Greyhead46

I saw Mark Croucher's youtube about the Bristol Fighter. That was from my "neck of the woods" so doesn't bode well for the club funds.

Hello Geoff It's a bummer getting old isn't it? But better than the alternative! My brother, who has stopped flying, still builds, mainly buying part built models which the previous owners have got fed up with. He finishes them to a high standard and then sells them on but is always disappointed, not to say disheartened with the amount people are prepared to pay. Grahame

A couple of years on and I’ve regained quite a bit of flying experience; in the past I have to admit I’ve have been somewhat dismissive of ARTFs but with advancing arthritis I am beginning to vary my stand. In my own defence many early versions were terrible with tailplanes falling off because they were never glued etc! But I have now “built” a new ARTF. Although like riding a bike, you never forget, it is obvious that I’ve lost the “edge” and I’ve reluctantly come to the conclusion that for me to attempt to fly the SE5a would only end in disaster. It’s time for it to find a new home! I’ve offered the model to my local club Teesside MFC to auction off to hopefully raise some much needed funds. Let's hope there's some interest.

The two new battery packs have arrived so time for the second outing, still blue sky but quite a bit more wind. I left things as they were for the first flight and all was well so for the second flight I moved the battery back. She climbed quite steeply right from the launch, of course I should have removed the up trim! Once trimmed it was fine but when I cut the power there was very little penetration into wind and she was being blown about a bit so overall it was not such an enjoyable flight. For the third flight I reverted to the forward position for the battery and remembered to dial in the up trim! The glide angle is better with the cg moved back but the handling, at least with a fair amount of wind, is compromised. The best solution would be to leave the battery back and add ballast at the cg for windy weather but am I really that bothered about ultimate gliding performance? To be honest I’m not, there is plenty of “spare” power to extend the flight duration if I want to so it’ll be a case of calm weather battery back, windy weather battery forward.

Well spring has well and truly sprung so it’s time to take the Phoenix out for a test flight. Clear blue skies and a gentle breeze, perfect, but first things first, a photo just in case. Looking good and no foam in sight! Full throttle and away she goes climbing nicely, a couple of clicks right trim is all that’s needed. Pull back on the stick and she’s climbing nearly vertical, plenty of power with the 3s battery. I levelled off at a reasonable height and cut the throttle. I’ve no way of knowing if the 60 odd grams of “extra” covering affected the glide angle but she certainly wasn’t in a rush to return to earth. When she eventually came down just open the throttle and up she goes again. After 15minutes I called a landing; on the down wind leg I applied half flaps, this reduced the speed somewhat with no “nose up” then on finals once over the threshold full flaps which really slowed things up and she landed at about walking pace. The flight characteristics were very stable but responsive, I needed some up trim to get level so maybe she is a bit nose heavy as suggested in another thread on here. I only had the one battery pack so I’ll move the battery back a bit next time.

Here’s the photo of the model with its new “Swiss” livery and I have to say I’m very pleased with the result; to get a better comparison to the original “out of the box” photo I used Photoshop to replace the “bedroom background” with sky which took some time! The original idea was just to change the decals to make it look more “real”, but I think covering all the visible foam has made the biggest improvement overall, it has made it look like a properly finished model and from my point of view it was worth moving the servos just for the aesthetics if nothing else. That’s everything ready for the first flight, all I need now is good weather, roll on spring.

To get the recommended balance point the battery still needs to be as far forward as possible which is fine because according to another thread on here the cg would be better about 5mm back. I’ll leave things as they are for now but there’s plenty of room behind the battery so I can always move it back later if needed. Now what I've been waiting for; a photo of the finished model!

Before I refitted the tailplane permanently I filled that rear screw hole with 5 minute epoxy then drilled a 1mm pilot hole and finished the balsa infills, to cover the “damage” I applied a ring of red vinyl with black demarcation lines to match the wing tips. All that’s left to do is assemble the model and check the balance.

I’ve used the original push rods which connected the rudder and elevator, cut down and bent to shape to connect to the control horns and the “zed” bend will be used to connect to the servo arms. The problem is that they are not the standard 2mm we use in the UK; I tapped the snake 2mm to provide some grip then peened the end of the push rod to form a barb. Once push in and with a smear of 5 minute epoxy they are as solid as a rock. Having glued the servo plate in place I held the tail assembly temporarily in position to get the neutrals then cut the snake inners to length and fitted the “zed” bends. Just for Brian I’ve positioned the servos to show the maximum lateral deflection at neutral and the all-important zero at the (short) end point.

