Geoff S
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Posts posted by Geoff S
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Of all the biplanes I have and have had, those with ailerons on both wings moved them the same top and bottom. Both my 58" ws DBS&S Moths (Cirrus- as in my logo - and Tiger) have double the movement up compared with down and both can be flown without using the rudder, but I usually do use it.
I think I'd go for both the same for a start, but with differential. Why would you want them to be different? Just curious, not critical.
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1 hour ago, Simon Chaddock said:
Erfolg
That type of mount is only used on small motors. The one I pictured is the largest at 45g.
They do work reliably. I used two in my Bombardier Q400 turning 9x6 3 blade.
61" span, 72" long it still exists and the motors haven't fallen out after 10 years.
Note I did arrange the grub screws to be positioned at each side so if necessary they can with a bit of "fishing" be tightened through a small hole in the nacelle.
The one in the Formosa which I was gifted by one of the club's best builders. I got it with motor attached and never took the cowl off to check because it just worked (and Jim isn't a dummy as either builder or flyer) until it exited through the cowl. Sadlly, cowls are not available as spares, so I fly it cowlless with a different motor. My dad taught me that grub screws in this sort of application should be at right angles to each other rather than 180 deg for the reason Simon made.
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1 hour ago, GrumpyGnome said:
'Drum motor mounts' ?
I think they be the ones like this :
Which, as Simon says, can let go unexpectedly. Guess what happened here 🙂 I never found the motor but made a greaser dead stick landing.
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Fixed the damaged wing tip this evening.
Before:
... and after. Not perfect but once covered it'll not be seen. Rather than 3mm birch ply I used what's becoming a favourite material, 3mm Liteply
The hard bit will be to cover the bit next to the aileron end (which is still attached - for some reason the other one pulled out the hinges), but, no doubt, it'll go in somehow.
It's radio/servo installation and covering the repairs and the new fuselage, mostly to do. Perhaps I should wash off some mud, too.
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29 minutes ago, GrumpyGnome said:
The old adage "if it ain't broke don't fix it" seems to apply........................ people are like magpies - they like shiny new things
I suppose we are. In an ideal world, we'd all have just one model and fly that until it crashed or wore out ... or would we? 🤣
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I've been beavering away with my new Wot 4 Mk2 fuselage and getting near to completion. The wing fits OK and the tail components are glued in. The tailplane is more or less parallel to the wing (more 'more' than less!) and its incidence relative to the wing is 1 deg positive, which is the same as an old Wot 4 Mk 3 I dragged out the loft to take to a swap meet on Sunday (it didn't sell! - Now on eBay)
The fuselage seems to be fairly light - hopefully not at the expense of strength. The sides are 3mm balsa and the doublers 3mm Liteply, lightened further, as can be seen in the pictures.
The battery tray has been extended from my original because I had to put weight on the tail when the battery couldn't be slid further back. The battery position will be fixed with foam pieces at the front and back (the front to protect from protruding motor-mount bolts.
Here's the area under the wing, which will be home to the elevator and rudder servos - and possibly the receiver.
The under side will be sheeted once the closed loop rudder and elevator push rod are installed
Onwards and (hopefully) upwards. The now no longer ARTF Wot 4 will fly again!
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1 hour ago, Martin Harris - Moderator said:
Good to hear you’re making good progress Matty. Best wishes for a speedy recovery. Have you suggested climbing Ivinghoe Beacon as suitable physio?
It's quite a tough climb on a bike. I rode a hill climb there a good few years ago when we were staying at the YHA nearby. When I had the accident that damaged my spine, I got out on my bike as much as possible. Glad you're making progress, Matty.
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I'm not sure how useful static thrust measurement is. I did experiments like this when I was trying to get electric models to fly with NiCads and cheap brushed motors, using a spring balance to make the measurements but once the model is moving through the air all the static measurements are moot.
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4 hours ago, John Tee said:
JD8. when I had my knee replaced the hospital did actually write on my knee with an arrow on the knee to b replaced.
John
I'm glad. Just think about how often many of us have made similar mistakes in a build. Making 2 r/h fuselage sides is really annoying but insignificant compared to having the wrong knee replaced, or, in my case, having the good eye operated on rather than the bad one.
