Am tempted to go for a Phase 6

[Peewhit]

My P6 is not quite ready yet

 

Had to settle for the Wizard Compact today.

 

Only 30 mph on the edge and 24oz of ballast on board - awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[JIC_Phil]

Peewhit,

If no-ones mentioned yet, can I suggest?

Make yourself a break-out plate arrangement for the metal threaded insert that's used to bolt the wing on.

At the front of the wing, use a picce of dowel into matching tubes to locate wing to fuz

 

That way, if you do have an unexpected or hard arrival it won't snap the fuz.

Replace the ply breakout plate and - hopefully - chuck it off again.

 

The first P6 I built never snapped a nylon bolt in it's life.... always snapped the fuz at the wing seat

The second P6 and a Flair Heron I built never snapped bolts either - they got through a fair few ply plates - but never snapped a fuz!

 

Cheers,

Phil

 

[Peewhit]

Thanks Phil.

 

From previous experiences with bolt on wings, in the event of a vertical landing etc, everything but the wing bolt breaks

I do intend to fortify the fus a bit yet, even so, will go for your suggestion of thin ply break out plates.

 

Thankfully I have not crashed anything for a while, but you never do know

[Peewhit]

Have finally got back to the P6 - too much flying been going on for building.

 

Before gluing on the bottom of the fus it's time for a little more reinforcement on the sides

 

2oz glass cloth and resin from the former at the front of the wing to way behind the join of the fus sides

 

Edges trimmed off and a bit of resin to sand off the longerons!

 

Now the bottom of the rear fus can go on

 

Then the front former and joining at the nose

 

And the front bottom piece - oops, forgot to upload the photo - back in a minute

 

[Peewhit]

The next stage for the fus is to match up the wings, and for that I do need the wings

 

The first job is to solder the wires to the servos

 

The feed the wires through the holes I melted in the foam

 

And join the wings and sand off the leading edges

 

Then I sanded off the bottom only of the trailing edge to install the rear center piece, which on the sport wing,lines up flat with the bottom

I am going for the separate flaps option therefore the rear center piece is only 3" long.

 

The top of the trailing edge was deliberately not sanded yet as it needs to match the top profile of the rear center section

 

I used a gauge set to the depth of the ailerons to very lightly mark the trailing edge as a guide to sand to.

 

Trailing edges sanded nicely, and then the glass bandage around the middle

 

[Tim Mackey]

looking nice

I have been using the hot wire idea on foam wings for ages - works great - but you do need to watch both the temperature, and the speed and angle at which you use it of course.

[Peewhit]

Thanks Timbo.

 

Yes, you do have to line it up correctly first time as there is no second chance.

 

I don't know much about the temperature control thing.

 

Twenty seconds in the gas cooker flame seemed to furkle it nicely though

[Alex Leigh]

Here's mine. Not built by me, but glassed all over (it's pretty heavy!), ailerons in the wings (hot wire as well worked well), and fitted out with gear. It was the first model I glassed and I've learned a lot. Could have done with learning it before based on the finish close up. Strong but serviceable!

 

Not as nice on the others on here but looking forward to flying it. Yours looks to be coming on nicely, I'd be itching to get sanding that fuz round!

 

[Peewhit]

That looks god Alex and I do like your colour scheme.

 

Let us know how the flying goes.

 

Yes, I am itching to sand off the fus and make it look pretty yet I do have a few more bits to complete first.

 

I am currently pondering on two things:-

 

How to get access to the nose weight in front of the battery?

 

Am going to glass the fus and fin. Do I also glass the wing, tailplane and control surfaces?

 

Any advice from the experts would be most welcome.

Edited By Peewhit on 30/03/2011 17:28:19

[Gary Binnie]

Been thrashing my P6 for the last two days and getting to know it a lot better.

 

I tape the noseweights (car wheel stick-on type) to the front of the battery so that I can pull the lot out gently by the wires, I removed some weight after the first flight and have not touched it since.

 

On my P6 everything is glassed! Possibly overkill but I think it's helping to hold it together on lumpy landings. It did increase the weight quite a lot but I don't think it bothers it.

 

Landing in strong lift without airbrakes or flaps was difficult today, just kept going around and around!! I've not read it in any of the soaring bibles but I tried sideslipping and it worked a treat once I worked out how to fly it in a straight line with crossed controls!!

 

Cheers

 

Gary

[Tim Mackey]

I often tape small squares of lead to the front of the pack too - but attach a long narrow strip of CW tape right around the battery end to end, and looped back again to form a grab strip which is used for pulling the pack out if needed. This removes any strain on the wires.

I would glass the lot but probably not bother with the control surfaces - just out of pure laziness

Gary, why not set her up for spoilerons - would help to shorten the glide on the landings in big winds.

Edited By Tim Mackey - Administrator on 31/03/2011 20:33:48

[Gary Binnie]

I've only got one servo in the middle!!!

 

One site I fly at has a nice flat top with a sink area behind but where I was flying today was effectively half way up a very big hill so I was asking a bit much to try and match the glide angle to the slope gradient!! I only go there once a year so I can live without any brakes.

 

I'm flying it on 2.4 now so I haven't got a bit of string on the end of the aerial, could have done with that yesterday when I failed to notice the wind had backed about 60 degrees!

Nearly went for a long walk to the bottom!!

[Peewhit]

Looks like it's all going to be glassed then.

 

Gary, I fly 2.4 and a 6" piece of knitting wool on the albeit short aerial is indispensable whereby it determines both launch and landing angles.

 

Couldn't live without it

Still thinking about how to access the nose space beyond the battery

[PatMc]

Peewhit, dunno if this is too late but I found it handy to have the tailplane detachable for transport. Mine's 2 piece with a bellcrank permanently in the fuselage to activate the elevators.

