Jump to content

RCM&E / Greenacres June 2014 fly-in - chat thread


Recommended Posts

Advert


No fraid not James it left me without the essential transport and to be fair I'm more concerned with making sure I replace it and keep working. I'm up to my neck in contracts at the min which is a good thing if I can fulfill them without subcontracting them out.

I have considered that option Cymaz and it may still happen though it looks as if I'll be spending a large part of sat sourcing a replacement, still on the bright side it looks like being a spanking new veh with all the reliability issues put paid to for the next 3 years, its absolutely amazing what lease purchase deals are floating around at the minute, with all the cash flow advantages of fixed price transport costs for that period, ie under £50/week for a suitable small van don't know why I've not looked at these options before

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted by Andy Muckley on 18/06/2014 23:13:54:

Hi Mr Barlow you'll fit in nice in the evening when we have a beer or two because we talk a hell of a lot of irrelevant nonsense, as you do, ask Ken and Weasle they know. Good laugh though

BEER! Now there's something I didn't think of! surprise

Will have to get the wife to pick some up tomorrow!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Greenacres Grief. Part 1.

This is likely to be a long post so I've divided it into two parts to make it more digestible.

I see that on 6th June, under the thread " Greenacres Fly-In. What Models Are You Taking?" I posted that I'd be taking the Baby Barnstormer (BB), Penn Models Super Sixty (PMS60), Acrowot, and Senior Telemaster (STM.) At the time the Baby Barnstormer and this particular Acrowot remained unflown but not to worry I had plenty of time prior to the event to get in some practice even though my local club only allows i/c flying on Wednesdays and Thursdays mid-week, and I had forgotten about my Foam-E WOT 4 which had been involved in a crash and required some repair....

However, I'd made these plans without considering the effect of the pints of Bass I would drink while watching the World Cup on Saturday night! As a result of this excess I was in no state for anything until fairly late on Sunday afternoon when I took the Baby Barnstormer up to the local flying field. I have owned the little Mills 75 for over fifty years but hadn't used it since I was fourteen! Consequently it took me ages to get the engine to run and in the end it stripped the prop nut threads. I resolved to convert it to electric power if I had the time.

On Monday I started the Irvine 61 in the Acrowot. It would run quite lustily at high speed but would die when throttled back. I made all of the usual adjustments could not get the engine to run reliably. I tried again on Tuesday but with the same result. I feel that I have a plumbing problem but it's major open heart surgery to get to the fuel tank on this particular model. Realising that it would be unwise to take an untried model like the Acrowot to Greenacres I reluctantly scratched the model from the list of models I shall take to the event and thoughts turned to repairing the Foam-E WOT4 in order to have something aerobatic to fly at the event.

Now I love flying the Foamy WOT 4. No CPLR me, but one of my party pieces when flying the Foam-E had been the vertical eight, a bunt followed by a loop or vice versa. It impresses novices when I get it just right! A few weeks ago, I had been making a mess of this manoeuvre all morning so I decided on just perfecting the bunt bit. What exactly went wrong I don't know, but I suspect that I had insufficient speed and power on and I panicked at the bottom of the bunt, hauled in up elevator and planted the model among the spuds. Fuselage damaged beyond repair, rudder and starboard aileron ripped off, rudder servo wrecked and motor shaft bent. I was encouraged to repair it by an old club mate who is a retired Rolls Royce engineer, so I got a new fuselage from Inwoods for £36 and started the repair on Tuesday evening. I bought some Elapor and some foam friendly cyano, fitted the rudder, made a good job of that so resolved to photograph the aileron repair. The rudder servo wasn't a problem as I'd several servos left in my crashed Hobby-King Hurricane. One was duly installed in the Foam-E. Yesterday morning saw me working on the motor when I found out that the prop adaptor was also bent. Out with the motor bike and roar the twenty miles or so to my LMS. Prop adaptor and new propeller fitted,just the aileron now. Aileron duly hinged with those "furry" hinges, photographs taken, fit receiver, connect everything, bind....AAAAAARRRRRRGGGHHHH!!!!!