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23 hours ago, Dickw said:
Having witnessed several identity failures and other confusions in the medical world in the last year, that is almost "not funny" 😀.
On the other hand 🤣
Dick
Probably the reason everyone I dealt with when I had my cataract operation a few months ago asked what my birthday was - however, I was disappointed that I got no extra cards on my birthday in January.
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Why would changing the power source affect the ability to fly? As long as it turns the same size prop at approximately the same speed, it'll fly. The only real issue is getting the CoG correct as the electrical power system will probably be lighter than a liquid fuelled version - as wasn't formerly the case in the days of brushed motors and Ni Cad batteries.
I have a couple of 58" DBS&S Moths, a Tiger and a Gipsy, which both fly fine with electric power sources.
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Lightweight filler - just one of the products I used to buy from our local high street Wilkos. It was almost like buying an empty box when you picked it up, but it seems to work perfectly OK. Not tried the Screwfix filler, but I suspect it'll work as well.
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I've had one for some time and found it very useful.
A word of warning. This afternoon I realised the disc was worn out. I undid the allen bolt underneath the tray to remove it and make access to the disc. I replaced the disc OK but the allen bolt wouldn't tighten - a captive nut had obviously come adrift. I took it apart (4 Phillips head self tappers underneath). After a search, the captive nut was found stuck to the outside of the motor. It's just a simple steel nut which loosely held in place by the moulded plastic case. It's OK as long as you keep the sander more or less upright but if you turn it on its back, it'll fall out and you'll end up taking the sander apart as I've just done!
While searching for the stick-on discs in my sandpaper drawer (yes, I have one!) I found some stick-on detail sander papers. I didn't think I had one, but a quick search revealed a Workzone bag with a detail sander in I'd forgotten I'd bought! I probably saw it a troll down the Aldi middle aisle and bought it 'just in case' and promptly forgot I had. It's handy because I could do with it on the Wot 4 fuselage build/repair I'm doing right now.
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15 hours ago, leccyflyer said:
The original wattmeter, before any of the knock-offs were a glint in their daddy's diodes was the Astro Flight 101 Super Whattmeter.
They cost a fortune as well! I've had mine for years (at least 10) and, IIRC, cost £50. No LiPo checking facility either. I use mine as a standard to check the cheaper alternatives. I don't know why they're called Wattmeters because the main purpose is to measure current, I find. OK, they measure voltage as well, so power consumption (watts) follows. Nevertheless, an indispensable piece of kit for any who use electrical propulsion.
PS Just had a look at mine, and you're right, they are called Whattmeters, with an added, and unnecessary, 'h'.
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Thanks, Philip. 1%, or a touch under, is what I've ended up with. I don't make a habit of extended inverted flight 🙂
Using control surfaces to counteract aerodynamic peculiarities can't be ideal. In sailing, a dinghy is set up with the centre of effort (the sails) slightly behind the centre of lateral resistance (the hull) so that when close-hauled close to the wind, the boat tries to point up and that's counteracted by a small rudder correction (weather helm), which helps the 'feel'. Excess rudder correction slows the boat, which isn't what you need when racing, so, like flying, it's all a matter of balance.
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16 hours ago, RedBaron said:
It was fairly easy to get rid of the paperclip. Likewise when I want help I will ask for it - but I find increasingly most online help does not work in this modern era
I use Office Pro 97. It still works OK on Win 10, and I've largely got rid of that awful paper clip, but it still asks me if I really want to save my Word text files as .rtf - I do! I dread having to update from s/w that does more, much more, than I need.
OTOH I remember that the first IBM PCs were a huge step back in technology from the microprocessor systems we were already using but then, no-one at the time got the sack for specifying IBM! I had an editor and a 'C' compiler all running on 64kb of RAM - and it would run a MC6800 emulator for trouble shooting. Who needed extended or expanded memory - and who knew the difference?
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34 minutes ago, SIMON CRAGG said:
I'll let you know Geoff, not flown it yet due to the patch resembling a paddy field!.
