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

[xviper]

Yes, you can use one battery if you like. It’s just a bigger one that equals that of 2 smaller ones. If you build this plane on 3s power, the recommended battery is up to 6000mah. So, you could go with one of those or 2 smaller ones equaling that mah. I built mine to run on 4s power and I use 2X3000 mah, but I could just as easily go with one 5000mah to 6000mah battery. I have a lot of smaller batteries. You just need enough weight to achieve the correct CG in the space available. One or two batteries doesn’t matter. It’s what you have or what you want to buy.

[jobinseattle]

Thanks, I think I will go with the Admiral 4S 4000mah since I already have four of them. The difference in weight from the Admiral 3S 5000 to the Admiral 4S 4000mah is 16 grams. I am sure a 3S 6000mah is heavier than the 4S 4000mah (388g). Besides that think I will go with most of Motion RC recommends except I will use these motors: Leopard 3536-10T 780kv Brushless Airplane Motor

[tab28682]

With this (excellent) livery, it is technically a military aircraft, not a commercial aircraft.....: )

Love that it is a short nose Twotter. If I recall correctly, there have not been any short nose versions done as an ARF before.

While 10% smaller than the excellent Hangar 9 Twin Otter, it is a real value at the price shown. The list price on the H9 Twotter was $599 when it was discontinued.

I ned to get the old H9 Twotter out and fly it. I have been procrastinating on a minor repair to the mounting ring on the fiberglass nose.

[GreenMTN_Boy]

They're in stock, mine is on the way!!!

[jobinseattle]

Just ordered mine also.

[Sureshot]

Me three!

[dutchwhite001]

Hey Xviper, Just ordered my Canadian version Twin Otter to match my Nature Air. And while I was at it, I ordered both the Tigermoths. Figured since I had the one already, mine as well have all three!
Dutchman

[dutchwhite001]

Xviper, forgot to tell you I got the set of floats for the Canadian version from VQ delivered yesterday. Here we have a pond at the house, and so does everybody else within earshot, and we fly off them when bored with losing things in the corn fields and Catfish ponds out by the Ag strip! Hope you get another day of Spring in the near future!!!
Dutchman

[xviper]

@dutchwhite001 Very nice! I wish I had the room for a second one in the Canadian theme. There are few planes that I have duplicates of and I'll eventually get rid of one duplicate, keeping the "best" one. I just don't have the space to store them.
Floats for this plane must be huge to hold up all that weight on water. I have a couple water planes but I fly them off grass or snow in winter.

[KC Air]

Just ordered mine. What a great looking aircraft. Paypal Credit is 6 months with zero interest, can't beat that.

[KC Air]

Stupid question time, or more appropriately question from a stupid person time.. switching the wires on one motor will make them counter-rotating, true?

[xviper]

Stupid question time, or more appropriately question from a stupid person time.. switching the wires on one motor will make them counter-rotating, true?

Switching any 2 wires of the 3 will reverse the motor rotation.

[KC Air]

Anyone planning on running 4s 4000 batteries in this plane? Looks like the Admiral motors and the ZTW Mantis will support it.

I will maiden with 3S, then decide if I want to try 4S. I just tried to buy the recommended motors and esc's for this plane and neither are in stock at Motion. That is a little stinky.. new plane for sale, no electronics for it.

[Twowingtj]

Maidened, plus two, my wife's Twin Otter yesterday. These are excellent flying planes. No take off flaps needed. With full flaps and about 1/4 throttle it comes in on a nice glide path with no elevator mix needed.

With the Nexa Twin Otter being the same airframe from the same factory, and at a better price point, it's a lot of fun for the $.

d.

,

[USAairlines]

This plane is beautiful. I am currently working on it, but does anyone have any tips on building?

[xviper]

Not so much a “tip” but a note: When you get to the point where you fit the wings on and you use those two thumb screws to secure the wings in place, My problem is compounded by the fact that I built a small wooden tray to set the receiver onto. This impeded my easy access to the thumb screws. I found that there was no way I could get my hands in there to turn those screws - just too tight and awkward. Before you get too far into the build, give that aspect a good look and think about a better way to do it. If you put your receiver in a different place, you may not have the same sort of problem getting those plastic thumb screws tightened, so you may not have a whole lot of head scratching to do. I used an old AS3X receiver and it needs to be level and centered to work properly.

