FEDERICO GILLI

Latest..   if H9 supplied a roll of covering film too do the model could have been potentially faster than remove the wrinkles! By the way not all of them disappear but consideting the status of the various part I'm pleased enough. An other think that H9 should have not done is to drill the holes for the servos. Having to cut out them all to fit my 3001 the hole did not match anymore so only 2 over 4 can be reused. All tail surfaces have been installed and only one over the 8 screw wsa not aligning properly and give me a bit of sweat to get it in. Servos for ele, rudd and thr in. Throttle linkage finalised and thr-cut set up on radio. I modified the steering leg notch to allow same movement right and left. Rudders are also been fitted and set-up. The rods need to be kinked up to line the plastic clevis with the plastic rudders arms. If this is not done the plastic will pull out with the wrong alignment induced strain. Battery switch is in too. I do not like any of the clevices and plastic retainer on brass rod clamps but I decided for once to use the supply equipment as much as I can, after all H9 is suppose to supply good quality stuff!   That's all as far I can recall.   Have a nice weekend. Best Regards,   Federico  

Obviously this model is never going to get the place of a wot trainer and I think this is the biggest mistake of hangar 9. If they did market the raptor as sport / jet introduction model and trash al the additional bits people would have get on with the flying characteristics without too much fuss. Bet they would have sold more and it would be still in hangar 9 portfolio.  Back to my one. I got the supertigre in and looks tidy enough. The mock cowling has been cut out but I'll wait to cut the grey one untill I'm happy with the power to weight results (I might have to swap the 61 for my much bigger 68). The tank is in with a tiny bit of foam around the bung to seal the passage to the engine compartment. The throttle rod is too thick and does not slide well at all. I think is oversized and I replaced with a much thinner piano wire job. Now everithing move smooth and the carb tilted to an angle leave the z bend working perfectly. An other advantage is that as result of this carb position the needle are farther away fronm the prop. The spinner backplate hole need a bit of reaming but the spinner prop blades cut outs are perfect for my apc 11x6 and require no trimming, Legs and wheels are in but I think the flat spot in the front leg for the steering braket is in the wrong position. If I tight the arm in this spot there is very little right movement before the arm strike the plywood partition. The wheels itself are of a very good quality. One issue at least for me is that all the servos cut outs are too small for my futaba s3001 so I will have to file some ply away. I also decided to not bother with the flap servos, If I cannot land without flap I'm not good enough for the plane. I'll start with the fix flaps in the middle position and see how bad is the landing without them after. Tonight I'm planning to smooth the wrinkle and open up the servos cut outs. I also want to check if I can improve the elevator rod system as as they are appear to introduce some drifting during loops. I have a similar set up in my VQ Macchi 205 and I have not notice any issued with it during loops.   All the best.   Federico

Hi,   I've started the assembly last night. I was going to replace the main imperial bolts with metric but than as all the hallen key are supplied I decided to not bother with. I got my dulux diamond coat water base wood varnish and I gave a quick brush to all the exposed wood. I do not like the idea that glow exhaust find the way into hatches and tail surfaces slots. I find this product an excellent alternative for fuel proof varnish, providing you don't use more than 5% nitro fuel. The engine mounting is a bit wide for my s 51 but should still do. I'll use washer to lift the thrust line as accordingly other forum is a must do. I found some servo in the box so I might fit flap to test the landing but if I can handle it  without I take them off to save weight and complication. The tail surfaces wrinkles are loads and I do not think I will be able to remove them all. The tail plane and elevator weight a ton I cannot see how the model require so much tail weight... time will tell. Any of you got the thing started?   Regards,   Federico  

Hi all,   I'm ready to go batteries charged, fuel mixed and petrol hand pump plumbed just need my senior club mate to go for if (I'm only an A cert and I cannot maid any new yokes). I'm hoping to go this sunday providing is windy enought as I'm not sure that our grass patch is long enough for this bird. I hope to survive the day and get a bit of confidence in this model after reading about too many issues. I'll attach few pictures of the final product mind the air vent in the cowl are going in only if it is worth the efford, it will fly without cowl for the first few outing.   Regards,   Federico

