Building the Nigel Hawes Whizzza

[twinstar]

canopy from vortex vac vorms. comes with covering layer to protect it from scratches whilst you work on it, you peel that off later.

 

An easy way to cut it is to trim the excess off with a scalpel then mark straight lines with masking tape and cut along them with decent scissors. then sand with wet n dry paper to smooth off.

[twinstar]

heres how to fit it.

 

[twinstar]

canopy on the fuselage

rudder and ellevator linkages, these will be fixed to supporting struts every couple of inches so theres no slop. : very easy to set up if you leave the bottom sheeting off.

[J.N.]

Posted by twinstar on 21/05/2010 07:58:16:

heres how to fit it.

 

 

 

I found your posting showing the fitting of the canopy to the wing/fuselage outline most helpful.

In addition, your other posting showing the servo layout for rudder and elevator came as a timely reminder.  I had forgotten that it is adviseable to exit the servo push rods at  the opposite side of the rear fuselage.

 

A question. 

How do you intend to secure the canopy to the wing/fuselage.  My Whizzza will finish up with a removable wing.  I often have difficulty visualizing the finished item from a drawing and faced with a collection of bits.  If the canopy is not secured to the wing it would mean removing/refitting the canopy for each and ever visit to the flying field leading to wear and tear on the canopy. 

Thanks.

[twinstar]

dont forget to anchor the snakes every few inches to reduce slop

Edited By twinstar on 22/05/2010 18:51:34

[twinstar]

HI J.N

 

Im going for the removeable wing option too. 

 

the normal way to do the canopy is a screw at either end:

ie through the canopy and down into a small bit of ply recessed in to the balsa, but like you i have concerns over wear with time. you could probably reduce wear by using the little metal bosseslike those that come with servos (the bit you feed through a rubber grommet), if you epoxy one of those in at each end and screw down through those then wear against the plastic can be avoided, itll just need filing back so its flush with the plywood underneath.

 

Im going to line the inside of my canopy with filament reinforced cross-weave tape, which i use on foamie combat models. That should help with it resisting cracks etc for not much weight penalty. It will also stiffen it up a little bit.

this sort of stuff

other options are probably small but powerful Neodymium disc magnets sunk into recesses,

disk magnets

 

or to cobble something together with blocks of balsa and velcro.

 

If you have a canopy and and havent cut into it yet you could  make your own spares by cloning it with plaster of paris : you can then make copies using a home made vac former (theres loads of forums on RC groups on how to do that), but for that much hasstle id just buy another from vortex vac forms

Edited By twinstar on 22/05/2010 18:41:45

Edited By twinstar on 22/05/2010 18:43:28

Edited By twinstar on 22/05/2010 18:56:12

[twinstar]

making a clean exit

(polycell one fill polyfilla is very light and ideal for this and use as "spackle" on foamies)

[twinstar]

pretty much done, just gotta finish off the linkages, set the throws and sort the balance out. then paint the canopy up so it looks nicer. At the moment, even with the lipo as far forward as possible, it will still need some lead to balance in the right place. My advice to other whizza builders is to get a 3s lipo more than 3200mah so that you carry useful weight instead of lead !

[Worden]

Looking nice Twinstar.

I learnt from my first Whizzza build that the tail does need to be kept light and did have to add a few grams of lead inside the nose ring.  It can be done though with the right balsa selection coupled with lightweight covering and fittings in the tail area.  I also now position the servos forward of the main former which helps.  My fourth one flys on a 3s 2200 which sits a good inch and a half back from the motor. 

[J.N.]

Can anyone advise on the following? In addition, this topic enjoys good support and I welcome any further positive comments on matters Whizzza.

 

I have started to build the two part aileron as per the plan however after the elevator bevel has been formed a significant section of the hardwood joiner has to be removed. I know that a piano wire joiner has been fitted by others, however I am considering fitting a deeper section of hardwood joiner. A deeper hardwood joiner would leave more material in place to transmit the input movement to the opposite elevator section after the bevel has been formed. Much depends on how much of the rudder has to be cut away to allow the elevator to move through the stated 12mm each way. The rudder movement can also be a factor however there is no information on the plan. Using a compass and rule on the plan shows the bevel on the elevator and on the rudder allows; elevator 30mm down, rudder 35mm each way.

What travel movement are others using on elevator, rudder and ailerons?

What are others using to hinge the control surfaces for the top hinge elevator and ailerons? I have tried hinging the control surfaces with covering film from the Solarspan range but cannot make it work. I have also tried Book Tape but the result leads me to doubt it can remain stuck to the balsa when placed under stress. I did consider beefing the tape up with an adhesive but which adhesive to use is another matter.

