Manish Chandrayan Posted October 13, 2015 Share Posted October 13, 2015 Peter, Have you installed the oil tank ? Could you please post a picture of the tank and the cowl cheek closed? I am finding that once I install the oil tank the cowl cheek is almost impossible to close without cracking it up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterF Posted October 13, 2015 Author Share Posted October 13, 2015 Manish, The Moth has not had any work done on it since the last post, I have been flying a lot over the summer. When I have been in the workshop I have been converting my 4 glow models to electric. 3 have been converted and flown successfully, the 4th is well on the way to being completed so I will be back to the build soon. In terms of your question I had wondered about this, perhaps Ron can help. Peter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manish Chandrayan Posted October 14, 2015 Share Posted October 14, 2015 Good to hear that you have been flying a lot, Peter. My flying for last couple of months have been almost minimal due to the fact that we lost the permission to fly from old abandoned air field that is still owned by air force. The new guy in charge did not want to take any risk perhaps. Looks like you have gone to the dark side, what with the conversions you mention. May the Gods of V and Amp be with you. On to the Tiger, so seems you too encountered the same issue? Let's await Ron's counsel and ideas on how he overcame this (assuming he did encounter the issue). I have the Traplet ABS moulded seat and oil tank and tried the tank from the set. The issue persists and also the Traplet tank is longer than the Falcon one. I had sent a message to Ron a few days back but looks like he has not yet seen it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ron thornhill Posted October 14, 2015 Share Posted October 14, 2015 Hi all I have not seen any post to me regarding the oil tank until today when flyingboxcar on the RC India blog asked about that and how I finished the turtle deck, the inspection rings on the wings and what silver paint I used., but I do not see my replies on the RC India blog, confused. If your question is the same then what I did was cut the balsa tank mount and set it flush with fuse uprights ( the same with the step on the starboard side) then sanded the back of tank down glued it onto a thin piece of pvc to form the flange. I hope that is what you wanted to know. Ron Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ron thornhill Posted October 14, 2015 Share Posted October 14, 2015 A couple of pics Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manish Chandrayan Posted October 15, 2015 Share Posted October 15, 2015 Thank you Ron for the explanations, And the Flyingboxcar on the India site is me You did not see your reply on the India blog because you responded to my private message. While I get that you set the oil tank mount flush with the uprights, did you also sand and faired in the side stringer to be flush with the tank mount where it joins the tank mount? I think that would be necessary in case the mount is flush with uprights. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manish Chandrayan Posted October 15, 2015 Share Posted October 15, 2015 And for Peter, Get the saw out and be prepared to cut out the oil tank mount I just did that earlier today without doing any major damage to the mount or the uprights If you finalized your cowl you will also find that the lefft cowl cheek when closed over the oil tank is short and leaves a gap between the lower cowl piece. If you have not yet finalized your cowl, mount the oil tank and then close the cheek to check the final size. I guess I will just live with the gap. Or is there a solution? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ron thornhill Posted October 15, 2015 Share Posted October 15, 2015 Yes I did taper the stringer. Peter you could consider using 1/64 or 1/32 ply as a baking for the tank. I see what you mean about the gap Manish, it did not really bother me until you mentioned it. You could shorten the rear bracket that the lower cover screws to. I should have realised the connection with you and flyingboxcar Manish. Good to see that things are progressing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manish Chandrayan Posted October 15, 2015 Share Posted October 15, 2015 Ahh the gap will be left as is then, adds some character to the aircraft does it not? I will be using 1/64 or 1/32 ply as well for the tank mount and taper the stringer (will that count as cheating ). Here are a few pictures of full scale that show the tank mount standing proud of the uprights, this one is the IAF's Tiger Moth HU 512 that was restored Edited By Manish Chandrayan on 15/10/2015 16:29:52 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manish Chandrayan Posted October 15, 2015 Share Posted October 15, 2015 HU 512 almost completely restored in UK showing the tank mount, but without the tank installed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manish Chandrayan Posted October 16, 2015 Share Posted October 16, 2015 Regarding the oil tank mount, I have emailed Chris, will post his reply when I hear from him Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterF Posted October 17, 2015 Author Share Posted October 17, 2015 Manish, I think the answer is that the 1/4" (6mm) balsa mount for the oil tank and the step are sanded down to be narrower at the front. The picture below was captured from the Falcon models web site and shows this. The stringer is clearly much smaller at the front. I will also wait and see what Chris replies to you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manish Chandrayan Posted October 17, 2015 Share Posted October 17, 2015 Hello Peter, I too had the same thought, and I did chamfer/taper the oil tank mount towards the front. Without the chamfering/tapering I was not able to close the cowl with the tank mount alone, let alone the tank being mounted. The plans do not show any top view of the mount and hence do not help much in this regard. While I agree that from the Falcon site it does appear that the stringer is tapered. It was from this very picture that I had realized that the rudder bar surround also was sanded down and tapered towards the bottom. There is no mention of this on the plans. Will post the solution that Chris provides Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterF Posted October 18, 2015 Author Share Posted October 18, 2015 Manish, I have had a look at Ron's photos from a few posts above, plus one of his construction photos I have purloined. His pictures above show a large gap between the fuselage and the bottom of the cheek panel at the rear. Ron's construction picture below shows a large spacer between the framework around the engine I have added a couple of full size photos below. In my case I have I have a much smaller stand off from the engine framework and I have bought the bottom of the cheek cowl too close to the fuselage, there needs to be more of a standout. The plan shows the cheek cowl outside the front undercarriage fitting. That is not too much of an issue as I have bigger things to do with the cowl as I expect that I will be loading my batteries through the top, so the top needs to be easier to remove than at present. