Lipo Man

Couldn’t resist standing it on its’ wheels for a quick Look. Fairly happy with the low-slung stance versus the full size. Think I’ll ballast up to flying weight and do a few drop tests to assess the strength of the undercarriage before going too much further. And yes, I know the lawn needs cutting but the bees like the clover! 😆

First side landing gear fitted (later than anticipated due to being distracted listening to Glastonbury coverage on the radio yesterday!). Torsion bar to allow front/rear flexing seems to work fine. Hoping these little 5mm pine blocks will prove strong enough. Fingers crossed…

I’ve got to finish my Miles Hawk Speed Six in time to fly it there. Good to have a target date!

Plywood reinforcement made with my customary craftsmanship and precision! Just picked up some wheels and 3.5mm wire from Als Hobbies. Time to bend the gear wire.

Sounds like a plan. Off to the shed!

Thanks for the advice to all members of the forum hive mind. Very helpful! So - the smart thing to do is incorporate some structure more towards the leading edge and mount the gear from there - much like the image from Eric. However, one of the goals for this build is to simplify as much as possible, and put all the flight and landing loads through the main spar. So - here's a plan B to try to take on board the feedback whilst maintaining my "only one big structural element" objective. It's basically to do the simple sport model plan as Richard advised, but mount off the main spar so the gear leg is canted forward. I drew a second version with an additional bend in the gear to give more fore and aft compliance. Thoughts? Better? Should I just give up and do something like in the drawing that Eric sent? One way or another the plan is to have it standing on it's own legs by the end of today, so no pressure!

Hoping for some advice from the seasoned designers and builders around these parts. As someone has already pointed out, this thing is going to need some sort of landing gear (in fact that's the point - I wasn't having total success with there laugh dolly for my big Bearcat - hence something with fixed gear). So - I have a box spar extending from the. fuselage to the gear location. I'll put a liteply stiffener on the front surface to give me complete confidence that the spar will take all the landing and flight loads. My thoughts on gear were to then have a hardwood "gear strut" running down vertically from the front of the liteply stiffener. To this I'd attach the wire landing gear (which would have a 90 degree bend at the top to a section running span wise to stop it rotating). The gear wire would have a bend so there would in effect be a sort of suspension leg allowing the wheels to move up and down a bit (as our field is a bit rough). Could add a coil to the wire to increase the springiness/flex if needed. What do people think - sounds like a workable plan? Rough diagrams below to try and explain...

A Braeburn, calibrated to standard ISO size to serve as a reference for scale. I should have pointed out it’s a metric Braeburn to avoid confusion - apologies for the oversight! 🤣

Had a spare evening so the central box spar is built. There are 3d printed mounting blocks inside the box spar into which the 14mm carbon tubes slide. I’m really liking the size of it now that I can get a sense of it. Should have plenty of presence in the air.

Well I had already decided that the Mossie would be my first twin when it’s ready, and also my next purchased kit (as opposed to my cheapo home brew creations). I had definitely decided not to buy another kit before the Mossie. Bugger. That Spit does look very nice, and I really like the look of invasion stripes on a plane. I suspect I’ll be buying one when the list is drawn up!

In my defence it was before my time? 🤣 I remember saying the same thing to my history teacher at school, but it didn’t seem to cut me any slack re. pass marks…

Very nice. My first scale foamboard build was a Sea Fury. One day I’ll build a second, as I have canopy and decals for the Motion RC version that’s the same size. Probably the best looking WW2 fighter? I’ll get my coat…

I’d suggest an additional fixing further down the door to “strap” it to the gear leg. I did a couple of driller holes and a small cable tie. Without that the vibration eventually causes a fatigue failure and the gear door snaps (or mine did, anyway!). Made a new one and all was well…

Is that a Sea Fury, by any chance? Very nice whether it is or not…

Hi Richard! As usual you’re right on the money. Step one of the design process was measuring the car! At a 2.0m wingspan it should just fit with wings removed. Hopefully… Power will either be two 4s in parallel or two 3s in series, depending on how it performs. The Bearcat did fine on 4s with long flight times so hopefully that will work again. So yes - no expensive batteries. I’d better get back to the sanding and painting in the house, and hopefully there will be time this evening to do a bit more modelling!