Graham Davies 3
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Posts posted by Graham Davies 3
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Your cat is totally unconcerned!
We can't encourage either in our garden as we have chickens, but both have visited in the past. A visit from a badger is a very rare privilege.
Fantastic Mike
Graham
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Particularly enjoying the Vixen Mike! Seeing wildlife is a very important part of the hobby for me. She is very bold and your cat doesn't seem to mind her.
Graham
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Nice Mark.
Looks like you've used a similar idea to me; use spars to get the airfoil profile. I guess using more spars compensates for the lower strength of removing the wing paper skins.
Looks great though. I'm going to experiment with laminating film covering. I like the idea of decorating the outer paper skin (I will remove the inner) and then covering with ultra thin, clear film, This should prevent water issues and make the model pretty durable. Going to wait to see how this one flies first; I might need some other tweaks!
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Posted by Paul Johnson 4 on 28/10/2020 09:59:25:Posted by Graham Davies 3 on 28/10/2020 09:47:36:
I'm a dyslexic pirate; I have a carrot on my shoulder.
I'll get me coat
Mmm does that mean you have a goat?
I wanted to set up a brothel but accidentally bought a warehouse...
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Those models are great Nigel. I agree about using 'disposable' models to try new things. That's really the point of this little project.
I've certainly learned a lot already, and that's part of the fun
Graham
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I'm a dyslexic pirate; I have a carrot on my shoulder.
I'll get me coat
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"You give me an idiot-proof process, I'll give you a better class of idiot"...
Looks great Paul, Richard. Is it prone to twist before the sheeting goes on?
Graham
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Project "Cheap as Chips" moves on a bit.
I now have a (nearly) complete aeroplane. Just needs the top decks fitting and some sort of canopy, and the control surfaces linking up (someone used my kebab sticks for, well, kebabs. How VERY dare they...). I will squirt a bit of colour onto it, just because there doesn't appear to be a gap in the weather any time soon...
So, all up weight is 17 Oz with 500mAh packs. Likely to be a bit marginal on power and duration so have some 1000mAh packs in standby for a 2Oz weight penalty. It balances with the batteries on the C of G, which is nice. Loading with the small pack is 9 Oz/ sq ft, but power is not likely to make the 3D boys happy.
There is a tiny amount of conventional modelling material: leading edges are 1/8x1/4 strips, wing joining brace is 1/8" liteply, motor mount and 2 reinforcing plates for this are also 1/8" liteply. I used 7 A3 sheets of 3mm foam board to produce a 33" span model.
Total airframe cost is around £6. With the ultra cheap 9g servos (these have done a lot of hours in several models without any issue at all), a 30A ESC and a turnigy D2830, 500mAh battery and a flysky FASST receiver, the total airborne cost is £55. Not bad...
I shall report on it's performance when we get a gap in the weather. Meantime, Mark and Nigel will show us how to do this all properly!
Graham
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Nigel, this is really good. I really appreciate 'scrap box engineering'; it's better than worrying about what we can't do, isn't it?
As you know, I'm exploring foam board, and I can see all sorts of possibilities. I like the idea of ribs as it is quite stiff in compression, and 5mm board would do away with the need for cap strips.
I think the gauntlet may have been firmly thrown down!
As long as I have enough stock for my promised (to me) 3/4 sized baronette, I may join you...
Graham
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Some interesting points Mark.
Have you tried removing the card from one side only? I think it adds a lot of strength (and weight!) so is good for wings. I hadn't thought about delimitation when it gets wet.
I may buy some of the really thin laminating film. I know Ron Grey has had a lot of success with this, and it may provide a lightweight covering to 'seal' foam board models. It may be possible to cover after painting the board; that would be neat.
Regarding glue, I have been using the foaming Gorilla glue, and am quite impressed. Apart from getting you right messy, it's easy to work and sets pretty hard. My Rans-a-like is having it's wings set at the moment, so will soon be able to do a weigh in.
One other thing; the package my foam board arrived in had a sheet of plain foam either side. This is a nice bonus. I'm going to use that to make a turtle deck. I guess that's pretty much what you are ending up with Mark?
Graham
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Posted by James Hayes on 26/10/2020 22:30:10:
Graham/Bas
Thanks. I have only recently got into the hobby and this is my third build. It is a Mike Reeves kit, but I have inevitably added some extra detail. I started in Mar, but have had to balance build time with work. I suspect it will take some time to complete! Very much enjoying the process and teaching myself new skills.
The pilot does look grumpy; dos must be a physics teacher!
JamesI
James, you've acquired more skills in that time than I have in 35 years!
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Glad you're back on your feet Paul.
One question; how do you test the guinea pigs? Is it a written test, or practical?
Asking for a friend...
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Hi James,
I'm amazed no-one has yet commented on your build; it looks absolutely amazing.
I am sure the pilot is my old Physics teacher...
Graham
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Removing the inner skin was my original plan Nigel. Have you seen the flighttest videos on Youtube? These guys have whole ranges of foam board kits (and a huge amount of fun doing it!). They had some tutorials for doing basic things like making curved panels. Some of the feedback comments seemed to relate to different board, and how it behaves. It seems in the US that Dollar Tree board works well for this.
My foam board however, doesn't! Getting the paper off was all but impossible, so I thought again. I made cuts in the inside and could then get the stuff to curve. I was also fearful of warping, and hopefully this will balance out. I have to say, the wings as they are with upper and lower skins and a pit of 3mm spars are impressively stiff. I will fit a balsa leading edge tonight as I want a rounded leading edge, and that should be it. Each wing is around 65g, so not too bad.
