Bwlchfest Sunday

A good time on Sunday with some great flying on the Bwlch. The Fox maiden went well in the end on her second launch, unfortunately she managed to get away from the launchers first time round before they'd pushed her much, but I landed OK on top of the hill with no damage.

After that it was all gravy!  The skies were a bit grey and with the CofG on the rearward point, I landed her after about 20 minutes.  Happy to say the brakes work well, but I had a CFIT moment and scuffed the fuselage on an access track around the tail wheel mount, and snapped an elevator linkage. 

Quite a strange failure, but at least she flew and I think it's a keeper for now.

Stop taking the piss when I'm flying!

The highlight for me was my F104 flight.  33mph with 50+ gusts, and she handled it very easily.  It was wonderful to see her on only her second flight grooving around with very axial rolls, and quick height gain when required.  As expected though, a tip tank was damaged on landing, so one flight was all she got.  I think I have a solution for the tip tanks to be easily knocked off but sturdy enough to stay on in flight - as the damaged tank is already repaired, I will try and incorporate it before the Lleyn meet.

Leave me alone!

Reichard "Long" Fox build

Well, this big Fox is nearly done now, with just a couple of jobs left before a hopeful maiden at the weekend.

Dual aileron servos here getting their covers attached :

Spoiler servo in place.  Box needs a quick tidy then this will get an Oracover patch to hide it :

Nose installation.  2 off LiFe batteries, Powerbox switch, rudder / aileron / tow release servos, FRSky R8XR redundancy bus receiver.  I will add the vario, too :

Hopefully I will get it balanced this week, along with a simple cockpit detail job. 

Improving the breed - Fly Fly Salto part 3

So last night I finished off the final flap install; covered the second flap; and  attached all linkages.  I then carried on with making my basic servo covers.  These will eventually be replaced with 3D printed items that match the pushrod path more closely, but these will do for starters.

Jobs a good 'un!  Now onto the fuselage, and as I am having to manufacture glassfibre sheet (for one of the top secret projects..) this weekend, I will take a moment to tub the fuselage in carbon.  She will soon be fighting fit.

Improving the breed - Fly Fly Salto part 2

Here are some pictures of the second wing (I won't refer to them as L and R, as I can't remember which one was first) under the scalpel this lunch time.  A quick cut down a straight edge sees the back of the TE pop off to the same depth as the aileron.

I had a quick go at peeling the cover off of the new flap, but I will do it properly tonight before covering it. The square that is cut out for servo access has the covering peeled off, rotated through 90 degrees, then glued back onto the inside of the top skin with thick cyano.  This acts as a localised doubler and servo mount reinforcement.
At the bottom of the image you can see the new flap with its film hinge in place (OK, it looks like the left wing...probably).

Here is a close up of the underside.  Time to mount the horn, make the link, and this panel is done.

Improving the breed - Fly Fly Salto

[Wow - non PSS content again!  Hopefully this will be the start of me moving back to proper scale gliders and aerotows again]

About 18 months ago I first flew my small Salto - straight into a tree one day, then into a flagpole the next.  It wasn't a happy time, but when you love the shape of an aircraft so much, you just had to persevere.

About 12 months ago I had re-joined the wing that the flagpole had eaten, and re-covered it ready for another flight - this time it's first successful long flight at the Bwlch.  This particular Salto lands like a bullet, and didn't have great roll authority, so I hatched a plan to add inboard flaps.  After readying all of the PSS fleet for the Orme event last night, I decided to execute that project.

Only 1 hour in, and the repaired wing has it's TE removed and a servo box cut-in.  A spare 9g servo is pressed into service as a flap actuator.  In this image you should be able to see the long, tapering skin join that denotes where the repair was made.  Covering here was  a bit of white solartex, so it popped off easily.

This is the other wing panel, showing a "before" shot of the long skinny wings and the small ailerons.

An hour or two later, I had the first panel re-covered, including live Oracover hinging.  Just the horn to sort, and the other panel will go under the knife.

After this, the forward area of the fuselage will have some lead removed, and replaced with a heavy carbon-fibre cloth bathtub, much like I did on my 1/4 scale Pik20 : 

This means that the aircraft will be carrying strength instead of dead weight.  After that, I will add a nose-release for aero-towing, just in case there is a day with lots of Salto-supporting boomer thermals about!

More images later of the flap install, and then I really fancy getting the 3rd scale Salto out the loft to work on...