Ron Gray Posted January 15 Share Posted January 15 Yes this is my first attempt at this type of building 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PDB Posted January 15 Share Posted January 15 Great news, thank you. 👍 I'm a fan of Eclipsons designs and have found them so far of a high quality and well thought out. I've borrowed a lot of their design ideas for my own design. Looking forward to following this Ron as I am sure there will be plenty to be learnt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Gray Posted January 15 Author Share Posted January 15 Yes they are nicely thought out and well designed. As I said in my vid, the only problem I've had so far is with the downloaded parameters file which wasn't quite correct but that's now sorted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Gray Posted January 18 Author Share Posted January 18 Part 2 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Gray Posted January 20 Author Share Posted January 20 The motor was delivered today so it was time to look at the weight. Ready to fly with a 3s 1800mAh Li-Po it weighs 850g which isn't too bad and gives it a wing loading of just under 27.5 g/dm2. As I had a couple of the wing panels 'spare' because I reprinted them with a bottom layer I checked out how much weight would be added if I spray painted them. I primed, rubbed down then gloss acrylic topcoat rubbed back then coated again and this added about 1/6 to the weight. If I extrapolate that to the whole airframe I would add about 80g so I might not bother. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Robson Posted January 20 Share Posted January 20 A few stickers will help you see it against the clouds Ron🙂 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Gray Posted January 21 Author Share Posted January 21 I may just colour the tips to help visibility. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Gray Posted January 26 Author Share Posted January 26 Well I too the Fox out for its maiden flight yesterday but had far too much movement on all control surfaces so it was a bit of an over controlled flight. It didn't help having a dodgy ESC as well! Unfortunately but as anticipated, the structure didn't take too kindly to the landing and the fuselage split just behind one of the section joints, it's not a big problem and it's now stuck back together but I've taken the precaution of laminating some glass cloth bandage around all of the fuselage joints (vid to follow). I do think that it would benefit from a bit more lateral strengthening maybe including some carbon rod stringers. 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EvilC57 Posted January 27 Share Posted January 27 Unfortunately this is a familiar story to me. See my original post here 😐. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Gray Posted January 27 Author Share Posted January 27 I do remember your post now! I did a ‘bend test’ on the wings after I had printed them and was surprised at how strong they were due to the full span carbon tube spars. If they had incorporated similar, albeit smaller, carbon tubes in the fuselage as stringers or as an internal spine it would be a lot better. I’ll give them my feedback plus have a look to see if I can redesign the fuselage parts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EvilC57 Posted January 27 Share Posted January 27 (edited) It seems I never got around to including any photos of my strengthening mod using CF strips in my earlier ‘Structural Failure Warning’ post. So here’s one now (below the 3D CAD drawing proposal from the original thread): The red slice shows the approximate area of the previous structural failure. Grey shows the additional 5mm x 1mm CF strips. The real thing: I guess incorporating CF strips or any other internal reinforcement isn’t so easy to do in the rear part of a fuselage though, where you have no internal access once it’s assembled 🤔. Edited January 27 by EvilC57 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PDB Posted January 27 Share Posted January 27 12 hours ago, Ron Gray said: I do think that it would benefit from a bit more lateral strengthening maybe including some carbon rod stringers. Their Model A uses 2mm steel rod stringers in the rear of the fuselage https://www.eclipson-airplanes.com/modela but it didn't stop me from breaking it.🙄 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Stephenson Posted January 27 Share Posted January 27 44 minutes ago, Ron Gray said: If they had incorporated similar, albeit smaller, carbon tubes in the fuselage as stringers or as an internal spine it would be a lot better. The ones I've built do have this feature, it seems strange this one doesn't. Not only does it provide strength, it also makes for ease of location of the parts for gluing. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GBG Posted January 27 Share Posted January 27 My Fox was built for slope soaring only so weight gain wasn't a concern. The fuselage and wings are covered with 25g/m2 glass cloth applied with Deluxe Eze-Kote hopefully to increase it's damage resistance. I have been unable to fly it yet so can't comment if it has increased the damage resistance but in certainly feels more rigid.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Gray Posted January 27 Author Share Posted January 27 What’s your AUW GBG? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GBG Posted January 27 Share Posted January 27 Ron, the AUW ready to fly is 940g, this includes a 3S 2200 lipo which operates the radio via a BEC. George Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Gray Posted January 27 Author Share Posted January 27 Thanks George, mine is 850g rtf with 3s 1800 and, of course the motor, esc etc. Just wanted to get some idea of extra weight added by glassing the whole lot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Gray Posted January 30 Author Share Posted January 30 Repairs all done and I’ve glass clothed part of the undersides of the wings as I found another split. Have also added some paint so the AUW is now 890g. If I get another split I may well do what GBG has done and glass the whole model. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Walby Posted January 30 Share Posted January 30 Easier to spot with the mods, did it increase the AUW much? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Gray Posted January 30 Author Share Posted January 30 40g Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Gray Posted January 30 Author Share Posted January 30 The rebuild - part 3! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Gray Posted February 1 Author Share Posted February 1 The Redemption flight 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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