Simon Chaddock Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 At the Ashbourne scale 'fly-in' my Fairey Delta suffered a major crash vertical from 50 ft. Lovely calm conditions but even at its relatively slow speed (for an EDF) it could hardly be expected to escape unscathed. This is what it looked like before. And after! This is just the bits that were still held together by the UHU POR. The rest ended up with the plastic cups in the bin. The tip of the nose was buried a couple of inches into the ground. Interesting is the fact that despite the first 24" of the fuselage being totally destroyed (including the battery compartment!) the rest of the airframe is undamaged indeed everything still works, even the battery is unmarked. It would appear that a Depron monocoque makes an excellent 'crumple' zone progressively absorbing the impact without transmitting undue shock to the rest of the relatively fragile airframe. With this fact in mind and as I rather like the FD2 I intend to build a complete new nose section and graft it on to the remaining structure. The first task is to cut back the damage to a sound start point. Always rather disheartening as you seem to have to remove much more than you anticipated. You begin to doubt the wisdom of even attempting the task. Next job? Cut out some new formers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen Jones Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 That is sad news Simon , So do you know why it nosed in ? Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Chaddock Posted January 7, 2015 Author Share Posted January 7, 2015 I have my suspicions but that is all they are. The FD2 has performed faultlessly every time (as far as the radio is concerned! and at greater ranges as well) where I normally fly but then I am on my own. At the fly-in there were a great many planes (100?) and virtually all on 2.4. There were perhaps 8 or 9 flying at the time but there were quite likely more Txs switched on. I had similar erratic behaviour (but no damage) on a different plane the year before but interestingly my 35meg planes had no such problems but then there were only 2 of us and on very different frequencies. This is all supposition and considering the numbers who flew there very successfully I maybe completely wrong, anyway, I work on the principle "If you don't want to risk it then then don't fly it"! The first of the new formers go in. It may not look much but actually working out exactly how to start building off a damaged area is the hardest bit. From now on is just a matter of adding pieces and using the good old fashioned 'eyeball' to keep things square and true. Edited By Simon Chaddock on 07/01/2015 20:57:18 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Chaddock Posted January 9, 2015 Author Share Posted January 9, 2015 One more former added to take the fuselage just ahead of the air intakes. The air intakes rebuilt. This complete the restoration of this bit. The next task is to build the new cockpit section which includes the battery compartment. The final 'needle' nose section will go on after that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Chaddock Posted January 10, 2015 Author Share Posted January 10, 2015 A start on the cockpit section. Originally I built it vertically with complete formers but this time it will be 'half shell' directly over the plan. This method using temporary keel pieces is more accurate and less likely to produce a 'banana' shape! As a UHU POR glue joint is very hard to sand smooth I will use a combination of POR to stick the planks to the formers but thick PVA on the plank to plank joints. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john stones 1 - Moderator Posted January 10, 2015 Share Posted January 10, 2015 That's a tidy repair Simon you'll never know it was broken John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Chaddock Posted January 10, 2015 Author Share Posted January 10, 2015 John Thank you for the kind words. It is I suppose one advantage of it being an own design and pretty much hand built. If you have done it once you can do it again from almost any point on the airframe. It becomes more a matter of wanting to as what may have been 'interesting' for the first time tends to more of a trial for the second (or more) major rebuild! It also effects the way you fly as the prospect of a yet another rebuild tends to make you rather more cautious. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Chaddock Posted January 11, 2015 Author Share Posted January 11, 2015 Today's progress. The cockpit section planking started with the remaining formers neatly bagged!. With all but the canopy planking complete it can be lifted from the plan. The temporary keel pieces removed and the other half of the formers added. Slowly getting there! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Barlow Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 Was flying very nicely before the crash and the front section did indeed make a very good crumple zone as it really was vertical! Always a shame to see any aircraft go in especially something self designed and scratch built. Good to see it under repair and I am interested to see how you graft the new section to the rest of the airframe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Chaddock Posted January 12, 2015 Author Share Posted January 12, 2015 Before the planking restricts access too much the battery box has to be built. The battery box itself is load being as it has to compensate for the loss of fuselage skin caused by the large hatch area. The battery will sit in the 'trough' and be retained by a Velcro strap. Although the nose rebuild will be no heavier than the original thus the correct battery position is known the trough is large enough to able to move the battery an inch or two - just in case! Edited By Simon Chaddock on 12/01/2015 11:13:15 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Chaddock Posted January 14, 2015 Author Share Posted January 14, 2015 With the cockpit section fully planked next comes the issue of joining it to the rest of the fuselage. As a pure stressed skin structure all the joint requires is to simply join the skin, there is nothing else. Although the load is spread uniformly over the skin to simply rely on a glued 'end' joint would require the matting matting surfaces to be in very close proximity which would be difficult to achieve over such a large area with a thin flexible skin. The solution is to create a flange on the other half that is inset in exactly the 2 mm skin thickness from the edge. This will both locate the joint accurately and provide 'backing' to increase the glue area. The extra weight involved in creating the joint is virtually zero. It may look suspect but with the stresses spread evenly over the entire fuselage circumference they should do not exceed the strength of the UHU POR glue. It has worked ok so far! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Chaddock Posted January 15, 2015 Author Share Posted January 15, 2015 The new cockpit section fixed to the original airframe. A start has been made on the 8" nose section which in turn will have a 3" solid Depron needle point added. But first the Canberra has to be finished! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Leighfield Posted January 16, 2015 Share Posted January 16, 2015 Could you have lost an opportunity here to introduce a scale "droop snoot" Simon?(!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Chaddock Posted January 16, 2015 Author Share Posted January 16, 2015 Colin Having a nice holiday? I certainly could have but I am not sure it would be worth the trouble (and weight!) particularly as my FD2 has no undercarriage either. It was really only built to test the all 2mm Depron construction (it has no reinforcement anywhere) and the concept of a generous inlet duct area and the "fan at the back" with no thrust tube. Never intended to be a long term plane, but there you go! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Leighfield Posted January 16, 2015 Share Posted January 16, 2015 Thanks Simon, yes, love it out here. I hadn't been to HK since the early 90s and it's even more spectacular and affluent now than it was then. It's become obvious that China doesn't want to rock this boat, they've got far too much to lose. I've learned a lot in the last few days. In Oz now, off to NZ next Thursday. I wasn't serious about the "droop snoot", I know you could do it if you decided to! The FD2 is clearly successful and I can understand why you want to prolong its' life, I would too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Chaddock Posted January 19, 2015 Author Share Posted January 19, 2015 The FD2 is now back to its full length. Some sanding and a bit of filling still to do. Next the battery hatch and then paint. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Chaddock Posted January 23, 2015 Author Share Posted January 23, 2015 Complete and painted. There are some subtle differences from the original (see first picture) but nothing significant. Now what? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john stones 1 - Moderator Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 Lovely job Simon now what ?...go fly it John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Chaddock Posted January 23, 2015 Author Share Posted January 23, 2015 Weather is no good at the moment so its got to be build something else! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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