1/3 Fly Baby

[cymaz]

Dad’s chuffed then

[Chris Freeman 3]

I am very happy with the progress and Byron has done more work including getting the undercarriage brackets done with the help of a mate who machined some parts for us. Byron had the seats made at his work which is a company that does full size aircraft refurbishment. The pilot will have an easy ride in this model! I now have the airframe for final fitting of all the equipment includint the Zenoah which was teast flown and found to be very good.

[Chris Freeman 3]

Weather predictions were good for early Saturday morning so I arrange with Byron that we would test fly the Fly Baby. Byron also wanted to test fly his Vega that he had bought from a moddeler who had not flown it in nearly 20 years. We got to the field at 06:00 and assembeled the airframes, conditions were perfect with the temprature around 18 and no wind. We test ran the engines and the ENYA 240 in the Vega is one of the nicest motors I have ever run with a sound that is hard to beat. The Zenoah 38 was also on form so it was time to fly. Both these arcraft are childhood dream arcraft with Byron being with me when I flew it for the owner all those years ago. Byron asked me to fly the Vega and it was as good as it always was, very nice to fly. Once trimmed Byron took over and enjoyed the flight.

Now for the Fly Baby, Byron did the flight and the take off was longer than expected but it was nose heavy and I had a little extra dwn in the trim so this was removed. No other trimming was needed and we soon felt comfortable with the aircraft. The Zenoah has plenty of power but I think we can go up in prop from the 18x8 used with a little less pitch to slow it down. Landings are good but need to be as gentle as possible as no suspension is built in. (just like the real one) We had two flights and nothing broke so it was good.

[Chris Freeman 3]

Some more pictures

[Frank Skilbeck]

Cracking, I'll bet you are still smiling

[Martyn K]

Love that colour scheme. I thought it was a fantasy scheme when i first saw it.

I was wrong. Beautiful

Well done

Martyn

[Chris Freeman 3]

Thanks Frank and Martyn. It has been a great project and even more special as it was done with my son using many bits from my departed mates workshop. Dennis would have loved the outcome.

Byron has made the baggage bomb and I still have to do the mounting of it. Should be on with the spats the next time we fly it.

[Denis Watkins]

Absolutely splendid Chris

When it looks right .......It most certainly is

Watched you right from the start, big and beautiful And Lightweight

Very well done, striking colour scheme too

[stu knowles]

Lovely model and LOVELY colour scheme.

On your prop choice

I have always taken a 19x10 prop as the starting point for a z38. If you have an excess of power I would go up in diameter to 20x10. On a boddo 1/3 Neiuport I used a 22x10 very successfully and it kept the noise and rpm down.

I wish many happy landings

[Chris Freeman 3]

Thanks for the nice comments, it has been a great project and one which had few issues which was nice.

Stu

Thanks for the info on the props, I am surprised how big some of them are. I know that 19x10 was regarded as the optimum prop but I found them a little big for our altitude as we are around 6000 feet above sea level so the motors are down on power. I do have a few big props that we can experiment with.

[Chris Freeman 3]

The Full size was a small aircraft with very little space for additional items to be carried with especially for away trips. The prototype had an additional baggage case that could be carried under the aircraft if required. The builder of our Fly Baby had a baggage bomb that could be used so I have now done the mounts for the baggage bomb that byron made. Looks good I think, will have to take it to the next warbirds event!