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The Annual Dark Nights Fix-up.


MattyB
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Happy new year fellow Wombles...

OK, one done!

Pitts-e. 36" from around 1994. Flew it quite a bit back in the day, but it was never great. Now converted to electric, a bit of weight trimmed, and a nice new cover job. Just got the servos and esc to fit and maybe some slightly larger wheels to better suit our strip.

Weight so far is 2lb 9Oz, so should be below 3lb. A bit heavy by today's standards, but will have a loading of 16 Oz/ sq ft so should be fine.

Just got to avoid breaking it before 1st April!

Graham

pitts-e 02.jpg

pitts-e 01.jpg

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Love the Pitts Graham, always been a favorite and on my list of must do another some time.

Back to the Kyosho Spit 90, getting the fuz back together has certainly been a challenge, so much was shattered that almost all the front end needed replacing in the end so lots of measuring and templates have been required but have managed to get the fuz back together

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I have managed to use the engine mount box but getting the position correct has been an extensive measuring job and no doubt some minor adjustment of alignment and thrust lines might be necessary however the box is now mounted and the structure all reinforced.

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The fuselage will be glass cloth finish now for added strength but i need to work out the wing position, check incidence and then make new wing fairings as the originals were a real weak point in the original models looks as were way to small.

I have taken a quick look at the wing and whilst one half is reasonable intact and at least seams to be ok the other half is not so good and obviously took the brunt of the impact, shattering most of the ribs, leading edge, retract mount and underside sheeting so some thorough assessment is required first then plan a way forward.

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It was never going to be a quick and easy fix but pleased with the progress so far. Linds

 

Edited By Lindsay Todd on 01/01/2021 22:30:20

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Covered the Henschel tailplane and the added the elevators. Couldn't dig out the old two-a-side hinges, so installed three-a-side small Kavan-style hinges using Pacer Hinge glue, which has been a bit of a revelation for me, after a couple of uses. Much neater than 30 minute epoxy.

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F15 prop jet ready for test flight so as it was a nice day here yesterday I had a go. With 190 watts available lift off should not be a problem. An underarm launce was used holding the nose to keep the hand well away from the prop and have extra protection from the fins.

First launch and up it went into a loop and coming back at me despite feeding in down elevator, cut the power and a quick sidestep saved the day.

Second launch with lots of down trim much the same but bigger loop.

Third launch, This time the linkage was changed to make more down available and we were away picking up speed fast. I think I had adjusted to much as I was now having to hold in some up but control seemed good . However it was quickly getting small in the sky so made a steady curving turn back towards me. Problem now no time or help available to adjust trims. At this point I made a mistake and pulled back some power and as I once again was getting far away started another turn, probably to tight for the power and it flicked out.

Managed to level it out but was unsure as to which way it was going, pulling in some up showed it was heading away to the mountain behind so I chickened out an cut the power. It went in in the next field with a jolly goodsam_1781.jpg thump. At this point thedogdog who had been sitting beside me had had enough of this silliness and legged it for the house.

Going over to the crash site I would not have been bothered to find match sticks but it was just an un damaged lawn dart, saved by bed of grass and soft ground.

So what next? According to Alastair Sutherland's Aeronautics for modelers this type of aircraft often need a c.o.g. further forward than would be normal as a way to counter the low level of aerodynamic damping of an F15 with its low aspect ratio wing and short tail coupling. The full size was made this way to be a good dogfighter but of course has a computer to maintain stability. Other thoughts are to get a better thrust line through the centre of drag. put in a good dose of expo and get some better colours on it.

Any other ideas and comments welcome. John.

sam_1779.jpg

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thought i would just add a further Spit update just to keep my own motivation going if nothing else. The fuz has now been put to one side and time to get stuck into the wing.

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The first job was to carefully remove the leading edge sheeting to see how much damage there actually was.

I thought it might be bad but it was a bit of an ouch moment

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I like a challenge and i definately have one here. Time to assess and get some measurements done, there are lots of other splits and cracks, parts have clearly moved and the wing will need some major restoration and repair so its slowly as we go until the key elements are back together and i am confident about the key structural elements. All good fun. Linds

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  • 2 weeks later...

Just a bit of butchery on the Hs129 today, cutting out space for adding electric retracts through the epoxied in fixed landing gear mounts. In order to do that I had to remove the nacelle lowers, which was fairly straightforward.

Its a nice lightweight balsa skinned foam wing and the retracts need a couple of holed making in the lower skins to make wheel wells and sufficient clearance for the retract units. I think I'll line those cut off with some glasscloth and resin and am making new motor mounts as well. It's going to add some weight, but I really don;t want to have fixed gear.

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 I am able to say F15 has flown and returned to where it took off from.  As expected very fast, a six second plane, for that is as long as it can be flown in a straight line before it becomes a dot in the sky. However now set up correctly with g of g, thrust line and expo it is smooth, steady and can pull quite tight turns without flicking out.☺️SAM_1783.thumb.JPG.53ae6fa7668f96f714ccf72c47d8914f.JPG

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