[Phil Cooke]

PatMc - Im intrigued - can you post a photo or two of your removable t/p? How do you fix it for flight?

[Gary Binnie]

There's two good ideas.

 

The P6 tail could be made all moving, it would then be in two removable halves like the Centi-Phase, Hi-Phase, Multi-Phase, Phase Lift and Phase 5.

 

A bit of thread is getting attached to my stumpy aerial!! Don't know if you've seen the old thermal book pictures but they used to clip big rectangles of tinted perspex to the 35 meg aerials for when they flew through the sun. Proper old school!

 

 

[Peewhit]

Not too late at all Pat.

 

Have not touched the tailplane yet.

 

Please could you forward some details as the P6 would not fit in the snowboard bag with the tailplane permanently attached.

 

Now, how about the all moving tail option?

[PatMc]

I fixed 2 unequal lengths of piano wire into one half & a thinner gauge PW in the elevator with brass tubes in the other half to pick them up. An inverted "L" crank made from GF board in the tail which pivots inline with the elevator hinge pins.

First pic shows the dowel holes, the end of the pivot pin (IIRC 6ba screw), crank (visible through slot) & covered over access hole for clevis.

 

Next half tail in place, dowels protruding ready to take other half.

 

Nearly on.

 

Voila. RTF

 

 

[Gary Binnie]

Sorry, that was a random thought from me!!

 

I have the gliders I mentioned, the P5 is only in plan form at the moment. They're all slow speed thermallers (except the P5) and need tiny ranges of movement with not a lot of stress on them. To make the joiner system square and 'wiggle' free is not easy either (but it can be done!).

 

The elevator on the P6 does what it needs to, I only really move it during rolls and it has enough authority to stall it.

 

I've just had a short sloping holiday and took the P6, a Wildthing, Gebhart Candy Acro and a Multiplex DG600. I know I'm not very good at making the aerobatics precise so I had a really good session with the P6, even writing down all the manoeuvres it should be able to do and how to do them properly (competition style). At the risk of hijacking your thread slightly here's what I noticed:

 

Inside loop - Great, can make them nice and big, not much speed required.

 

Outside loop - Tricky, uses a lot of sky and skewed/flicked out of the second half most times (too much down elevator?)

 

Roll - Good but not a fast roll rate even after a dive, dab of down elevator needed. I've tried increasing the aileron throw and playing with the expo but it doesn't seem to make much difference.

 

Barrel roll - Easy and fun.

 

Four point roll - I'm sure it can do it, my co-ordination fails here but I managed a reasonable one a couple of times.

 

Inverted flight - Can do it with the lifting section wing but it descended all the time and was being blown backwards by having to hold the nose well up.

 

Stall turn - It likes these, no problem.

 

Spin - Good, snappy and instant recovery with a dab of opposite rudder.

 

Cuban eight - Roll rate is quite slow at the top of the loops.

 

Inverted spin - Not tried yet!!

 

It was quite rough today but I am sure it was 'fishtailing' in yaw without any rudder input and seemed worse at higher speeds (perhaps 50 mph).

 

There you go, a full flight test report!!

 

GB

[Gary Binnie]

Ooh! I like that arrangement Pat, very neat and practical.

[PatMc]

Garry, you must have the semi symmetrical section "sports" wing ?

With the fully symmetrical wing you don't need any down to hold inverted or elevator input during rolls if you get the cg dead right. But it's not as versatile in useable wind range.

I find the elevator not to be very powerful but the ailerons & rudder both about right. Mine has a single aileron servo, I might get around to converting it to 2 servos & using snap flap.

 

 

[Gary Binnie]

Yep, semi-symmetrical wing. I thought long and hard about the other option when I bought the kit but the small hills I fly normally in the flat lands would have had me walking to the bottom quite often!

 

To be fair I'm comparing the roll rate to the 'Wots-Wot' biplane which is silly fast! With glass, resin and several coats of paint I can't help thinking that there is more rolling inertia in my wings than was originally intended (and is why I didn't put servos out there).

 

I saw a P6 like glider flying recently, built from an old plan which I think was called an 'Aeolus', made aerobatics look like child's play. I want one!!!

[PatMc]

IMO the Aeolus is a better performing aerobatic model than the P6. It's a step between the P6 & the mouldie generation.

Another nearly as good as the Aeolus is the Seychelle. It's faster & as capable aerobatically as the P6 Pro but has a similar light wind performance as the P6 Sport.

I made a removable tailplane for my Seychelle & the one on my P6 is actually a copy of the method used. Unfortunately the model met a watery end in the North Sea.

 

I don't mean to belittle the P6 as I think you have to bear in mind that the design is about 30 years old, capable of more precision aerobatics than a lot of mouldies & a damn sight easier to repair. It wouldn't have retained it's popularity if it was a clunker.

[Gary Binnie]

I wasn't sure if I had the name right but I think we're talking about the Dave Woods Aeolus III. Doesn't look as if there are any plans available for it.

 

I've read good things about the Phase 5 and being a bit of a fan of CF's designs it's in the queue to build, even got the 48" 3/16th sheet for the fuselage sides in stock ready!!

 

Anyway, mustn't clog Peewhit's thread up, must be nearly finished by now?!!

 

GB

[Peewhit]

Clog away chaps.

 

Many thanks for the pics Pat, that looks to be a brilliant arrangement.

'Tis far from finished Gary and I am in no hurry as I have several ships to fly in the meantime.

 

With your comments about the elevator performance, I am seriously considering making it into an all moving tailplane.

 

It's only a small piece of 1/4" balsa and what else do I have to lose, except the rest of the plane when it doesn't work?