Jim Newberry - Nuviation Ltd. Posted March 20, 2013 Author Share Posted March 20, 2013 I made some more progress recently, last night I made up the motor mount - two layers of 6mm balsa sandwiched between 3mm lite ply and a layer of 1.5mm birch ply to move the motor far enough forward to fit the scale cowl shape. The mounting bolts pass through this block to locate in captive nuts in F1. I have also cut out the cockpits and fitted the instrument panels. The wing has been joined and covered and the plan for this afternoon is to fit the ply plate for the wing retaining blind nut and drill holes for the dowels in the leading edge. Jim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Josip Vrandecic -Mes Posted March 20, 2013 Share Posted March 20, 2013 Hello Jim,everything is seen and said....I want to add ...She would fly fantastic...surely.. Cheers Joe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Newberry - Nuviation Ltd. Posted March 20, 2013 Author Share Posted March 20, 2013 Thanks Joe, I certainly hope so! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DH 82A Posted March 20, 2013 Share Posted March 20, 2013 Lovely model, if the plan is published, I think I would prefer the original 60" span. Though at 50" it may become a free plan ? (nudge, nudge) . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kc Posted March 20, 2013 Share Posted March 20, 2013 Looks great, I hope RCME publishes it....... What does it cost to get a one off plan laser cut if you supply the CAD drawings? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Newberry - Nuviation Ltd. Posted March 20, 2013 Author Share Posted March 20, 2013 Thanks for the comments! I certainly hope RCM&E publish it as a freebie - I've offered it to Mr Ashby if he wants it. It needs to prove itself a decent flier first though. If it doesn't get published I'll be happy to email plans in PDF format. As for getting parts laser cut from CAD drawings, I was amazed at how reasonable it was! The cutting cost about £30 plus another £30 for the wood itself and £7 postage. That meant I had everything except the strip wood and the standard of the cut parts was excellent - far better than I could have done myself and of course without the tedium of tracing and cutting by hand. Bear in mind of course that the laser cutting process will reproduce any mistakes on your CAD drawings with 100% accuracy so double check absolutely everything before committing yourself. As I understand it, prices vary quite a bit depending on exactly what you want them to do. I used SLEC and will use them every time I design my own model from now on. Jim. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Newberry - Nuviation Ltd. Posted May 16, 2013 Author Share Posted May 16, 2013 Hi folks, Sorry it's been a while since my last post, progress has been ongoing although a little slower than I would have liked. I finally have the model assembled and painted, just need to hook up the RC gear and we are ready to go. I have to go towork over the weekend, so I expect to have it ready to fly by the middle of next week. Just keeping my fingers crossed on the weather front and all being well I should have some flying photos for you within a week. This is what it looks like this evening, apologies for the poor quality picture but I wanted to get something on line tonight, I'll get a better pic once it's all done. Jim. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Newberry - Nuviation Ltd. Posted June 7, 2013 Author Share Posted June 7, 2013 Well it's all complete now, haven't been able to fly it yet as it's been a bit too windy but hope to get that done soon. Here she is, all ready to go. I did manage a couple of fast taxi runs including getting the tail up and it certainly seems to want to fly so I'll let you know how I get on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Leighfield Posted June 7, 2013 Share Posted June 7, 2013 Jim, that's a great choice of subject and you've done a cracking job of it. Looks like a winner. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tartan81 Posted June 7, 2013 Share Posted June 7, 2013 That looks great Jim..well done .huge ailerons..skinny tail..soo neat with your building..such a pretty livery...cute cute cute..wouldnt mind modifying it a little here and there for a semi scale low wing trainer..just a little mod but great job 5 stars out of 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Newberry - Nuviation Ltd. Posted June 10, 2013 Author Share Posted June 10, 2013 Maiden achieved this afternoon and it flies! The tall and narrow undercarriage demands a bit of care on the take-off run but once in the air it's a pussy cat. I didn't go wild and try any aerobatics but it certainly has plenty of power and responsive controls so I see no reason why it shouldn't be capable of the usual run of scale aeros. Slow speed handling proved to be good as well - it will drop a wing at the stall but only when thoroughly provoked and it gives plenty of warning. I think I'll be flying this one a lot more over the summer! Jim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toni Reynaud Posted June 11, 2013 Share Posted June 11, 2013 Congratulations, Jim. It's really nice to see such a grand model coming to fruition. When do we get a video? Is the plan going to be in the mag or otherwise available sometime? Toni Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Newberry - Nuviation Ltd. Posted June 11, 2013 Author Share Posted June 11, 2013 Thanks Toni. If I can get my video camera to talk to my computer I might put a video up. At the moment, for reasons I am unable to fathom, they don't seem to be getting along! The plan will hopefully make it into the magazine although clearly that decision rests with Mr Ashby - I have offered him the plan if he would like it, which hopefully he will! