Who wants a Warbird Replics Hurricane?

[David Davis]

Posted by Jon Harper - Laser Engines on 27/04/2017 09:05:42:

David, true, but fire bad! I have a Laser 120 here on the bench that can attest to that having been involved in a house fire caused by...a lipo. In the defence of the lipo however it was not being charged correctly (i suspect as a nicd) and it threw in the towel setting the model alight in the middle of the living room. Nasty mess so always pay attention to your charge settings as this thing is really stinking out my workshop and i dont want another one like it coming back. Also it might burn your house down, so there is that too.

At risk of straying off topic I must relate this story.

About eight years ago a man called Tony Salisbury joined the Shropshire Model Flying Club where I was at least a senior member if not a member of the committee at the time. Tony was a retired senior officer in the fire brigade and a complete novice who threw himself with great enthusiasm into everything he undertook. For example, we had a corner of the club hut which we called Boot Hill Corner where people would abandon crashed models or models which were no longer wanted. Tony would pick one up, repair it, convert it to electric power, for he was an exclusively electric flyer, and bring it to the flying field the next week. Unfortunately he often chose pattern ships and other unsuitable models so the learning process took some time. However, with a little help from my Radio Queen and a Senior Telemaster which he built from a kit, he gained his A Certificate and when the club secretary resigned he stepped into the breach. With one year's membership of the club, carried out his duties in a friendly yet highly professional manner.

Then he built a quarter scale Piper Cub powered by half an electricity sub-station and a LiPo the size of a house-brick. Never a confident pilot, he gave the model to Ken Davies to maiden. Ken flew it about for seven or eight minutes then called a landing. Tony must have made a bit of a horlicks of soldering up the Lipo connections for on the downwind leg smoke started to issue from the model! Ken brought it into a landing on the patch and Tony ran over to his model which he had built with a scale door. He opened the door, grabbed the LiPo and threw it on to the grass where it continued to burn for some time, burning his hands in the process. If Ken had been at a high altitude when the LiPo shorted out, the model would have caught fire and would have been totally destroyed. It was an impressive enough sight anyway!

I have never forgotten it. .

I have never forgotten Tony Salisbury either. He died about a year later in 2011 of a brain tumour, he was 71. Ken Davies left us last year at 78, I've not forgotten him either. He was one of the people who taught me how  to fly.

"C'est la vie" as they say in my adopted country.

Edited By David Davis on 27/04/2017 14:45:07

[Former Member]

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[will -0]

Posted by Simon B on 26/04/2017 21:38:03:
Genuine question: how many flights would you get from one of those 18 quid bottles of fuel? Just wondering about Jon's assertion about cost. I've never flown glow, so curious about the maths.

Edited By Simon B on 26/04/2017 21:39:17

My current bottle of fuel has lasted nearly two years

[RICHARD WILLS]

knock knock .

Is this the Laser engine club ?

That was sweep , not me .

r

I can help myself sometimes , thats why I'm always in trouble

[RICHARD WILLS]

Sweep doesnt "pell" check either .

[Simon B]

Will, I've got 4 year old 3S lipos. Does sound like it depends on the models flown and the way they're flown, electric or IC

[Geoff S]

Posted by Jon Harper - Laser Engines on 27/04/2017 09:05:42:

Not your fault Geoff, i thought the conversation was legitimate so...yea. In any event fuel can be delivered from a number of shops and there are likely to be other places willing to ship before too long.

Anyway the Mew gull, is that the old skyways one or the seagull ARTF? If its the old skyways one my dad used to have one with a very old Laser 90 fitted. It flew well but didnt take any prisoners when it came to tip stalling so watch it. I dont have much experience with the Seagull version apart from it looking like the engine recommendations are a touch excessive, as usual with seagull. Should be nice whichever model it is, shame about the removing the foam.

Yes, it is the old Skyways part kit. I bought it unstarted on eBay a few years ago and it's a work in progress. It'll be on 6S LiPos. The big problem is the undercarriage, although more accurately, the huge spats cum fairings that characterise the Mew Gull. It's supposed to be a good flyer according to reports I've read.

The Hurricane is next but one (after a DB Cirrus Moth) in my building queue so you all have plenty of time to give me guidance Note I'm a much slower builder than Dwain Dibley who seems to build with a lightning precision I can't hope to match.

Geoff

[Jon H]

Andrew i fly mine with 0-0 side and down thrust. Everything is fine until i go vertical then i need fair shove of right rudder to keep on line. Its nothing serious and i am not messing up my spinner gap!