Fixing the rear support for the snakes ended up being trickier than I thought it would be; after several failures I found the answer, a soft balsa block shaped to fit the inside of the fuselage, it also had to fit through the servo hole. I left a “handle” so I could position it and hold it in place whilst the 5 minute epoxy cured, at this stage the block was only glued to one side of the fuselage. It takes very little stress so most probably would be ok left like this but I’ll leave the “handle” in place until I have got the snakes in their final positions then cut it off flush with the fuselage, the servo hole infill will then secure this side of the block to the fuselage.

Now to work out where the snakes will exit the fuselage. I applied masking tape and marked the alignment before removing the tail assembly, you’ll notice that the tailplane fixing rear screw hole is too big; as I undid the screw it brought some plastic with it attached to the thread, I’ll have to do something with it as the screw will not tighten down; don’t want the tail to fly off mid-flight! I’ve also made a start on the soft balsa infills for the original servo mounting holes. Exit slots cut.

Hello Brian Thanks for your concern, I did some experimenting before I glued the support in place as I thought the same as you but they work fine. I’m not using clevises, the “zed” bend fits tightly up to the end of the snake inner giving maximum length. All the adjustment will be done from the control horn end. In the photo the servos are at maximum rotation needed to get the recommended control surface throws. The snakes are spaced so they are in line with the servo arm holes so at maximum rotation there is no lateral deflection of the exposed snake inner at its longest and importantly at its shortest. When the snakes are connected I’ll push the snake outers back into the plywood support, every little helps! Grahame

On to the modifications: For the servo plate I drew the shapes on paper and glued them to 1/8th ply then cut them out with a fret saw, this will be the snake support. The servo mounting plate, complete with servos and snakes, ready for fixing in the fuselage.

Hello Murat Feel free I've not copyrighted it. Yet! Grahame

But before I start any modifications I’ll tackle another “foamie” problem! Getting a foam model to the field, especially with a 2 metre wing span, is always fraught with danger, they get damaged so easily. Three boxes, one to provide clearance for the fin and the other two (one of which fits inside the other) cut in half and attached to the original box make a good transport / storage box. I’ve used black “Gaffer Tape” to cover the lid halves and reinforce the edges. Various pieces of packing foam hold all the parts in place.

Having seen the covered wings I’ve decided that I’m going to cover all the foam; ailerons, flaps, tailplane, elevator and rudder! Of course there’s always a downside and in this case it’s weight. The Phoenix V2 2000 is supplied with two canopies, one is for fitting FPV equipment (up to 500g apparently!) so the 60 odd grams of film is not an issue in itself except for the fact the vast majority of it will be behind the CG. I had checked before I applied the film and with the battery as far forward as possible, I am using a 1500Mah battery as opposed to the 2200Mah recommended, the balance was correct, so no surprise that it is now tail heavy. I’ll have to add some nose weight, or the better alternative, remove tail weight and this might just be a win / win situation because just in front of the tailplane there is another of my “pet hates”; the rudder and elevator servos protruding from the fuselage! I know all the advantages of this type of installation but to me it just looks as if they’ve designed this sleek glider then realised they’ve forgotten about the servos. It’ll involve some quite major “surgery” so I’ll do a bit of experimenting first. If it turns out to be a lot of pain for very little gain I’ll be pragmatic, it’s not scale after all, and just paint the servos white so they don’t stick out (literally!) like a sore thumb. I removed the two offending servos, placed them roughly in position under the canopy and re-checked the balance; slightly nose heavy which is perfect. If things stay the same once the servos are mounted and snakes fitted I can always move the battery back to get the balance spot on.

