Chris Freeman 3

Byron has done quite a bit of work on the airframe, it has been glassed so it is a lot easier to work on it as it is more ding resistant. The cowl fit and mounting has been a challenge, cooling is always an issue with a Spitfire as many think that just colling the head is sufficient but you also need to get hot air around the crankcase out. We use the exhausts to do this and the 3d printed ones will help with this. The fuselage was modified a bit to help channel the air through the exhausts.

Byron and I managed to get all the bits covered and I continued getting all the bits installed. Lots of little things to think of when building a airframe that is not to be used by a normal hobbyist but by an operator! redundancy and reliability need to be considered and this can add to the construction time. Removable tail surfaces and plug in wings make it a lot more time consuming to build and adds weight. Overall I am happy with what we have done and we managed to test run the DLE 20cc which seems to run very well but is noisy. We hope to test fly tomorrow as it is a Bank Holiday in South Africa

The Pannier system used on this design is interesting but I decided to rather have full sides than risk weakening the structure and rather made a box that fits in from the bottom. Sky_Spy_oz9208_article.pdf

Work is progressing very well, Byron has almost finished covering the wings and I have made good progress on the fuselage. We hope to finish the airframe by the end of the weekend. I have really enjoyed building with sticks again and also having to use my brain a bit when looking for ways in meeting the requirements set for the airframe like the detachable tail surfaces and plug in wings. I think the airframe will be quite robust and should fly well being a DB design. The article claims it flies much like a Super 60 with ailerons.

On Saturday I took the Airframe down to Byron so that we could do the polyhedral joining. I had made all the parts and jigs to help get accurate and strong joining. I had made the fiberglass outers for the aluminum tubes and these are turned into the foam and then supported on both ends with ply. The Jigs made it easy to bore the holes for the tubes and with the correct amount of polyhedral. Byron then glued all the bits together with epoxy. We are adding flaps and tip plates to help with the slow speed handling as most of the flying will be from less than ideal flying sites. Whilst Byron was busy with the wings I started on the engine mounting and servo mounts along with making the tail surfaces removable. All this takes a lot of time and planning especially as both of us have our day jobs to keep us busy. I was surprised to see how long the wings were when placed on the fuselage for the first time, I did not see that in the article which I see is on Outerzone.

A few weeks ago a friend of ours that is in the drone industry asked Byron to help with project that he was busy with that was passed the dead line for its first flight. The aircraft was an own design and lots of laser cut ply had been used in the fuselage construction. Byron brought the fuselage to me as it had some nasty twists in it and was not sure how to fix it. We discussed some options and by using some spruce and balsa, Byron managed to get most of the problem areas fixed. The aircraft was finished and flown but it was not as good as expected. Byron and I offered some suggestions but the company had some ideas that did not appear to be the solution. We were asked if we would help with some construction for the additional aircraft that were needed. I decided that it might be a good idea to build a new airframe to show what can be done to improve the outcome! So where do you start with a project like this. I decided that the WWDD principle should be applied! this is what would David do? David Boddington had designed the Sky Spy and it was published in one of his magazines that he edited. I managed to locate the magazine and decided this would be a good starting. I have drawn my own plans for a 2.2 meter version that will have a DLE 20 to power it. I have used mainly my heavy balsa that I had in stock and made foam wings that have been veneered, this is against what David advises in his article. The outer panels will be removable as will the tail feathers as this was one of the company design requirements. The weekend was very wet so no flying but lots of building.

2 Saturdays ago Byron and I went flying at Secunda which is about 125 km from where we stay, it is a smaller town with a different way of life! the flying field in on a farm and the famer has a grass strip for the crop sprayers. great flying day but a long way if you do not make a day of it. we flew the Cub, Mustang, Spitfire and the twin. some video of the twin flying with its old ST 90's, the round head ones, must be nearly 40 years old!

I was offered a very nice Mick Reeves Hurricane that for some reason I accepted and after some discussion with Byron and then negotiation with Mark the builder a payment plan was agreed on! I do not use savings to buy aircraft. Mark competed in 7 World Jet Masters competitions and was always amongst the top in static so the Hurricane is built to a very high standard. Originally built as an electric so it could met the weight limits but later converted to a DLE 85 as it was never flown in competition. The Volks filter is not scale but added to hide the cylinder head. Last Friday Byron and I drove the 1100km to go and collect it! this is one very special aircraft with lots of detail, far more accurate that we do!

