A little girl is sitting on grandads knee, can you make a noise like a frog grandad she asks. Yes of course I can grandad replies, but why would I do that. Well the little girl replies, Mummy said that when you croak we are all going to Disneyland!!
The torque rods were fashioned from some ceramic firing rods that I noticed when purchasing some clay and glaze materials from a local pottery supplies. The rods are normally used for supporting ceramic beads and have a very shiny finish and are not as stiff as piano wire, so bending accurately in a small vice is quite straightforward. For the boxes/pockets I used 1.5mm pc board/G10 fabricated around some offcuts of the rods to ensure a tight fit. The rods are 3mm https://www.bathpotters.co.uk/firing-rod-3mm-thick/p2417 and once the boxes/pockets were made they were let into the ailerons on the hinge centreline with some extra scrap balsa to give additional support.
It is actually one of my job lists to do a thorough testing of the aileron surfaces under load to check the integrity of the installation now that they have been glued in place. They certainly seem beautifully slop free and provide the correct amount of movement required using almost maximum servo travel, which is good. Any other queries ask Danny Fenton, as he is a champion of the RDS system.
Final bit of tidying up. I decided to add extension leads from the RX to the ailerons and flaps for connecting to the wing leads therefore keeping disturbance to the RX at a minimum when connecting up. Blue thread locker on all connections and secured the RX to the fuselage side with velcro.
I secured the folding prop and ran the motor up at full chat for a short burst - all seems well there. Just need to get used to the routine of rigging for flight at the field .......
Nice system, but good look fitting that in the wing root of an F3X glider! I personally use Mpx connectors and "potted" with hot glue they have always proved very reliable for me, no failures in over 15 years of use. I agree they aren't the easiest to solder, but few RC connectors are and once you get the hang of it I never seem to forget!
Edit - For a really neat job you can use the Winkler moulds available from T9 - pricey but they do give a very consistent result...
This is all good advice, but to be honest I would not bother with quattro flaps (the jargon name for mixing in your flaps with the ailerons) initially. You will have plenty of aileron effectiveness without it for the test flights, and a you need to be able to understand how much rudder to use in the turns initially without that additional variable IMO (as a beginner to high a/r gliders you may even decide you want a CAR - coupled aileron and rudder - mix , though I personally much prefer to do it with my thumbs!).
You can always add in quattro later as a scwitchable "Acro" flight mode, but for thermal and general cruising it's generally more efficient to do without it.
Lipo alarms are available that bleep a warning/flash an led etc when voltage approaches minimum - they plug into the balance lead, use them on my 'leccy helis. Got mine for a few quid from HK but must be available elsewhere. Search Ebay - plenty available.
My remedy for cold/damp/muddy flying conditions is to stay at home - spent a couple of hours gardening over the weekend and got chilled to the bone, just can't stand about over a freezing cold winter flying field these days and dressing up like the Michelin Man doesn't really float my boat.
I contacted the telephone number from the post above and Steve has now got back to me. Looks as if he did not receive my original email for some reason. So all good. Thanks for all the replies and help.
Best to all
LPP
No time to waste ! I started to make the templates for the fuse formers while i still have access to the inside.
Also trial fitted the thrust tube and its former
The last thing i did was adding a little flat epoxy rest on the exhaust exit to accept the thrust tube
And started the clean-up of the fuse edges
Thanks, Phil! Doing OK; struggling to stay fed and watered because all food and drink now tastes awful to me! The chemo and radiation are working their magic! But I am workin' it , too, one step at a time.
So now, with David Ashby's help, my original thread for this build will start up again from its beginning in March 2016.
Thanks Danny, all sorted now with some prolonged fettling. I haven’t achieved quite as much rudder movement as I would like but 30mm each way should do fine. Had a trial fit of the main legs and wheels today and put her together for a few quick photos. Next task is gear doors and pneumatic actuators.