Durafly EDF Vampire

[Piers Bowlan]

The joint will not only be weaker but probably more significantly, I doubt the increased dihedral will do the flying qualities any good either. I know UHU Por sticks well but with a bit of judicious flexing of the offending wing up and down relative to the Fuz, not to mention a steady PULL, you should be able to get it free (and re-glue with foam safe cyano/kicker). Don't worry about damage to the silver paint, it can be touched up later.

[Martyn Johnston]

Not going to be easy, or pretty, taking it apart.

Got to decide whether it's worth the extra work, or risk that it'll be OK.

[Ian Jones]

I think I would take the "risk" out of it one way or another, even if that meant cutting off the offending wing at the root and carefully removing the remaining "plug". In the unlikely event that the wing could still be securely refitted I would do that, otherwise I would get a replacement wing set

[Martyn Johnston]

I'd have to dig out the elevator as well; and probably buy a replacement boom set .

Such a shame to cock-up such an easy build.

[Piers Bowlan]

If it makes you feel any better Martyn, it was the first time that I used UHU Por too and like you I read the instructions before finding that the glue had 'grabbed' before one wing was 'home'. Fortunately with a bit of brute force I was able to wrench the wing off again without breaking the booms (they flex a lot). I then re-glued it with Cyano (I won't be using the Por stuff again in a hurry!). So if it is any consolation you are not alone in your predicament .

Don't worry, the rest of it will go together very quickly - you will be pleased you persevered.

Edited By Piers Bowlan on 08/10/2012 14:56:14

[Martyn Johnston]

The rest has all gone together easily. The whole thing was finished (bar setting up the radio) in about 2 - 3 hours. I've just got to decide whether to bastardise the wing attachment, or leave it as it is and hope for thebest.

Ian recommends trying to fix it, but it might be messy.

[Goose10]

So I likewise took the plunge and waited for this to come available at the UK HK depot, saved so much time, money and grief and all arrived in 48 hours (big difference to my previous experiences).
My observations:

All kit contents arrived in good condition; there were the issues with the screws being too short for the horns but easily remedied with spares. One of the horn plates was missing so had to again provide a spare.
Interestingly, there was no issue with either paint coming off in my hands or decals coming off, a reported in other peoples experiences.
Have reinforced the booms by removing a quarter section on each boom across its length, sinking a length 0f 3mm carbonfibre rod, and epoxying the boom back together.May try and dowel the boom into the wing to further reinforce.
Noted comments about the CG and will test once my Overlander 2200mAh battery arrives for this weekend.
Pilot can also now see after providing small platform glued into the cockpit.

It will be a handlaunch so will be testing from elevated field with a dropoff...just in case!!

[Ian Jones]

Posted by graeme jones on 08/09/2012 07:26:12:

Ian - best of luck with Hobbyking, I'm still waiting to hear from them about my blown ESC which was posted back to them 10 days ago.

Graeme

Postman has just been with a parcel from HongKong.

I've opened it:

• 1 x main retract unit identical to the version fitted to the Vampire
• 1 x noseleg retract unit, similar dimensions (should fit okay I think), nylon steering arm, purple casing. Suitable for aeroplanes up to 2.5 Kg.

Looks promising

 

Edited By Ian Jones on 10/10/2012 14:01:22

[WolstonFlyer]

UHU Por is a great adhesive for foam but it is usually used as a contact adhesive so don't expect to be able to slide wings into slots etc. If you have let it dry on both surfaces common sense should tell you that you are not going to get a "push fit" on any parts of a plane.

For this application you need to spread glue on both surfaces and assemble the items while the glue is still wet, then leave it quite a long time to dry, it gets to full strength after two or three days but will be "dry" after a few hours.

I find UHU Por is better than cyano on foam like EPP and EPO because the glue does not set hard and allows a little bit of flex just like the foam it is attached to.

Anyway that's just my 2p of info.

[Martyn Johnston]

Took the plunge, as advised, and cut out the wing. Not too much of a mess really. Then applied UHUpor to the flat faces only, then inserted it fully and glued the remaining (top and bottom) faces with CA.

Looks just about right now.

[Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator]

Well done martyn. You can get away with quite a lot with UHU-Por because it never really goes fully hard - it always has a bit of "give". Sometimes that little bit of flexibility is a god send!

BEB

[Ian Jones]

Good man, sometimes the job looks more scarey than it really is when you get stuck in

Hmmm, smetimes it's the other way round though!

