Nick Somerville

It sure was hot. The number and range of models superb from foamies to the big Moki powered beasts. It’s a superb site and the 100 years of aero modelling exhibition in the hanger an added bonus. a well as a chance for some respite from the sun. As a relatively low airtime powered flier and newbie warbird pilot it was brilliant to watch a whole day of routines and imbed in my mind the best flying to have something to come away with and aspire to. My last flight with the Sea Fury was a real struggle as hours in the hot sun had put the model seriously out of trim. I had to use most of my down trim to achieve a modicum of level flight. I would not have expected a carbon pushrod to extend in length like that.

The wings are off the bench that has now been cleared and I have been looking at how to shoehorn my sizeable Valach twin into the cowl prior to starting the fuselage. When I purchased the engine, on BMFA Classified, I had checked the width of the engine and compared it to the cowl size but the 5mm spare I thought I had is not the whole story. The widest parts of the engine are of course the rocker covers. I had planned to mount the engine inverted so the rearward carb could sit back in the upper part of the cowl. This would give easy access through a scale cowl maintenance panel for tuning and would require just a little modification to the top of the engine box. However in this orientation the rocker covers sit at a point where the cowl starts to turn inwards making my 2.5mm gap on each side a negative 4mm on each side. mounting the engine the correct way up moves the offending edges of the rocker cover into the large cowl side blisters so that was a relief. However this puts the carb on the leading edge of the wing just where the single large front locating dowl protrudes through Former 1B. The answer I guess will be to dispense with the central dowel and instead use two smaller ones bonded to each ribs 1A. I can then enlarge the large dowel hole in 1B to take the carburettor and remove a little of the wing leading edge at the centre to ensure it can breath freely. Access to the carb for tuning will be through the lower cowl maintenance panel. Ruler represents wing LE

That’s a shame Jon. I had the cider ready for you too.

Yep still going

Spent some time at Woodspring today. Fantastic weather, great organisation and a very high standard of display flying. B of B Hurricane made a goose bump moment for many, as it made a few lovely low passes. Enough trade stands including Balsa Cabin to keep modellers happy. A wide range of models to enjoy, including a club that had 8 or nine fun fighters in the air at the same time flying like demented hornets that was hugely entertaining. Steve Holland’s super smooth flying style of his huge models stole the show for me as ever. Well done Woodspring!! First time flying at a show for me and I really hope nobody noticed my Sea Fury nose over at the wnd if it’s landing run 😬

Morris Motors have these https://www.morrisminimotors.com/catalog/product/view/id/3912/s/rds-metal-adapter-pack-1/category/3/ I bought some adapter discs on ebay but can’t find the seller looking today. RDS is great and I use it for my seafury. Danny Fenton has some Youtube videos showing how. The aileron will need an ultra tight fitting box building in for the arm.

First two picture’s are BT’s 82” Corsair. 2nd two are the Vailly 92” Fw190 and the last plan picture is the tail end of the Bates 82” Sea Fury. I didn’t photograph the tailplane as it is fully sheeted. The book is a walkaround publication for which I also have one for the Fw190 in the same series and has been invaluable. If you can’t find a copy let me know and I can lend it. Apologies for folded/scrumpled images.

Here are a few photos of the example at Yeovilton. The restoration to its end of service condition is superb and really evokes the raw purpose of such a unique fighter. Rib tapes and stitching in abundance (stitches all in line with ribs as per the Fw 190 I am doing). Imo if you go for 1/16 on the fuselage you will need great accuracy on the formers to avoid a starved horse appearance. Personally I would stick with 3/32 and sand the tail end thoroughly. Obviously hard to judge when you have got it thin enough but the shape will be better.

