Flair SE5A electric conversion and build blog

[JayCee]

__Hi

For anybody following this build have another couple of pictures.

Had a couple of hours before football and made up and installed the battery tray, needed to do this prior to ply cladding as I wanted to extend it past F2 which after cladding will no longer be accessible.

However all the fixings will be between F1 and F2 so will always be accessible.

Then started the tricky bit, was able to glue the bottom edge of the ply cladding before going out, when I got home it was dry enough to bend over to the top spar had to use just about every clamp I had!

Out all day tomorrow so no more building untill Monday.

JC

[Danny Fenton]

Looks really great JC really impressed, not sure if you can still get in there, but make sure those bolts are tight and locked holding the cabanes. I have restored more than one Flair model where they have come loose and its a devil of a job to get at later. Should have said sooner sorry........

Cheers

Danny

[JayCee]

Hi Danny

One side is still open, but you said 'Bolts' mine were No 6 self tapping screws into the hard wood formers!

The second side of cladding is not going to be so easy as I won't be able to clamp to the top spar can you remember how you did yours?

JC

[Alan Randall]

Great blog so far guys. Has me really looking forward to starting the one I have on the shelf. Just got to get one or two other projects out of the way first.

Alan

[Danny Fenton]

JC you are right, maybe the modellers went away from the plan? Or perhaps it changed over the years. Either way make sure they are tight I use masking tape to hold ply and balsa sheeting down, if you need extra pressure lay a strip of 1/4 square along the edge and tape to that, it gives a better angle and makes sure the sheeting is kept flat.

For inspiration here is my Friend David Q's perfect Dennis Bryant 1/4 scale version

Cheers

Danny

[Mike Etheridge 1]

Dennis Bryant--there is a name from the past, I used to work with his former wife Jean (Lewisham Architects) and I remember his shop in Brockley South London. Is Dennis still with us?

As for my second hand SE5A I have added 4oz of lead in the nose as a club member suggested it would benefit as the C/G appeared too far back despite the seller's claim that it flew OK. I have dismantled the plane to access the radio and change the crystal from 75 to 78 my transmitting frequency. However the High Tech receiver would not function despite the servos moving when the battery was switched on. I have therefore substituted the High Tech receiver for a Futaba unit and the radio now works OK. I will also change the Ni-Cad battery pack.

The cowling / fake exhausts are held on with six screws but removal of the cowling is prevented by the wiring of the remote start glow unit. One of the plastic wheel hub units has separated into two so will need attention.

This plane is my first attempt at RC scale, my only other SE5A was the three shilling and nine pence Keil Kraft rubber powered version I built over 50 years ago---it did fly though!

MJE

[Mike Etheridge 1]

My 78 crystal was not a 'Dual conversion' type---I wonder if this was the reason the high tech receiver would not function?

MJE

[Trevor Crook]

JC

Sorry for the delay in responding re. request for photos. I'm a bit pressed for time for a couple of days but I'll try to provide some piccies before the weekend. I'll get the cowl and also the U/C as you've mentioned that also.

Instead of using a single axle soldered across, mine has two lengths of 16g wire, spaced apart by about 4mm, soldered across between the legs and protuding by about 10mm, bent apart slightly at the ends. The wheel carrying axle is, as you proposed, 8g wire bound and soldered in the centre to the 16g pieces (running between them). I wrap shirring elastic between the ends of the 16g pieces, over the top of the wheel axle, to act as a spring. The U/C fairing is slotted to accommodate verticle movement of the axle.

As you say, a picture is worth a thousand words - I'll try to oblige soon.

[JayCee]

Thanks Trevor

Will look forward to seeing what you have done!

Hopefully will be posting some more pictures on my build blog later tonight, slow but gradual progress.

JC

[JayCee]

Hi there!

Update to my progress in building the Flair SE5A with electric conversion.

I must admit I found this part of the build tricky to say the least. Not having done it before I decided to make a thin card template, I'm glad I did and as i was able to cut a hole for the front carbane but it didn't seem possible on the rear so a small piece of ply was inserted later.

The front cowl I found easier to make inverted on my building board, and decided to fit magnets for easy and quick access to the battery.

This is where you can have a laugh at my expense, as you know I'm a novice this is my first traditional build. I duly marked out and fitted the magnets being very careful to clean and rough up the surface for epoxy fixing, left them overnight went to drop the cowl in position waiting for the reassuring 'clunk' only to find the cowl flying upwards! Yep I forgot magnets have 'poles'

Well according to the instructions next on the list is the undercarriage, again this may take a while as I don't want a fixed ridged affair, need a bit of bounce for my landings.

JC

[John Olsen 1]

You don't actually have to use magnets on both pieces, you can use a magnet on one side and a small piece of steel on the other. Then it doesn't matter which way round you put the magnet. That is the way the ones I have in foamies are done.

John

[Trevor Crook]

OK JC, as promised, here are some photos of how I've arranged my U/C springing and cowl fixing:

Here's the cowl in place, just retained at the front by the dummy radiator cap that rotates on an offset screw

[Trevor Crook]

And here's the cowl removed.

Battery box at the top, with ESC velcroed to its underside. You can just see the motor down below, with a Rx pack underneath it.

Here's the axle end, with the shirring elastic wrapped around the 16g cross-pieces which are soldered to the leg. The axle with the wheel on is bound and soldered to these cross-pieces in the centre. You can just see the slot in the wooden leg fairing that stops the axle moving fore and aft.

This shows the wheel deflected. Note the axle fairing, which has a thin ply top, glued down in the middle and wrapped with solartex, but the ends can flex up with the axle.

Finally, a view of the underside, showing how the 16g cross-pieces are bound and soldered to the legs.

