PLEASE READ ME FIRST

BEFORE PROCEEDING TO ASSEMBLE OR OPERATE THIS PRODUCT

LIABILITY DISCLAIMER

The authors and/or suppliers and/or disseminaters of this information and/or product expressly disclaim any warranties or representations, either expressed or implied, including but not limited to implied warranties of fitness, accuracy, timeliness or applicability of the information and/or product provided here. In no event will the authors and/or suppliers and/or disseminaters of this information and/or product have any obligation arising from contract or tort, for loss of revenue or profit, or for indirect, special, incidental, consequential or other damages of any sort arising from this information and/or product. In using this information and/or product, the user accepts all responsibility for and all liability associated with such use.

CAUTION

A Remote Control (RC) model aircraft is not a toy. It is a flying model that functions much like a full size airplane. If you do not assemble and operate model aircraft properly you can cause injury to yourself and others and damage property. DO NOT FLY a model aircraft unless you are qualified.

You are ultimately responsible for the mechanical, aeronautical and electrical integrity of any model you fly and all of the components that make up the model including but not limited to the airframe itself, control surfaces, hinges, linkages, covering, engine, motor, radio, servos, switches, wiring, battery and parts. Check all components before and after each flight. It is essential that you act with the clear understanding that you are solely responsible for all aspects of the model at all times. DO NOT FLY until it is right.  

AVOIDING 90% of PROBLEMS that can arise:  

1. READ THE CAUTION ABOVE & READ THE LIABILITY DISCLAIMER.You are responsible for all aspects of any model you fly. You're It!
2. READ ALL DOCUMENTATION before doing anything else! 
3. INSPECT CAREFULLY immediately upon arrival!.
4. RETAIN ALL PACKAGING until the checkout is complete! If you need to return anything you must have all of the original packaging.
5. READ & LOOK! At everything! Do it once & then do it again.
6. REMEMBER WHAT "ARF" STANDS FOR. ARF means ALMOST Ready to Fly with an emphasis on ALMOST! Some assembly and modeling skills are required.
7. ALLOW ENOUGH TIME to enjoy the assembly process! Rushing into a 6 hour job with 3 hours to spare simply will not work. This is a Hobby... take your time.
8. DRY FIT & TEST ASSEMBLE EVERYTHING before you glue anything!
9. USE 30 MINUTE EPOXY when joining wings & installing stabilizers and other structural components but only after you have dry fitted and test assembled the components without glue! Once parts are glued together they cannot be unglued and they cannot be returned or replaced without charge.
10. PLAN AHEAD! BE CAREFUL! If you get into trouble, DON'T PANIC. Review everything again, talk it over with an experienced modeler and if still in difficulty consult our Support Services.
11. TEST TEST!!! TUG TUG TUG!!! EVERYTHING... BEFORE & AFTER EACH FLIGHT! Your model may have been largely pre-constructed and may have pre-installed control rods, hinges, control surfaces and many other essential components. Hinges may have been pinned after they have been installed. However, you must double check every control surface and component before and after each flight. You and only you are responsible for the integrity of all components and the integrity of the model itself. Check everything before and after each flight. Tug on control surfaces, control rods, mounting bolts, T-nuts, mounting plates... tug on everything!
12. DO NOT OVER TIGHTEN WING BOLTS or other fasteners. You want bolts and nuts snugly tight and if metal you can use a medium grade thread locker such as Pacer Z42 to help them stay tight. Fasteners must be snug and secure. However a model airplane is not a farm tractor or a garbage compactor. You do not need a pipe wrench or an electric drill to tighten up wing bolts or any other fastener. Leave your plumbing and power tools at home.. hand tools only and go easy on the torque... snug and secure... not stripped or torqued until they squeak or break.  Wing bolts can take tremendous torque before breaking... but when you over tighten them or use an electric screw driver on a set of wing bolts, long before the bolts break you can fracture the fuselage, crack the mounting blocks or pull the heads of the bolts through the wing... these problems have a nasty habit of revealing themselves when you least expect the wing to fall off!
13. DO NOT OVERPOWER ANY MODEL! Stay within the recommended power range for the model. If you overpower the model you run a high risk of structural failure that will lead to loss of control and a subsequent crash that will destroy the model and may cause injury and/or property damage.
14. ASSUME NOTHING! Remember the old yarn about what happens when you ASS-U-ME something. Check everything repeatedly and frequently and DO NOT FLY any model unless you are satisfied that everything is in good working order.

This supplementary information applies to manuals with a copyright date of 20050712 (see back cover). Manuals having later copyright dates may already reflect this supplementary information.

This supplementary information applies to manuals with a copyright date of 20050712 (see manual back cover). Manuals having later copyright dates may already reflect this supplementary information.

This supplementary information applies to manuals with a copyright date of 20050712 (see back cover). Manuals having later copyright dates may already reflect this supplementary information.

This supplementary information applies to manuals with a copyright date of 20050712 (see back cover). Manuals having later copyright dates may already reflect this supplementary information.

Please see Page 6, Step 8.1 & Figure 8A. Step 8.1 and Figure 8A describe and show the dry test fitting of the vertical stabilizer into the vertical stabilizer slot in the top of the fuselage. On some early versions of the Bird Dog produced in July and August of 2005 the slot in the fuselage is slightly too deep so that the vertical stabilizer tab shown in Figure 8D does not contact the bottom of the slot when inserted into the fuselage. 

If your vertical stabilizer does not contact the bottom of the fuselage slot when inserted into the fuselage you need to rectify this with a small filler strip inserted into the fuselage slot and tacked into place with CA or other glue before installing the vertical stabilizer using 30 minute epoxy. The filler strip should be approximately 5-7mm high and the width and length of the slot. Use balsa or other light wood to make this strip. Dry fit the strip and the vertical stabilizer before gluing anything into place. The idea here is to make sure that the bottom of the vertical stabilizer tab seats firmly against the strip which in turn fills the gap in the bottom of the fuselage slot. 