I wasn’t as confident about the wing tips as these involved double curves but they were also no problem and I was very pleased with the finish, so much so that I decided to cover the rest of the wings. I have to admit I really don’t like that “foamie” look (I’m old school and still think they look more like toys as opposed to models) especially after a few outings to the flying field when it starts to look like dinosaur skin! Don’t get me wrong, I’ve got nothing against foam per se, in fact I built a “foamie” over 25 years ago! It was before I went digital so unfortunately it has to be a photo of a photo. I designed the fuselage as a simple box section, then glued slabs of polystyrene foam all round, a lot of cutting and sanding (and mess!) later I had near enough the right shape. I covered it with individual panels of obechi veneer and the end result was very pleasing. Anyway back to the Phoenix: I’d finished the red wing tips in line with the end of the ailerons, this caused a problem as it meant now I had decided to cover all the wing I would have to position the rest of the vinyl very accurately to butt up to the red. I soon found out that handling a metre long piece of sticky backed vinyl is not easy! To do things correctly the wing should be covered first then positioning a relatively small piece of red vinyl for the tip would be easy. I taped the vinyl in place before I removed the backing…… …. but it still wasn’t accurate enough and that is why I ended up using a black demarcation line; to cover the misalignment, but to be honest I think it looks better. The photo clearly shows the nice shiny finish of the covered wing compared to the uncovered aileron.

If you’ve read my previous threads on the SE5a and Parnall Elf builds you’ll have realised I try to make my models look like “real” aeroplanes; well it’s Christmas so I’ve bought a Phoenix V2 2000 for some relaxed flying and whilst it is certainly not scale, described as a sport aerobatic electric glider by the manufacturer Volantex, I would prefer it to look as “real” as possible. This is how it would look “from the box”, a generic glider shape with plastic fuselage, foam wings, tailplane and fin. Just replacing those garish decals with something more suitable will go a long way towards adding some realism. I decided to use self-adhesive vinyl for the simple reason my son has a vinyl cutter and a supply of vinyl, also I wasn’t sure what effect (if any) a hot iron would have on the foam. With the spinner immediately suggesting a Swiss red and white colour scheme a quick Google brings up a multitude of choices. I didn’t go for any specific glider, the final result is a “hybrid” consisting of all red fin with white cross, black registration markings and red wing tips, to which I added black demarcation lines, I’ll explain about that later. I’d never tried covering with vinyl before so started with the fin as this is basically a simple flat surface and that worked out fine. The white cross looks a bit odd in the photo but looks right with the fin attached to the fuselage.

Hello Phareout Glad you found the thread interesting and if it has inspired you to try your hand at modelling (static or flying!) that’s a bonus. As for the amount of scale detailing, as kc says, it’s a matter of personal choice and what one person would describe as “minor inaccuracies” might be another person’s “glaring errors” but worth noting that the smaller the model the more difficult it is to detail. Unfortunately the radio modeller plan has some “glaring errors” (in my opinion!). The most obvious of which are the shape of the rudder and nose but these can be easily corrected by looking at a 3 view drawing. I went to Shuttleworth at Old Warden and took several photos of the finer details and they proved invaluable when building the model. Grahame

Hello Steve Glad you enjoyed the thread! Grahame

As this is the time of year when many of us will be setting up our new models ready for this year’s flying season I thought it worth recounting my experience from last year. Towards the end of last season I was out with my foamie electric glider which I have been flying for a couple of years now using my trusty JR 3810 with FrSky 2.4 rf module, when for no apparent reason it nosed down and ploughed into the ground. Luckily the coincidence of not too much altitude, boggy ground and full up elevate alleviated the worst. Having retrieved the model amid talk of “strange things” happening to models at the Redmarshall field and my own musing over the new electric fence the club have installed to keep the horses on their own side of the fence I returned home to stick the nose back in place. Repairs complete my thoughts turned to what had really happened and my first idea was a dodgy elevator servo but something was bugging me about the model as I’d extracted it from the mud and when I removed the transmitter from its case the penny dropped! Being smart, when I first set up the model, to save having to program dual-rates, exponential and CAR, I changed the name of an existing, no longer used memory bank and checked everything wobbled in the right direction. I just had to reverse the aileron channel, neutralise the trims and was ready to go in no time; simple! What I had failed to remember was that the previous model had been a slope soarer and to help if lift went marginal I had programmed the “landing” switch for a few degrees down flaperon with a smidgen of down elevator to lift the tail. All things being equal operating the switch shouldn’t have been a disaster, but I had reversed the aileron channel so they both deflected up killing all lift from the wing at the same time as applying down elevator. Not so smart after all! When I’d retrieved the model both ailerons were deflected up, at the time I thought they must have been deflected by the force of the arrival but being top hinged with control horns out the bottom surfaces if at all they would have been deflected down and that was what had been bugging me. What exactly happened is pure conjecture but I assume I must have removed my hand from the right stick, to scratch my nose or adjust my hat, who knows? On the return journey my hand inadvertently hit the “landing” switch, which is situated just above the right hand stick, and the rest as they say, is history.

