Lipo Man

One of the implications of spending hours building our flimsy contraptions before chucking them optimistically into the air is that we have to be resigned to the fact that ,sooner or later ,our contraptions will return to terra firma with more speed than we would like. I like to think about this when designing a model, and I try to make it crash as well as possible (I crash a lot, so it’s a significant advantage). With my foamboard models, the attachment of the firewall to the front of the fuselage is a weak point. I tend to design to allow this break to absorb any impact, and I can just hotglue the firewall back on and be back in the air in minutes. That wasn’t going to work with something as big as this Bearcat, so I tried something new. The firewall is designed to be very firmly fixed such that with enough force it would rip the front off the plane. Clearly this is a bad thing. The work-around was to fix the motor to the firewall with nylon screws. The idea is if I do something stupid the screws will break, and in doing so absorb enough of the impact to minimise damage elsewhere. So - I am very pleased to say that after a real-world practical test (“hey guys, look what I can do”) the front of the plane survived with only cosmetic damage after three of the four screws snapped as intended. And next time someone is filming chase footage from a quadcopter, I will remember not to try to fly a slow inverted pass down the strip.

I was going for a New York loft sort of a look! Hose down floors are the way forward, I think…

I've finally cracked and decided to build a much better take-off trolley. Adapting the one I built for the (much smaller) Warbird Replicas FW190 has not really been successful - 50% of launches don't work. Luckily the plane is so light a hand-launch works fine, apart from my dodgy piloting!

It sounds like you don’t have enough pitch speed from your prop, so flat out throttle is barely over your stall speed. A drop from a 1300kv motor to 800kv has lowered the speed of the airflow from your prop by nearly 40% - because the prop is spinning so much slower. Increasing the pitch increases the speed of the airflow at any given rpm, getting some of the lost airflow speed back. The other thing you can do is increase battery voltage - say going from 3s to 4s. So - either trying a higher pitch prop (say a 9x8) or a 4s battery will help, but both would still be slower than your 1,300kv motor. On the upside, lower kv motors are more efficient so you may get a slightly longer flight time.

I built the FW190 last winter and found the process of building whilst following other people’s builds really enjoyable! I think it genuinely helped me stay focused, and I learned a lot from other people’s builds whilst getting lots of motivation. Flying in a group with some of those other models at Buckminster recently was the icing on the cake! Good luck with your project - I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

This isn’t one of mine - I think it was taken by Paul Johnson but not quite 100% sure. Anyway, it’s a shot from a group flying spot at the Best of British event at Buckminster last weekend - there was a gaggle of Warbird Replicas FW190s flying together and this perfectly timed shot captured three of them. All the usual cliches apply - e.g. “it could be a shot of the full size” etc. Absolutely brilliant.

The plane is about 1.1m long, wingspan about 750mm. It’s a 64mm EDF unit currently running on a 4s 2200. It has so much power I’m actually going to try it tomorrow off a 2200 3cell. That will be very light for that wing area - might do OK. I’ll try to get some video…

Well it flies. Surprisingly fast and has way more thrust than it needs - can cruise at less than half throttle and full power scoots it along more than quick enough. It’s behaving a bit “oddly” - not sure what’s going on so I’ll get a few flights in to feel it out. At one point in the maiden I managed to get into a flat spin that was almost unrecoverable - I bet I can’t get it to do that deliberately!

Might be worth trying a higher pitch prop to get a bit more speed? As long as you're not at the limit of your ESC probably worth a try? I've got a couple of planes that I fly with low Kv motors and higher pitch props and they seem to be very efficient.

Another FW190 vote here - notwithstanding your wanting the build to be more plans-based. It was my second balsa build, and an entirely positive experience. The plane builds really easily, you can use a few simple techniques to give it a really amazing scale finish, but most importantly - it flies brilliantly. I really couldn’t fault the design - incredibly well thought through.

I was very pleased I broke my trip to the frozen wastelands of the North (Cheshire) to visit today. Some very inspiring models, put faces to names for a fair few folks on here and joined a gaggle of other FW190 pilots for a bit of flying. I’ve never flown in a group of planes like that before - definitely a bit challenging but great fun! Looking forward to building the next product of the Warbird Replicas hive mind. Here’s a shot of some Warbird Replicas FW190s getting ready to fly. A big thank you to Ron for allowing me to use his extremely posh take-off dolly to get airborne!

Very interested to see your Sea Fury. I actually thought about doing it the other way round and doing a Sea Fury off the FW190. Don’t think I knew the Tempest was going to be a thing at the time.

Excellent. Weather looks promising so I’m hoping to do some gentle flying!

Are there power sockets for battery charging?

Couldn’t agree more - it’s rudimentary, but it should fly. Intake area is bigger than it looks - it’s definitely more than 1.2 FSA. The boxy intake isn’t great, but I can 3d print something to smooth the transition from the box intake to fan if I decide the plane is enough fun to fly to merit the effort! You’re right - it’ll rely on brute force rather than elegant engineering. I’m afraid ’twas ever thus with my designs… 😳