Sopwith Day #2

Day Two of the Hangar 9 Sopwith Camel build. Lots done. Do, redo, redo again, then be done until redone again... At least that's what it seemed like. The control rod for the rudder did not like its tube, where it comes out of the fuse in the tail. It took a gnarly turn at the end that I had to cut out to reduce the rub. I also had to put a S turn in it. When they said the motor mount needed to be 5 inches from the firewall, what they meant was more like 4 inches or so. Had to push it back.... The collette for the prop adapter is short, so I won't be able to finish the prop until after I can find a 45mm one, hopefully Monday. Ran out of time, but all that is left is the prop, the top wing and the rigging. She is lookimg really good!

The Hitec HS 485hb servo was just a bit long for the tray, and there wasn't an elegant way to access the tray. I used a Dremel sander to push back the lip.

They fit snugly thereafter. 

The empennage, sans elevators and rudder.

Installing the elevator and the CA hinges.

Rudder and elevator done.

The control linkages. There is another elevator control horn on the other side.

Photo doesn't do the cowl justice. The red border looks awesome!

Didn't get out to fly today, hope to tomorrow. Will likely complete the wing and rigging tomorrow to. All that will be left is the prop adapter, then power testing. This model is so sweet I think it will be a while before I have the kahuna's to fly her.

Skyangel F-86 Sabre: Bad ESC

My mini F-86 Sabre by Skyangel which I ordered from Hobby King arrived today! Very exciting, very fast  shipping (1 week via EMS). It was so simple a build, and took only an hour. What took longer was the ESC was bad... more on that in the video at the end of this post.

This is a well designed, very scale looking model!

A large white box, with this label in the corner. Very well packed. The model had a couple areas that were bent, likely from when it was packed, but not badly damaged.

All the parts, not many!

All done! Used epoxy and foam safe CA. Installed an Orange receiver and satellite. I later added the Pirate flag, welcoming her to the Piratey Squadron.

Curiously the securing screws in the elevator linkages were missing. I replaced them. I had to turn the linkages to the outside (removed them, reinstalled on the outside) as they were impossible to screw in this way. In this pick you can see the flat black I rattle canned into the exhaust (it was white).

Here's a video of the ESC problem I ran into. I was bummed since it is buried in the model and I had epoxied the wing. At first I thought all was lost, but I remembered reading about removing the panel aft of the wing on the underside of the plane to get to the EDF unit, and lo and behold, the ESC was easily accessed.  I was hoping it was just the motor wires were loose, but isolation determined it to be the ESC itself. I first replaced it during testing with an ESC from one of my 450 helis that is down, but its a 40A ESC. Once I was sure it was the ESC, I took the ESC from the Powerline Hobbies / Green RC Super Cub that hasn't flow right since I got it. It too is a 20A ESC. This will keep me from working on the Cub until I get a new ESC. Hoping Hobby King will replace the ESC.

Hoping to maiden her tomorrow!

First Day at the Sopwith Factory

This morning I started the Hangar 9 Sopwith Camel build. This is a simple, straightforward build using many of the skills and techniques I have learned from previous builds. It has gone fairly smoothly, with a couple minor sidesteps hardly worth mentioning (me, not the kit).

The obligatory Box shot...

Unboxed, all but the cowl which I...

added a bright red band to.  I saw this in a You Tube vid of this plane and really liked it.

Despite trying to avoid this, there was some bleed. I cleaned it up the bleed using nail polish remover and Q-tips, and it looks simply amazing!

The wood shrouded metal cabane struts are quite scale! Finding the right one to go in the correct place took a little patience and some attention to detail. Why they couldn't just mark them I don't know.

Other builders noted that the gear straps all around were not drilled properly, so I was expecting this. I simply used a grinder to make the holes a touch bigger.

The motor mount is metal and sits off at an angle.

The Heads Up RC 4260-06 motor doesn't fit the motor mount, drilled for a Eflite Power 46. I thought I'd just drill holes that did fit, using the HURC motor's mount as a guide...

Marked out some nice spots...

And quickly found out that there was no way I was going to drill through the steel. But I can grind out the existing holes to fit, as they are pretty close. That worked great! Here's the motor mounted on the steel.

And put in place. The end of the motor mount needs to be 5 inches from the firewall, which required I use the end holes on the firewall mount and extending the sliding part of the mount all the way. Came out to almost 5 inches.

