OK guys, here we go, slowly, deathly slowly, snore 

Lots of wood to cut out, lots of room to do stuff like cockpit, Vailly has detailed instructions on scale hinging, so I think (hope) it'll be fun....

Let the ragging begin 

Let me be the First, to Congratulate (Rag) you on this fine choice of kit...(where's the pics?)
The 2 pages of Kit specs, are impressive... certainly takes me back to the old Technical Drawing workshop at Cosford, where everything was hand drawn then Blue copied..

Very cool Sandy,

Looking forward to seeing it come together...

Brian

30 to 39 oz/sq ft of wing loading.  It should turn out just fine.   

Post lots of pictures 

Sierra retracts for this thing are $550.00  . Right some nice thingys, and Robart don't list a compatible set.......

I suppose fixed gear would look poopy..

Sorry Finger's you're right, you need to but the sierra's, because they have the right amount of "twist" in them to drop in the stock locations and be lined up correctly when in the up and down positions.

If you ask real nice I'll let you look at mine, maybe you could fabricate/ modify a set of robart or others to work

Now how do I make mine sound like that ??????

Done and done !

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0KtL2hotCY

or : http://www.conleyprecision.com/

Glen, are you going to get 1?

yuppper - had my cheque book out and realized the 3 blade was 30x16....... bit too big for the Valley Hurri...

probly  be some torque roll as well 

well, you don't do much for me, but

all right then - to business......

plans call for the firewall being 3/4 plywood  .... I asked Vaillencourt about that since the design is from the '80's back when big gassers were kinda rough.. He said that the firewall could be a lot lighter since todays 50's were a lot smoother than the Quadra 50 the plan is designed for, but the plane needs a lot of nose weight anyway..

So, might as well use thick wood which helps absorb what vibration there is... better than couple pounds of lead and stuff..

I rough cut 2 firewalls, then using the engine mount template I screwed them together and used my belt sander to smooth the profile....

Now I'm cutting 1/8" x 1/4" notches (only 52 in the firewall  ) - likely be a while 

Ha! don't say I didn't warn you .

hmmmmmm, Sierra retracts have arrived - the 15 deg rotate is a cam built onto the top of the strut, with a groove cut into the inside of the "box". The cam runs in the groove and turns 15 deg as the gear closes.... super, and looks pretty strong (which it will have to be, I Know, I know  )

only one former to go 

had to fit this in a break

all right boys and girls....finally, something to post.  (try to keep the applause down) Finished the formers last night, so here is a fuselage short kit.
You can see the formers are notched to fit over the crutch, which will be the 2 long sticks laying on the bottom of the pic. They are 56" long and will sit on a jig with uprights at each former. With everything centered, and clamped, hopefully things will go together moderately straight. "Things going together" interprets to mean 1/8 x 1/2 balsa strips will be laid in the notches, front to back.
The 2 panels are wing saddles and are glued to the crutches, running from the firewall to former 8, also fitting in notches in the formers.
Each former slot took at least 3 cuts - one down the center, one down either side, then slide side to clear the slot...since there are something like 356 slots (count 'em Glen to check for sure) , that's 356 x .....carry the 7, divide by 2.4 - something over 1000 cuts. 
In all this I only broke 1 saw blade  .
The crutch sticks started as a 56" long piece of 1x3 kiln dried pine. Would have been easier if I had a table saw, but eventually wound up with a bunch of 1/4 x 1/2 pine sticks, quite a few dull #11 Xacto blades and a lot of tooth picks.

So material consumption so far is 7 sheets of 1x4 lite ply (1/8); chunk of 3/4 ply, chunk of 3/8 ply, and chunk of 1/2 ply. Of course I made a copy of all this stuff, so I do have a second fuse kit, set aside for future use. And by the way, these results are called a short kit, I guess because we're short the rest of the wood to actually make a fuselage.

Resulting from these efforts, I also have leftover 2'x2' pieces of 3/4 ply, 3/8 ply, 1/2 ply, and a massive pile of scrap 1/8 ply......I will sell that at a very good price.......let's call it a pigmy kit, or dwarf kit...

Danster wrote on Mar 6^th, 2013 at 7:25pm:



I agree Dan. Pleasant to be working with saw dust in the nose and eyes again, while trying to keep the fingers out of the saw blade..

Now, before I can build, I have to build the jig..

Yak Man wrote on Mar 7^th, 2013 at 6:51am:



second kit is already there (partially).....   since it's been made known that Glennie already has 2 of these beasts, my lawyer is in the process of changing my willie.....

Glen wrote on Mar 7^th, 2013 at 9:38pm:






yeh, but ask Goering

argus wrote on Mar 13^th, 2013 at 3:43pm:



hey!!  Juan came right up my street thank you very much 

mmmmmm, I usually try to give high tide a 100 ft leeway, that's vertical not horizontal  can't trust that damn ocean thingy..

