easyjetrider

I'm not sure, but I have my eye on the Wots Wot XL also. My son has his eye on the Acro Wot XL for Christmas. Heavens knows where I'll be able to fit them in the garage! It's already rather crowded!

Hi chaps, Does anyone know how or if I can use the RT, CT and LT switches as trim switches for each of my flaps - so that each flap has its own trim switch?! I'm using an optima 7 with each flap using a separate channel. Cheers.

A wider rail is a good idea Martyn, and after you mentioned it I looked at it. I felt however, that a wider forward rail in particular would probably interfere with the webs between the spars. So I've decided to go with the beech 3/8 x 1/2 inch rails, but with further ply doublers and the class cloth on the inside of the upper sheeting as protection. I've now got the final position of the rails sorted on one side and now working on the other side. I'll post some photos later.

Hi Martyn, thanks for your feed back. Having taken too much material off of the ribs, the first thing I did today (and so far only thing I've done) was stick a small piece of soft balsa to part fill each hole. I then gradually filed the balsa down so that the rails would sit on the balsa in the correct position. Obviously, the pieces of balsa are only temporary. I've just measured how far the rails are from the top of the ribs. The forward one is 9mm and the rear one is 19mm. This compares to the original position of 16mm and 26mm respectively (a drop of 7mm or a reduction of 44% of material above the forward rail and 27% reduction above the aft rail). This is a little concerning, but as you said Martyn, I'm planning to use additional ply doublers to add strength which I think will do the job. What's just as concerning is how close the casing of the retract assembly is to the inner surface of the upper sheeting - its microns! Any flex in the rails during a hard landing and I can imagine cracks appearing in the upper wing surface. I am planning to glass cloth the wing, but I'm also going to see if I can squeeze some glass cloth on the inside as well for added strength - so much for building light! Just one other thing. With all of this messing around I am now in need of some more retract rail material. The wood supplied with the kit is 3/8 x 1/2 inch maple. The only replacement locally I have found is the same cross section but in beech. The two materials appear to be comparable. Will the beech work just as well as the maple? I'll take some photos, of the above and post them soon. Cheers

Fitting the Century Jet 1/2 inch retracts is proving a little more problematic than first anticipated! In fairness to the instructions, it does warn that you might have to re-position the retract rails for them to fit. However, when I first read that statement and looked at the photos in the manual, I convinced myself that they would just require a certain amount of fettling. How wrong I was!!! The pre-set die cut positions of the rails gives the results shown above. The reason for the extended gear not being quite perpendicular to the main spar is because the retract rails, for some reason, are not parallel to the spar to begin with (the retracts are of the 90 degree variety). So to begin, I set about lowering the outer ends of the retract rails to make them parallel to the spar. Once I had done this, the gear extended beautifully to the perpendicular position. However, by doing this it exacerbated the problem of the gear not retracting fully into the wing at the wheel end - I'm talking 10mm or more! Trying to lower the rails that sort of distance, and at the same time maintaining the correct mounting angle for the two rails has proven very difficult. I have now ended up (only on one side fortunately), taking too much material off both ribs such that the rail is now too low because the piston and outer casing of the retracts are contacting the upper inner surface of the wing! I have now given up for the day - any words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated.     Edited By easyjetrider on 27/02/2014 20:52:43

So the putting together of the ribs, spars and webs of the wing centre section went smoothly and then I applied the top rear sheeting: and then the main top sheeting: I then turned the assembly over to start test fitting the retracts: After cutting away the ribs which would interfere with the retracted gear, I found that the tyres were not fully inside the wing: In addition, when the gears were in their fully down position, they were not perpendicular to the main spar - as if they hadn't quite opened up enough: So I am now having to contemplate not only lowering the retract rails (maybe as much as 5mm or more), but also slightly change their angle so that the struts are vertical when extended. Thankfully I did not epoxy the rails prior to testing the fit so it shouldn't be too much of a problem - just a bit fiddly to get them both spot on. I did notice on another forum that somebody had had the same problem but they had already glued the rails in place by the time they had noticed!

Looking good Tony - my Fury progress is a little behind yours! Hi Ian, hope all is well and looking forward to seeing you at the field sometime soon. I've made a little more progress during the last few days with the wing centre section. All straight forward until it came time to trial fit the retracts! More later - with photos!

Gosh! Isn't it amazing where time goes - again! I've just been reading the blog and can't believe its over 18 months since I last posted anything and indeed made anymore progress on the model! Other interests including completely re-landscaping the back garden, work, family and a garage full of bikes, prams and other numerous items preventing me from getting to my workspace, have all conspired against the Sea Fury. However, I have now found new vigor and determination to get back to modelling and will be reporting my progress on these pages. Amazingly, the ribs and spars for the central wing section, that I had laid out on the plan all those months ago are still there and all appear to be in good condition. I will be continuing with this part of the build which includes test mounting the Century Jet retracts and photos will follow shortly.