Electriflier

Chris, Great update. I've got to say, in my opinion, your best yet! Its going to be a great year for new models at the field this year. Nice work.

Not a great deal to report apart from the latest mvideo of the working landing lights coupled with the retracts. It's been ..... interesting, shall we say, setting up the micro switch and routing the wiring. I've decided that the lighting circuit connections from the wings to the fuselage will be mini jacks into chassis-mounted mini jack sockets which will be presented on the fuselage root rib. Not as mission critical as servos or retracts so I made connecting them up easier than standard servo lead connections. I'll post some photos once I have tidied up the installation. I had wires all over the place when I took this video this evening but the object of the exercise was simply to ensure my wiring was correct and all worked fine which I'm pleased to say.....did! The model, precariously balanced on the foam model stand (stood on edge ) so to allow for the lights and retracts to drop without being impeded. See what you think. Gotta say, I think they look the doggie's ........! Regards Roy

Posted by Ian101 on 24/01/2016 10:43:19: This one is the same size, but just a display model for somebody so should be quick and straightforwards...... I've heard that one somewhere before Colin, I understand that to be true after hearing it at a visit to see the old lady (Vulcan) at Finningley a couple of years ago. I'd be highly surprised and probably a little concerned if this one reaches anything near 76 MPH!! Anyhow, Sunday is usually the day for flying or, if the weather is not up to much, visiting family. The family again won through as, once again, the weather has been . Before setting off, I managed to wire-up the landing lights for their first test. What's more, took a little bit of video. Forgive the less than perfect filming and post production but I was in a hurry. Cheers Roy thinking about it, it might have been a good idea to switch them on  Edited By Electriflier on 24/01/2016 21:05:00

Morning.... Colin, I may have misled you regarding the wing. I managed to salvage the wing by hacking out the retract block and installing it on the opposite side. Being fully symmetrical, both wings were identical before I wrongly installed one of the retracts. Which, sort of leads me onto your question Ian. I've built it, as I say, fully symmetrical and to try and build-in undercamber at this stage would be difficult to say the least. Having flown both under-cambered and symmetrical airfoil throughout, there seems to be very little difference, if any, in the flight characteristics. Bringing back memories? - you're not wrong but I have to say, I'm enjoying this even more than no's 1 and 2. I think I've learned to take my time and also, with the weather being as it is, there's no rush to get it finished. Regards to you both Roy

Part 2... continued. Tomorrow was a new day and so, with a new blade in the scalpels and the trusty balsa saw, set about hacking the retract block from the first wing that I got hold of. It didn't matter which, they're identical! Before I progressed any further, wrote in rather large lettering 'RIGHT WING TOP, RIGHT WING BOTTOM and similarly, LEFT WING TOP, LEFT WING BOTTOM' on either wing. TO cut a rather blue atmospheric story short, did the required work and made good my mess. All told, I lost over a day rectifying my stupid schoolboy error. Trying to put all this behind me, I wanted to spend some time thinking about how best to tackle the landing lights. After looking around for a while on the 'net, I found there was very little info' on the under-wing landing lights. My friend Charles came up with a rather good close-up of the lights and so, ferreted around in my 'bit box' and found some bits that might come in handy. Some hard clear plastic globes that i had (I'm rather like a magpie when it comes to seeing things that I could use for building) squatted years earlier. A bit of plywood and the led light clusers. Now, if I stick these in here and glue that to this........... we all do it dont we?..... don't we???? I ended up with these..... With a bit of grey paint splashed about and a battery connected...... RESULT! Looking forward to tomorrow to getting them swiveling within the wings. Anyhow,, to round off, a few pictures from today at the shop where I had the opportunity to set it up for one or two pictures. oooops,that reminds me, I must use glue to fasten the nose to the front and not pins, For now, Regards Roy

What a week!!............ I'm human after all? - too right and getting worse as I get older! As Phil will testify, as he saw the Vulcan today, i've more than proved i'm human this week in that it's been one castastrophe after another...... more on this later. After the remedial work had been completed on the retract doors, I decided, I'd start on the wings. It's the right time to start them now as I need to ensure correct alignment of wing joiners etc etc. So, from a couple of sheets of 6mm white depron, I cut the planform shapes of the wings. The 700mm x 1000mm sheets are just not big enough to get the wings out in one piece so I had to lap joint the last 6" of wingtip. With both wing shapes cut and jointed, I could cut out the 2 channels in each that house that carbon wing joining tubes. 1 at 6mm, the other, 15mm. Once I had cut the channels, offered the wing plate up to the fuselage and dry test-fitted to check for correct alignment of the tubes. Once satisfied with their positioning, removed the wing from the fuz and taped the underside of the channel that housed the 6mm tube. The tape is there to stop PU glue flooding out of the bottom before it sets around the 6mm carbon tube. with the 6mm carbon tube laid in place in the channel and covered liberally with PU, I applied a strip of 6mm depron over the 6mm tube to 'encase' the wing joiner. Once the glue had dried, turned the wing over, removed the tape and applied a similar depron strip which totally enclosed the 6mm wing joining tube. I had to take a little more care when doing the same to the wider carbon tube in that, being 15mm diameter, I had to pack the underside of the wing plate with 4.5mm of packing to make sure that the larger tube went in straight. Again, once the PU had hardened (overnight), I cased the tubing in 6mm Depron for added strength. Next job, cut out the wing ribs....... Having previously identified the location of the wing joiners before I printed them out, correct alignment of the ribs in relation to the wing joing tubes was almost guarenteed to be correct. Before removing the paper (plan) from the wing plates, I marked out the correct spacing for the wing ribs and drew them directly onto the depron. Quite a straight-forward job then the PU each rib into place. Spacings between the root and second rib had been drawn to facilitate the pre-made retract blocks as described earlier in the build. So, excitedly, I set to cutting out the holes in the wing plates to allow the retracts to seat correctly. Within a couple of hours, I had a wing that housed a fully functional retract and looked, well....... great! WIng no 2..... Similarly, this wing went together quite easily and the retracts functioned perfectly. One happy man!!!! Notice the top of the retract area, I have formed a piece of 1/32" plywood to act as the 'roof' to the wheel well and also to help dissipate the loads on landing. Now seemed like the perfect time to set up the first of many photo's that showed the model standing with both wings, retracts down, nose pinned in place....... you know the type of picture. This is where the week went to vermin excrement. I had buiilt 2 x right wings!!!!! OK, the wings are symmetricalso not too much of an issue I hear you say but believe me, the retract blocks had been glued in to withstand a nuclear war. Dismayed (that's as politely as i'll put it) I put the two identical wings to one side and poured a rather large whisky. To be continued..............