Planning plans of planes

 I've had cause to update a couple of plans recently - namely the Sea Hawk, and also spruce up something I started a while back; the digitizing of a Micro Mold Avenger sport slope soarer.

Avenger, as seen on the cover of our bible "Slope Soaring", by Dave Hughes.  I've always had a soft spot for the Avenger as the chap who taught me to fly had one, and it was a beautiful machine.

And secondly, my own design Hawker Sea Hawk.  A lovely flying machine and a couple of guys want to build one - so I finished this one up to make it a bit more respectable.  Still quite a "builders" plan though!

I still have the Skyraider plan to finish, and hopefully productionize for PSS.  I'm doing most of this one in 3D as it's a bit quicker for me to do so, but trickier when forming fuselage sides and other bent pieces.  "Sheet metal" mode rarely transfers nicely to the often longer and more compound blends we find in our models.

PSS Hawker Seahawk - maidened!

A great afternoon's flying on Saturday at the Bwlch PSSA meet saw me maiden the little Seahawk.  Needless to say, she's a keeper!  A real charm to fly - responsive in all axes, a good speed range, looks bloody lovely.  Can't wait to get out there again with her.

Thanks to Phil Cooke for the photos.

PSS Hawker fest - Typhoon and Seahawk final pictures

These two finally out in the sun together this weekend, hopefully maiden the Seahawk next weekend on the Orme - weather permitting...

Hawker Seahawk for PSS - complete!

With Shona away in the USA for a while, Seahawk work has progressed quickly!

Final bits of filler applied, sanded, and primed:

Underside sprayed up: 

Underside then masked off: 

 Topside sprayed:

Decals and panel lines start going on:

Hinge everything, get the servos in: 

Exhausts glued on:

Finished! (yeah I can't be bothered mowing the grass yet, it's still March!):

She weighs a svelte 3lb's on the nose ready to fly with a 2500mAh LiFe battery up front.  All programmed up and balanced...now we just need some wind!

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.

Seahawk and Liberator progress

The Seahawk now has a completely glassed airframe, and is now being rubbed down, and more progress has been made on the Liberator.  I'm quite liking glassing in the evenings now, certainly beats a film finish.

Quite happy with the finish I'm getting here, before rubbing back :

All done, and the start of the cockpit plug :

B24 tailplane and elevators all glassed, so a test fit-up was called for.  All good :

The B24 fuselage gets its first bit of glass on the bottom :

I've also glassed all the main surfaces on the C17 tailplane now, just the stubby bits to finish up and that'll be ready for knocking back too.  With any luck, the Seahawk will get some primer this weekend, especially as it's a long weekend for me.  

Hawker Seahawk for PSS - final bits of woodwork

The fin has now been clad, the elevator linkage soldered up an in place, and the exhaust fairings completed.  Quite close now for some more glass - as usual for me the whole bottom in one piece, then the fin, then the top.  

I've still to cut the ailerons from stock, as well as the elevators and rudder, but they don't take long at all, and will take longer to glass than shape.

AUW currently 1lb 9ozs, and I think the target will be another pound and a bit on top of that. If she ends up at 3lb, that'll be 19oz sq ft, which isn't too bad at all really.

White horse big air and Su27 repairs

I had a great time on my favourite inland slope last weekend - the Westbury White Horse.  The best of these slopes is really the northerly ridge which is very long, and has nothing in front of it for a dozen or more miles - just the flat flood plains of the Wiltshire Avon.

The above shots are from the car park - in the first picture you can see the start of the westerly slope as the hummock on the far right of the horizon line.  The westerly slope lets you actually fly over the ancient white horse itself - a very steep slope you would not want to land out on.  There is a shelf to the far right that can be used in emergencies, but to be honest I've never had variable lift on these slopes, that I've been flying since the late 80's.

Pictures by Shona again of course!

So the Hawk went well as always, but the Flanker didn't get away too great from two launches - I think she was flying with way too much up-trim from the Bwlch visit where the air wasn't as great, and refused to push out into lift.

The first launch resulted in Shona putting a thumb through the bottom of the wing skin (oops!) and the second launch by me resulted in a landing behind the launch point.  It looked like she came down softly, but cracked the top skin on the fuselage around the hatch, and dislodged an interior aileron linkage too.

So the repairs, then :

Crack sanded down both sides of RX hatch

Top skin removed around aileron linkage

Balsa infill where thumb went through

Cracks gone and painted, rear cut-out panel glued back in too

Hawker Seahawk progress - Planking

I'm really getting in the groove again on the Seahawk, and enjoying the planking again.  Progress has been swift and I've been marking the plan up with improvements as I go, because I'd like to make a second with removable wings at some point.

From this..

To this...

..And a bit more of this!

I'm off to Weston Park model show on Saturday, so will look at picking up some bits and pieces for her - mainly some more balsa but there isn't a great deal to go on now.  Can't wait to get this one flying!  Which reminds me, I need to look at colour schemes again and make a final decision.