And yes 'sweep', i am trying to bring all over from the dark side into the light

Geoff, my dad never fitted the spats for that exact reason. The u/c shown on the plan is also pants and was regularly removed from the wings. A modern setup with oleo legs will be much better. It might be worth starting a thread on it

[Mike Blandford]

I notice the instructions indicate a "lug" for a single wing bolt. My kit has no lug, but does have TWO wing bolts with captive nuts. I assume we need to drill a couple of holes in the half inch square piece for the bolts to go through to the nuts, rather than a single bolt on the centre line.

I do have a "square box" fuselage and the wing centre section with leading and trailing edges attached now. I've drilled a hole for the front wing dowel and got that ready to glue in.

The instructions also say put the wing bolts 295mm back from the leading edge. This seems very close to the trailing edge to me, any reason not to have them a bit further forward where the wing is thicker (about an inch say)?

Mike.

[Martin Harris - Moderator]

If this was an American aircraft its spats would be pants however you looked at them...😉

[Jon H]

I only have one bolt on mine Mike, and the lug is just the plastic thing it screws into....unless Graham and sweep have had some fun packing the kits.

This is the best photo of my setup I think. I will do more searching if required

[Don Fry]

Geoff, I am also looking at trousers. A thought I have is using proskin ( Mick Reeves Models), over a lite ply frame. See his advice regarding supergluing edges together. Light, strong.

[Mike Blandford]

Definitely no lug in my kit, but 2 bolts and 2 captive nuts, I just checked it again. Probably moving the bolt(s) more than half an inch forward will foul the back of the radiator.

Mike.

[Former Member]

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[Jon H]

I'm on my phone right now and the forum dose not work very well. I will look when I get home.

As for mounting the engine to the firewall I would do that after its all glued together as it's far easier to position the engine. If the nuts are in place and something is not right you ate slightly stuck

[Former Member]

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[Jon H]

fair enough, if it works it works!

I tend to fit the cowling to the fuselage so its a nice fit, remove it, bolt the engine to its mount, stand the fuslage on its end (before fitting the tail) and then take the engine and its mount and pop them on the firewall. The cowl can then be cut to fit and the engine moved about to get everything where it needs to be before marking/drilling etc. The captive nuts pull in easy enough with the mounting bolts and thats it done. I have also taken to deliberately mounting engines about 5mm too short so i can then shim them to the perfect spinner gap with thin ply or ali. It makes for a nice tidy nose

[Jon H]

Oh and this is my finnished under wing. Not sure what you are looking for but this is all i have

Edited By Jon Harper - Laser Engines on 28/04/2017 19:08:40

[Former Member]

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[Andy J]

Recent mod to my Warbirds Hurricane:

[Jon H]

Posted by Andrew Ray on 28/04/2017 19:27:29:

Before fitting the cowl I will fit the engine to the fuselage, cut templates that are attached to the fuselage with tape and transfer where the larger holes need to be onto the cowl so the cowl will fit over the engine. I then place the cowl with the engine in place and position it with the spinner backplate bolted down to the prop driver. I then place a spacer between the spinner backplate and front face of the cowl and attach the cowl. I find this way easy and accurate.

Jon, I was interested to see where you have fitted your wing retaining bolt in relation to the radiator. I take it the underside of your radiator is sheeted over and covers the bolt?

How do you centre your engine doing it this way? cowls rarely sit exactly as they are intended and in the past I found it easy for vertical and horizontal alignment issues to creep in which is why I turned it around. Not that it really matters, if you are happy then crack on!

Regarding the wing bolt, I made a cover plate from thin litho plate and cut a hole in it. My original used a wooden plate glues down but I have a removable ali plate on this one as I need access to the flap servo. My only derp was that with the flaps up I cant undo the bolt as the torque rods get in the way so I have to gently poke the servo to drop/raise the flaps every time I fit the wing. ooops

[Former Member]

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[Jon H]

Yea I tried that and it was always just a whisker out which annoyed me. I find that getting the cowl all lovely and set with the fuselage and then fitting the engine gives me a better end result. That said, I do sometimes cheat by pinching a crankcase + crankshaft and mounting that instead so I don't have the cylinder in the way. I can then put the whole engine on later. On the hurricane I removed the cylinder on an old 75 and used that as my dummy engine just for mounting.

I doubt the inaccuracies in a cowling are enough to make the engine be far enough off centre for it to matter, but they can be enough to ruin the looks.

my cheating aside, its each to their own I suppose, and I can only cheat when mounting a laser

[Mike Blandford]

What, exactly, does one do with the parts labelled "rear cockpit fairing" (the ply with the 'D' cutout)?

From the plan, they look as though they should fit behind the veneered foam piece at the rear of the cockpit, but they would then fit outside the rear foam decking and stick out. Sholud they be inset into the rear foam decking?

Mike.

[Former Member]

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