Wednesday 30 January 2019

C17, Seahawk and Skyraider

The C17 has been plodding away gently in the background, with me glassing the myriad of parts as and when I've been building up a pile of bits that require it.  The entirety of the fuselage has now been glassed, and here I am finalising the tension system that keeps the two parts of fuselage together:


She's a big girl to keep in the workshop in once piece, so I migrated to the landing to add the first of the solid balsa end pieces of the undercarriage pods.  Bramble looks on, quite unimpressed:


I should be able to flip that over tonight and the other side.  Once they are carved to shape, they will need a layer of glass, and the joint between the two halves can then be finalised and gap-filled.  That will clear the fuselage for primer then!

The little Seahawk has been coming along well, the filler primer just about dry now:



Just the cockpit to finish up, top access hatch, then into final paint.  Nearly there!

This project has been tickling away for a while - an own design Douglas Skyraider.  It was originally intended to be next year's mass build model, but it looks like I'm too far behind so it might end up as 2022's model!  Crikey that seems far off currently.  Anyway, here are some pictures from CAD:



Apologies as they're photos of my screen, and not screenshots.  I hope to cut some parts for the Skyraider later in the year, will see how she goes.




Thursday 17 January 2019

Pilots and ejection seats

As mentioned previously, I've been doing some work for a friend, designing and making ejection seats for a Tornado (Martin Baker mk10a), as well as buying a 3d model of a jet pilot that I can scale and print for various aircraft in the future.

Pilot on seat:


Left arm just placed on for testing:


This should be approx 10th scale:


Straight off the printer:


A seat on it's own.  This one is slightly smaller than what was actually required - nearer 11th scale:


Monday 7 January 2019

NYE flying, and back to the workshop

The annual PSSA informal NYE & NYD meet was another good one this year, although I only attended the NYE.  We were blessed with 32mph SW winds into the favoured bowl on the Great Orme, which provided ample lift for everything.


At last, a flying shot of JV-Z!  She really does handle so nicely :



The A10 got away OK, but flew unconvincingly for the first 5 minutes as all the trims were far out :


A good turn-out of PSSA pilots and plenty of variation in what we were flying :



Before I went up, I replaced the old rattly hitch on the trailer with a new shiny one:



No more clunks and bangs from that, excellent.

I've been designing and printing more parts recently - this is a Mk10A ejection seat from a Tornado :


I've now glassed the Seahawk canopy plug, and should be close to finishing that this week.  I've also spent some time insulating the shed, so it will be OK to spray in there at this time of year - the Tiffie being the first victim.