Hangarqueen

Absolutely, Mike. Differential thrust works really well, I use it for a couple of models too that don't have any steering through a wheel. I was kind of amazed by the fact that this tail wheel construction actually works during taxi ? Maybe because it sags a little with the weight on it? The real Mosquito tail wheel sits more vertically, which might make it less effective. From what I read about the real one, its tail wheel steering wasn't really effective (or even freely rotating, I think they had to use differential brakes for steering). As I was just doing some adjusting on the rudder and elevator neutral positions, I noticed something wrong with the tail wheel. I used a plastic hinge (I thought it was robust, but apparently not), and that seems to have been broken. I have a metal piano hinge lying around, I will be replacing the broken one with that one. It's a fiddly job that will have to wait until tomorrow, I'm afraid. Weather's bad for the rest of the week anyway, so I have time.

The tail section of this model posed maybe the highest challenge. As it was originally conceived, the rudder was directly connected to the steerable (but not retractable) tail wheel. In the photo of the original, a couple of posts back, you can see how much non-scale this tail wheel really was supposed to be. On top of that, rudder and tail wheel had to be connected rigidly together, after which the whole tail section had to be glued permanently together. I didn't like that at all. I wanted a more scale looking tail wheel, steerable and retractable. And all of that would have to fit into this very confined space of the bottom tail cone: To the left, an opening is provided for the rudder control horn, which should protrude outside of the fuselage. Another no for me. I had a good look at the Brian Taylor Mosquito builds, but that construction would never fit into this space. So I had to be creative myself. Since a solid steel steering rod was already installed for the rudder operation, I decided to use that one for the tail wheel retraction. As it would get quite a beating during taxi, this steel rod was really necessary to take that sort of load. I first made a prototype of a hinged wheel support that hinges at the bottom of the fuselage, and carries the tail wheel steering. The steel rod then connects to rotate this support plate (Aluminum profile) I bent a wire for the tail wheel, to get a first impression of wheel position in both retracted and extended status It would rotate through a collar on the support: Care had to be taken though that it would be able to pass through the opening in the bottom of the tail cone, knowing that it is possible that the tail wheel isn't centered at the moment of retraction It passes, but the opening will need some modification. Next problem was the steering arm for the tail wheel. After some rummaging in my spares box, I found some older Futaba servo arms that fit just perfectly. I glued in a 6mm collar with a 4mm set screw, which in turn prevents the collar from rotating inside the servo arm To improve the scale looks of my tail wheel assembly, I carved out a balsa "fork" in which the bent steel wire will be sunk. For strength, I added a 1,5mm epoxy plate of the same size, which will also cover and hide the steel wire inside I drilled some lightening holes into the Aluminum support plate and widened the opening in the tail cone bottom I still had to carve off the edges of my tail wheel fork and fine tune the opening in the tail cone to allow the tail wheel assembly to move left and right with "weight on wheel" (which pushed the assembly a bit into the tail cone). It isn't really scale, but better than the original The actual tail wheel steering is done through a pull-pull cable system, which will automatically untighten when the tail wheel is retracted. This system seems to perform remarkably well, although with some play. But that play isn't a real problem, as this is only used for taxi. It sounds easy when I describe it, but all in all this took me several weeks of trial and error and re-thinking.

I have tried many times to get her to tell us more, but I think she'd rather forget than remember. A couple of years ago, all of a sudden she started talking about the dead bodies that she saw in her childhood village, but quickly changed the subject after digging up those memories. On the first of January, we always visit my uncle, godfather, her brother. After all these years, he too started talking casually about how their uncles (whom I knew very well, as very kind and always smiling and humorous) were in the armed resistance, the white brigades and the partisan army in Belgium. How they were hiding members of the resistance on their farm, how the gestapo knew that something was going on there and paid them a visit form time to time. At one time, a letter about my family from a collaborator was on its way to the gestapo HQ in Brussels, but this was intercepted by the resistance. Otherwise, I wouldn't even have been born, he said. This was all very upsetting to me, a bit shocking, the fact that I never knew about this. In my early childhood, I saw them throwing guns and weapons into a concrete floor that they were pouring for new stables. He could even confirm that memory! I always doubted the accuracy of that memory, but appeared to be correct. After that, we were joking about what we would ever find in that house when our uncle passes away, that we would need the bomb squad or something. I started reading up on the resistance in Belgium, and I actually found the name of one of his uncles in the list. So I have developed a new strong interest in what happened in those horrible years, and especially how some people stand up and do what they believe is right, even if it could cost them their lives. Like the small group of resistance fighters that stopped a freight train in Boortmeerbeek, causing some of the deportees (towards the concentration camps) to escape. That was very close to my home town. Very casually, wile enjoying some coffee and cake, you hear these stories for the first time in your life, and you go home in silence, trying to process all this new information about people that you thought you knew. Trying to imagine that cheerful uncle, from whom I used to get our milk from his cow farm, bearing arms. He never said any word about the war, ever. And now he's long gone, along with his tales and stories.

