Jon Laughton Posted February 20, 2018 Share Posted February 20, 2018 Well done Simon !👍 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McG 6969 Posted February 20, 2018 Share Posted February 20, 2018 One more superb achievement, Simon. Lookong forward to your video next. Cheers Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Piers Bowlan Posted February 20, 2018 Share Posted February 20, 2018 Amazing, looking forward to the video. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john stones 1 - Moderator Posted February 20, 2018 Share Posted February 20, 2018 Never doubted you, well done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Chaddock Posted March 6, 2018 Author Share Posted March 6, 2018 At long last I have managed to get a working camera and suitable weather at the same time! Although relatively calm it was surprisingly bumpy below the tree line. The stab rx did keep things under control but it was not comfortable for a really low pass for the camera. The slow into wind flight at altitude (from 1:00) gives a true scale speed? It glides very well, indeed it was a glide approach and landing although I 'held off' for just a bit too long so the right wing dropped (always goes first) making the actual touch down a bit untidy but no damage.. Edited By Simon Chaddock on 06/03/2018 21:57:30 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martian Posted March 7, 2018 Share Posted March 7, 2018 Excellent Simon it looks so realistic in the air well done on another success Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen Jones Posted March 7, 2018 Share Posted March 7, 2018 Congrats on another success . Looks well in the sky could easy be mistaken for the real thing. Well done Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McG 6969 Posted March 7, 2018 Share Posted March 7, 2018 Absolutely a great achievement, Simon. I would like to add 'as usual'. Cheers Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Chaddock Posted March 7, 2018 Author Share Posted March 7, 2018 Thank you all for the kind words. This morning it was sunny and I thought fairly calm so I took it out again to make a better video, however the clouds were building up so it was not so much calm as gently gusty which it did not like at all! It just does not have the aileron authority to combat even mild turbulence at anything other than full speed. Concerned it was not going to end well I spent all of the short flight trying to line up an approach into the direction of what ever the gust was at the time rather than concentrate on keeping the A350 in shot. After a 2 minute flight I did achieve a safe landing but unfortunately there was very little to see in the video! Aileron coupled spoilers (like the full size) may be the answer but until then it will have to be a flat calm weather only job! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Piers Bowlan Posted March 8, 2018 Share Posted March 8, 2018 No doubt spoilers is what you will go for Simon (respect!) although wouldn't it be easier to extend the ailerons the full length of the outer section of the wings, although you would lose the scale fidelity (sacrilege!)? As a stop gap, coupling the rudder with the ailerons would improve the roll rate some. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Leighfield Posted March 11, 2018 Share Posted March 11, 2018 I just watched the video, how impressive. You have completed captured the full size and the glide angle on finals was remarkable. We perhaps don’t fully appreciate just how efficient these modern jet airliners are. Many years ago I remember reading about the 747 that lost all engines when it unwittingly flew into the ash cloud from a volcanic eruption. The crew worked desperately to get engines re-started as the plane progressively lost altitude and I think that as they got lower managed to get one and then another going well enough to make an emergency landing at the nearest airport. The point though was how good the glide angle was and the distance covered while the engines were completely out or later only partly functioning. These things certainly don’t fly like bricks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cymaz Posted March 11, 2018 Share Posted March 11, 2018 Well done and congratulations....great work Simon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Chaddock Posted March 11, 2018 Author Share Posted March 11, 2018 The truly remarkable incident was Air Transats Airbus A330 that ran out of fuel due to a leak. The pilot (also an experienced glider pilot) glided 75 miles in 18 minutes (av 250 mph) from 33,000 ft (av glide ratio 12:1 although he had to loose height before landing) and accomplished a rather hard 'dead stick' landing at Lajes Military Air Base in the Azores. Only bumps and bruises amongst the passengers. The only serious injuries (2) resulted from the emergency evacuation! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Chaddock Posted January 21, 2022 Author Share Posted January 21, 2022 I have flown the A350 on odd occasions when the weather is right so I took it out in the current calm condition (15Jan22) whidh proved to be a bit of a disaster. It flew well enough despite now being 4 year and so are the batteries. ? What I had overlooked was the very 'tufted' uncut grass. Landing simply ripped off the low mounted nacelles. In fact a bt product of the relatively rigid but brittle printed pylon the nacelles broke off doing remarkably little damage to the main wing structure. Up to now it has only been flown in the summer when the grass, whilst no bowling green, is at least cut regularly. The forward part of each nacelle is hardly damaged but the printed motor mounts are wrecked. The problem is the motor mount and nacelle