Well, last night I fit both rx and ingniction batteries 6v the first 4.8 the latter. All servo trave adjusted and dual rate set up. I tried to stick with the factory reccomandation on the dual rate but all the normal rates travels are more than the reccomended ones. I fit the cown and spinner in order to take a few snaps but the are already gone with the spats untill I check the airworthness of the rest of the envelope. The landing gear really sucks. I both this model not to have to worry about retracts! Unreal!! Anyway I got two replacement wheels from hobbyking 3.73" unit I saw in a different tread. The are much better but not soft as I would have like (no air but foam inside). I'm not going to bother to fit them Is I can see that the whole thing is going to fail. I'm hoping to burn a couple of tanks of fuel on the ground this weekend but the weather forecasts are not good for sunday. I wandering if our club site runway is long enough for the mew gull. The total dry weight is 5.1kg but I do not know how accurate is the digital scale. If this is correct I'm quite happy considering the lump of metal at the buisness end. Ed. any flights yet? Regards,   Federico  

Bar moving the battery forward I do not want to tackle any modification. After my Mew gull I'm a bit sick of trying to depart from the basick set-up. I'm also not planning to use the flaps but I might have a go with flaperons. I guess I'll fit my supertigre 51 with an apc 11x6. I foud that the 11x6 has much better vertical performance than the 11x7 on this engine and in general with all my other 0.46 / 0.51. I'm only sorry that the supertigre quite muffler is very big. Having learn to fly ic and achieve my A cert with my new yamamoto I'm quite use to flying bricks and I guess my vq macchi and still unflown mew gull are in the same category. I do not know how old is the model I got from galaxy but I need to check if the front section has been factory reinforced or not.   Regards, Federico

Got the bird last night, looks the part. I never owned an Hangar nine plane and I have to say I'm impress with the quality of the manual and the acessories they also supply the foma to go around rx and batteries! The parts are still in the box but I notice substantial covre wrincles on both elevators/tailplanes. After sruggling with my mew gull If this is the only f-22 issue I'll be delighted.   Regards,   Federico

I've one on order from galaxy. I got the grey one as I rather the look and was also a bit cheaper. I'll cover the bottom side of the wing in a bright color trim to help orientation. I read both good and bad, same of the review call for a stable plane othe for a tip stall devil but one common point is that the more bhp you have at the tap the better. I'm planning to use a supertigre 51 I have on a new yamamoto with an 11x6 apc. Please let me know if I shoud go for a more powerfull unit as I have an mds 68 in a telemaster I vever use.   Regards,   Federico

Hi guys,   I know the wheater has been terrible but at this point somebody must have had the mewgull in the air? Any news... are we all waiting for the RCM&E review?? I should speak for myself I guess. I was hoping to see the review on the mag similar to the one for the seagull cap any update here?   A nice weekend to you all. Regards,   federico

Hi All,   happy new year!   The weather in this part of the world has been terrible for the last several weeks. Icey roads before, heavy snow fall and gale force wind and rain now have ground us big time. Around Christmas time I manage to fly my hely and finish testing the servo for the mew gull. I need to move the servos in and fit the batteries packs and that will be it. I will leave cowl and spats off for the first few flight to be on the safe side and privide better access anc cooling to the new engine. I hope to get few feedbacks on the mew gull flying characteristics from the few of us living warmer country if you had a chanse to fly your mew gulls. Hoping in an improvement in the weather... all the best.   Federico  

Hi Leon,   all seagull mew gulls have no flaps but I was wondering if somebody used some aileron flaperon mixing function on the tx to help with the slow speed issues. With a servo per wing  is a strait forward set-up but sometime especially for small planes does not make much of a difference.   Regards,   Federico 