Thanks Eric. I did consider your solution, but I didn't find a way to attach my struts construction to the spring oleo pin unfortunately. I have only limited equipment and skills for metalworks ? This is how badly the pin was bent after the first not-so-perfect landing: After a good pint and then some thinking, I thought of a way to strengthen this construction, by making an Aluminum block with a 5mm hole in it that will surround this pin It should be able to take the forces of my landings The downside of this solution is that when I tighten the nut at the top, I pull the pin out of the retract (only held in place with two grub/hex screws) I tried to make a sharper flat spot on the pin, but that didn't really help enough. I did manage to do a second flight yesterday, and the good news is that the pin didn't bend anymore (landing was better too), but what I dreaded happened: the whole thing came out of the retract, after just 1 landing. I just couldn't tighten it enough. What I came up with, is to use a second nut, at the other side of the cross-brace of the landing gear, and make a cutout in the Aluminum block for this second nut Now I can really tighten the top nut and have a rigid assembly. It's not an ideal solution, but I hope it will do for the coming months, so I can fly this thing before thinking of a more permanent solution.

Fitting electric retracts and new gear struts is one thing, fitting the wheel into the nacelle and having functional gear doors is another thing. Just for reference, this is how the original model was supposed to look like in 2007: First, the gear doors. When you look at the full scale aircraft, the doors look really curved at the top. But in reality, the "cut" into the nacelle is more or less a straight line. After some measuring on photos, I started planning the cutout of the doors from the thick fiberglass nacelles. I placed a sharp marker pen on a stack of books, then moved the nacelles across to draw a straight line. I first applied masking tape to the nacelle, to allow for mistakes in drawing to be corrected or erased. I had to take the width of the complete landing gear assembly into account too, as it has to clear the nacelle opening when lowering or retracting the gear. I did my best to follow the contours as they can be seen in photos of the original. As can be seen in the picture above, the original panel lines were designed for the cutouts of the non-scale landing gear struts. I will have to correct that later. Next challenge was how to cut through this very thick fiberglass. I opted for a sharp hobby knife, and started carving again and again, until I got through One side done, repeat for other door (and later for other nacelle) To my relief, I could then see that the landing gear could comfortably clear the opening And we have 2 landing gear doors And then it was time to check the positioning of the lowered landing gear. Perfect. Next problem was to fit the 3,5" wheel inside the nacelle when retracted. With a 85° retract, this is a problem: - to avoid the dreaded nose-over during taxi and landing, the gear has to be raked sufficiently forward, to move the wheel sufficiently forward of the CoG - when retracted, the wheel has to go into the wheel well, such that the gear door can close. In this model, unfortunately, a 3,5" wheel doesn't fit inside. I could make an opening into the wing planking to get the wheel to go deeper, but then my forward raking is ruined. Because I didn't have a 90° retract available (which would have solved this problem), I decided to temporarily modify the nacelle, until I find a definitive solution. First of all, the fitting of the nacelle to the wing isn't perfect to begin with That fact made me feel a little bit better about the next modification, which isn't really aesthetically pleasing either. I decided to add a small inside "wall" that lifts the nacelle a bit higher from the wing, giving more room for the wheel inside. While manipulating the nacelles for this modification, I noticed that the front rim had become so small and tiny that it broke. I used epoxy and wooden strips to reinforce this To mount the nacelles to the wing, epoxy "hooks" were provided, which slide into slits in the wing planking. I had t glue these hooks to my added "wall" And to my relief, the wheels now fit inside these modified nacelles For the time being, I will leave the doors out for the first flights; they would only complicate matters. But again, I couldn't resist taping them temporarily in place for a photo That was a small motivation boost ?