Looking real good Sandy.

finally, something glued....put the wing saddles on the crutches - as you can maybe see the saddles is notched, so hopefully the formers 3 - 8 will be forced into alignment by the saddles, making the rest of the fuse straight.....oh I do have silly dreams...

Yak Man wrote on Apr 6^th, 2013 at 6:38am:



yupper, just sit it on a shelf and pile the MAN's into it - should hold about 2 years worth..

1.130976 x^-5.411y^10 over x0.238086^-5.411(-3x^-3y^-1)^-2 =5.0341

Looks right to me, but the real math question is  how much strength are you giving up with just balsa stringers?  Maybe a combination of them will be the ticket. 

Just a though

Sandy, thought about that one myself a while back. Stuck with spruce since it is structural, not just scale dressing.
Anybody want to do the math on what the torsional loading would be on the tail at say 80 mph with full elevator deflection ?

How do you edit a post on this forum?  It seems to me that at one time there was an 'edit' button?

Excellent!  That worked like a treat.

My IP does change every now and then...just to keep me off balance I think.

Thanks, Bruce.

Hey Fingers, check this out, guess my email's finally worked.

http://www.dbalsa.com/cockpits/v-hurricane.htm

Well, finally the neighbour with the table saw got my stringers cut - from clear pine 

Now the good news; up above some where I noted that the spruce stringer weighed 9.5 gms each on the pivot scale I set up. Well the pine only weights 7gm on the same 46 inch pivot 

So all 54 pine stringers will weigh .83119 lb at the tail, a savings of .306 lbs at the tail. AND, with my nose to tail ratio of 5.411,  an additional 1.655 lb to balance at the nose...total weight savings of 1.961 lb. 

So without doing anything I've built almost 2 lb "off" the final weight 

Gotta love it when something seems to work out...

Well, starting the stringers  all 54 of 'em! After the top center one is in, everything else is pairs.... don't know if it's visible on the front view, but there is a line up mark on the table under the firewall, and I'm also lined up with a seam on the wall behind (actually the picture is slightly to one side)... so place a pair of stringers on...check the alignment, glue the front 2 formers, check the alignment, glue 2 more...and etc...

In front of the sloping "head rest former" on top there should be a solid sheet, but I'm going to put in a cockpit  so I'm doubling up the stringers along there to hopefully reinforce things enough.

over the years lots of screams have been heard in Viet Nam... no one cared 

Brian, I've spent a lot  of time trying to figure out how to build this thing lighter but no joy    Massive firewall, but I need the weight to balance the tail  Various versions have been reported from 22 pounds to 35 pounds 

I hope to hit the 25 lb mark - might be achievable because some of the '80s building techniques are "heavy", but there seem to be practical limits to how much can be taken off...

Fingers wrote on Aug 28^th, 2013 at 10:30am:



I was trying to indicate what a great job you are doing.

waverider wrote on Aug 29^th, 2013 at 9:43pm:



wasn't flaming you Brian... if I could combine precision and quality, AND lighten the 4kn thing up, I'D be selling plans for it.... frustrating to have this great looking planform, and know that weight thingy is always there....

and every once in a while I like to pop the cowl on and dream a bit..

something else I'm doing a bit different...plans call for the stringers to be 1/8 x 1/4, which makes them flush with the edges of the formers - then once the sheeting is on the front and under the tail tack a 1/8 square balsa strip on each stringer make them flush with the new sheeting to give that "stringer" look..what I'm doing, is making the stringers 1/8 x 3/8. I put them on, mark where the sheeting will end, then I'm stripping each stringer back to the 1/4..
they fit flush up front, but present as stringers along the back sides...    That's about as clear as mud isn't it...

If you look closely, you can see the notched stringers starting at former 7, the second of the half formers..in pic 1, right above the battery pack sitting on the table..

doubt if that pack would even spin the prop - probably something like a 22x10 3 blade is scale...that I'll get figured in about 2 years...

that would be sweet, and if I wasn't having a colon thingy tomorrow  I'd thnk about going....

that's what you get when you type on a tablet with auto correct. 

I know it's wayyyy early  , but looking for source of 1/5 scale WWII British pilot figure......with that I can monkey around with a cockpit while I carve stringers....

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/5-29-World-war-ii-british-pilots-pilot-caltek-12-...

If you weren't stoned all the time you could probably find this on your own 

P.S. Thunderbolt rc has a carbon fibre sale today.

am stoned, but took a good look at this pilot - geeez there's even 6 bullets for his Webley....but can't find a size anywhere.....need about 13 or 14 inch pilot for scale....


and the Thunderbolt sale is for carbon fiber sheet and rods and stuff - I was looking for cloth..

Fingers wrote on Dec 3^rd, 2013 at 12:14pm:


try hobbyking
i bought some about a year ago
they could stuff an envelope with it
should be a cheap ship

Glen wrote on Dec 3^rd, 2013 at 9:21pm:



Looked at BBI.  They have a nice Desert campaign pilot, but I guess I'm too old for that web site...couldn't get past the expanded photo, with the "decommissioned" button...

And thank you Cool Man..... done