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ron thornhill Posted October 18, 2015 Share Posted October 18, 2015 Hi all, I'm afraid I am not very good at following plans I go more on, if it looks right. My son in law took dozens of photos of G-AMNN while I was waiting to fly so I went more by those, It passed Ian Perry's inspection and the BMFA scrutineers so I'm happy with that. The reason for the spacers is because I let the cowl lay naturally then built the spacers out to them, rightly or wrongly. Peter I'm sure you could use magnets to hold your cowl on and use the spring clips just the same. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manish Chandrayan Posted October 19, 2015 Share Posted October 19, 2015 Peter I am assuming you are planning to stow the flight batteries on the shelf just behind the engine mount. If that is right, access should be just two spring loaded catches and a hinge pin away. 1. Open one of the cowl sides, by pulling out the catches, 2. Slide out the hinge pin from the same side and 3. The cowl top would hinge out to expose the battery area. Or wait! What if you did not open the catches? but just slid out the hinge pin from one side, the cowl top would still hinge out to reveal the battery stowage. That should solve your easy battery access issue. I had written to Chris about a missing piece and also about the mount. He did respond about the missing piece but looks like missed the mount question. Going by what Ron say's I will just go with what looks right and works for me. I guess no one would notice over here unless I told them Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manish Chandrayan Posted October 22, 2015 Share Posted October 22, 2015 Here is what Chris says about the oil tank mountThe mount is glued over the uprights. Rear of mount being 1/4 and flush with the stringer. The front being tapered to meet the former.Edited By Manish Chandrayan on 22/10/2015 19:14:37 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ron thornhill Posted October 24, 2015 Share Posted October 24, 2015 obviously I cant argue with Chris but it seems the tank would be at quite an angle which is contrary to your picture of HU512, but, hayho. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manish Chandrayan Posted October 26, 2015 Share Posted October 26, 2015 I had ripped off the tank mount, and cut out and mounted a 1/32 ply mount, and sanded the stringer so that it gradually fared in with the mount rear portion. Then came the reply from Chris, so trusting the designer, ripped off the ply mount, put the 1/4 balsa mount back and spliced a new short piece of side stringer (to the exisiting one) so that it was flush with the 1/4 balsa mount. The mount itself was sanded to fare in to almost nothing towards the front. Will see how it would look Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manish Chandrayan Posted October 26, 2015 Share Posted October 26, 2015 In the full scale the mount is square and not fared in. It is the left cowl cheek that has a much higher degree of curve (due to tank and mount). This can be noticed when looking head on Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ron thornhill Posted October 26, 2015 Share Posted October 26, 2015 Oh dear Manish, what can I say, go by your own instincts. I still personally think the ply was the answer. Looking at your photos you have built TM's before on a smaller scale, could they not give you some idea how to go. Good luck your doing well with the build. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manish Chandrayan Posted October 27, 2015 Share Posted October 27, 2015 Ron, For the smaller Tiger Moth's I never bothered much about scale accuracy, as long as it looked like a Tiggy and looked good to fly I was happy. Have not yet tried to mount the tank moulding and see how it goes, if it looks bad, then ply it would be . I wanted to start on the wings, got out the parts, and ran into issues. The rear spruce spar is double the size. Instead of 1/4 x 3/8 the supplied spars are 1/2 x 3/8. Similarly the curved balsa pieces towards the wing root are 1/4 instead of 1/8 indicated on the plans. While the blasa pieces were replicated from left over wood from 1/8 rib sheets, not having a table saw has stalled the build for now. A fellow flyer does have one, and planning to visit him and split the spruce spars to required size. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manish Chandrayan Posted October 28, 2015 Share Posted October 28, 2015 Ron I checked the oil tank mounting today in the little time I had before I needed to get to the airport. Despite the slanted mount once the tank moulding is mounted it does not look odd. So decision made. Will leave it as such. The cowl cheek on the tank side will need wooden pads underneath to sit on especially where the catches engage. I think if I would have mounted the tank and then trimmed the cowl cheeks there would have been no gaps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manish Chandrayan Posted November 16, 2015 Share Posted November 16, 2015 Peterf did you restart the stalled build? Better get cracking I have already done the two upper wings and already about to complete one lower Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterF Posted November 16, 2015 Author Share Posted November 16, 2015 Just put it back on the bench, got some aluminum delivered today to make up an engine mount, so back on the build soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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