Simon Chaddock

This shows the rather cramped installation of the ESC, Rx and battery. The final result all painted. Not perfect but not too bad.

It a bit like software updates on a PC. They happen but how often are they followed by another update just a week later presumably "curing" something that the previous update created! My Spektrum DX6i is in the state it was 10 years ago when I got it second hand. No software updates for me!

andy I used to use UHU POR it is foam safe but has a problem particularly when used for planking as it does not ever set "rock" hard. The result is a POR glued joint joint will not sand properly smooth. This is bound to be a requirement when using multiple planks to create 3 dimensional surfaces. The best solution I have found is CIA Technicqll Polyvinyl Adhesive. It "holds" fairly quickly but does take 12 hours to set rock hard. They make a range but the one in the yellow tubes is transparent, XPS foam safe and sets hard. It is available on Ebay. I hope this helps.

I built the new nose back to a former in the undamaged part of the fuselage however as this was behind the bifurcated inlet. although this would make the join simple it would also mean parts of the inlet ducting would have to be reprinted and a large area of skin cut away. Upon reflection I decided to repair the damaged inlet ducting using flat bits of PLA sheet printed for the purpose. Although this would mean the duct would not have aa smooth a surface as the original from over lapped joints the PLA is only 0.15mm thick so I judged any airflow disturbance would not be too serious. This meant quite a big part of the rear new nose ad to be cut off! The next task was to try to arrange that the fuselage skin was cut so new nose exactly matched the fuselage to allow a "skin to skin" glue joint. It was never going to be possible to achieve this all around the fuselage and the inlet duct at the same time so the join was limited to a few major areas glued and held in place with masking tape. With the plane resting vertically on its nose it was left for 24 hours for the glue to dry. There were several areas where the skin did nor meet so individual "inserts" were required to be glued in. At least the 5mm XPS is easy to cut and sand to shape. After a good few hours of doing this and some light weight filler I was satisfied the nose was as secure and the air intakes were as smooth as possible. The original windscreen and cockpit canopy will be reused. Next comes the task of squeezing in the ESC, Rx and battery box into the cockpit area. At least I knew where it all originally went. To be continued.

Unfortunately my Hunter F6 met with ground, quite fast and almost straight down. A true nose plant but all my own fault. I had forgotten that determining orientation at distance with an all black plane can be a problem particularly when close to the ground. However as is usual for a foam stressed skin construction it crumples and absorbs the crash energy. This means the remainder of the airframe is completely undamaged and still operational. It will simply need a new nose making. The tricky bit will be arranging the damaged area so the nose can be stuck on. The new nose built as a half shell over the plan. When complete it is rigid enough to be lifted and the other side built on the same way. This is exactly how the original was built so the "new" is no heavier than the "old". More complex than the nose repair of the Skyray so not a 3 day job! To be continued.

Welcome Brit in Brazil I too have a Lidl conversion but my favorite is a FX707s Albatross conversion. Still a relatively cheap "chuck glider" but is bigger, flies (and glides) rather better than a Lidl so much so it is actually worth fitting a folding prop!😉 Any pictures?

3 days ago it was fine and warm (for March) with little wind so almost ideal for the the very low wing loading Skyray It did indeed hand launch and climbed away nicely but after a couple os seconds it all went wrong. To my great shame the ailerons were reversed! Not a good situation for a plane with limited lateral stability and a huge roll rate. 😬 The result a nose plant - again - actually its no3! Ashamed at not doing a thorough control check as a penance I vowed to do the repairs asap. So this evening, 3 days later, it now looks like this. At the same time I have replaced the ESC as the original seemed to be struggling on the 4s causing the motor to "hunt" slightly at full throttle. It can now go back on the wall till the next calm day! Also allowing me to get on with a slightly earlier nose plant I made with the XPS Hawker Hunter. A bit more extensive damage as the Hunter has a proper 50mm EDF, rather than the quad motor and internal prop of the Skyray, so it flies quite a bit faster and crashes that much harder! Repairs are in progres.

Hi Stringy My first home build RC built as a teenager set from a kit of parts. A valve transmitter but at least the receiver had transistors - 5 of them! And I still have it but no longer used. The high voltage battery for the valve is just too much trouble! Modern RC is so much easier.🙂

The question is why have these suppliers decided to quite. If it is a proprietors choice then no issue but if it is due to a decline in the market then the long term future of IC supply could be rather more serious unless so new suppliers enter the market. Unless new engines enter the market the second hand ones will eventually wear out beyond economic repair. Surely the world wide adoption of electric must have an impact on the size of the model aero engine market.

John I certainly hope to be there but some medical issues may get in the way. It comes to us all!