We'll be the 21st century ATA ?

I will surely try that too!

My first challenge on this model was about the main landing gear. As it was designed for a mechanical retract and a single wire strut, it would take more than just replacing it with a servoless retract. I did look at the Brian Taylor plans and kits, but that mechanism, although very scale, would be almost impossible to fit in this model. In my very naive state of mind, I first tried to fit the gear from the Freewing kit, but that just looke plain silly: It was just too small in any way you look at it. Studying some photos from the real thing, I came to a 3,5"" wheel to be closest to scale. Adding 2 shock absorbing struts and temporarily attaching them to a wooden cross-brace, it looked really nice: It was immediately apparent that this construction, as it was then, was hopelessly lacking rigidity, and was going to twist and turn on every occasion. Adding a second brace solved that problem Doing a bit of trial and error, I got to the correct dimensions and made a new brace set from leftover Aluminum profiles, connected to the retract through a 5mm steel pin: That pin would prove to be too thin during the maiden landing. But it sure did look good when the model was first on its new feet:

Thank you. Funny that it is called "elbow grease" ? I will most certainly have a look at this one, could be useful for other models too. Forgot to mention that when my 88-year old mother was here when I had first purchased and assembled the model. When she looked at it, her eyes shined and opened up wide when she said "Mosquito!". She saw them in action during the war, living close to our first airport in Haren, near Brussels. She knows here Spitfires, Hurricanes and Mosquitos.

This is my very first thread here on this forum (there were some technical difficulties in getting my account active...). As a long-time Mossie fan (I built my first Airfix 1/72 kit around 1972...), I'm hoping to find others with the same pathology here. I have flown a Freewing foamie Mosquito for several years, but that one was decommissioned last summer, the airframe having become so worn down that it flexed in every axis. During its last flight, it was all over the sky, getting harder and harder to control. I have been looking for a replacement for a long time already, having considered building a BT or Tony Nyhuis kit, but I'm afraid to lack the building skills and the patience to bring this project to a satisfactory ending the Seagull kit looks pretty nice, decent size, but what I read about them regarding flight characteristics has put me off I read good things about the Black Horse kit in terms of flight characteristics, but that kit first put me off because of the many scale deviations. It has been around for quite a while, and was discontinued long ago, so that didn't seem like an alternative for a while. Until I found a NIB kit in October of last year, for a very decent price (120 Euro if I remember well). The guy was renovating his house, and he had a lot of unbuilt kits that got in his way. Very nice chap, living in the south of the country (Belgium), who even invited me to visit his club. On top of that, he was the first not to mention how surprised he was that women can fly too ? Once back home, I couldn't resist doing a quick assembly to admire my newest member of the fleet. First impressions: Very light model, it will be easy to keep this well under 4 kg. As we only fly electric in our club, I will be equipping this with a 900kV motor and 3-bladed 11x7 prop on 4S. On paper, that would be 800W per side, but in reality it came out at less than 600W per side the original landing gear is something of a very bad joke: a mechanical retract (not bad per se) and 2 long shiny metal gear struts that retract through a small slit in the nacelles. For its time, that was probably more than decent, but retracts have really become the new normal today. So that will be modified for sure. The covering is shiny. Very shiny. Sooner or later, that will have to be changed somehow. The model has had its maiden flight last week, pretty uneventful except for one bent landing gear (more on that later). I have done a couple of modifications during last winter to the main landing gear and making the tail wheel retractable, and I bought a set of scale canopies and nose cones from Sarik in the UK. I will first do some more flights with it, before I do any more modifications.

I usually combine multiple power sources using dual Schottky diodes, thus creating redundancy in power supply. In models with one motor, I combine the BEC from the ESC with an external BEC powered from a separate 2S or 3S battery.