Building a 60'' Douglas DC-6B Short Kit

Hello,

I have been subscribed and watching FliteTest since before the Wildcat review ages ago and I love it. I am glad you guys are independent (non-sponsored) now because my favorite subject is fun projects such as the flying turkey. Keep the great videos coming!

Anyways, I thought I would share my project that I just finished. I like to build from kits and plans, balsa or foam. I wanted to get into multi-motor aircraft and one plane has always stood out in my mind - the Douglas DC-6. First flown in 1946, the DC-6 along with the Lockheed Constellation have always been the iconic propliners of the airliner boom in the 50's and 60's. Unfortunately, there are no good Connie plans, kits or ARFs out there so I went with the Pat Tritle DC-6 short kit. This is my third Tritle design and I have to say his kits are fantastic. He is well know for his extremely light and flyer-friendly designs. 

Next was choosing the color scheme. I went with Everts Air Cargo's N151 out of Anchorage, AK. Everts Air Cargo is the only operation in North American still flying DC-6s! 

Along with the kit, I ordered over 500 feet of the required balsa strips (only cost me $28 from NationalBalsa), two rolls of Ultracote Parklite, one roll of plain white Ultracote and a roll of Dark Blue Microlite along with the vinyl deals from CalliesGraphics. Here are the electronics I decided to go with. Everything is from HeadsUpRC except for the retracts which are from Horizon:

(4) Power-Up 250 Plus motors, (4) HURC 10A ESCs, (2) 3S 2200mah 40C LiPos, 2S 800mah RX pack, 5A UBEC, (4) HS-55 servos, (2) TP 9G servos and the E-flite 10-15 size tricycle retract set. 

I decided to go with a contra-rotating prop setup to get rid of the tourqe on high throttle settings. When viewed from the rear (pilot's view) there is two normal-rotation props on the left and two reverse-rotation props on the right. Works great!

I wired all the motors in parallel. So basically, the two motors and ESCs on one wing are y-harnessed together and then y-harnessed with the other wing into one deans power connector and one RX throttle connector. Don't forget to disconnect the red wires on the ESCs if you use a seperate UBEC and/or RX pack! I highly recommend using a separate UBEC when using 5 or more servos, or you have retracts or even just a whole bunch of wires crammed into a wing like I do ;) 

For the sake of the months and many, many, many, many hours of building you should visit my RCG build thread for the build log and pictures. Otherwise it went very smoothly even though I hacked the wing for retracts and flaps (original kit is 4 channels). 

The biggest problem I had was the motors which screeched whenever the throttle went above the 3/4 setting. After a few days of frustration I contacted Jeff and HeadsUpRC and he suggested setting the ESCs to high timing. Worked perfectly!

The second problem was the tandem (two wheels on one strut) wheel setup fitting into the very tight nacelle space when retracted. I decided to not follow the plan's soldering outlines and use a different method by soldering the strut deep inside a hole in a large wheel collar. Once a small wire is added into the wheel collar and soldered down, a wheel is slipped onto each side and then I soldered a washer onto each side to keep the wheels on. It only took about 30 minutes to do and is very strong once inserted into the retract unit.

Because the structure is so light and I sheeted the nacelle sides with basswood instead of balsa stringers, the four motors make a very deep and authentic propliner groaning sound. It sounds like the plane is vibrating but it actually is just fine. I love it! Just use plenty of loctite as you can see here:

The maiden went smooth and the flaps and retracts really seal the deal with this plane. She is a huge attention grabber at the flying field! 

Now go build something!!!

Ethan