Joining the Whirlwind Club

[Cliff Bastow]

There are a couple of Whirlwind blogs on here at the moment. It has always been one of my favourite aircraft and for Xmas my wife bought me this.

[Cliff Bastow]

First impressions on opening the kit today? Nicely cut and sheeted foam wings, Good mouldings for the cockpit, fuselage top and engine nacelles and the wood parts are nicely cut and seem accurate. On the down side the fuselage is slab sided and flat bottomed which is a real shame. Sport scale I would say.

I think it looks a straightforward build and will look good in the air.

[michael cawood]

Hi cliff,   I have this model kit bought from the balsa cabin several years ago at one of the nationals. keep threatening to build it, even bought the motors. Will look forward to a build log if you decide to do one.    mike

[Cliff Bastow]

Here is progress to date, Its not the easiest kit I have ever built. The Tailplane to fin mounting is quite fiddly to assemble and there is not much room to work. The elevator is worked by a snake which goes through quite a sharp bend which I did not like so I tried to fit a servo in the fin but there just was not enough room.  Also I was worried about tail weight as the model has quite a long moment arm, so in the end I went with the snake and it seems to work fine.

I found the plastic mouldings hard to get both sides aligned correctly on the nacelles but they worked out in the end with lots of trimming and sanding.

The top of the fuselage is a one piece moulding and I could not get it aligned around the fin so I ended up cutting it just in front of the fin and then cutting the rear portion in half lengthwise and fitting each around the fin separately.

Looking at it I think I should have thinned the fin halves more but it will have to do now!

Edited January 12, 2023 by Cliff Bastow

[Timo Starkloff]

Hello Cliff, good to see another Whirlwind! Tail heaviness is the main problem. Beneath the elevator position above prop stream. And the narrow wing, short nacelles, … But it’s an unusual and rewarding shape in the air!

 

There’s another Whirlwind club with nice people and interesting stories, maybe your interested?

https://www.whirlwindfp.org

 

Regards, Timo

Edited January 12, 2023 by Timo Starkloff

[Cliff Bastow]

Here is progress to date. Not the easiest kit I have ever built but looks good when built. 
I am really struggling to get the cg right with lots of nose weight in the removable nose cone. As you can see I have everything as far forwards as possible including the receiver hanging half off the battery tray. Just hoping that as it was designed for heavy brushed motors and Nicads it will cope with the weight!

Edited February 16, 2023 by Cliff Bastow

[Cliff Bastow]

Test flew this on Saturday,

Well it flew but it was very twitchy in pitch! I flew one very up and down circuit and managed to pull of a reasonable landing but did break one motor mounting.

I think the cg needs to come more forward and I will maybe reduce elevator rates also.

I am a bit concerned about adding any more nose weight as I do not want to make it too heavy but there is not much room inside to maove anything further forwards.

Hopefully as it was designed for heavy brushed motors and Nicads it will stand a bit more weight.

[GrumpyGnome]

I've always fancied one of those......

[Paul De Tourtoulon]

Here is ( was 🤢) a nice local one,,,

 

[Outrunner]

Very nice Whirlwind, just the angry sounding engines spoil it.

[GrumpyGnome]

Very nice.