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Scrap Box Wellington Bomber


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Hi All,

Thanks for the encouraging words. I suppose that things always look their worst when lying in a crumpled heap and your heart sinks.

I must admit that the repairs have so far taken no time at all really.

If I were to build another I would introduce lite ply formers, fully sheet the wings and give the u/c a better foundation. I know when Tony made the design electric flight was a long way away from what we have at our disposal today, even Tony admitted that his model struggled to fly at the time so did mine. One day I might make another, in fact looking at the amount of wood I am likely to have left over from my FW Condor build it could be sooner rather than later.

Keith, no it is not Bryn Bach Park. My flying field is at Gwauncaegurwen in the Amman Valley.

Regards

Robert

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Hi All,

Just finished repainting the repairs, when the paint odours have all gone I will re-check the CoG and lateral balance. I have put on the next size down props as they were all I had.

dsc09477.jpg

Rather than touch up the brown I re-painted the centre brown and the small "V" of green

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On the flip side the repairs are a bit more obvious to the wing but the nacelles and fus came good.

So two days in the sun house for the paint fumes to go and she'll be allowed back in the house for balance checks.

That's all for now

Regards

Robert

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Hi All,

Balance checks complete, needed to put 5g on the opposite wing to achieve lateral balance.

dsc09481.jpg

I pushed a 2mm wire into the nose and tail. I'm going to use this method again just like balancing a prop.

Next it's off to the flying field when I can.

That's all fro now

Regards

Robert

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Hi Robert,

A point to note with the old Wellington design is the wing from memory were flat bottomed. The reason for this was in the early 90s, electric power was so marginal, you needed a good lifting wing section to keep you airbourne. One of the down sides to flat bottomed wing is in windy conditions, lift can be excessive and cause the model to 'balloon' and feel twitchy.... i would suggest you only fly the Welly in calm or moderate wind conditions.....you will notice the difference and the model will fly slower and smoother....I still remember the first test flight of the model some 30 years ago as if it was yesterday.....worry is I can't remember what i really did yesterday!!!!...lol

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Hi Tony,

Feeling twitchy it was in that brief flight.

I was thinking that I might have had the CoG slightly out. If I had waited about 20 mins the weather conditions calmed down and would have been perfect for the Welly. Just got to wait until I get the right weather to fly on the right day.

Your Sunderland is next on my build list after I have finished my FW 200 Condor.

Regards

Robert

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Hi All,

Just two words.

She flies, just smiley

When I saw the morning mist and cloud I thought there would be no flying today, but by 10 o'clock the mist had lifted and the cloud lifted and burning off and it turned out to be a glorious sunny day, wind speed 1-3mph if that.

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Wellington and my Flair Astro Hog enjoying the sun.

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Just look at the elevator, full up, she must have been close to the stall.

Airbourne at last smiley. Following the last attempt she broke a prop. As I did not have another 8x4 opposite rotation prop I fitted smaller 7x4 props. On opening the throttle I was instantly taken back to the 1990's with my original Wellington running speed 400 motors. She was lacking power and with a waterlogged moss covered patch, the ground speed was kept down to the point that on the first run I had to lift off as I was about to run out of runway, she got to a height of around 3 feet and mushed so I let her drop into the long grass at the end of the runway.

Attempt no two was better but still under powered but I did have control and I brought her in to land, the flight may have been short but so was the wright brothers in 1903, but she flew, she is intact and new props on back order end of the month for GWS.

dsc09509.jpg

Many thanks to my fellow club member Ian who took the photos.

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Good luck with the next attempt. I see that you intend to move onto the TN Sunderland next, I've built two, they're great.

In the air

Here's mine, it's a huge great fuselage of empty space, very easy to work on. I fitted my floats on with magnets, they pop off if they hit on take off. It is powerful enough to drag itself off the ground, especially if its wet, I normally use a dolly though.

Off the dolly

 

 

Edited By Bucksboy on 20/03/2017 11:05:56

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I think that I built it so long ago that I sourced everything from Giant Cod, remember them? I built one and it crashed on take off so I built another one as I liked it so much. I think that one of my soldered joints let go and I lost power in the climb out, I never heard the change in engine tone as it was taking off away from me. I carried on without noticing and it stalled, I thought that I'd lost radio but in hindsight decided it was a stall and nothing responded in the last few seconds because of lack of wind speed over the surfaces. I linked both inners and outers together so that all losses are symmetrical. It uses four 2200 3 cell batteries, one for each motor. It certainly has presence as it flies around.

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  • 1 month later...

Hi All,

Tried the Wellington again today and not much luck, just seemed under powered and tipped over just after take off.

Finished the minor repairs and plugged in my newly purchased programming card and discovered that the timings of the motors were set to low, that would explain the lack of power I hope, now set to high. when the glue has dried I'll try a static thrust test for comparison.

Regards

Robert

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  • 1 month later...

Hi All,

Had another go flying the wellie today. Not good. RIP I'm afraid.

Started take off run very well once in the air she was extremely sensitive on the elevators, and went like a love sick angel to a height of around 50 feet air speed zero, I pulled full up to try to loop her but she went straight in the fus went into matchwood and the wings in two.

Salvaged all of the gear

MKII?

So sadly that was the end of that.

Now what next.

Regards

Robert

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Robert,

Sorry for your loss and sadly that sounds like CG. But a MkII?? I guess the power combination was right though? So you have the gear and know the power units are right.....????

Have to admit that I tried my son's SE5 on Sat eve - same issue but didn't get that high so only a broken prop and wing tip scrape - oh and pride of course.

Best

Rob

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