[Daithi O Buitigh]

I just got one myself - and as mentioned, the decals are well applied and adhered - a pity bevcause I want to remove the yellow 'training' stripes and the serial - XH292 is actually a DH105 Vampire Mk 11 (it's in the Brussels museum) and I wanted to repaint it as a Mk 5 of 112 Squadron (with the shark's teeth on the nose and the black cat on the fin)

Also - for some reason the undercart works the wrong way round (it retracts inwards instead of outwards - which is odd because you can see the circle of the wheel well under the wing servo). Strange - it looks as if it was meant to be outward swinging but got changed at some point (maybe the track was too narrow)

No dents in mine, the ESC velcro is firmly gripping and everything else is perfect (just got to work out how to get those yellow bands off without causing any damage)

[Ian Jones]

Well it is stand - off scale. Although the real thing has the retracts folding up outwards I'm not convinced there was ever such an intention with this model. Those circles around the retract units are too wide for wheel wells (compared to the ones in use anyway).

I'd be interested to know how you go one removing the yellow paint - I might want to do something similar with mine.

I would strongly recomend the mods most of us have done - especially the boom bending fix.

I've had one flight on my new retracts and with calm days now being forecast for the weekend I hope to get some more testing/confidence in them sorted.

Let us know how you get on.

[Daithi O Buitigh]

Not a problem - I'm experimenting with a couple of non-destructive ideas (before I give up and go get a spray can of silver acrylic). Projected scheme is this one:

[Daithi O Buitigh]

Absolutely no luck in removing the decals - the yellow stripes stick closer than a brother. I tried hot water, covering them with a wet cloth and leaving it overnight and even tried alcohol - they won't budge (the only thing I didn't try was acetone as I didn't want to risk a puddle of platic where the wing used to be)

If anyone has any other ideas - let me know per-lease (I think I'll go get some silver acrylic in a spray can and just slap that over the yellow)

[Ian Jones]

Daithi would a light coat of yellow over the rest of the wings make the final silver coat a more uniform colour?

[Martyn Johnston]

I tried all sorts to get the stickers off my Halfords tool box. Nothing seemed to work. My dad then suggested WD40 and it worked instantly, and perfectly,

or try methelated spirits (denatured alcohol), that removes most things (smells lovely as well).

Edited By Martyn Johnston on 22/10/2012 09:30:50

[Martyn Johnston]

Flew the Vampire yesterday. Realy easy, flew lovely. Sounds surprisingly good. Veryy, good for the money.

[Martyn Johnston]

My new toy.

Still in one piece, 'after' a flight, which is always a bonus

.

[Ian Jones]

Repalcement retracts working okay on mine ... so far anyway.

[Martyn Johnston]

For the money, it's an excellent buy.

I'm thinking of getting another; the one without the motor, fan, retracts etc is only about £40.

Would make an excellent slope glider.

[Daithi O Buitigh]

OK - just assembled it and noticed a couple of minor hiccups. The glue was softening the silver paint which made me a tad uneasy about the booms, so I rammed a couple of cocktail sticks with cyano right through the boom/wing junction and did the same with the tailplane. It seems more rigid (in the horizontal plane) having done that (and I've a bit more confidence that the tail booms aren't going to part company with the rest of it now). Next step will be the 10 mm carbon strips into the booms to provide the vertical rigidity.

Any gaps (or dents caused yours truly) will be filled with a nicro balloon PVC mix and then sanded - I intend to respray with the 'shark teeth anyway and get rid of the yellow stripes)

By the way - while the glue did 'remove' spots of silver - it didn't even faze the yellow stripes

[Goose10]

Flew mine for the first time today, admittedly quite nervous hand launching as it is quite a heavy job...needn't have worried as it hurtled off with ease. For ref, I performed all the checks and significant upgrades (boom reinforcement, CoG around 290mm from nose), but it still went a bit tail heavy and became the classic roller coaster , so cut the engine , reduced airspeed and glided it back down to terra firma. Very impressed with stability and the way it looked in the air, decent speed and sound.

Have done some amendment to the CoG, brought forward a few mm so should improve later if I can get it up again.

Have also started spraying the fuselage underside with Plasti-kote Clear from B&Q which will protect the underside when it belly lands, only issue is that there is slight reaction with the silver paint but not noticeable when flying.

[Ian Jones]

Well done Goose10, sounds like something of a "save".

Plasti-kote eh? Hmm. Since you have used it then obvioulsy it doesn't do anything nasty to the foam. Is that just this type of foam or is it safe for foam generally? I'm considering a similar use here.

Ian