Sorry no flight pictures as I was the only person at the field but I flew the FX707 Albatross RC power conversion today early (9am) before any gusts appeared from a strong sun and cold air. With the flaps set at 15 degrees it just floats along. With just a 1500mAh 2s it flew for 35 minutes 57 seconds power on. It still had some power but I didn't want to risk damaging the battery As it turned out the cells were still sowing 3.73 and 3.74 at rest so a few more minutes should be possible.

Well done! Those nacelles are very neat. I like the temporary(?) struts to hold the planking in place.

Welcome to the forum. You might be surprised just how many have done exactly the same thing, myself included, perhaps it helps explain the average age! As you have found things have moved on quite a bit not least with the advent of FPV flying and quads all loaded with amazing electronics. The other significant change is the advent of electric power although from your background I would imagine IC will be your primary interest. Finally remember the environment has also changed with CAA registration required, including a theory test, for a pilot to fly any RC plane that weighs over 250g. Do you intend to join a club?

A small degree of aileron droop will reduce the stalling speed but the question is by how much and would you be able to make use of it. How close to the stalling speed on approach are you able to fly comfortably? Is your landing problem a high approach speed (safety in mind) with a resulting high touch down speed and long landing run? The Learjet is not a slow flyer and the full size has big flaps that descend to a maximum of 40 degrees for a reason. It would risk loosing roll control to droop the full span ailerons by such an amount. Rather than full span ailerons you may do better to copy the full size configuration but it would of course require some modifications.

clive You may get lucky but I fear you may have to do a bit of DIY modelling. Find a 3 view of a mk1 Spitfire on the internet. You may have to blow it up to the correct size You will also need some balsa wood and then simply make a fin. If you ever fly it you are most likely to have to do the same sort of thing sooner or later as repairs!

I mentioned motor cooling. In your glider the motor is completely buried in the fuselage and sitting behind a close fitting spinner so there is very little airflow through to the motor. Brushless motors are efficient but at least 10% of the input electrical energy comes out as heat. In addition a brushless motor is very compact so it needs a positive airflow to effectively carry the heat away, Just a heads up.

Mark The required Watts/lb depends very much on how you want to fly your glider. You are quite right about the power a glider might require if you just want to cruise about under power for duration but for many the power is set up to give a rapid climb to altitude and then let the glider do its gliding. Electric is pretty good at doing this delivering high power for a limited time (tens of seconds) and then giving the battery a rest and let the motor cool down. One advantage of electric is it throttles efficiently so with a suitable setup you can do both in the same flight. Just for info In a brushless motor the full amps is delivered through each pair of the wires in turn. The unused wire is used for voltage measurement so the speed controller knows when to select the next pair. At 6000 rpm it will be doing this 100 times a second. The wonders of micro electronics! The only way to measure the amps effectively is what the battery is delivering.

I just Googled "DH Venom 3 view" and hunted through what it came up with! There is a build description in the "Own Design Project Blogs" section. It is on the second page under "A bigger DH Venom". It is no q "blow by blow" account but it does show the stages of the construction. Probably the most important part is not foam at all but the printed duct work for the EDF as when assembled it is used a "spine" so the fuselage can be built around it. I hope this helps.

Sorry no plan. It was scratch built from a small internet 3 view & tile printed to the required size. In fact this one! I rather liked the colour scheme used by the Swiss Air Force aerobatic team.

No They are likely selling "new" XPS sheet that is made by the Depron company. It does not have the original surface "skin" so is similar to other 3mm XPS sheet but maybe a bit better quality and price! I was told the original Depron was too expensive to make. Last year I collected a couple of the "new" Depron sheets (It even "Depron" printed on it!) from Steve Webb's shop before it closed down. Indeed this was made from it

Insulation! It will be a bit cold in winter. A big sheet metal door and no roof insulation.

shepeiro Looking good. Still find it hard to believe it will come out to sub 60g. I would not worry about the extra resistance due to extending the battery to Rx wire. It is not as if it will be carrying a huge current. It is normally poor contact in connectors than generate electrical resistance.

Basil Just be aware that to obtain the correct operation of the V tail you may have to "reverse" one or both servos using the Tx servo reverse function or even swap the servo plugs over on the Rx before you get everything moving in the correct sense but then you may be lucky and everything works correctly first time.

It was probably more likely to be delivered using a plane. At least it would have to be handled again when it arrived back in the UK rather than stuck in the "lost" pile at Heathrow.

Just remember that original Depron is no longer made. It was XPS sheet but was squeezed in a mould during the foaming process so it had a slightly denser skin on the top and bottom surface. This meant it had a smooth almost shiny surface and was more rigid than normal XPS foam sheet. It also had a significantly higher tensile strength almost equivalent to a soft balsa.