Wednesday 31 May 2017

Fouga pushrods and Flanker nose

Not too much here, as I am progressing quickly with the Fox and failing to take photo's of it!  Then again, it's practically an ARTF.

Some issues when flying the Fouga at the last PSSA event were caused by floppy pushrods, which I have since remedied with 5mm carbon shafts and M3 hardware either end :


 These now cross over in the fuselage, so I will have some re-programming to do next time I hit the slopes :

And lastly, the Flanker nose is now ready for primer.  5 or 6 coats of hard floor varnish on top of the glass, and we're good to go :


Tuesday 23 May 2017

Su-27 Flanker nose job

After performing so well in the clean, steady lift on the Cloud, I unfortunately managed to donk the landing a bit.  The rotor on the back of the slope managed to catch us all out at one time or another, and where this wasn't a particularly hard landing, it was straight into a large lump of heather, and the plastic nose caved in.
Flanker in her element - photo courtesy of Phil Cooke
This is what I was left with - oops!


Back in the workshop, it's time to laminate up some medium-hard 1/2" balsa sheet around the original undamaged centre plate, using Tite-Bond wood glue and two large clamps :


As I know she was carrying about 4 ozs of noseweight behind F3, I took the opportunity to hollow out the blocks a little and add 2ozs of lead into the nose.  This should result in an overall lighter aircraft, which is a good thing :


Stuck on with thickened epoxy, the airframe was protected with a few layers of cheapo masking tape, and the initial carving began :


A quick splodge of lightweight filler and a fine sand, and she's ready to be re-glassed :


 Hopefully I can get the glass on this week, then the primer and top coat done at the weekend.

Tuesday 16 May 2017

Fouga Magister for PSS - a few tweaks.

As mentioned before, I have been working on a few Fouga mods.

Firstly, tip tank dowels.  Tanks are now held on by 2 carbon dowels going into brass tubes in the wings, as well as the original 3 magnets :


Look away now if you have a nervous filler disposition! 

This is what was required to make the faces match up. It's not pretty, but it works - like most of my building in fact :)


This then gives a lovely close fit, once it had been sanded flush, primed, sprayed, panel lines added, then top coat :



Done, and ready for the slope again.


Monday 8 May 2017

A new transport trailer, servos, and PSSA coverage

A bit the bullet at last and bought a new trailer for model transportation.  The biggest problem with my old trailer is that it wouldn't fit the U2 fuselage, and now that there are some bigger airframes coming through that I'd rather not have inside the living space, I thought the time was right.


Dual axle (for a bit more security on the road), with space to fit the A10, C17, FW190, U2, Vulcan, M55 all at the same time, plus lots of smaller models.  It'll have racking for the main aircraft listed above, plus lash-down points for the glider tug, as well as a water carrier, space for the generator, and room for the gazebo too.

I recently went on a servo purchasing spree, so thought I'd line up the hardware for a quick picture!  This includes servos for the C17, the Ilyushin, the Seahawk, the big Fox, and the large FW190 (that I've not really mentioned on here as yet).


I've just had RCM&E's June edition through the post - what an amazing slice of  PSSA coverage!  6 pages of text and pictures from the Orme, which has to be one of the quickest turn-arounds for event-to-magazine that I've seen.

Friday 5 May 2017

Flying The Cloud, Bosley

We had a great impromptu PSSA meet on The Cloud on Wednesday, with a lovely 37-40mph NE cracking in on the big slope.  The Flanker went very well (donked on landing unfortunately) and the U2, too.

Here are some pics, which I should mention are all courtesy of Phil Cooke.  Please, do not re-use these without his express permission :




















Tuesday 2 May 2017

Back from holidays... (Fouga, Fox, U2)

..so it's back to building!

Just before we left for Cuba I bought a Reichard "Long" Fox, which was an experimental variation on the MDM-1, at quarter scale.  I then ordered up a load of servos and batteries to be delivered when I was gone, and now it's time to get building!



Undercarriage plates and semi-formers going in dry here.


3rd servo spot for the aerotow release.


The Fouga needed a little attention, as I wasn't happy with the final fit of the wings against the roots on the fuselage, but I ran out of time before the Orme even to rectify it.  I peeled off the covering on the faces of the root ribs, and after protecting the fuselage with masking tape, blobbed on some p38 filler and squeezed it all together.

This was then sanded back smooth, sometimes taking some of the original paintwork with it unfortunately, but the wings need a respray at the roots after this anyway.

The other problem was wobbly wings.  I initially thought the spar was flexing, but it seems the glass rod is not a very good fit in the wing box tubes.  I have temporarily fixed this by lining the spar with 3 lengths of thin masking tape.  The wobble is gone for now.

The U2 has another (that's 3 out of 4 possible) flap horns come loose on the Orme, so I have potted that in epoxy now too, as well as removed the tailwheel from the underside of the aircraft.  Should make her a bit cleaner and less likely to snag on landing.

Here's a couple of flying shots from Phil Cooke to prove that aviation was committed :