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Flair Fokker DVII


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  • 3 weeks later...

So....not much building as I'm practicing for the next F3A aerobatics competition in December and of course, the summer means camping weather so we've been away for a month doing just that! My son is an excellent model painter for miniature war gaming so he painted the pilot for me. It's not a great photo but even the eyes have various shading and highlighting. Next build job is to definitely sort out the new firewall and removable deck as it's holding me up at the moment...

Cheers from Sunny Australia and no Covid (hooray)....

Chris

Painted pilot

Edited By Christopher Eeles on 29/11/2020 00:27:58

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  • 4 weeks later...

Just a quick post to wish you all a Merry Christmas . Fortunately we have no lockdown or restrictions so we've been out and about enjoying the Aussie summer. Meanwhile the Fokker sits awaiting further work...it appears that there's some history in these flair models...they seem to take a year or two to complete lol...

Guys...stay safe wherever you are and enjoy the festive season...

Cheers Chris Eeles Warragul Victoria AUSTRALIA

 

Edited By Christopher Eeles on 24/12/2020 10:44:19

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  • 4 weeks later...

Well it's now well into the New Year and here in Victoria, Australia is HOT HOT HOT...40C this Monday....even today at 29c the workshop got a bit warm....nevertheless, I've managed to achieve something that's been bugging my thinking over the festive season....as you know I'm converting this kit to electric and I've had to make the top deck removable to access a battery compartment. Thanks to Jeff's ideas and photos, I've made the front cowl and engine area removable and today I've roughly completed the rear cockpit area as a removable section too. This larger section will be held down via magnets and locking pins. I'll glue in a battery tray which will brace the entire middle section of the fuselage.

Cheers

Chris

 

Edited By Christopher Eeles on 23/01/2021 06:16:05

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi all,

Finished most of the fuselage sheeting and installed supports for the battery tray.

So apart from the undercarriage and struts, the main construction is complete.

Bottom wing bolt installed.

 

Jeff...I've looked at your photos and you used an incidence meter to set your top wing. Is that relative to the bolted-in bottom wing? If that is the case can I achieve the same result by setting the bottom wing level to the bench and measuring the top wing leading and trailing edges? I'm assuming because the bottom wing incidence is already fixed by the fuselage sides, front dowels and rear bolt, the top wing just has the be relative to it? Correct me if I'm wrong please.

I'm also interested in how you measured and made the temporary wooden braces to hold up your top wing and if you still have them, can I get the measurements please...

Cheers

Chris

 

Edited By Christopher Eeles on 31/01/2021 08:17:30

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  • 7 months later...

Another half year has flown and we've been on the road travelling outback Australia for 4 months. Victoria has been under many Covid lockdown and at the moment most of Metro Melbourne is locked down...so many flyers are stuck at home.

I'm on the last stages of the Fokker...looks like balance will be fine with 6s 4,500ma battery. 

Only wing servos to be installed and the test flight can happen! 

Cheers All...

Chris

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  • 1 month later...

Well...Today I finally got to maiden the mighty Fokker D7. It survived, but barely as aftervtakeoff it wanted to roll left strongly. Had to add full right trim to survive the flight...Annoying as I built it pretty straight, so if anyone has ideas, please post them up. 

It's overpowered with the electric g60 motor 6s 4500ma pack and 15x6 prop, but it's easy to throttle back and cruise. I'll try a different size prop to slow it down too. 

Very very easy to land...just keeps gliding...easy to flare (is that a pun?) 

Decals still to add...need to sort out the aileron trim issue first however...

Cheers Chris 

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Word of warning, I’ve got an overpowered one of these.

if you are brutal on the power on the initial take off run, the power causes the nose to rotate around the wheels, an it ends up on its back. Gentle  opening of throttle is good. Once he tail is up, and has good airflow over it, the thing is fine.

 

Torque roll causing the problem?  The full size had the fin offset to provide right rudder.

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 Plus one on the above, likely an over power situation. Or more correctly a reaction to the Torque of the electric motor.

          A feature of electric motors is they produce almost the full amount of torque from moment they start [ it is why electric cars do not need a multispeed gearbox ]  As above fin offset [ probably not worth the trouble now it is built ] Gentle power up. As it glides well it has to be a power/torque issue, some right thrust on the motor may help.

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Im with the others on this. Too much power is not a good thing (contrary to popular belief!) and i suspect its a torque roll situation. Make sure you have your rudder trimmed out as the roll could be partly due to yaw trim being out. 

 

I had one of these years ago and it was more than adequately powered by a 52 4 stroke. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I added more right thrust and unfortunately it didn't fix the issue. Had a couple more flights and it doesfly well, but still need lots of right trim. Lateral balance is the next trial..even though it seems balanced, I'll tape weight to the rh wingtip and try again. It's not torque as it flies true on glide, motor off. 

No warps in the wings or alignment issues that I can see or measure. 

I guess if nothing seems to solve the problem, I'll just fly it with the added aileron trim...

More to come...stay tuned 

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My Flair D7 is powered by an almost 40 year old Mk1 Laser 61 driving a 13 x 6 prop, flies lovely. I had the smaller Ripmax Super Flying Models D7, originally powered by a 4s battery it was over powered and ended up flying much nicer on a 3s battery, became my regular field model until the elevator servo failed...............

Edited by Frank Skilbeck
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  • 4 weeks later...

Sorry for the delayed reply everyone...been a busy past month or so...

I haven't flown the Fokker since my last post, however, I did discover that I may have induced a warp in the left wing due to inaccurately building the rear leg/part of the left cabane strut 8 to 10mm higher than the right hand one, which induced a subtle but large area warp along the left wing. Fortunately, by swapping the cabanes to the other wing, I hope to prove this is the issue, as the plane should now tend to go either right or, hopefully, straight lol. 

Weather permitting I'll try tomorrow and report back...fingers crossed...

Cheers

Chris

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