Nigel R
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Everything posted by Nigel R
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A Nigel Hawes Tucano? -
Electric cars will and are happening, in fact they've already happened, to get the tenses correct. The vast majority of people's trip patterns are completely covered by the existing plug-in hybrid approach. Even with the current electric range they cover 90% of commutes (which is really what needs to be covered). When they hit 100 mile range (on an old battery with mr. average at the wheel, not the optimistic "brand new no lights no air con perfect economy driving" quote that the manufacturer will give you), then there is no range issue for 99% of trips. And the hybrid drivetrain gets you all the range you need at the drop of a hat. Holidaying in Scotland / South of France / Kazhakstan? Charge before you go, fill up on petrol as soon as you need and let the generator recharge your battery as you drive the rest of the way. Local commutes all on overnight charges. I'm honestly not sure what people are worried about. A charge point network is not the end user's concern right now. You can use the existing infrastructure to just fill up and go. The main obstacle here is people's attitudes, as this thread aptly demonstrates!
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Ticked off several half complete jobs last night. Got the replacement snakes in. The Sullivan reds are smaller in diameter, so I had to add a few balsa widgets to make them secure along their length, e.g.: And I got the cowl "finished": It was less upside-down when I took the photo. Anyway, odd gravity aside, I'm quite pleased with last nights progress. I'm happy to close up the fuselage now the snakes are in, and that is, I think, the last woodwork job left, before it is time to get the thing rigged The cowl looks quite good considering. I suspect I will need to make a pair of access holes, to reach the screws at the bottom - the ball driver cannot quite get to them (hence "finished" and not finished). Onwards and upwards!
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"local club at Marcle" Nice neck of the woods, handy cider establishment nearby too!
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Warbird Replicas Bf 109 club.
Nigel R replied to Paul Johnson 4's topic in Building from Traditional Kits and Plans
That is a fine looking wing, a proper full featured delight. Cracking work. What servos are you fitting on the flaps? -
cracking photo Chris
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Shame. I know he was top table F3A in 1973, which must make him nearly 80 now?
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Might be as simple as bringing the tailplane down into clean air when at high alpha, like landing, similar to Phantom. Edited By Nigel R on 18/01/2018 12:33:39
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Out of the remaining fuselage jobs: 1) I can't stick the snakes in yet, they haven't arrived. 2) I can't close up the fuselage, the snakes aren't stuck in. 3) I can't get the tail group on, the fuselage isn't closed up yet. So it seemed like a good moment to make a start on the cowl. This is admittedly a luxury on a model like this, most trainers seem to plonk a couple of slabs cheeks on and call it a done job. Here's what I ended up with after last night, 1/16" ply front and rear "rings", with light 3/16" sheets filling in: and from the side: and how I'm fixing it to the firewall and getting it on and off - some of those magic hex drive servo screws: The plan is to finish the structure and close up the bottom with the same nice light 3/16" sheet. When that is on and stable I'll open up the front "ring" with the dremel, and get busy rounding off the front corners a bit. A big opening in that rectangular front ring will hopefully allow enough air in to keep everything cool. I'm not going to put that much shape on this cowl, it is deliberately a bit boxy (like the fuselage as a whole, really). I won't have to spend hours carving and sanding a masterpiece. Things to remember - the rear ring will need relieving around the nose leg when it is on, but that can wait a bit.
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"Perhaps it is for best shelf life of the battery or possibly it’s just the safest way to transport and store them." Shelf life is best around 30% to 50% charged. As for transport, it is now FAA regulations to have 30% or less, and of course rest of world follows suit. It's all about reducing the stored energy being shifted about - they don't want unexploded incendiary devices filling up aircraft, for some reason...
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Geoff I don't think you can draw that conclusion about the internal resistance and the voltage. The simple model has many limitations. You may want to tell Boeing about your overcharging experiment but I suspect they may disagree about the the frailty of lipo construction . .. Lastly the storage thing. Maximum life certainly comes from perfect storage but I think the style of charge and discharge had more effect on lifespan than storage at full charge vs storage at half charge.
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Volume determines weight. to keep ppower to weight the same find the volume increase. 1.41 x 1.41 x 1.41 is approx 2.7. So 2.7 times original power. As a starting point. Martin, double power looks more like a 2 5% increase?
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You're describe a hobby in its early days there Pete. Over time as it becomes more mature, the pre-rolled answers become more numerous, for RC we see increasingly complete kits become available, through to these days the availability of bind and fly type ARTFs - almost a "hobby in a box". Most people go with the easiest answer to a problem and that is almost always the exact opposite of scratch building and thinking out solutions as you go. You can say similar things about any hobby. Cycling, for instance - almost nobody builds their own bikes now. There will always be folk who think as you do, "how can I do X" and figure their own answer. As an aside, people still spend years building their own steam engines.
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Both, either, or possibly neither. With a side order of smoke and mirrors. I don't think Hanno was above playing a little mind games with his competitors. He was quoted after retirement as saying something along the lines of "I made them a bit different because otherwise we couldn't have sold the new one". The same holds true of competition kit in a myriad of different sports. Most of the tiny differences are there to make sure the kit can be sold to the competing punters who want the best kit available and, it helps, if 'the latest' is 'the best'. Usain Bolt wasn't fast because he had shiny gold trainers. Etc.
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Looks brilliant with both cowls on. I want one!
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I think I would be tempted to use two strips of 1/16 balsa to part fill the wing seat gap, and take up the rest of the space with foam tape or some silicon goop.
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"when people ask me to show them how to do some aeros, they comment on how I know where the sticks go at what point.... " couldn't agree more with your post extra practice practice practice until it is second nature
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Lots, and lots, and lots, and lots, of practice. And I would suggest a simulator. This is what they absolutely excel at. In fact I would say for this a simulator is far better than learning at the field. You can practice hours and hours of circuits and corrections ad nauseum without any expensive crashes.This also removes the 'fear factor' when you're practicing - which will do wonders for how rapidly you can learn, a nervous pilot will never progress as fast as a relaxed one. Double bubble really, lots of time learning, and learning faster while you do. There are lots of things simulators are crap at - but this is one of their strong suits.
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The next job seemed to be getting the wing bolt blocks organised. For this size model I like two M5 nylon bolts tapped into a hardwood block or (in this case) birch ply. I cut some rectangles of 1/4" birch ply, and put some med or hard balsa on the back to reinforce the glue joint. My ply is 1/2" by 1 1/2", balsa reinforcement is 1/2" triangle section.. Photo shows the balsa reinforcement being sanded to size in my rudimentary sanding guide (two bits of 3/4" MDF arranged so that I can easily put right angles on bits of wood with a sanding block) And here is the rear end of the block, for this bit I shimmed the thing on the sanding guide so that the block matches the slope of the wing saddle, and sits nicely against the former. Lastly, getting it all glued up in the jig. Alliphatic resin for this joint, a few clamps, and some small squares of MDF to prevent clamps marking the fuse sides. Can actually see the triangle section from this angle. Also, there is plenty of space between the blocks for the aileron torque rods. As an aside to all that, I'm changing the snakes for the Sullivan efforts. I don't like the ones I have - the M2 hardware is way too loose (read, I could pull one fitting out by hand). Not best pleased with those. SLEC, these are not your finest hour. Somewhat annoyed after cutting the M2 hardware and so on.
