The Annual Dark Nights Fix-up.

[john stones 1 - Moderator]

Nice group of engines Nigel.

[Nigel R]

Thanks John, just need to find homes for them now, the surpass and OS 46s are (sort of) spoken for, the surpass to be swapped in to my current twin and the 46s for a future twin project, the rest, who knows, just been having fun getting them tidied up.

Didn't got involved with getting the sandcast parts cleaned up, so some show a little oxidisation in places, probably a bit late to think about that now the new bearings are in, they're clean enough for me though, bit of boil / scrub got the muck off and cutting compound cleaned up the smooth stuff like cylinder heads.

Can't hold a candle to the engine work of some of the guys posting here, but its kept me happy in the winter evenings and its great to hear them bark again.

[Low pass Pete]

Finally nearly there.  Just engine run and general adjustments to do.  Quite pleased with colour scheme.  Originally it was to be yellow/silver but the red looked nice so went with that.  New Engine is an OS55.  Last flew with an OS70 4 stroke many years ago.

 

Edited March 15, 2021 by Low pass Pete

[leccyflyer]

I've chucked another airframe into the 2020 Dark Night's fix up. The last time I flew at the club well before Christmas I rather confidently took off across the rather narrow strip, directly into wind but no worries the model has loads of power. Thing is I slightly misjudged it and caught the top wire of the electric fence, bringing the Su26 to an abrupt stop. At  first glance the damage didn't look too bad, but when I got the model home it was obviously quite poorly. The internal ply crutch was badly broken, with some bits missing, the fuselage sides were split and some of the cnc or laser cut substantially fretted out formers, which the internal crutch interlocked with, were broken.

 

I managed to piece together one side of the internal dummy root rib, which was a completely open structure with just the rib outline, but which gave me the outline for the rib, allowing me to cut a pair of dummy root ribs from 1/16th ply. Then came the tricky task of getting that assembly back into the middle of the fuselage, as a bit of a jigsaw puzzle. Getting one piece in place, tacking with CA and kicker, then moving around the internal structure was a bit hit and miss, complicated by having to leave the room to get away from the dreaded CA fumes, plus the fuselage slides were split on both sides.

 

In the end though it went back together and I was able to get the wings back in place and check the rigging. With that done, it was time to add a few reinforcing strips tp the insides of those CA-ed together formers. These were individually cut to fit, epoxied and clamped in place. I don't intend to take the wings off again. It was obvious though that there was also damage to some of the stringers. I've previously just hit such broken stringers with CA, but it's seldom satisfactory, so I decided to strip off the inderside covering to get a good look at these and do a proper job - I was glad that I did as several were either broken, popped from the fomers or both.

 

With that all done I recovered the underside with Ron Gray's wonderful laminating film, which I think adds at least as much strength as the Solartex which it replaced. I finished off the repair with some matching yellow Solarfilm - horrible stuff - and some much nicer HK black polyester film. It's not factory perfect, with a few wrinkles in the Solarfilm especially, but it'll do for underneath a repaired dead model. Just a wee bit of trim to add tomorrow, find the missing rudder servo and put the receiver back in and it's done.

 

[leccyflyer]

I just added the Sukhoi to the tracker and have realised that the closing date for the project is this Thursday - with the virtual fly-in next weekend.  I thought it was the end of April, not the beginning, Up here we'll still be in essential journeys only mode until 26th April, so that's going to be tricky. My four airframes are pretty much done, bar the painting and some trim, but flying them next weekend will probably be a bridge too far -unless they want to go right back in the fix-up pile. ?

Edited March 28, 2021 by leccyflyer

[Dad_flyer]

This is where I have got to. It turned out that all of my models could do with some fettling somewhere, even the ones that were 'fine'.

Mayfly: I melted the voltage telemetry wires ages ago. Bodged them up at the time.

Also I was out of heat shrink when I originally did the battery connectors.

Neat and tidy now.

I started looking at it because I wanted to replace the motor with something a little bigger. I made a new spacer for the motor mount. Now needs no lead.

Removing the old motor showed up a cracked X plate. It was thin carbon sheet and this has had quite a few arrivals as I have progressed with learning.