Hello Jerry As I designed my SE5a from scratch I can’t really help with the actual construction, Belair should have sorted all that out for you! The only suggestion I can think of is the addition of thread braces as shown on pages 3 and 4, they add very little weight but add greatly to the stiffness of the rear fuselage and they look good when peering into the cockpit. The finish detailing is a different matter so if there’s any process that I haven’t explained fully just ask and I’ll certainly do my best to clarify. I knew exactly what I’d done but trying to explain it is never easy. Grahame

Hello Paul I suppose so but I really think aeroplanes, be they model or full size (Vulcan!) belong in the air! Grahame

Thanks for the replies. Paul: The offer to buy came “out of the blue”, I hadn’t advertised or anything, it was a post on the original build thread so I assumed it must have come from a modeller but later, after it had arrived in South Africa, I got another post asking where the propeller was (didn’t seem to realise it needed an engine) so I don’t know? Basil: There’s nothing too hard about it, I just break the build down into sections, if you do the best you can with each section you’ll have a model you can be proud of! The more you do the easier it gets so just keep building, you’ll get there. David: I don’t think I’ll be doing another thread, both the Elf and the SE5a were built some years ago and arthritis means my hands just don’t work very well now. Grahame

Hello Murat Thanks for the reply. It's always a testing time (no pun intended!) the first few times with a new model until things get trimmed but the satisfaction level when a model you've built, and more so if it's your own design is way up there. Grahame I suppose it had to happen; after 4 years of trouble free flying the Elf bit back today; of course it wasn’t the Elf’s fault it was mine! It was one of those very rare days, really hot and a flat calm. The first flight was uneventful apart from a rather fast landing, which inevitably ended with the model on its nose; it’s amazing how much even a slight breeze slows the landing approach. After watching a few other models flying I prepared for the next flight. By this time the windsock was behaving rather oddly, there was still no wind as such but every now and they the air “moved” and this movement was in random directions; could it have been caused by thermal activity? I should have known better and changed to flying the ArcoWot, but the other models had had no problems; I opened the throttle but half way down the strip the Elf lifted a wing and cart wheeled along the ground. It looked a sorry sight; one wheel bent up at 45º, one set of wings at very strange angles and warren girders sticking out every which way. I picked up the bits and did what I should have done earlier; I carried on flying with the AcroWot. Having got the model home and had a chance to have a good look at it I can safely say it’s not as bad as it first appeared. Most of the bolts holding the Warren girders and cabane struts on one side of the model have sheared but having replaced them temporarily with twists of wire the wings are once again aligned correctly and they fold with no trouble. The axle bent back into position easily, the only real damage is to the rear of the fuselage just in front of the tail plane where some of the sheeting has split, this is not a structural part so it will be easily fixed with a drop of cyano. I think I really got off lightly, although replacing all those bolts is going to be a tedious job. The Elf is ready to fly again but we’ve got those strong winds back again, most frustrating! I found one more thing that was broken, the cockpit bulkhead, which holds the compass and a couple of switches. It’s not a structural part of the fuselage, it’s only for scale detail and will be quite awkward to replace so I’ve deferred that job for now. Replacing the 14BA nuts and bolts went a lot easier than I thought it would from my experience of doing the job originally. What made the difference this time was that I had fitted the Warren girders in place temporarily with thin wire. The Warren girders are the only things holding the wings in the correct positions relative to each other. The first time I did the job I fitted one Warren girder, then the next and so on, this meant that the wings tended to move about as I worked on them making life rather (very!!) difficult. This time I locked the wings in position with the carbon fibre “tongues”, removed one Warren girder at a time, which left 5 still holding the wings, fitted this one with the 14BA nuts and bolts and then removed the next. Whilst still not the easiest of jobs it was a lot better and is a lesson learned for the future. The End of an Era After giving me much pleasure over many years, both building and flying, the Elf is now on its way to a new home, in South Africa! Deciding whether or not to sell the model was not an easy task as she really is a “one off”. The offer came just as we had sold our house and storage was a real issue, some things just had to go and of course I’ve now got the SE5a to play with. It was a toss-up between the Elf and the wife but the thought of eating beans on toast for the rest of my life swayed me towards parting with the Elf and in all honesty I don’t think I’d have got as much for the wife!