Aileron servo also wrecked in the crash! Pull out the aileron servo, pull out another from the Hurricane but how do you get the long servo cable through the foam wing.

Scratch the Foam-E from the Greenacres list.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Greenacres Grief. Part 2.

The story so far. Of the five models I had planned to fly at Greenacres three had to be scratched because they were not in flying condition despite extensive work on all three of them. Just before lunch yesterday I was left with only one model, a "well-flown" Penn Models Super 60, in flying condition.

I did have another model, a Senior Telemaster.(STM). I'd always had a soft spot for the Telemaster since passing my A Certificate on a Telemaster 66 powered by a Merco 35. The Senior Telemaster however, is a big eight-foot trainer, which was the flagship of my fleet when I used to import the Telemaster range from America; it is powered by a Thunder Tiger 91 fourstroke but I had run the bearings on this engine through not using after-run oil. No problem I had another identical engine so it was only a question of swapping the engines over wasn't it? Now dear reader, read on...

Yesterday lunchtime, having given up on the Foam-E WOT 4, the Acrowot and the Baby Barnstormer, I dragged the dusty "well-flown" STM out of its retirement in the loft. (Note for novices, the term "well-flown" in aeromodelling parlance means extremely scruffy!) The engine was bolted to a Du-Bro Quiet Mount. I had two options:

  1. Remove or drill through the balsa block underneath the engine to get access to the nuts or...
  2. Find my long Allen Keys and remove the whole mount.

I decided on the second option. The assembly came out quite quickly, undo four nut and bolts, engine's free, go upstairs to the engine stash, get spare Thunder Tiger, bolt to mount, fit mount to model, connect carburetor push rod, fit propeller, fit spinner, fit exhaust... funny, it doesn't seem to have much compression. Connect glow lead, apply starter motor,... whirrr,... whirr... nothing. Valve clearances! Check and adjust whirr..., whirr.... Nothing! Off with spinner, prop and throttle push-rod, Allan keys out, mount off, undo four nuts and bolts, back upstairs to the engine stash and consider options.

I had five.

  1. Fit an OS FL 70.
  2. Fit a Laser 70.
  3. Fit a Laser 91.
  4. Fit a much loved OS 61SF two-stroke. If I could only have one engine, it would be this one.
  5. Give up!

As we have just celebrated D-Day giving up wasn't an option. The Du-Bro mount was duly refitted finger tight and the remaining engines were offered up. The 70s were a bit too narrow besides I had flown an STM fitted with an OS 61 fourstroke and it barely flew it. It was quite dangerous on take off. I thought that the model might be a bit underpowered fitted with either 70 so they were rejected.

The Laser 91 fitted but the silencer fouled the rubber mount so I could not get it far enough back in the mount for me to be able to drill the forward mounting holes. The OS 61 SF fitted but I would have to cut away the nose block to allow for the silencer and main needle. I didn't want to do this but didn't I have a brand new nylon mount for a 91 fourstroke up in the loft?

Mount retrieved and drilled to suit Laser 91, Du-Bro mount removed, four new holes drilled into firewall, find four socket bolts and nuts, bolt mount to firewall, find four suitable self tappers, mount engine, drill another new hole in the firewall for the new throttle pushrod, attach to throttle servo, propeller fouls nose! Fit a spinner with the back plate behind the prop. Propeller clears!

It doesn't sound much does it, but I was working on this model until 10pm last night and I still have to fit a remote glow connector as the glow plug faces forwards on this engine. Having done that I shall fire up the motor, (this one does have compression!) pack everything and go and test fly it. Batteries have been charged overnight in preparation.

So after all this, what will I be bringing to Greenacres? Two scruffy old trainers to contrast with Cymaz's immaculate scale models and Tim Hooper's splendid squadron! Pictures attached. I won't be needing to borrow my mate's van either.

And Masher... I have flown at lots of events and still get as nervous as a tick before flying in public. My landings are nothing special either as you'll probably see, and I don't suppose I'll be alone.