This is going to be great to follow Ron. I have read heaps of threads on a variety of Corsair builds including the GS Too Flite offering. Well done for finding one btw as they are pretty rare. Be interested to know what retracts have been fitted or which you will need to get. Rotary Laser 100% but the Flat or V 360 would both be good. What is the estimated auw? There certainly is a lot of balsa and ply up at the tail end so I am sure this could be sensibly reduced. I have B Taylors plans for his 82 inch Corsair so will dig them out and get some photos of the tail end for you. Also both my Sea Fury and FW 190 are not dissimilar sizes so can also get some pics of these plans too. The Fw190 also has fabric covered elevators like the Corsair.

Wide Open Throttle Would annoy me too if someone was doing that while I was flying. Brian, you are a regular at Buckminster I believe. Could you post any details of the format of the Warbirds event if you have participated before please.

I booked in a while back but it’s a four hour drive and with the cost of diesel means it’s definitely a commitment for a good forecast only. Plan to go Friday, camping for two nights. It’s a fabulous flying site where I maidened my P47 last year. May just take the Sea Fury, unless they get the grass really short in which case I take them both.

What fun! That was hilarious watching the landings. Great effort! Makes a change to see Stampes charging around the sky like sport models. I always fly mine on light wind days and only get above 1/3 throttle if doing aerobatics.

Lower cover inner dressings added. As supplied they had three indentations in the larger part whereas documentation only shows two. Also the lower was not the correct shape. Some lightweight body filler later and they are near enough now for me. You can see that the spruce blocks I made to hold the piano wire part, has almost completely disappeared from this view. Once painted they should blend in nicely.

Used paper templates to line up the hole positions for the leg covers. The holes are drilled a just little oversize and instead of a rubber block, as previously mentioned, short lengths of fuel tubing were cut and slipped over the threads of the ‘button’ heads. This allowed for a precise levelling of the covers as well as giving some shock/bump protection. In this photo you can see the tubing under compression. Also a closer look will show the piano wire guide lightly glued in place on the lower wheel cover. Once I had checked that the lower cover was correctly aligned and sliding freely behind the upper cover, some spruce was shaped and epoxied in place over the wire to keep it firmly aligned. As I had followed the correct scale outline for the upper covers instead of a rectangular one, as shown on the plan, I had to increase the gap at the top of the covers to allow for the widening taper as the gear is deployed. Still, pretty happy with the fit as this is certainly a challenging part of getting the gear and covers installed.

Been giving some thought to the mounting of the gear/wheel covers, as the supplied collars have screws that do not reach far enough. Added to that they are some US/‘Boris’ thread size. As a work around I have rotated the collars by 180 degrees so that the threaded part is now on the underside and have re tapped them to 3mm. A bit of time perusing BoltWorld on Ebay (highly recommended) resulted in bolts and threaded hex rod sleeves of ideal sizes to allow for some adjustment. Also I like the domed top style hex heads which will look fine on the outer surface. As supplied Reversed and fitted with the threaded sleeves. The threaded sleeves nip up the clamps and there remains about 2-3mm gap between there top and the underside of the covers. I will make up some hard rubber spacers so that there is some shock absorption if the covers get knocked. I did something similar for my Sea Fury and so far it has been effective.

Some time later working through a fair bit of sandpaper The leading edges are all but done. I have a 40 odd year old Permagrit block that sticking some sandpaper to the curved grip makes for a really useful tool. The transition at the forward rake was a bit tricky but contrary to my concerns the aluminium cut back nicely. Just the tips to do and then a final sand all round and I can glass it.

One of the most satisfying of tasks I find is planing back and then sanding the leading edges. The tape is set 1/4” behind the face sheets as I had skinned over a prior 1/4” false leading edge. BTW the blue tape is Proper Job’s cheap version of the most excellent green Frog Tape. 1/5th of the cost and tbh I can’t tell the difference excepting the colour of course. At this point I have no idea how I am going to cope with sanding the profile around the aluminium inset gun barrel housings ?