Thanks

[twinstar]

Re the hinging: i covered my wing and ailerons seperately, each in profilm, then hinged them top and bottom with a long strip oif blenderm the whole length of the aileron. Throws as per the RCME build article.

Control deflections: Aileron ±1⁄2'', elevator ±1⁄2'', rudder ±1''

[twinstar]

ps, the flocked mylar hinges work well too but theres a knack to getting the right,. and i decided that itd be too fiddly for the ailerons, hence the blenderm (which is actually a really strong surgical tape, often confused with micropore but its completely different)

[twinstar]

blenderm

[J.N.]

Posted by twinstar on 24/08/2010 20:41:55:

Re the hinging: i covered my wing and ailerons seperately, each in profilm, then hinged them top and bottom with a long strip oif blenderm the whole length of the aileron. Throws as per the RCME build article.

Control deflections: Aileron ±1⁄2'', elevator ±1⁄2'', rudder ±1''

 

 

Thanks, I have the RCM@E build article and I looked and looked and finally found Contol Deflections in DATAFILE, I had been concentrating on the build part of the write up.  Thanks also for the link to Blenderm tape.

What threw me regarding control surface hinges is Nigel advising the use of cocktail sticks to peg the hinges.  I wondered how on earth this is possible with a top mounted hinge as I have only fitted cocktail sticks to a hinge fitted midway in the thickness of the supporting balsa .

Regards

[twinstar]

maidened it today. its pretty darn quick and will chuck launch at just over half throttle (at which point holding onto it becomes uncomfortable), nice roll rate on reccomended settings. Would benefit fromn a folding prop if belly landing it. I found it hard to make mine without it coming out tail heavy, reccomend puttingg the tail servo's infronmt of the main former as others have done and gaoing for a 3000mah 3s pack at least. I anchored my batt pack with 3mm liteply a  divider driolled with air cooling holes splitting the nose into two halves, Esc goes one side battery the the other, A small balat traingular stock peirc stops battyer moving forward to touch motor back plate and it wint slide back as teh wing retaining bolts hold it snug.

[J.N.]

I am fitting the torque arm from wing servo to aileron.  As per the plan the aileron hinge line is along the top face of the wing trailing edge and upper face of the aileron leading edge.  I cannot see how to mount the aileron torque arm to pivot along the hinge line and still have sufficient meat for the torque arm to bed into the aileron leading edge and thereby move the aileron up or down. Any advice will be welcome.

Jeff

 

[twinstar]

  ..not something i really had a problem with, thogh it was a bt fiddly, i filed a groove in the aileron with a rounded needle file, for the torque rod to sit in, drilled a hole where it pokes into the balsa, just angling it a bit so it didnt run too close to the surface, and pushed the rod in, you need to use torque rods that are not too fat, but are stiff enough to not allow too much flex in them. circa 2mm 

[twinstar]

now for sale. see RCME classifieds

[Daniel Cardona]

Hello to everyone

I'm very tempted to build a whizzza after seeing a video on youtube of a finished model, it really flies great and precise. the problem is that i'm worried about the all up weight of the model. here in malta light weight balsa is not so common. medium weight and hard balsa are more available. how much the model must be in weight? and whats the limit? will it fly well on 3lbs ready to fly?

regards

Daniel

[Chris Bott - Moderator]

Hi Daniel, the model was designed to be flown using a very heavy motor and batteries. (A speed 600 brushed motor, and 8 subC nicads.

Todays brushless motors and Lipos are much more powerful and lighter at the same time. So I think you'll be fine.

Having just built one (and done a thread on here) I can whole heartedly recommend it. The only thing you may have to be careful with is you'll need to keep the tail light, because the heavy bits that will be replaced by the lighter modern gear are at the front.

[Chris Bott - Moderator]

Two other thoughts Daniel. There's a Whizzza for sale here, of course I have no idea if the seller would be prepared to post it.

Also, do you think there would be any interest in a Whizzza wood pack if Myhobbystores could be persuaded to make one available?

[Daniel Cardona]

If myhobbystore will produce a woodpack or even a laser cut kit i will be interested, IF the postage cost to malta will be fair enough YES for sure. i think it could be a winner. looking again at the plans it's really a straight foward model to build and does not need a lot of wood to be build either.

i was also looking my stock of wood and for example i have the 4.5mm balsa sides that weight more or less from 43 to 48 grams, sheets longer than 36inch, i dont know if they are ok or not, maybe i would try to buy lighter balsa sheets.

regards

Daniel