Looks like I'm going to build a bitsa. Anybody else got one?

[David Davis]

Since the age of eleven, I turned seventy-four last week, I have always admired Chris Olsen's Uproar probably for it's boxy functional lines. For those unfamiliar with the model it won the British Aerobatic championship in 1959 and was placed second in the European Championships the same year, and I started a "repair log" in January 2015 here: https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show...erobatic-Model

The pictures were all taken in England before I retired to France in the summer of 2015. I only flew the model once when in France and that was not successful. I range-checked it, took off and flew downwind, then the model appeared to lose signal and go out of control. It crashed to the ground and broke its port wing. I'll admit that most crashes are caused by pilot error and I will hold my hands up and say that it was my fault when it obviously was but I don't think it was in this case. I have had to send my Spektrum DX9 back to the agents for repair twice over the last seven years, something which I never had to do when I used Futaba or Sanwa equipment. That said, my DX6i has proved to be reliable and other Spektrum users in my club have not experienced similar problems.

Whether on account of pilot error or equipment failure the port wing was in two pieces. For the past six or seven years the Uproar has literally been gathering dust in my cellar workshop and if I wanted to see the model in the air again I was left with four choices:

1. To repair the existing wing.
2. To build a new port wing and join it to the starboard wing.
3. To build a completely new wing.
4. Well, we'll come to that in a minute .

Having inspected the damage yesterday morning, I rejected Options 1 & 2 because the wing had already been repaired several times and I could not work up the enthusiam to build a new wing so Option 3 was out too. However, years ago I was in Whitchurch Models in Shropshire and I bought a nearly complete wing which fitted the Uproar's wing-seat perfectly. I paid £5 for it. It has spent seven years in the garage hence all the cobwebs! I fetched it out this morning and decided to photograph everything before I even started to clean the model: warts and all as it were. The wing is three inches shorter that a genuine Uproar wing but it will serve. I have retained several strip ailerons from long departed and unlamented ARTF trainers. I will press them into service. I can hear howls of protest from the fundamentalists but at least I'll get a model in the air fairly quickly. Besides, Chris Olsen updated his Uproar in the Nineties and the new version featured strip ailerons!

There is a small but keen element in my club who like float planes. I have bought a set of ready-made VQ floats suitable for a 40-60 size model and intend to fit them to the Uproar. I already have a mounting point in the fuselage for the rear struts of the floats.

I am left with problem of choosing an engine for it. The Uproar was originally powered by an unsilenced ETA 29 and has a long nose. Compared to a modern engine the ETA was very light. I have a variety of two stoke engines from 32s to 61s which i could use but due to the long nose I would have to add lead to the tail if I fitted a bigger engine, something which I am reluctant to do.

Alternatively I have a powerful electric motor currently doing nothing, a Protronic DM2830 to be precise. The aluminium hatch could give easy access to the Lipo.

The views of the cognoscenti are, as always, keenly sought.

 

P.S. The first picture features the Uproar in its first manifestation with my much younger self!

 

Edited March 18, 2022 by David Davis

[Zflyer]

I get it now. Crashing is actually preparing parts for a bitsa.

 

 

[Graham Davies 3]

Hi DD,

I loves me a salvage project!

It looks to me like it's decided itself; the wing looks a decent fit, and there's nothing wrong with strip ailerons.

Knowing your love of burning methanol, if it were me I'd simply cut a bit off the nose, refit a bulkhead and slap a motor on. Whilst most of my models are now electric, it can be a right faff to retrofit, and balance problems may still plague you. By cutting the nose down, you can tailor the length to the chosen motor, and keep all the feel of the original.

 

Good luck

Graham

[Barryorbik]

This is a picture of a trainer that my mate Barrie Gilbert (on the left in the photo) designed and made for me to prctice my fixed wing on.  It had its very successful maiden last Tuesday.  The project started as a wing from some long lost/forgotten model that had been languishing in Barries loft for years.  Then I gave him a foam FMS Cessna 182 cowl which he designed the fuselage to fit.  Wing area/stabilizer and tail area and moment dimensions were taken from a Wilga 2000 foamie that I have.  It uses a 3S 2000mAh pack (because I have lots of them from my 450 helicopter fleet) and a 25A Align helicopter ESC and an unknow brand of outrunner motor of approximately 3kV, driving an 8 x 4 electric prop.   It is not quick to take off, but it does get a move on once airborne and handled the breezy conditions very well on Tuesday.

 

Have fun.

[Graham Davies 3]

I love this. Let's have a 'bitsa-off'!

 

[J D 8]

Pictured is my long serving "bitsa" FunGus. Wing and fin/rudder from a OD trainer, horizontal tail from KK marquise control line model. Fuselage is a Peter Miller " Peanuts " design pulled along by old OS max15.

[David Davis]

1 hour ago, Graham Davies 3 said:

Hi DD,

I loves me a salvage project!

It looks to me like it's decided itself; the wing looks a decent fit, and there's nothing wrong with strip ailerons.

Knowing your love of burning methanol, if it were me I'd simply cut a bit off the nose, refit a bulkhead and slap a motor on. Whilst most of my models are now electric, it can be a right faff to retrofit, and balance problems may still plague you. By cutting the nose down, you can tailor the length to the chosen motor, and keep all the feel of the original.

 

Good luck

Graham

 

Actually I'm drawn more towards electric power for the float plane for environmental reasons; methanol and nitro are highly poisonous. We'll see.

[Andy Gates]

DD,

 

Looks like you want to run electric so I would gather the parts, hold the wing to the plane with a series of elastic bands or tape.

Then balance the plane where you expect the CoG to be and trial where parts need to be to get balance.

That will give you an indication of what mods are needed and if it worth doing.

 

I will be watching.