Hi All,   any more flights? Wheather here in Ireland has been shocking and I did not manage to go flying for over a month and a half. I'm still testing the servos for final installation. I'll go back to cg to move if forward a bit. Still very apprehensive about the lot! Does someone use any flaperons mixing to help on landing speed? If yes how much?   Regards,   Federico

  You are so right! It is quite interesting indeed. I guess if this was a parlament discussion they would have aredady spent a couple of millions paying someone with no modelling esperience to decide what is te best power solution to go for. This would have taken a couple of months and as they would have focus on one only option no "lesson learned" know how would have been gained from it! Maybe the solution to all the state issue is to open a forum and rerviiew all the intelligent proposals!   All the best!   Federico   

Hi guys,   look like that for my firts petrol attemp I should have choose a more tested model! The take off issues are quite bad and I'm surprised seagull did a such big f-up (pardon my french). I'm naw rather apprehensive now and I can see myself modify the down thrust as it look quite too much too me. It is a pity I nave already drill the cowl as the new angle will effect every hole I made. For the landing gear is not a good news too as my model will be on the heavy side and will fly from a grass patch. I will chanse it as I do not like the idea to make major surgery to the wings unless I have to. I still have to fit a couple of servos and the two flying batteries but the finger balance look pretty spot on with the roto 25. I might try to rig up a cg locator with few bits of string and see if I get a more precise result.   Regards,   Federico

Hi,   with the wing finished(bar servos) I cut all the stickers and applied them using soapy water. I used Graham approach and cut the sets of letter in bulk following the outline of the two external one to protect the other from lifting off. The ggo thing is that with petrol I should have less issues with oil to be cleaned up. I also got most of the cowl carving done with the exception of the air vent on the right side. I still have to get the alumimium plate chiselled out and until I'm not happy with it I'll not risk to cut a big rectangulat hole in the cowl. this is the front air intake. From the picure of the real thing the hole is centered and fitted with an internal deflector I'm not going to replicate.   the stikers set does include a louvre stiker for this side too. Probabily is correct for one of the different variants and will be handy for me to replicate the louvers there as the exhaust  thouch the cowl on this side  quite a bit. I'm not planning to do it but if the insulation aluminium foil does not work I'll be forced to do it.   the bottom looks like this. I'll use the  mock exhoust holes as vent. Once the model, or the pilot, prove itself I will add five aluminium stacks. The two real exhaust are just about protruding so there is the chanse I have to extend them out a bit.. bummer! The two blue tubes are the filling and the vent tubes.   I'm quite happy with the alignement of the cowl/ spinner and with the exception of a few degrees of downthrust the two work whell together. A 4 1/4" spinner was used. This is the perfect match to the colw but if I had to re-order it again I will be going for a 4" as in the original model there is an air intake all around the spinner. I might have to find a new home for this one in the future!!!! That's it for now.    

Hi Graham,   the seagull logo is not going to my spats too!   About the stikers.. have yoy cut out all the letters from the transparent background? Any news on the all up weight?   finally I'm after fitting the wheels and thy look awfull, the are obviously two foam sided melted together but the outside rim does not match at all. I'm thinkind to put them on a drill and using sandpaper rectify the issue. Thi is obviously the "strap in cash" optinon! Will be probabily nice to replace them with balloon type if they fit in with.   Regards,   Federico   Regards,      

Hi all,   sorry for the little progress but I got lost in a book! With the book gone I went back to the building board and I tackle the wing. The two panels joint was pefect so was just matter of protect the two panels with their shipping bags an a little masking tape, mix some 30 min epoxy and voilat! Two rubber bands were enough to keep the two panels in position and with a bit of methylated spirit the joint was successfully cleand up befor the epoxy cured. I've also add one additional spacer by side on the motor mount bringing the thrustline closer to the stated one but ckeeping the cowl in line with the top of the fuse. I'm hoping to drill out the exhoust holes tonight so I can get the final cowl position before I start carving the air intake and vent holes. That's the plan anyway. To the next episode, all the best,   Federico