NYE flying, and happy new year!

Well, 2018 is here, and many lovely flying days await us, I'm sure.

Over the holiday period, I managed to meet up with some PSSA pals, and get a bit of flying done on the Great Orme, in a stunning 45mph SW wind on the best slope.  The F15 and Fouga both flew well, but both were damaged on the ground in separate incidents unfortunately, both easy repairs though.

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 :

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.

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 :

Fouga Magister for PSS - flying shots

Some lovely shots here by Phil Cooke of the Fouga in her element.  I couldn't get the tip tanks to stay on, even with 3 high powered magnet sets per tank.

Cheers Phil!

PSS fleet preparation, April 2017

Well, here is a post with a bit of everything on it, with random pictures from my phone from this week so far.

Fouga nose-light testing - I had to drop the 6.6v from the LiFe to 6v max with a regulator as apparently the LED unit has a max voltage at that value.  All programmed up now!

The mini A4 has been re-servo'ed, and also set up on the Horus.

A bit of surgery for the A4 - tail incidence change.  This has now been blocked out with balsa and re-covered.

Fouga out in the sun after her satin lacquer top coat.

The little fatty!  She took about 5 ounces of lead in the nose to balance.

All pile on the scales.

Fouga detail shot.

U2 on the c-of-g rig.  Balanced between 5 and 8% stability.

Belly shot.  I've taped up the retract doors for now, as the maiden will be without it.

 

Looking forward to some flying this weekend.

F104 Starfighter and Fouga Magister build progress - in paint

A busy weekend for me doing work in the garden and popping into the workshop to spray paint on two airframes that I want ready for April's PSSA meet.

Fouga and F104 on their backs getting the light grey underside :

The lots and lots (and lots) of masking.  I hate masking :

Rolled over, then on with the top surface dark grey :

Yet more masking.  Did I say I hate it? :

Final top colour :

But I do love peeling masking off, especially with enamel paints, as their is never any risk of it peeling off :

Done and ready for decals, panel lines, and weathering.

I had some remedial work to around the Fouga cockpit, so unfortunately she didn't get included in the top coats.  I'm nearly done with that, so she should be finished this week too.  Hurrah!

A little bit of everything - Fouga, C17 & Valkyrie

The final few parts of the C17 nose shaping and planking were becoming too much like hard work, so I moved over to do a bit more work on the Fouga and Valkyrie.  Truth be told, I was a bit stuck in forming the last parts of the undercarriage pods, so I always find it helps to have another build or two to distract you.

I have now painted the cockpit wooden parts in two thick layers of floor varnish, so it should now be ready for primer at the weekend :

Then as I knew there was some P38 filler required on the rear end of the Fouga's fuselage, I mixed up extra to get rid of a couple of dings on the Valkyrie fuselage.  These dings were actually caused by me pushing on the fuselage when trying to remove an alloy spar rod that had "picked up" and locked itself into the alloy fuselage tube.  Oops!  This has since been remedied by a heavy steel version, and a lighter carbon one too.

Then I had a brainwave!  Small, cross-grained sheets could be patched into that pain of a pod on the C17.  1 hour later, I had the nasty niggle nullified.  Here it all is in it's rough-hewn glory, before sanding or filler :

Fouga Magister build - body filler time!

Some progress on the Magister - no I'm not just concentrating on the C17!  Time for some body filler on the tip tanks and fuselage end-piece :

First tank sanded down - lovely and smooth.  I might primes these at the weekend :

Ilyushin IL-102 and Fouga build updates

I had to have a quick break from modelling as I needed to go to Germany for a couple of days with work, but I got back in the swing of things quickly on Sunday. 

Here is the new servo tray, at last mounted in the Fouga, complete with two servos :

I've never seen a model Fouga with a decent nose light, so I trimmed mine down with a razor saw, then drilled out the micro-balloons therein to accept my new Flytron unit.  Here you can see the bubble lens that covers is in the background :

I have got some pics of the unit on in the nose - but I can't find them.  I will try and upload them when I can. Here is a picture of the nose with the lens epoxied on.  It needs a quick clean up as the sticky stuff from some tape is left on there, but you should get the idea :

The Ilyushin now has its wings joined, ready for torque rods then covering :

Fouga Magister and Ilyushin IL102 build progress

Firstly, the Fouga.  I have made up a small servo tray that will carry both mid-sized servos for the vee-tail (Corona 339HV - metal geared, digital, high voltage capable), which will be glued to the fuselage floor.  A long thin plate is screwed in over this to hold them both in the bracket.  I glued and glassed in the final former last night, so the fuselage is nearly done.

I have decided to change the way the wing is constructed on the IL102.  Instead of adding more foam for a centre section, I have decided to use the centre tray as an integral part, and add a second shear web / spar made of 1/16th inch birch ply.  This whole assembly can then hold 3 servos comfortably (2x aileron / 1x bomb drop), and be covered easily as it is now.

So that was a dry-fit, parts have now started to be glued together :

I also ordered up a nose light for the Fouga yesterday, along with all 5 landing lights for the C17, as well as more servos and LiFe batteries for the new builds.  Phew!

Fouga Magister build - wings are on

Just a very short update, but here she is with the wings on.  Is that 6 days since she arrived?  I think it is.  Now the wings are on the spar, I can do the last bits of glueing on the fuselage - F4 with the vee tail wire supports, and the ABS finisher on the back of the fuselage.