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Newberry - Nuviation Ltd. Posted July 6, 2013 Author Share Posted July 6, 2013 Well folks, bit of an update on the M23b. First the good news - Mr Ashby is keen to have it as a free plan, so the plan has been sent to him and we met up to take the pictures for the article last week at Headcorn. All went well and the static pictures were taken and looked great. All that was left was to get the flying shots in and that would have been tht. Then disaster struck. The take-off was a bit exciting and nearly took poor David Ashby's head off as I need to adjust the side thrust and wasn't sufficiently on top of the rudder, however it got airborne - and immediately started to climb at an alarming rate. I managed to get it sorted out but it was badly out of trim so I fed in a load of down trim and got it flying more or less level. Slowing down and turning to pass in front of the cameras, it stalled, dropped a wing and hit the ground hard, sending bits everywhere. A stunned silence followed and I trudged off to collect the bits, feeling a bit sheepish. After piling the debris into the boot of my car I drove home and spent most of the journey wondering how on earth I had managed to stall it there and then and why it had been so badly out of trim when the first flights at home had been fine. I was almost home (a three hour drive!) when it occurred to me - on arrival at Headcorn I had loosely tightened the wing bolts to carry the model to the patch and I never got around to tightening them properly before the flight. Sifting through the wreckage I found that they were indeed loose enough to allow the wing TE to move quite a bit and this would certainly account for the model's higly erratic behaviour in the air. In a way, I was pleased to find that the crash hadn't been caused solely by my bad flying, but of course it does not stop the whole fiasco being my fault - failure to prepare the model before flight, or inability to fly it - either way the result is the same and the fault lies squarely with me. So, one very nice model utterly destroyed through ineptitude. On a brighter note, I have decided to rebuild the model to my original plan and it does at least give me an opportunity to make a few adjustments - the sidethrust clearly needed changing and with a bit of head scratching I can probably shave a bit of weight off it. Hopefully it will still make it into the mag but not for a few months - I have to clear the building board and get started on it again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toni Reynaud Posted July 6, 2013 Share Posted July 6, 2013 Hi Jim, Sorry to hear of the disaster. I know it's no comfort, but all of us have done something similar at one time or another. The bottom line is that it was a wonderful model and the second iteration will be even better. Congratulations on getting it accepted into the mag. Edited By Toni Reynaud on 06/07/2013 09:00:18 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Marsh Posted July 6, 2013 Share Posted July 6, 2013 Such a shame. I've got a 70FS Moth Minor, and they a similer. The Moth will go into a violent tip stall if slowed down too much, as I suspect the M23b would. The drive home, I suspect would've been the longest drive home, it seemed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Newberry - Nuviation Ltd. Posted July 6, 2013 Author Share Posted July 6, 2013 Thanks Toni, Yes I think the second one will be better - there's always something that can be improved in a design, so the opportunity to rebuild it is probably not a bad thing. I had been thinking about rebuilding it at the original 60" span, but since I am now working on a Dart Kitten at that size, I might as well rebuild the M23 at 50". While I am at it I can alter the side thrust and widen the undercarriage a little to help with ground handling at the expense of a small amount of scale fidelity. At least the laser cut parts and small model size mean that it is a relatively quick build. Paul - yes it was indeed a long drive home! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Leighfield Posted July 6, 2013 Share Posted July 6, 2013 Very sorry to hear this Jim, I'm sure you will be ok with the second one. Having had similar experiences and realising that kicking oneself afterwards doesn't bring the plane back has made me think about the question of using written check-lists, exactly as the full size. It's proven to work and is indeed mandatory. I've tried it with one complex model and might do it with the rest, I tend to be scatterbrained and it definitely helps dimwits like me, let alone more intelligent people! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Newberry - Nuviation Ltd. Posted July 6, 2013 Author Share Posted July 6, 2013 Thanks Colin. To an extent I agree with you - written checklists are a good thing, although I think that for day to day flying they are unnecessary as we all have a routine that we fall into - in this particular case I think that I would not have left the bolts undone at my home patch because I always do them up before leaving my workshop - but I left them undone that day because I had driven a long way to get to the patch at Headcorn and wanted to get to the strip quickly so as not to keep the photographers waiting (which was a daft thing to worry about as they were there all day anyway). However, on this occasion, flying from an unfamiliar patch, with the added pressure of photographers and wanting to appear slick and well organised in front of some of modern aeromodelling's most distinguished personae (if those present will allow me to describe them as such...!) I think a checklist would have slowed me down and forced me to look at things more carefully before committing to the air. Obviously, I will never again fly without checking the wing bolts but there is always something else to check and so next time, after the ground shots are in the can, I will make sure the model is ready to fly bar connecting the battery BEFORE I sit down with a cup of tea so that whenever the photographer says the light is right and it's time to go then I am really ready - and even then I'll fly only when I've checked it all over again. When all's said and done - no-one was hurt, the rebuild will allow me to make the model better than ever and a lesson has been learned by someone who really ought to have known better. I also think that building model aeroplanes is a bit like playing a musical instrument - every time you do it you get just a little bit better at it and so rebuilding this model will not only add a little edge to my building, it will also result in a better plan and build article for the magazine - and that's what everyone wants in the end. Once I start the rebuild I will post the pictures on this thread. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Leighfield Posted July 6, 2013 Share Posted July 6, 2013 You can't beat being philosophical when these things happen and looking at the positive side! I'm really looking forward to seeing the rejuvenation Jim, it'll be worth waiting for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tartan81 Posted August 2, 2013 Share Posted August 2, 2013 You crashed it??awww shame .will follow future threads..real pretty plane. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Newberry - Nuviation Ltd. Posted August 3, 2013 Author Share Posted August 3, 2013 Yes I did! If you want to see the wreckage, it appears in David Burton's article on spinning in this month's issue around p49 I think! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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