[Dad_flyer]

FT Simple Storch, Child_flyer's favourite. I was moving the wing around the hangar and noticed the wing join was floppy. On inspection, the hot melt glue join had completely parted company on the top surface. I re-did the glue and bandaged with polyester lining material, stuck on with PU varnish. It was what I had. That was very successful, so I also attended to the wing tip damage - sustained when I was flying.

 

Ready to go. The lining material top and bottom has stiffened up the tips nicely.

[Dad_flyer]

FT Spitfire. The motor pod was able to pull forward and loose under power. Quite a bit of internal replacement and strengthening to be done. Replacing some of the foamboard in critical places at the front with ply. The tail feathers were a bit wobbly as well. Not much to see on the outside, but it is easy to see that the spinner is not on. I dropped an M3x6mm screw. I also was going to try some different props, but then the ESC/receiver were not firing up. It turns out that it helps if you a) plug the servos in, and b) use the right model memory in the transmitter. ?

This counts as a fail on the big Fix Up. 

E-fair. Described earlier in this thread, but now having its moment outside.

62"foamboard Stick. An amalgam of many different versions. It should be a new build and so not eligible, but I had to do major surgery to the leading edge. I had dire warnings about the likely stall characteristics as it had a sharp l.e.

Now I need to find enough wing bands that are not perished.

Edited March 29, 2021 by Dad_flyer
Found the problem with the electronics in the Spitfire...

[Dad_flyer]

Putting the Spit back together. Found this:

Going backwards on the pre-flight checks on this one. 

Edited March 29, 2021 by Dad_flyer
Posted before finished.

[Dwain Dibley.]

Looks like a big job has broken out at your place D.F.  ☹️

D.D.

[GrumpyGnome]

Rebuilt SE5 had an outing this morning.... needs a bit of downthrust but no other problems.

 

GG

 

[Dad_flyer]

Found a new X mount and I found the M3 screw.

 

Good day so far, need to fly while the luck is in.

[leccyflyer]

Sooo, how are we all doing with the Dark Nights 2020 aeroplanes this 1st April?

 

I just finished putting the registration letters on the wing, fuselage and tail of the Mini AstroHog - so that's officially done, just needs balancing in the morning before fingers crossed an electric maiden this weekend.

 

The Su-26 is also all done, back together and raring to go - so she'll be back in the air this weekend too.

 

The Henschel Hs-129b is all done, bar a coat of paint on the repaired horizontal stabiliser. She won't be having a flight this weekend, my local club field is five minutes away, but a bit too small for a remaiden of a twin with the size of the Panzernacker - that will need to wait until I can get up to the wide open spaces of my old club, which is out of bounds due to the Stay Local policy up here.

 

The Kyosho Spitfire is all done apart from painting the prepared Solarfilm - if I'd known about the laminating film I might have stripped all the Solarfilm off and recovered the model with laminating film. Having got her all fettled now though I'm not going to do that. No maiden flight for the Spitfire this weekend either.

How have you got on?

[Nick Cripps]

Thanks for reminding me to update my thread on this subject!

I ran the engine in the Seamaster today and all is ready for a maiden when I next get the chance to go lakeside. At the moment this looks like being 6th June...

[Graham Davies 3]

Mini Pitts had it's re-maiden yesterday in the hands of our club's official test flyerer...

 

It was brief, and spectacular! Possibly rearward Cof G resulted in a roller coaster and an undignified arrival in the crops! Skillful piloting minimised the impact and the only damage was the undercarriage bolts pulling out. Easily fixable. I will add some ballast and go again...

[Low pass Pete]

On 15/03/2021 at 13:43, Low pass Pete said:

Finally nearly there.  Just engine run and general adjustments to do.  Quite pleased with colour scheme.  Originally it was to be yellow/silver but the red looked nice so went with that.  New Engine is an OS55.  Last flew with an OS70 4 stroke many years ago.

 

Well the refurb Acrowot had her maiden on Wednesday.  Flew very well and only adjustment was to cut down movement on elevator as it was a bit too fierce.  Engine suits the airframe well.  I reckon she flys better that when new!  Very pleased with the results.