Interesting information. I finally got some detail of our unit which is very heavy and also the front propeller is not powered so it is just for looks! we did manage to get a second hand unit at a very good price but we still need to find a home for it as it looks quite fragile for a warbird. Paid around GBP 200.00 for it! Not sure what our unit cost to make as a friend made it for us at no cost as Byron made all the spray masks for his FW 190 and Pitts.

Very nice Roy You are right, the Unit that Jon made does seem quite robust but we do not want to test its strength as just the props are an expensive exercise. Time will tell but we will keep the option to go back to the original set up.

We finally got a video of the flying of the unit, now it needs to be installed the the MB 5 airframe. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pArm2EIwxWU

Byron and I had great flying on Saturday morning, got to the field around 06:30, no wind and not that hot. When we left around 10 it was very hot at close to 30! Flew the Spacewalker and had lots of fun trying to land without a bounce. The Tiger Moth was made for those conditions and we put many miles on the wheels with touch and go's. The Stick had the counter rotating unit on it and it was surprising noisy with lots of prop noise. the performance is very good so we need to transplant it into the MB5. The grass runways are looking great after the rain but are a lot of work to cut as we only have 2 normal push mowers not ride on ones.

My concern with the 148 is that it is a bushed servo and this can wear resulting in movement of the servo arm and then play on the aileron. I have always have very good service from the 3001's but they had a bearing. I am not a fan of big powerful servo's in slow aircraft or even warbirds as they are not needed.

Richard, I see you are a true scratch builder with cutting your own parts, do you use the pin method for marking the wood. The half formers on the plan make it hard for me. I do not mind cutting the parts but find the marking the wood the biggest challenge. I have a Traplet short kit for this plan, Tony Stephenson gave it to me when our house was destroyed in a fire. Still on my must build list 11 years on!

11 years ago I was given a Spacewalker by my friend Alex as he said he was getting to old for such a large aircraft. It came as a receiver ready airframe and had a ST3000 to power it. I knew the aircraft well as I had always helped Alex when he used to fly it. Alex was not the original builder as he had been given the aircraft by a club member who was giving up flying so I am not sure exactly how much flying it had done but it must have been quite a lot in the 20 years of existence. Alex is coming flying with us on Saturday so I decided I must take the Spacewalker out to show him that it is still flying. As it had not flown for quite a while i took it down and removed the cowl to check that all is well and also ensure that the carb was not gummed up. Once this was done I cycled the nicad battery for the onboard glow and was surprised to find the battery was still fine. I checked the controls and the 35meg PCM receiver and servos and they were all fine. I then took the wing down to check the spats as they were showing a lot of wear and cracks. The wing is one piece and a pain to move around the workshop. whilst the wing was on the bench I took the servo hatches off to check the aileron servos to make sure that they were still securely mounted. I was shocked to find that these servos were humble Futaba 148's! This is defiantly not a servo I would use in an airframe this size but there the were and given no issues in the 20 years of flying. I will be getting these replaced. The Elevator servo is a Hitech 1/4 scale servo that was available in those days for the high load functions.

My Father and my father in-law were both active modelers and both were not very confident in the flying ability of a Spitfire and could not understand why I wanted to build one. I found that a Spitfire was a very rewarding aircraft to build and fly and not deserving of the bad reputation it had as a model. I must also say that the 70" and larger airframes were much more flyable at our altitudes. Many of the smaller Spitfires were often very heavy and we did not have the radio's that allowed a good set up to be used, no dual rates and expo in those days.

I often find myself looking at pictures of a Spitfire or a good 3 view and then next thing I know I am looking at plans or some of our projects and that gets me going. Byron found the same problem and that is why we have this Spitfire spurt! I hope you get going soon Jon, time to enjoy your hobby.

Wessie very kindly did this video for Byron. I think the performance is very good considering it is a 30 year old engine and 5500' altitude. 40 year s ago this would have been a dream project. Byron Freeman - 1/5 scale Spitfire

Lots of word work in this kit and build blogs really help when you need some ideas on how to do some things.

I did not think that it was such a long time ago that I posted updates on this project. I had done quite a lot of work on the airframe and had done most of the components and had started getting all the bits together when we got the molds for the Yellowish Spitfire. When Byron made the parts for his aircraft he made additional parts for this airframe as well. Byron has continued with the assembly and it is now looking like a Spitfire. A DLE 55 has been mounted and the airframe now needs final sanding and then glassing.

We flew the Spitfire again yesterday and the motor is getting better after not having been run in about 10 years, also changing to a Taylor plug also improved things. The Spinner runs true and adds no or little vibration which is a relief. Detail is been added the whole time but a few distractions have emerged!.