Chris Freeman 3

I managed to get the sanding completed on Saturday as I do most of my sanding in the garden on a metal folding table. I wonder how much time is spent sanding as it seems like a lot of time. The structure is very robust and quite a complex build as the fuselage has a lot of shapes to it. The kit is well thought out and if you follow all the steps you will get a very nice airframe. Some of the design does seen strange as the wing panels are just butt joined with no dihedral brace and only some fiberglass tape to hold it together. As the first one lasted so long I did not change this. I have added a flap as the kit does not have this as an option. The plastic parts were used as molds for fiberglass versions. The plan also has no cockpit detail so I made up some bits to fill the large space. Power wise I think a good FS120 could be nice as the ST2500 had plenty of reserve but was also fun when you needed to tear up the sky.

In the mid 90's I built a Midwest AT6 and flew it for 20 years with the same retracts, radio equipment and engine. Byron and I had plenty of flights with this aircraft and flew it at many events and displays. Always a bit of a challenge and very rewarding when you got the landings right. It was done in the colors of one of the 2 airworthy Harvards that we had at South African Airways were I worked for 20 years. A year and half ago Byron was tired of me building gliders to keep me busy so he got me a partially built Midwest AT6. The basic structure was built but no sheeting was done so I could ensure all was done to my liking. I had a set of the required Robart retracts and a brand new ST 2500 so I could do it just like our original one. After lots of stop starts I am almost ready to start covering it which will be in Monokote as this is an airframe that does not like a heavy finish. SAH1.jfif

Expo on a 3d aircraft of fast aircraft is one thing but on a heavy scale aircraft with retracts and flaps it is a different story. a Spitfire and Hurricane for example use very little elevator movement and when you lower the flaps and retracts the trim change can result in the expo working against you as you are holding some up resulting the elevator being more sensitive. On a heavy scale aircraft it is easier to hold a little up than to push down when on a approach for landing.

The one advantage of my advancing years is that Byron gets to do the test flights with all the excitement that they can bring! Our friend asked Byron to fly his FW 190 again as it is now all painted. We got to the club to find that all the grass in the surrounding area and the runways had been burnt! Very frustrating but still usable. The FW was assembled and checks done including the retracts which were cycled a few times. Refueled and retracts pumped as they are air retracts and then taken down the runway for take off. Final pictures taken, the burnt grass seemed to add realism to the pictures. Take off was great with good power, wheels retracted and the FW was on step and looking great. After some flying and checks done we decided the cross runway would be better for landing and we moved to the cross and Byron did a few passes to get used to the lack of visible outlines for the runway as it was all black. wheels down and flaps selected but once again only one wheel came down. Byron tried to pull some G to see if that would help drop the wheel but a smart drop of the wing stopped and further attempts like that. Cycling the wheels did not help as the down wheel would not go up so a 1 wheel landing was on the cards, as Byron started to tun onto the final approach the motor stopped and a out landing had to be done as heavy warbirds do not glide much. When we got to the aircraft we found it was all in one piece with only a little damage to the cowl and a broken prop. The underside of the aircraft had a lot of additional weathering with charcoal which was excessive but could be wiped off.

I find that a rearward CG results in an aircraft that is very hard to trim the elevator, especially when trying to land as it will either be climbing or diving which could be the porpoise reference. excessive elevator can result in high speed snaps when too much elevator is used.

We finally got around to flying the workshop ornament again, it has been a while since last flown. It was quite windy and not down the main runway but we elected to fly from the main anyway. The air was also quite bumpy but we had 2 good flights so the successful flights now outnumber the no landing flights! I need to spend time sorting out the retracts as they have a lot of play in them, they drop quite a bit in the up position. Surprising to see how much sky it covers and how much power it has with the small electric motors.

Very Nice, great workmanship

Very nice work David. Many hours of work invested in this project. The weathering looks great but is always a challenge to get it right as you have shown the lighting changes the look and then the clearcoat will also change it again.

Some more pictures, the DC3 flying was from the previous weekend.

Byron and I got an invite to a club in Secunda which is 135km from our house but not a bad drive. The club is on a farm so lots of space and the runway is also used for crop spraying so it is large. lots of fog early which then cleared and we had a great days flying. The MB5 enjoyed the outing but the DC had some vibration issues so it could not be flown. The Chipmunk was on song and did many tough and go's. Wessie had his big Mustang and was getting used to the handling, it covers a lot of sky!

Hi Chris Thanks, Byron has enjoyed the detailing process. Hen we looked at the structure of the booms we saw that some of the balsa stringers had been replaced with spruce so this should help strength in critical areas and additional glassing was done the help strengthen the areas just behind the wing and in front of the stab. The pushrods were made up by the original builder and were Sullivan 1/4 scale snakes which I know are a problem as they expand with heat. I will replace them with 4-40 wire pushrods supported by the original snakes. The servo's will be in the plan position as the booms do not have much space and structure the further back you go. This is not an airframe that will handle hard landings very well. The rudders are on push pull cables.

More progress

Work is continuing on this project, this is more a case of perseverance and survival! There are just so many bits and pieces with lots of joins and fillets. all coming together well though but also gaining weight as it takes a lot of primer to get it done. Byron also has sanded his fingers raw witch might not be a bad thing as he has a much more delicate touch now. .