Time for floats? 🙂
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Thanks. After a minor adjustment to the tailplane slot (3mm down at the front), the decalage (a more correct term, as it refers to the angle between the wing and tailplane) is now slightly over 0 deg (about 0.5 degrees). I'm thinking of increasing it a bit more while I can as it'll be much more difficult once everything is glued and covered.
Simon, how well did your Thunderbob fly with the Wot 4 wing at 0 deg relative to the tail?
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Looks a treat, Cymaz. You will have to be careful how you park it in the pits, though, otherwise the XL logo won't be the right way up 🙂
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I'm well on with the replacement fuselage for my ARTF Wot 4 Mk2 and I've taken the opportunity to check the alignment and fitting of the wing and tail plane. I thought I'd measured for the tailplane slot in the side piece very carefully, but, it appears, not carefully enough. The wing is 2deg negative relative to the tailplane. I was aiming for 1 to 2 deg positive, so it's a fair way out. On the positive side, the wing fits well, is square, and is parallel to the tailplane in the precut slots. The wing seat need a little fettling, but nothing serious. At least the tail isn't glued so I can modify the slot by cutting and filling to get it to the angle I think is appropriate.
Is my feeling that 1 or 2 deg positive reasonable? What would be the effect of flying with 2 deg negative incidence? Does anyone know the actual wing incidence of a kit built or ARTF Wot 4? I only need to lower the front of the tailplane by about 3mm to achieve a 1 deg positive incidence, so it's not an impossible mod and won't mess up the work I've already done to repair the model successfully, too much.
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Thanks, all. It's cured OK now, as did the batch I mixed and used yesterday. I was just wondering what the terms referring to time actually meant. I'm aware it's all temperature critical. About 40 years ago, I decked a racing dinghy hull over winter in the garage. It's a concrete garage that defeated my attempts to insulate it and I wore so many clothing layers I could hardly work. I was trying to use West epoxy, but it was hopeless at times. I can't believe my enthusiasm for the job. I don't think I could repeat the exercise now.
I tend to use slower curing epoxy/hardener types because I not only believe it makes a stronger, but it also gives more positioning time.
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As I sit here waiting for my Zap 30 minute epoxy to go off, I wondered to what the 30 minutes refers. It certainly isn't the time to go hard because it's over 30 minutes since I glued to firewall to my replacement Wot 4 fuselage and the surplus on the mixing board (an old piece of ply) is still softish and definitely not cured (the remains of what I used yesterday, is cured, so there's nothing wrong with the product). I'm guessing it's the time span it's still usable, but there's nothing that says as much.
Also, what determines the cure speed for epoxy? I think the part labelled 'Resin' is the same for all types, and it's the 'Hardener' that determines how quickly it cures. But it's a guess.
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The only problem with using IC props on an electric motor is that the hole size is sometimes too big, otherwise they're fine.
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4 hours ago, kc said:
Isn't the point that channels a large distance apart interfere - wasn't it said that low '60's could have interferred with 80 something when extra channels were introduced? That was a reason for using dual conversion. Anyway a bit theoretical now - the main problem is likely to be forgetting to extend the Tx aerial or not spotting another 35Mhz user.
4 hours ago, kc said:Isn't the point that channels a large distance apart interfere - wasn't it said that low '60's could have interferred with 80 something when extra channels were introduced? That was a reason for using dual conversion. Anyway a bit theoretical now - the main problem is likely to be forgetting to extend the Tx aerial or not spotting another 35Mhz user.
No, a high IF means so-called 2nd channel interference (another RF signal can beat with the local oscillator and potentially create a weaker IF which responds to the unwanted signal) is reduced because it comes from an RF frequency 2x the IF away (so 2x10.7 Mhz = 21.4 Mhz away). With dual conversion superhet receivers, they have both a high IF for 2nd channel and a low IF for remote RF interference. Because they have 2 local oscillators and 2 sets of IF transformers it makes them more expensive and unnecessary in the modern context of few 35Mhz users.
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Removing old covering.
in All Things Model Flying
Posted
I'm pretty sure nail varnish remover is acetone, which works to soften Cyano, too.