Dan Sadler

Geoff, looks like you have been making some great progress! I stalled for a while with life getting in the way, but looking to pick it up again now. Im left with a couple of problems I need to solve after I was sent the wrong retracts. First one is that I’ve got holes in the place that the front retract goes that I need to close off before trying to mount the new retract. Any tips on the best way to do that? I remember seeing an article on this for firewalls a while back so I might start digging through old magazines, but thought it was worth asking before I do that. Thanks

Thanks Matty , on both counts!

Hi Everyone, I'm fortunate enough to have been able to drive to Top Gun this year. I've included an album below with some of my favorite photos from the event. Some great models, including the huge new Bronco that Hangar 9 are going to be releasing later this year. A couple of sad incidents as well including a collision involving one of the masters Albatros. https://www.flickr.com/photos/dansadler/albums/72157716724103458 All in all a great event though! Dan

I’ve had a bit of a pause myself. My replacement retracts from Tony arrived last week which helps. My other half picked up a climbing frame, swing set, slide locally in ‘good condition’ that needed assembly. A fair proportion of the wood was rotten so I’ve been distracted fixing that and assembling that, since playgrounds don’t look like opening here any time soon! My wing dihedral isn’t quite right and I need to figure that out. Once I get a bit of time I’ll figure that out and redo the nose wheel retract and I’ll be off again...

1 step forwards, 3 steps back... So my earlier suspicions about the retracts not being right have been confirmed. When I got to test fitting the first wing retract I realised that the holes for the screws were literally half over UC1 / UC2 and half in thin air, and that the same issue I highlighted with the nose retract that the cylinder comes out the opposite side to the ones on Tony and your photos. This means that the holes in W3 and W3A would need to be about double the depth so that it would fit in. I then compared the retract to the plan, and found that the retract was smaller than it should be so I contacted Tony. He was surprised and said that the retract was wrong, and that it doesn't look at all like the ones he supplies normally and he things it might have been an odd one in his batch. He's agreed to swap those out, but given the state of postage at the moment that's likely to be a month before I get them . I also started to build the second wing panel over the second wing diagram on the plan and I went to line up the first panel and realised that both wing diagram on the plan are actually for the same wing, just the second one has been rotated 180 degrees, so I need to unpick that, trace it, flip it and start again. I'm really not sure what the point of having two of the same wing on the same plan is?

I’ve been waiting for some bits to arrive so I can finish mounting the front retract and steering setup, so I made a start on the wing. Once again I found Marks blog useful, particularly around the work needed to make the wing spa (B1 from memory) fit in properly as the CNC part does not angle in towards the top flat edge. It’s the same on the plan to be fair... This is my first time using a magnetic building board, and so far I like it!

Looking great. Any tips on how to get straight edges on the sheets for edge joining? I remember that’s one of the areas I got a bit stuck on on the spitfire! my fan turned up last night. It looks great. The only thing is I’m not sure I’m going to be able to make the intake ring fit as it hits the wing bolt plate. I’ve only spent / minutes looking so far though....

I just checked my wood pack, and there is no 1.5mm included, only 2.5mm.

Glad to hear you managed to get it sorted! I'm getting ready to mount RP1 and so I thought I'd try and drill that first and get the front retract in the right place first. I bought the retracts from Tony, but it appears mine is different to what you have / what he shows on the plan. Basically the cylinder that sticks out one side on the base unit comes out the opposite side on mine, so pokes out in to the nose, rather than staying between F1 and F2. I decided to just check that it would sit ok under the nose cone, and realised it will protude a little unless I push the mounting mount forwards by about 1cm. You can see in the picture below the line I think it should be at based on the plan, and where it is to make it actually fit inside the nose. Does yours fit inside without any adjustment, or will it stick out slightly?

Sorry Geoff, I’m not sure. Have you thought about dropping Tony an email? He’s usually pretty helpful... After some thought I gave up on the turbine idea, the primary reason being I figured it might’ve a pain to get in and out for the 25 hour maintenance cycle. I’m sure someone that’s a better builder than me could have figured it out, but I’m going to carry on walking before running for now. I ordered a Schubeler fan, which is lighter and offers 4.8kg of thrust. Every little helps I guess. It was tricky to find one in stock over here, but the guy I bought it from was an ex A-10 pilot. Interesting guy! ordered my servos etc, and also installed f1 and f9, and cut out replacements for f4 and f5 that were wide enough.