I'm going to see how this turns out, bit weight and performance and then make a second prototype. I will think about construction techniques for that one in the light of any lessons learned.
It is worth a bit of background of the performance I'm looking for from this model. On the back of a fabulous afternoon at our club for our annual "spot crashing" competition (Climb to height, power off and land closest to a flag; average of 4 attempts with one discard), I was thinking how we could extend the competition. The idea of single model appeals as this with extensive hangars have an otherwise advantage. Problem is, not everyone is a builder and we would end up with 2 entrants. If I can make a model that will fly like a sports model, bounce like a ping pong ball and be cheap and quick enough to build to give half a dozen away, there may be legs in my idea. So, the model needs to be quite tough to survive all the activities; loaded enough in case the day is a bit blustery, cheap enough to promote stupid behaviour (always to be encouraged) and hopefully good enough to get a few more people to knock something ridiculous up!
Graham
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Posted by Nigel R on 26/10/2020 13:46:25:
Graham, interesting project, following along, hope you don't mind a couple of comments as I have played with foamboard a bit,
that board is about the same weight as a 3/32 piece of wood, using a complete top and bottom skin you end up with the equivalent of a solid wing of 3/16 balsa... how would that work out in weight terms for the whole model?
Hi Nigel,
Feel free to comment! It's what these forums are all about.
My feeling is it will be a little heavy. However, there is very little structure to the wing so it does save in other areas if compared to traditional construction. I really only have a spar and wing skins. I was thinking of a jedelsky structure, but wanted a sports aerobatic section.
I have some ideas to lose weight. I may try cutting out sections where strength isn't needed and covering with doculam, or even plain paper.
As i stands, this prototype will have very little balsa or ply. Just the motor mount and a lightly wing joiner as it stands. I reckon it will weigh around 16-20Oz, so 12-15Oz/ sq ft. Should fly OK, but not with the performance of the depron 3D thingies. More sports plane than 'physics defier'...
Graham
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Posted by RICHARD WILLS on 26/10/2020 13:23:45:
I like what you did there ...
I expect you had a silver spoon on board .
( and a violin playing cat )
Have I gone too far again ?
Maybe not far enough!
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FB3, foamboard is the stuff often use to back photographs for displays. It's light foam laminated with paper on each side. Depron is lighter, but this stuff is quite stiff. It's also ready to be painted, or drawn on!
I may do a blog. I'm learning as I go and I'm sure others have already trod this path. My thoughts are; let's not moan about that lack of wood, but try something new. What have I got to lose? So far, about £8!
Rich, Yes, sign me up. Are don't see any significant risk here. After all, my 1/4 scale saturn 5 rocket made from lark's spit and rizla papers and powered by carefully collected cattle fart was highly successful. Our only amateur Moo (n) shot...
Graham
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It's been quiet on this lately. Once this came to light, I started thinking. And then I got unnecessarily excited!
So, rather than worry about what I can't do, I have been looking at what I CAN do. So I bought a pack of A3 foam board sheets and I have started playing...
Hopefully, this is going to end up looking a bit like Peter Miller's Rans Chaos, but at 33" span. I'm not too worried about looks, but have borrowed the approximate layout. I have a power train waiting for a model and some 500mAh 3S lipos. It will hopefully give me a 'throw about' model that will be nailed on for next year's spot crashing, sorry landing competition; Fly to height, cut the motor and aim for the flag!
So far, I have really enjoyed this process. Learning what can be done and overcoming problems is what makes building fun. And the airframe will cost less than a tenner!
Wings and rear section of the fus underway in the pics.
Graham
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The wing and fin shape looks like one of Keith Humber's designs to me. If it is, it will fly really well...
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"You looked younger in the photos"
Oh, wrong forum...
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Posted by extra slim on 15/10/2020 11:41:58:
when chatting engines with club members here in the north.. my favourite phrase is "wouldnt pull the skin off a rice pudding".. any others you guys hear?
"Have you thought about on board glow". Usually uttered following sudden reduction in airborne noise...
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Love a bit of Engine-chat...
I was an active buyer of engines when ASP/ SC were in their infancy. I had great experiences with OS with my 40FP and an old 15Max being superb, reliable motors. As stated before, an Enya SS40 was and still is a gem; powerful, easy to use and reliable. Once SC/ ASP came about, I had a few of these. A very good SC46 that was fine until I stuffed it into some tarmac! I also had an ASP 32 that was rubbish. It never really ran well, and when it did, it had no real power. However, I have an ASP61 from this era that was and is a great engine. Reliable and very powerful.
However, for me at the time, Irvines ruled the roost. I favoured small models and had a selection of 20s and 25s; both ringed and ABC. All handled well, were powerful and reliable. Again, I still have most of these.
A mention for a little PAW80 I bought partially seized from a local shop for a tenner. I learned to fly with this great little engine in a modified veron cardinal. Great engine until the spray bar vibrated in half mid flight...
Graham
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I've paid good money to have my Lumbago played havoc with...
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Thanks Cliff.
Ordered a mount. I have a new biplane with a nice big cockpit. Perfect for the job!
Graham
Model flying photos you're proud of
in Photography
Posted
A couple of good ones from the talented photographers in our club:
Peter Miller took this yesterday of my much modified Viva taking to the air:
Our club member Michael has a definite knack with model photos. This is my 36" span version of a SIG Aerobipe
I like Biplanes...