Official Nexa 1870mm DHC-6 Twin Otter Canadian Yellow (Balsa ARF) Discussion Thread

[greyflyuk]

Gents.... I am considering one of these otters. For those who one, can you tell me if the wings are fully balsa, or an open structure covered in film.

[xviper]

Gents.... I am considering one of these otters. For those who one, can you tell me if the wings are fully balsa, or an open structure covered in film.

It's an open structure (balsa spars and ribs), covered with film, but near the wing root, leading/trailing edges, there is also balsa sheeting. The wingtips appear to be a plastic molded piece.

[Scale Freak]

I had one of these from Hobby King. I shortened the gear to make it stand lower, and mine had a tendency to roll to the left. I thought I had it beat, but on the 2nd flight, it became uncontrollable. Post crash investigation saw the aileron hinges, which had been torn out, had a very thin strip of balsa still attached. I'm thinking that they were working themselves out in flight and thus causing the increasingly uncontrollable left turn.
I will get another as I did like this plane, but check those hinges! Do a good pull test and make sure they are well seated after the first few flights.
I also mounted the ESCs on the bottom of the wing, so that the surface of the ESC was flush with the wing surface, at the root by the fuse so the leads to the motor were short as possible, and they would recieve adequate cooling.

[Scale Freak]

Here's the before and after of the gear shortening. I think it looks much more realistic sitting closer to the ground.

[Scale Freak]

The ESC mounting in the wings

[Scale Freak]

One of the post crash aileron hinges, note the very tiny area where the glue actually attached.

[Scale Freak]

Before the fatal day, it looked really nice.

[Warbird51]

Any update on availability for the next shipment???

[Warbird51]

Anybody????

[Twowingtj]

Warbird51 Best bet would be to contact Motion RC support team. If there's a known or predicted ETA, they usually know.

[Warbird51]

Contacted customer service. They have no idea when they will be getting any more 😥

[Alpha]

An accurate ETA on balsa is difficult to pin down, what with the confluence of multiple negative factors raging in the region (raw materials, components, manpower, consolidation, logistics, just to name a few). I can say that we'd expect at least 2 months before more arrive in the US warehouse.

Thanks for your patience.

[Braden]

Can you fit gas engines on this model at all?

[xviper]

Can you fit gas engines on this model at all?

Most VQ models were originally built to run on gas engines. If you are a handy modeler, you could build this one to run on liquid fueled engines. It would be a matter of making the proper motor mount, "doctoring" up the cowls and running fuel lines and placing fuel tank(s). As is, this model is meant for electric.
PS. Mine came from HobbyKing years ago and was branded "HobbyKing". It even came with a little fuel tank and the instruction booklet even mentions something about fuel tubing.

[Braden]

After a little more searching it appears the VQ models mention fuel line fittings and gas powered engine in their original ad. Keeps my interest high for building one of these..

[Griffon Wings]

I ORDER ALL THE ELECTRONICS PLUS FLOATS ON SEPTEMBER 2019 ! That’s right, 2019 !!! Costumer service at the time promise me the plane was ETA IN 2- 3 weeks at the most.
22 plus months later still out of stock and i ask to semd back all the item ( flots are assembled so I cannot semd those anymore back , will go directly to garbage cans) but in a kindly way i was told about the return policy….
well, ain’t my fault guy’s and you can clearly see my order in your system.
I truly adore Motion rc , i do , but this on top of price raised push me back to not give any more business, specially from somebody like me which beside the sport jets I purchased all the planes and some multiple times.
Mr Ozzy at costumer service instead of understand the situation and put a patch on it ( maybe 200$ of return items ) lost a good costumer spending thousands ( THOUSANDS) at Motion Rc .
what a bummer !

[Griffon Wings]

An accurate ETA on balsa is difficult to pin down, what with the confluence of multiple negative factors raging in the region (raw materials, components, manpower, consolidation, logistics, just to name a few). I can say that we'd expect at least 2 months before more arrive in the US warehouse.

Thanks for your patience.

Thank you for everything, was very fun… was it .
read above and you’ll understand.
thank you Sir .

[GreenMTN_Boy]

Just wrapped up the build and this plane comes together exceptionally well, it's a real looker and worth the wait. If mounting traditional landing gear I highly suggest investing in some nicer tires, I opted to mount floats since I have a nice sized lake less than a mile away. I am eyeing up this weekend's weather with my fingers crossed to get a maiden flight in before winter really kicks on here in Vermont.