I'll be wearing my characteristic Australian Akubra hat and royal blue "Telemaster Sales UK" tee shirt, please come up and talk to me if you want to, it would be nice to see the faces behind the avatars... oh and I'll bring the Baby Barnstormer for static display only!

Senior Telemaster

penn models super sixty (4).jpg

baby barnstormer roll out (3).jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"And Masher... I have flown at lots of events and still get as nervous as a tick before flying in public. My landings are nothing special either as you'll probably see, and I don't suppose I'll be alone."

Thanks David, I am feeling a bit more positive about it now that people have explained. I was having a particularly bad day yesterday (best part of 1 hour on phone with HMRC then tensions at the field regarding mowing rota and after effects of sheep!!!!!) I must learn to chill more.

As I will be taking my "bestest" Acrowot, I have a perfectly flyable spare one built from a plan. So if you want, I can bring that for you to borrow - RTF after binding.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted by Phil Winks on 18/06/2014 21:33:32:

No fraid not James it left me without the essential transport and to be fair I'm more concerned with making sure I replace it and keep working. I'm up to my neck in contracts at the min which is a good thing if I can fulfill them without subcontracting them out.

That really is a shame Phil but life and work have to come first, I hope you can get to the next one!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted by David Davis on 19/06/2014 09:05:38:

Masher, I make it a rule not to fly any untested model at a public event, and Bob, I'll only be going there on the Saturday as I'm helping with the local club's scale day on the Sunday.

Edited By David Davis on 19/06/2014 09:07:15

Thanks for the prompt David.

Just to make it very clear. When signing in, all pilots will sign to say that any model they fly at the event will have been successfully flown before.

We do everything we can in the name of safety, while keeping the event as hands off and friendly as possible.
There can be a lot of public there too, it's not the place for a maiden flight.

Phil - that's awful news, you've been putting so much into this and looking forward to it for so long. Is there anything you can sort out? Maybe someone else doing a day trip lives near you?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

it looks as if I will be limiting myself to the two mass-build models, the PC and Barnstormer. The second of these depends on being successfully test flown before Saturday and hopefully that will happen this evening, I am out all day today. I think that trying to squeeze in the MR Fw190D and Top Gun Edge 540 would be too much.

With a busy flight-line I'm not too ambitious because I want to watch the many flyers who are far better than me and savour the wonderful models that we are going to see, not to mention looking forward to meeting as many of our fellow forumites as I can. I feel ashamed because I will not be able to test-fly-fly the Seafang in time, all of the delay on that was caused by the determination to get a working spinner that looked right, which I have done now. Plans to complete that this week have been foiled by the final stages of the Depron Barnstormer throwing up a challenge which I have dealt with and will describe in the build blog.

I really sympathise with David Davis, I bet I'm not the only one thinking that it all sounds strangely familiar, nice to know It's not just me who gets into trouble when working to a deadline!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted by Colin Leighfield on 19/06/2014 10:13:58:

I really sympathise with David Davis, I bet I'm not the only one thinking that it all sounds strangely familiar, nice to know It's not just me who gets into trouble when working to a deadline!

Yes and on top of all of this I got a text from the bank to say that I was overdrawn! Funnily enough when I had a proper job, deadlines were not a problem!

But now for some good news. The remote was duly fitted at 08.00, it looks a bit Heath Robinson but it's safe, screwed from the outside into the end grain of the firewall. The Laser flashed up first turn of the starter motor and ran well. I just need to make a better job of the throttle pushrod.

Real life has just kicked in and I need to get a wash and a shave and go to the supermarket. Will test-fly the model this afternoon. smiley

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well after sucessfully maidening my Seagull Grob Tutor this morning and catching up with all the jobs I have checked in with Ryanair and will take about 10 minutes to pack!

Leave here with Pete B about 2.15pm local time tomorrow and see some of you guys (and gals?) tomorrow evening at Greenacres! I hope you realise Pete B and me will be giving up a weekend of forecast 33C to mingle with you all at about 20C max Brrrrrrrr!

devil!!

See you soon!

Terry

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...