John Timmis
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Everything posted by John Timmis
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Workmaster by Ron Moulton. This was my first ever rc model back in about 1965 I think. Its' a semi scale Auster. Mine flew superbly on single channel with a PAW 1.5 diesel. Would make a great trainer with ailerons, enlarge to 60" & electric power. Simple build with good appearance.
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Hi Danny, Nev, Nigel. Thanks for your comments. Tom. Watch this space. It won't be too long now. Back to the build. You can see from the previous photo that the wing fairings have been done & also tailplane/ rudder fairing has been made. Elevators & rudder have been hinged temporarily. Now is a good time to construct the fuselage end/elevator fairing. I built this up from several pieces of sheet. It was tack glued to the fuselage & sanded to shape. Next job is to glue the tailplane & then the fin to the top fuselage shell. The rudder horn assembly can be added next. you will need to cut a small hole in the underside of the tailplane that you can fiddle it through. Ensure that it aligns with the hinges before the glue sets. I Grooved the bottom or the rudder & epoxied a short piece of snake tube to accept the wire rudder arm. The slot you can see in the lower fuselage shell was to take the tailwheel. More of that next time. Cheers John
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Hi Just looked up at the sky to see what was flying overhead (as you do). It was a Chippie. Had to tell someone John
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Hi again Chippie no1 This is what came out of the loft after 36+ years. Some parts turned out to be very fragile, the flaps & ailerons have been rebuilt. Quite a few wing ribs needed repair also. I would like to know the reason for this degradation. I think that wood should last indefinitely if it it stored in good conditions. Only the thin bits seemed to be affected. Anyone got any theories? One area of the build that caused som difficulty was the wing root fairing. The plan seems to me to be a bit vague in this area. What is drawn doesn't quite agree with my 3 view or photos. In particular the trailing edge of the fairing where it curves up to the fuselage. I ended up cutting off my first attempt & having another try. Lots of eyeballing involved. More photos next time now I've discovered how. Cheers John
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Hi folks Don't wish to jump the gun but it's time to start the blog. It's a first so there may be some hiccoughs. Why two Chippies? Well the first one was started in 197? & then put away in the loft for the next 35 yrs or so. Danny's post provided the perfect incentive to resurrect the build & also up my game a bit. After quite a long gap, which included getting married again, involvement with schools karting, classic cars & full-size gliding I got back into rc modelling about 5/6 yrs ago following a visit to Western Park & seeing the EDF jets. At first the rescued airframe (90% built) looked quite good. Only small damage to an aileron trailing edge. However, by the time the flaps & ailerons had been removed from the wing they had virtually crumbled to dust. Some wing ribs were also very fragile. I don't think it's worth the hours involved in a proper scale build but it seems to good for the bin. So the plan is to finish this one off asap as a stand off scale model, converting it to electric & generally use it as a prototype to solve problems. I'll do the best build I can within the limitations of time but definitely no rivets on this one. Hopefully it won't be to shabby & should be flying soon. Second Chippie starts in October & will have whistles & bells, we will see about the rivets. I'll put up some photo's when I find out how. Cheers John
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Hi Danny The Chipmunk fuselage (real one ) seems to be constructed in two sections, cockpit & rear fuselage. Hardly any double curves in either so sheeting should be a much easier option than planking. I did wonder about laminating the skins, two layers of 1/16 with 25 grm glass inbetween. Might be a bit over the top? I just Googled 'Chipmunk rebuild' & found an interesting site which included photos of a wing being recovered. Cheers John
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Hi re your battery fitting. The way I did it on my D/F Vampire was to insert the battery into the end of its holder with a steel rule between the two pieces of velcro. Once its in withdraw the rule. Re inserting the rule easily separates the velcro for removal of the battery. Can post a photo if it helps. Cheers John
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Danny, Sorry to mess you about. Please add me to your list for hinges after all. I think that the idea of finishing off my old build from the loft is a non starter. It's been up there since 1980 at least. The balsa seems to have dried out & become brittle. I've rebuilt the flaps & ailerons already but each time I pick up the wing I seem to crack another rib. So back to square one. Incidentally the airframe weighed 2 pound 5oz. Wings tail & fuselage shells. Cheers John
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Danny The hinge sets are a great idea & will save lots of time. I did mine the hard way a long time ago so have no need for them now. Will need to get some 10 BA nuts & bolts though. SLEC perhaps? Cheers John
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Martyn thats 400 gram without silencer. John
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Hi, just weighed my Merco. 400 grams. John
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Count me in. This is a good opportunity to complete a project that I started in 197? Since 1978 the part built airframe has lived in a dusty corner of my loft. Time to get it out again. As I recall, all the flying surfaces are built & the 2 fuselage shells planked ready to glue together. I still have the Merco 61 but it will have to be electric now. Looking forward to this one. Cheers John
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Richard Thanks for your comments. Your guess about the thrust was a good one. It's 530gm on a fresh battery. I had seen, on the internet, a 36" span Vampire for a 50mm fan which seemed to fly well. I thought that about 48" would be good for a 70mm fan. I decided to keep the inlets scale as they seemed to be within range of acceptable areas. It was really a case of "suck it & see" in both senses. In any case , the duct entry follows the profile of the wing section so it would be a fairly simple matter to increase the area by cutting back the line of the leading edge. If this was done on the lower edge it would not be too noticeable. The size of the exhaust (60mm) was recommended in the WeMoTec instructions. I don't know the flying speed. It's only flown 3 times so far & my first priority was to explore the low speed at a height at least 3 mistakes high. However, it climbs well & the glide is very flat. I don't think it will be underpowered. more info later. John T @import url(http://www.modelflying.co.uk/CuteEditor_Files/Style/SyntaxHighlighter.css);@import url(/CuteEditor_Files/public_forums.css);
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Hi all, This is my first post so you will have to be patient. I've been following this thread with interest because I've just built & flown ( only 3 flights so far) a Vampire. It's my first ducted fan so I'm no expert. The model is a Vampire MK. 3. That's the single seat, short nose, round wing tip version. It flies away from a bungee & seems to have plenty of thrust for a Vampire. I built the model to be as scale as possible; the only deviation is a small increase in the size of the exhaust. The inlet ducts are scale & are glass epoxy mouldings over foam patterns. Main details are; Span 49", Weight 4 lbs, WeMoTec 480. 70mm fan, Battery 4s 3200, Motor 4000kv (I think), Power 670 watts from a fresh battery. Inlet 3750 sq mm, FSA 3580 sq mm, Exhaust 2825 sq mm. The exhaust is enlarged from 45mm dia to 60 mm dia. Hope this helps. John T @import url(http://www.modelflying.co.uk/CuteEditor_Files/Style/SyntaxHighlighter.css);@import url(/CuteEditor_Files/public_forums.css);
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