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SUN DANCER ARF ASSEMBLY MANUAL
INTRODUCTION:
Congratulations on the purchase of the Sig Sun Dancer ARF kit!
Properly assembled, powered, and flown the Sun Dancer will
become one of your favorite models in no time. The construction
of this ARF kit is extremely well engineered, providing an airframe
structure that is very light and strong. This is one of the reasons
that it flies as well as it does using the recommend engine
sizes. The Sun Dancer ARF has superb take-off and landing
characteristics combined with remarkable aerobatic capabilities.
The airframe has been specifically designed to provide you with a
model with that "zeroed out" feel. This is to say that the wings,
stabilizers are set at 0
O
in relationship to the thrust line. In turn this
provides you with a model that is completely "honest" in any
attitude and goes just where you point it. We will cover more
detailed set-up information later in the assembly instructions.
Engine Note: Do to the large number of useable engines for this
model, we simply cannot cover every possible engine installation.
However, the large volume of space provided inside the cowling
should make it easy to mount virtually any engine within the
suggested size range.
ADDITIONAL ITEMS NEEDED TO COMPLETE THIS MODEL
RADIO EQUIPMENT:
We highly recommend the use of a modern computer radio. Such
radio systems allow you to easily set and adjust every channel
and additional pre-program various flight functions to suit your
individual style of flying. Four channels are required to fly your
Sun Dancer - rudder, elevator, ailerons, and throttle.
Servos:
You will require a total of eight servos - ailerons(4),
elevators(2), rudder(1), and throttle(1). Since the Sun Dancer is a
large, highly aerobatic airplane and because the control surfaces
are also large, we urge you to use appropriate servos on all
control surfaces (ailerons, elevators, and rudder).
This model
should not be flown with "standard" 40- 50 inch/ounce output
servos! The Sun Dancer is large enough to impart very large air
loads and standard size servos will quickly fail, resulting in a loss
of control and possibly crashing the model. You should use heavy-
duty ball-bearing servos with at least 70 inch/ounce of torque or
more to drive the ailerons, elevators, and rudder. If available, use
a servo with metal gears instead of plastic gears. Specifically, in
our prototype models we used Hitec
™
HS-645MG (Part #32645S)
servos for the ailerons, elevators, and rudder. This is a dual ball-
bearing servo, rated at 77 inch/ounces of torque. Another good
choice would be the Airtronics
™
#94731 servo, which has 80
inch/ounces of torque. These servos or their equivalent from other
manufactures, can be relied upon to work well throughout the Sun
Dancer's flight envelope.
A "standard" servo is adequate for the
throttle.
Servo Arms:
We also suggest that you consider using after-
market reinforced plastic servo arms such as the Du-Bro "Super
Strength" products. These output arms are available to fit any
brand of servo. They are very strong and work extremely well with
this model. The Du-Bro output arms are molded from considerably
stronger material and these have held up extremely well in our
prototypes.
Servo Extension Chords: You will need the following chords...
Four 24” and two 6” standard extension chords for the ailerons.
Three standard Y-harness cords for the ailerons.
One reversing type Y-harness cord for the two elevator servos.
The three Y-harness chords for the ailerons can be the standard
type sold by all radio manufacturers for their radio systems. The
Y-harness for the elevators should be be the type that “reverses”
the travel direction on one side of the Y-harness - see the following
note about a great aftermarket product called the “Miracle Y”.
Miracle "Y": Note in the photos that the elevator servos will be
mounted on opposite sides of the fuselage (i.e. with the pushrods
coming off the top of each servo in direct line with the control
horns). This is done so the geometry of the servos, pushrods, and
control horns is exactly symmetrical on both sides, providing the
exact same response to control inputs for each elevator. This is
very important in an all out aerobatic model like the Sun Dancer.
Normally in order to have this setup work properly with a standard
Y-harness, you would have to electronically reverse the wiring
inside one of the elevator servos so that both elevators will go up
(or down) at the same time. However, there is an after-market
Y-harness available that electronically reverses one of the
elevators for you. It also has a centering adjustment pot that lets
you dial in the elevators exactly to a neutral relationship with each
other.
This product is called the "Miracle Y Servo Reversing
Y adapter", sold by MAXX Products of Lake Zurich, IL. It can be
ordered with any radio manufacturer's connectors you specify. We
have thoroughly tested this product and found it to be reliable,
easy to use and very reasonably priced. In addition, it is a total of
24" in length - 12" of elevator extension cables and a 12" cable for
the receiver. Perfect for the Sun Dancer!
RX Battery Pack: Finally, since you will be using a total of 8
servos to fly this airplane, we strongly suggest you use a large
capacity battery pack for his model.
We used the 2400 mAh
battery pack to power the flight system. This pack provides ample
time to safely fly at least five or six flights during any given flying
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