This model uses POLYCOTE ECS Covering

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Check Frequently for Updates

In general "Additional" Information is:

• In addition to that found in other documentation related to this product,
• Often reflects feedback &/or questions from users of the product.

Subject to the Conditions of Use, please review the attachments and related articles listed below. 

For those of you who may be wondering about flying a VMAR Bird Dog at High Altitude please see the general article on high altitude electric performance included further below.

---

In addition to the article included below, here is some feedback provided by a modeler flying a Bird Dog near Durango, CO at approximately 7000 feet above sea level.

He has equipped his Bird Dog as follows:

• AXI Outrunner 2808/24
• 3 Cell LiPo consisting of 2 x 2200mAh 3 cell packs in parallel for 4400 mAh total capacity.
• Using a Graupner Folding 10x6 Prop

Reports brisk reliable performance with this power system in the Bird Dog.

---

 

Question: I live at 5000 feet above sea level. What should I do to get my electric power system to perform at high altitudes as well as it does at sea level?

Answer: It's tough to get the same performance at 5000 or 8000 feet as you do at sea level but we do have a technique that will help you come close.

First of all it's important to understand a few things:

1) Unlike an internal combustion engine (i.e. glow or gas), an electric motor does not consume oxygen and hence could care less about oxygen or anything else that affects combustion.

2) An electric motor system that runs well at sea level will underperform at higher altitudes not because the air has less oxygen but because the air is thinner. Hot weather does the same thing... the air gets thinner. Hot and high together can really gang up and take a chunk out of the performance.

In order to get your electric motor system to perform in thinner air the same way it does at sea level, you may actually have to change the motor, speed control, battery pack and prop but before you go reaching for your credit card here is a technique that attacks the problem from the lowest cost component first.

1) Measure the watts that your power system consumes at sea level or other relatively low altitude location. Use a Medusa Power Analyzer or AstroFlight Whatt meter.

2) Better yet, if possible, use the Medusa Power Analyzer PRO thrust meter to measure the thrust generated and the watts consumed.

3) Now do the same measurements (1 & 2) at the higher altitude location. You will notice that your system consumes less watts and if you are able to measure thrust you will notice that you get less thrust at higher altitude than you do at lower altitude. This is because the air is thinner (less dense) at higher altitudes.

4) In order to get the thrust back up to where it was at lower altitudes you need the prop to move more of the thinner air. To do this, select a higher pitch and/or larger diameter prop for use at higher altitudes. Test again and try to find a prop that gives you the same thrust and/or watt values as you were getting on the original prop at lower altitude. If you can get the same thrust at 5000 feet as you got at sea level for example, you will have similar flight performance. Thrust is really the key here and it's best to work with thrust numbers but watts are a good relative indicator of thrust. Not perfect but still helpful!

Be cautious when testing to ensure that the motor, ESC and battery do not overheat with the new prop. Some compromising may be necessary to get good performance that does not overheat components.

In a perfect world, you would carefully select a specific motor, ESC, battery and prop to get the ideal combination for high altitude performance when installed in a particular model. Yup... perfect is best... but for those of us who can settle for a bit less than ideal and have limited budgets, changing the prop to generate similar thrust in high, hot & thinner air as you get in low, cool & thicker air is a good low cost way to go.    

Question: I have a VMAX #VMM-111B18VM VMAX Brushless Motor. What do I need in the way of mounting screws?

a) VMAX VMAX #VMM-111B18VM VMAX Brushless Motors that are supplied with VMAX Power Modules and VMAX Power Packs come pre-mounted with the appropriate screws for the motor.

 

b) The threads are 3mm and generally four 3mm x 6-12 mm machine hex head screws with washers will work.

 

c) We sell a Mounting Screw Set (#VMM-111B18MS) consisting of four 3mm x 10mm hex head screws. Hex head screws should be used with flat washers under the heads.

 

d) We also sell a Mounting Screw Set (#VMM-111B18MT) consisting of 16 mounting screws. Four screws in each of four different sizes/styles.

• 3 x 10 mm Hex head machine screws (4) (like VMM-111B18MS)
• 3 x 16 mm Hex head machine screws (4) (longer version of above)
• 3 x   6 mm Phillips countersink head screws (4) (for flush fitting)
• 3 x 10 mm Phillips countersink head screws (4) (for flush fitting) 

The four different sizes/styles allow for thicker firewalls, multi-layer firewalls where the screw heads must be countersunk between the layers, etc.

 

This set provides for a very wide range of different mounting methods.

 

Hex head screws should be used with flat washers under the heads.

Wrench and Socket Head sizes for the VMAR Bird Dog power module hardware are as follows:

For the Prop Nuts 7/32"

For the Power Module nuts (that fit on the four threaded studs that attach the firewall to fhe fuselage) 7/32" deep socket

For the four black machine screws that go through the firewall and thread into tapped holes in the motor mount (backing plate) 2.5mm Allen Wrench

For the 2 or 3 black grub screws that retain the motor into the backing plate are accessed via the slot between the motor the backing plate 1.5 mm Allen Wrench.

Question: When I am mounting wing servos in the VMAR Bird Dog, the wing strut attachment point washer is in the way of the mounting tab on one of the servos. What do I do?

Solution: This is easy to fix. Use a sharp #11 Xacto blade to knotch out the wooden washer as shown in the picture below. Takes about 15 seconds and you'll be good to go.

Note that this notching is only required where the strut washer and servo are in contact. This appears only to be an issue on production models up to November 2005.