Originally, I had wired this plane to have counter-rotating props but I had a difficult time finding a CW 3 blade spinner so for now I have both motors running CCW. I have the motors on separate channels so I can utilize thrust differential while taxiing out on the water. I'm setting up the radio now and I am having a difficult time figuring out how to set throttle cut for my starboard motor on channel 7. I have a Spektrum receiver and a DX8 G2 radio, any insight would be appreciated!

[xviper]

Just wrapped up the build and this plane comes together exceptionally well, it's a real looker and worth the wait. If mounting traditional landing gear I highly suggest investing in some nicer tires, I opted to mount floats since I have a nice sized lake less than a mile away. I am eyeing up this weekend's weather with my fingers crossed to get a maiden flight in before winter really kicks on here in Vermont.

Originally, I had wired this plane to have counter-rotating props but I had a difficult time finding a CW 3 blade spinner so for now I have both motors running CCW. I have the motors on separate channels so I can utilize thrust differential while taxiing out on the water. I'm setting up the radio now and I am having a difficult time figuring out how to set throttle cut for my starboard motor on channel 7. I have a Spektrum receiver and a DX8 G2 radio, any insight would be appreciated!

I fly mine in winter off hard packed snow/ice with the balloon tires from the HobbyKing Tundra. I just received the bigger tires from the Grand Tundra, but after holding one up against the smaller Tundra tires, they might be just too big and goofy looking. I'm using one stock main wheel for the nose gear. With your floats, you should be able to easily fly it off snow/ice, if you can tolerate the cold. I don't fly when temps are below about -5C, calm winds.
As for the throttle cut and differential thrust, I too, had a problem with it on my old HobbyKing Lancaster. I recall that I did manage to do it but the specifics eludes me at the moment. I seem to remember that it had something to do with adding a mix for the side that didn't respond naturally to throttle cut. Try mixing the throttle cut switch to that side. If you hooked up that side's throttle to (for eg. AUX2), then it's something like Sw. H (TC) > AUX2.

[GreenMTN_Boy]

The first round of test flights went very well, Sunday turned out to be a perfect day at the lake, 45 degrees with a light and steady breeze straight out of the south (and most importantly, I had it all to myself). I used a single 4s 8000mah 30c battery and 11x6 3-blade props with 2.5" spinners, this configuration had plenty of thrust and was perfectly CG'd (battery placement shown in photo). However, this setup pulled too many amps (40+) so on my next flights I'll drop down to 10x5 3-blade props with 2" spinners. I might try splitting the power setup to use 2 4s 4000mah 30-40c batteries and see how that configuration performs. I'm using the suggested hardware; Admiral GP2 3520-950kv motors, 45 amp Avian "smart" ESCs, Hitec HS-5055MG 9g micro servos for the flaps, Hitec HS-485HB standard servos for elevator and rudder and Hitec HS-85BB high torque servos for the ailerons. I don't recall my D/R & Expo settings but I have the flaps set to a 3-second deployment speed, 50% take-off flap with 10% down elevator and 100% landing flap with 15% down elevator mixed in, no noticeable ballooning but more flights are needed before that's dialed. Still trying to figure out how to set up throttle cut on two channels... xviper I played around with your suggestion but I haven't been able to make it work.

My first take-off attempt resulted in some major porpoising, probably because I was anxious and too aggressive on the throttle. It tracks very well, really doesn't need a water rudder to keep it going straight. This plane can turn on a dime when using differential thrust, it was actually too sensitive so I'll need to dial down the mix. My second take-off attempt resulted in a perfect scale lift off and climb out. 2 clicks of up elevator and this plane was flying straight and level. I only flew one pattern around the lake and landed because my battery alarm was chirping immediately after taking off so I played it safe. After taxiing safely back to shore the port side motor wouldn't fire again so that ended my trials. At first I thought I had burned the esc because I was drawing too much power but once it was back on the bench at home it was working again... I ended the day with two nearly full batteries, 2.5 hours invested into setting up and breaking down the plane for transport and a few tweaks for the workbench. All jokes aside I was happy with the performance, looks and flight characteristics of the twotter.

Nothing to report otherwise, I have a few detail pieces leftover to install (covers for the pushrod tubes and winglets?) and I need to color match the yellow so I can paint the pontoon supports. Overall very happy with this plane, my only complaint is that getting to the wing bolts is difficult.