Side view.

I am using a Turnigy Trust 70A SBEC ESC, with a long EC5 extension and an EC5 series harness from Progressive RC.

The ESC was tightly wrapped in shiny shrink wrap ("I like shiny...). I cut open the ends around the radiator to allow more airflow and heat release, though its a switching BEC and way more amps than I should draw so should be cool.

Here's the motor and ESC in situ. I chose to extend the battery leads rather than the ESC-motor leads as I had battery leads which I soldered together, but lacked the ESC wire... I had to change the ESC connectors since they didn't match the motor connectors. Some salvaged female red battery plugs (the one's Hobbypartz and Nitroplanes use) matched the motor connectors fine, so I tranplanted them onto the ESC and shrink wrapped them. 

The manual suggests using a hobby knife and scissors to cut out the center and the spaces between the cylinders. I found the plastic very dense, hard and brittle, likely to shatter rather than cut. I decided to use a Dremel pointed diamond grinder and very easily cut the sections out. Looks great! Waiting for the red paint on the cowl to dry, so skipped installing the mock motor into the cowl and installing the cowl until tomorrow.

Put the fuse aside while I moved on to the wings.

I know this will need a lot of weight in the nose, so I installed the kits weight box. This thing is heavy!

I am using Hitec HS485hb servos all around.  Here I am building the aileron servo installations.

I wrapped up the build day with installation of the aileron control rods and the control horns. The control horns did not install as cleanly as they should have. The leading edge of the aileron did not have solid wood all the way through, but balsa on each side. Drilling the hole in one side did not guarantee it came out exactly straight on the other, which made mating it with the opposite side attachment challenging. Not as clean as I would like it to be... but not bad. 

Tomorrow afternoon I may fly, but I do hope to get back to this build as I think I can finish it up with a few more hours work. I have the cowl installation, the wings, tail assembly, and the guide wires to install to finish the model!  She is going to be beautiful!

Stearman flight ready

Almost. Spent the afternoon working her over, and it wasn't as easy as it should be. The cowl gave me agita, wouldn't fit quite right as things are slowly getting a bit crooked. Its on, but daddy's not happy. I think too it has too much down vector, so after a break I will remove the damn cowl and toss a couple washers in under the stand-offs. I also rebuilt the wing tabs, replaced the lower carbon fiber rod with some rod I bought from Hobby Lobby and cut to size, then reinstalled the wings. For all she's been through she doesn't look so bad!

Crazy people... My Pulse XT in flight!

What a bunch of whack jobs... But we're fun!

My Eflite Pulse XT 25e in flight. Best plane ever! Flying a Heads Up RC Power Up 32 behind an Emax 40A ESC and a 4S 3300 mAh LiPo spinning a 13 x 6.5 prop. Can't wait to see what happens with a 12 x 8!

Punched in the nose...

It was avoidable, but being a beginner I didn't react appropriately... The Stearman had one of my older batteries in it, a 3S 3000, and we'd been hauling butt for about 4 minutes. I had power, but it wasn't hot at full throttle anymore. I flew over low, started to pull up, and she started to stall about 30-40 feet up. She tipped hard and I pulled her out, she got to about 10 feet up and stalled again. I should have pushed the nose over while I had some power, but I don't know where my head was and she stalled from 10 feet, landing right on her nose in the tall weeds... Crunched the crunched cowl, punched in the firewall and fractured the battery box, cracked a couple wing tabs and cracked the dowel I was using as a wing spar. I'm already nearly done with the repairs.

Dag-nab-it...

Taco'd the pack. Good riddance. I think this is the same one that put her in the tree the other day...

Wanted simple, strong, with good airflow. Made two bars with popsicle sticks, supported behind with a larger piece of hardwood that is sandwiched between this bar and another popsicle stick behind. The H shape grips the sides of the battery box. CA'd in place, coated with epoxy.

That's a firewall and battery box! I think if she gets punched in the nose again, the motor will give before this motor mount! My plan is to stop dropping her on her nose. She will get the new fresh cowl and a new prop (the crashed one was chipped but not broken). Pics tomorrow when she is flight ready. 

I had planned on spending this time starting the Sopwith build, but wanted to knock this project out and get everyone back up to flying speed. 

C-47 and DC-3

My C-47 and Steve Burton's DC-3 at Bob Miller Field, October 16, 2011.