pylon were printed as a 'unit' but over half the pylon is still buried in the wing and I don't fancy trying to cut it out as much of the wing was actually built around the pylon! I can print a new modify the motor mount print to have just a stub pylon but it will need a complex bridging piece to be designed and printed to stand any chance of restoring the strength and stiffness of the original pylon. The new motor mounts (2.5 hours each to print) sitting on the nacelle, with one of the 2204 2399 kV racing drone motors with its 3x3.5 four blade prop. The other motor is attached to its wiring in the wing! After a whole day fiddling with the design of the 'bridging piece' in FreeCAD one of the motor mounts is securely (I hope) glued in place and the motor installed and tested. Now to do the other slightly more damaged other side. It all comes down tot he old adage. "If you built it, you should be able to repair it". Just as well I kept all the printer files. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Chaddock Posted January 23, 2022 Author Share Posted January 23, 2022 All back together with a bit of remedial filling and some touching up of the paintwork. Apart from the satisfaction of getting it repaired there really was no rush as it won't be flying at the field again until the worst of the foot prints have be smoothed out and the grass has been cut at least a couple of times, likely June, so its back into storage.? 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Chaddock Posted May 6, 2022 Author Share Posted May 6, 2022 (edited) The story continues. I did fly it again on the 23 March, well sort of! ☹️ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fScE_1Ygcbs I really should have known better but I suspect it was a case of "I am here so I will fly". Clearly the RH motor was not performing as it should with the inevitable results. I probably could have managed if the motor had failed in flight but on a hand launch - no way! The damage was not that severe, just a crushed nose but with everything permanently 'built in' finding out what was wrong withhte RH nacelle and putting it right would likely be a major job. After hanging on the wall for nearly a month I felt I had to make a start. Having plenty of construction pictures is a great help in determining exactly where everything is under the skin and where to cut! So first cut back the nose to a 'sound' former and make good any locally damged skin. Infact even the sound former was replaced with an identical one but twice as wide, 4 mm rather than 2mm) to give a surface to stick the new skin planks on to. Thank goodness I had kept all the FreeCad files. ? At this point I knew I could rebuild the nose so I turned to the problem with the RH motor and/or its ESC. Cutting open the wing underside exposed the Little Bee 20A opto ESCs. To my delight I had connected them using 2mm bullet connectors making it possible to test the motor iindependently with another ESC than was known to work. It confirmed the motor was the problem. To extract and replace the motor was going to involve destroying the motor mount and the nacelle pylon. As can be seen in the picture at least the inlet duct of the nacelle couldbe saved for reuse. Having extracted the motor a close inspection revealed the problem. Claerly one winding was seriously 'cooked'. ? Then I discovered that this LDPOWER 2204 2300kV motor is a 'discontinued item' as fas a Hobby King are concerned, but then I did by the original CW & CCW pair in 2010! Fortunately i did have a spare vitually identical CW Emax 2205 2300Kv motor that fortunately uses the same pich mounting holes and is actually 2g lighter. The whole nacelle pylon, motor mounting and exhaust duct is a one piece part so 3D printing 'saved' me again! To be continued. Edited May 6, 2022 by Simon Chaddock 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Chaddock Posted May 7, 2022 Author Share Posted May 7, 2022 The replacement motor mount, pylon and exhaust duct withthe Emax 2205 installed. The exhaust interior and the tail cone are painted a plausible dark sea grey. The tail cone apart from giving a scale appearance also retricts the exhaust to 95% of the FSA which increases the static thrust be some 5%. Every little helps. The complete RH nacelle installed in the wing and painted. The nose completed with the new black Fablon windscreen outline. It always was a bit of a crude solution but it is light! Hopefully I will be able to actually test it this evening with a video 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Chaddock Posted May 8, 2022 Author Share Posted May 8, 2022 I did actually fly it yesterday with no problem except my video camera refused to play so sorry no video. The only issue was the complete lack of wind. Fine for the actual flight but the limited grip on the fuselage made it hard to impart almost any 'urge', I could dee the gtro deflecting the ailerons as it tried to keep the wing level until it had accerated a bit. It flies so slowly the hand launch is no problem in even a gentle breeze but in a true 'nil' wind it is not so good. I should have flown again late this evening (another nil wind) but I was involved in restoring the end of its 'curled up' wing tips and andding small 'finger grips' to the fuselage to give a better hand launch. Still the plus side of a 'no flight' is the A350 is still available for the next time! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Chaddock Posted May 23, 2022 Author Share Posted May 23, 2022 I took the A350 and 5 others to the DVMFC open day 21 May. I did fly it and all the others despite the rather blustery conditions. No damage even to the two sub 250g light weights on the left. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.