Edited April 2, 2021 by Low pass Pete

[David Davis]

Sorry Matty, I was one of the first to volunteer for the Dark Nights Fix Up but I didn't get back to my workshop until 28th December. Then on St Valentinre's Day I succeeded in setting fire to my Big Guff and WOT 4 XL. I was lucky not to lose the house! Details here: https://www.modelflying.co.uk/forums/index.php?/topic/47237-charging-lipos-a-lesson-learned-the-hard-way-and-how-the-big-guff-met-its-end/page/2/&tab=comments#comment-872897

 

At the urging of my club members I have started to build another Big Guff fuselage and this is as far as I've got: https://www.modelflying.co.uk/forums/index.php?/topic/47387-the-big-guff-the-phoenix-rises-from-the-ashes/page/2/&tab=comments#comment-878700 One of my clubmates has built the tailplane for me.

 

In addition to those, and to all of the non-aeromodelling activities we all have to do, one of my trainee pilots was so impressed by the slow flying characteristics of my Double Size Tomboy that he asked me to help him to build a model. He had never built a model aeroplane before. We chose a Ben Buckle Junior 60, there wasn't a great deal of choice as far as suitable full kits are concerned! So we've been working on that. https://www.modelflying.co.uk/forums/index.php?/topic/47721-novice-pilot-novice-builder/&tab=comments#comment-878279

 

Consequently all I've done to the Uproar is lay out the plan and cut out the main spar. Maybe I'll do a build blog on it if anyone's interested.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[GrumpyGnome]

My SE5 happily re-maidened and flying as nicely as ever.  Some others not officially entered but fixed and remaidened as well:

 

Nigel Hawes baby Tucano

SIG Ultimate Fun Flyer.

 

Some others improved/snags fixed as well......... quite a productive (and cheap!) winter.

 

Thanks for providing the necessary impetus.

 

GG 

 

[Dad_flyer]

@MattyB set us the task of flying this weekend. I added another quick fix-up to my list, FT Legacy. Added the 4th channel and improved the battery cooling. Also ironed down the film where it had gone all bubbly when the garage git damp. Flew yesterday.

It was pretty windy so no close passes to get good photos.

 

[Lindsay Todd]

not had so much time of late but kyosho Spit still ongoing, wings now sanded filler added and glass cloth finish started

 

Still lots to do but progress being made if slowly. Linds

 

 

[Dad_flyer]

Finally a day with weather for smaller models, so a couple more fixups have flown.

Both Mayfly and the Spit are much happier now that they have motors that are straight. Lovely smooth and quiet flying. ?

More thrust on the Spit with a proper propeller rather than a floppy plastic one.

Mayfly with a more efficient motor and a slightly bigger battery now goes on for ages. I also did a new undercarriage which does not bend on every landing.

[Dale Bradly]

On 14/02/2021 at 16:00, Dale Bradly said:

Very pleased to report the first two flights of the rebuilt TN Spitfire took place today.  (ironically, now it is the Dark Nights at this end of the world!)

Flew absolutely brilliantly, hauled around with authority by the .28 in it. Retracts worked flawlessly, and ground handling also very good, so i must have got something right there. 

The colour scheme worked well, as i had hoped it pretty much looked black at any distance, and supposedly black aircraft are easy to see (well during daylight anyway). The white stripes also helped too though. Certainly no problems. 

Definitely has presence in the sky, and certainly has the look when banked over in silhouette.

Can use up a surprising amount of sky, big flowing loops and rolls, Derry turns etc showed it off well. Of course i hooned around at full throttle the whole time ?

Looking forward to flying it again soon, special thanks to the originator of this thread for the motivation, and thanks Tony Nijhuis for the excellent design. 

[GrumpyGnome]

Sadly, my SFM SE5 (my original entry) is in pieces again.  The lead necessary to balance it decided to become detached and relocate itself into the tail.... with expected results!

 

Now we're in flying weather, the pile of pieces (and holes where the tiny pieces are missing) will languish in the pigeon coop (no Pigeons present) until the dark nights return.

 

GG

[GrumpyGnome]

Hmmmm, manged to double post. Edited to this message!

 

GG

Edited June 6, 2021 by GrumpyGnome

[Nick Cripps]

I finally managed to get to a waterplane meeting today to fly my rebuilt Seamaster.

Thanks to MattyB for inspiring me to get it repaired.