. I’ll be using the cool new Chocofly LDS system that I already used on my Ventus which is very precise and robust. I’ve glued the servo horns and servo frames into wings and fuselage and should have the wings and fuselage ready shortly. A bit of a hassle will be the canopy, as I’ll be installing a FES system that seems a challenging fit with the canopy. More on that later.
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