[USAairlines]

Not so much a “tip” but a note: When you get to the point where you fit the wings on and you use those two thumb screws to secure the wings in place, My problem is compounded by the fact that I built a small wooden tray to set the receiver onto. This impeded my easy access to the thumb screws. I found that there was no way I could get my hands in there to turn those screws - just too tight and awkward. Before you get too far into the build, give that aspect a good look and think about a better way to do it. If you put your receiver in a different place, you may not have the same sort of problem getting those plastic thumb screws tightened, so you may not have a whole lot of head scratching to do. I used an old AS3X receiver and it needs to be level and centered to work properly.

Dont worry, I have a way to get those in.😊. I am going to use the AR637t with AS3X. Shouldn’t be a problem.

[Rmawer]

Evening all. I'm another one that joined the Twin Otter club. I've had my eye on this plane for several years and finally pulled out the Visa card to get it. My build is under way and made a few mods to mine in the process. First, I'm using dual elevator servos as I've never trusted the dual fork design (three set screws securing one of the most important control surfaces - on a smaller plane maybe, but not on this beast). Second, I moved the nose gear push rod to the right side. When I dry fitted the steering horn, I found where they ground the flat on the strut, the arm was just about bottomed out on the firewall resulting in very little left turn. With the move plus filing a notch in the strut mounting plate, the arm is about 30 degrees from the horizontal and swings rearward with plenty of room to turn both directions. Lastly, as a result of lessons learned, I'm using a separate servo (metal gear) for the steering (too many stripped gears in the past). The move also gave me more room to do this and still keeps the center clear for a receiver and a battery(ies).

Now, a question for those who've built theirs. In the package of hardware, in addition to the long push rods, there are three short ones with Z bends and three with clevises. Now, I see one of the shorties with the Z bend is supposed to be used with the elevator fork linkage. That leaves two Z bends and three push rods with metal clevises for the ailerons and flaps. Any idea why Nexa wants you to use two different styles of push rods for the flaps and ailerons? Personally, I plan to use Z bends at the servo and clevises at the control horns for all the wing controls (old habit). Just curious to see if I'm the only one that got this mix or if this a normal packaging set.

[Rmawer]

Not so much a “tip” but a note: When you get to the point where you fit the wings on and you use those two thumb screws to secure the wings in place, My problem is compounded by the fact that I built a small wooden tray to set the receiver onto. This impeded my easy access to the thumb screws. I found that there was no way I could get my hands in there to turn those screws - just too tight and awkward. Before you get too far into the build, give that aspect a good look and think about a better way to do it. If you put your receiver in a different place, you may not have the same sort of problem getting those plastic thumb screws tightened, so you may not have a whole lot of head scratching to do. I used an old AS3X receiver and it needs to be level and centered to work properly.

Glad you brought up the thumbscrew issue as I had the same concern. I'm thinking about changing out those horrible injection molded screws (think they're M6 X 1.0) to plain vanilla alloy screws and adding a 3-D printed knob to increase the finger grip area. Still, getting your hand in that cramped area is going to be tough. I'll advise as to what I come up with (still thinking on this).

[xviper]

I think these hardware kits they provide for ARF planes are fairly generic. VQ Models made several planes in their lineup and I'll bet all the hardware kits are the same for certain "class" of plane. People who build these things will use what's provided and what they already have on hand and each person will build a plane in their own way based on previous experience. When I finished mine, there were lots of left over parts. As for the wires for control rods, I cut them down and put my own Z-bend in them. The Z end went on the horn and on the servo end I put what you see in the picture. I also didn't use those spindly little tires that came with it, except for one of the mains, which I put on the nose strut. I find most ARFs to be an adventure.
PS. I'm using a reprogrammed AR636 out of an old Radian XL, with 3 gyro settings. The highest gain setting is the one I fly this TO with and it's stable as a rock. The two lower ones were experiments in caution.