[JayCee]

Thanks Trevor

That helps a lot, thanks for taking the trouble to post all the pictures, hope to get a bit more building done over the weekend been a bit hectic over the last couple of days.

JC

[JayCee]

Hi All

Little more progress, have made and fitted the landing gear and have installed the undercarriage fairings just need to glue the 6x3mm (the easy bit) too the two side diagonals.

The weather was nice so it was a toss up wether to go flying or mask up and spray the wheels and front cowl, I like to do it outdoors don't need to kill off any more brain cells!) which is what I did.

Hopefully if the weather holds will fly tomorrow, not so busy mid week.

JC

[JayCee]

Thanks David for renaming and moving the thread,

More pictures and updates to follow.

JC

[JayCee]

Well back again with an update on the build progress of the Flair SE5A

Undercarriage

Going back to the undercarriage after a lot of deliberation I decided to build it as per plan (ridged) I would have preferred a more forgiving affair, and previous posts gave me some ideas.

However, I wanted to add the wooden fairings to keep a scale like appearance and was unable to get my head around a moving axial and fixed fairing. As the landing gear is easily removeable I have decided to make a second one and play around with some ideas at a later date.

Fin, Rudder and Tail Plane

These were straightforward to build off plan.

The fin is attached to the fuselage between two balsa blocks which are shaped to blend in with the fuselage (yet to be done) I decided to permanently fix the fin at this stage, the rudder and tail plane can be fitted after covering.

Wings

As I mentioned at the beginning of these posts this is my first traditional build and building the wings, which are in six parts, I started with trepidation. Fortunately I was able to get some advice from my mate Ron who has a lot more experience.

The first wing section took me ages, looking for the correct wood etc. The wing tip caused a lot of head scratching, the tip is constructed using two preformed ply sections but the section to the LE was 2mm short of touching the LE! There are very few pictures on the web of a Flair SE5A build, which is why I started this build blog.

However, I found one rather poor quality picture and found that also had the same problem and a small packing piece had been added.

The problem appears to be caused by the 6mm gradient from TE to LE, when the parts are laid flat on the plan they fit!

Looking like an SE5A!

Well that’s it for now, lots more wings to build, will update later when there is more progress.

JC

Edited By JayCee on 23/10/2012 10:03:24

[Mike Etheridge 1]

A wise decision to use an electric drive on the Flair SE5 A. !

I have just finished checking over my second hand SE5A which has an SC 52 fitted. It also had a remote glow plug connector which was attached to the cowling so that the cowling could not be removed from the plane. The SC 52 was attached to the wood bearers with self tapping screws but without washers. On reflection the latter arrangement would give good crash protection to the engine but I have always used nuts and bolts for engine mounting. So I have moved the remote connector and fixed the engine with nuts and bolts, However the task was not easy due to the restricted space in the engine bay and the front cowling /radiator arrangement---what a performance! Anyway it is now ready for a test flight,good weather needed.

MJE

[JayCee]

_Hi all.

Little more progress on the Flair SE5A build.

Now have two wings sections complete (two more to go!) so decided to start the upper wing centre section.

Appears to be some serious stresses in this section, up till now I have used PVA glue but decided to use epoxy for the two outside ribs, dihedral braces (which appear incredibly small) and the cabane fixing blocks, the rest will be PVA

Will be a bit of a hold up for a week, my semi retirement includes a 'Bookkeeping roll' end of the month and 'Year End' looms so no creeping off to the workshop I fear!

JC

[JayCee]

_Hi All

Bit more progress, finished the upper centre wing section.

Decided to alter the trailing edge section, the plan showed the 3 X 18 mm facings just butt glued to the 1.5 mm trailing edge which didn't seem particularly robust so decided to make a couple of alterations and sheet cover it..........think it looks much better.

On with the rest of the wing sections.

JC

[JayCee]

_Ok bit further with the build blog.

All sections are now built apart from the lower centre section.

After much thought I decided to only part build this section, in hindsight I think I should have done the same with the upper centre section, in other words don't sheet cover these until the wings have bee joined so that you can clamp the wing root rib along its entire length if necessary.

So with that in mind I decided to install the wing aileron servos while the wings were still easily manageable I used some purpose built servo trays, perhaps not true scale for the purists out there but it saves a lot of time and weight.

Next step join the wings....so watch this space.

JC

[bouncebounce crunch]

Very NICE, JC, I bet you are tempted to place the wings and tail feathers in situ with tape and anything else that will hold them in place then sit back and enjoy the view. am i right? or am i right?

[JayCee]

Yep, very tempting, once I have the wing sections joined I will dry assemble it just to make sure everything lines up and post some pictures.

JC

[bouncebounce crunch]

Cannot wait, I find great enjoyment seeing models getting built, and as we know the pride of building one yourself is very satisfying and the first landing a great relief leaving that grin ear to ear that is hard to wipe.

wish you well. bbc.

[JayCee]

Hi All

Have attached a few pictures of the next stage.

The wings have now been joined so the next step was to trial fit tem to the Fus. Bit of a disapointment to find the lower wing had a wing tip to wing tip discrepancy took me about three hours just to get the two wings fixed and aligned, still have the struts to make and install.

For some reason after taking loads of measurements it appeared that lower wing tip to tip discrepancy was due to the wing seating and was rectified by placing a small laminate strip to one side, a shame really because everything appeared to be fit so well!

I just took a gamble fitting the top wing, the instructions go on about just fixing one front carbane, then take all the measurements and fit the other three. I guess these are just generic instructions because the rear fixings on this model are cut in to the top wing at an angle so their position is defined.

So fixed the rear two first and then just squared up the front and fixed!...............will it ever fly!!

Will try and get the inter-wing struts installed tomorrow, have a busy weekend clearing the loft <groan> I'm having the loft insulated so need to get all the junk out...........thirty years worth!

JC