With the laminated G10 and carbon fibre covers completed the retract cover portion was carefully fretted out and both the upper cover and retract access cover tidied up to provide as close a fit as possible. The wing skin could then be cut away and hardwood lugs added for the access cover. These were drilled, soaked in cyano and tapped 3mm for some suitable short mushroom topped allen bolts. The lower wheel cover portion overlaps by 4mm beneath the leg cover and will be attached to the leg close to the axle using the supplied Sierra clamps. There is 30mm of compression available in the oleo so behind the upper leg cover a short length of brass tube has been set and fixed with carbon tows in the lower part of vac formed parts supplied with the plan pack. Once both the upper and lower parts have been drilled for the three saddle clamps and accurately aligned, a length of piano wire will be fixed to the lower wheel cover to both support the top and support the top and guide it when compressed. In the last picture you can see the two upper saddle clamps marked and the rear of the parts with the inner dressings.

180 in my Taylor P47 auw 17.5lbs and has proved a perfect combination for a first warbird.

Looks great Craig. Lovely sharp lines and with the inset Proskin/g10 you have a super durable edge that better emulates an alloy skin.

For the gear leg and wheel covers I cut out of G10 two pairs of the upper and lower parts for each side. For anyone who hasn’t used this thin G10 Proskin (.6mm) it is very easy to cut out with a pair of sharp heavy duty scissors. The upper cover includes the retract access panel which will be cut away later. My intention was to lay down one set of G10 parts, add two layers of wetted out carbon cloth and then add the second set of G10 covers. Clearly with the black cloth I had no chance of lining the parts up accurately so allowed the carbon to cure with a layer of peel ply on top and all weighted down with sand bag overnight. Now trimmed up I have a clear outline and the outer layer of G10 can now be glued in place with a thin layer of epoxy and weighted down again. As expected, without the second layer of G10 the covers are just a little too thin and the cloth weave quite pronounced so hopefully the final layer should have them spot on. In the second photo you can see where I had to cut away the open end of the wheel bay to insert some props to push out the lower ski to the correct profile. I had omitted installing some temporary ribs across the area resulting in the sheeting/skin taking a flatter form.

Well my 180 powered Stampe needed some work as it was weeping a lot of fuel last time out and had two dead sticks. I had thought it was a failure of the filler valve, but once I had the cowl off to my amazement it was a tiny hole in the front of the tank. It had slid forward and rested against the exhaust which obviously had melted the plastic to make a tiny hole. Fortunately I had a spare, albeit 2oz bigger, so slotted that in and made up a clip to keep it there. As the cowl was off it seemed a good time to set the engine up on the pink stuff, since the slow run needle was accessible. I wound it in 3/4 of a turn and tried to start her up. No dice, so I put it back half a turn and she fired up. Once warmed and the plug power off I had a fast tick over but any effort to reduce the revs resulted in an immediate cut. By the time I had a reliable tick over and responsive pick up I am pretty sure the leaning of the slow run was 1/4 of a turn from the prior setting. After the recent high winds here calmer days are forecast next week so will see if all is good in the air.

So I too am going pink soon, as nearly out of the bluey stuff. Iirc both main needles and slow run needles will need leaning. That’s a cowl off at home task for my two warbirds. About how much of a turn do you think the slow run needle will need? I signed up to fly the Sea Fury at Woodspring, so I better be sure to have the 360 back on song as I will be nervous enough flying in front of a crowd for the first time.

Lower skins fitted and servo hatches cut out. The hatches are a balsa/G10 sandwich so screws wont indent when nipped up. The outline of the retract covers and gear doors have been marked on and the next job will be to cover the area with film and lay up carbon cloth for the leg and wheel covers. No inner doors on the 190 A8 so thats a lot of work saved. It’s a satisfying job sanding back all the rough overhangs of the skins to reveal the full outline of the wing. The flaps and ailerons are fitting and operating nicely for once, so that’s a relief. Just the tips to add and carve and the final piece 1/4 leading edge to fit and shape, so it won’t be long before I can have a major clear up of the benches and start thinking about the fuselage. On this top view you can just about make out the flap indicator apertures and the gear indicator exit holes.

There are some good videos on YouTube showing how to make simple wire benders.