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I recently published a video on YouTube of my lightweight Depron HE162 doing a good job of wrecking itself. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gU7vrjDt8pg It is not so much the crash that was embarrassing but the reason why the power failed completely shortly after launch. Doh! In classic style it had been held in place by the shrink wrap! Despite its ridiculously slow flying speed the shock of the arrival did quite a bit of damage on what is also a ridiculously light structure. All three wing mounts bolts were dislodged and the nose from the middle of the cockpit forward had to be simply cut away. The new nose was built vertically. The top and bottom formers and 3 planks to start with. All very wobbly! Once the majority of the planking is complete it can be glued on. Note a small part of the orignal 2mm Depron skin has been reused. All back together. After quite a few 'iterations' (i.e. crashes!) of different EDF positions, prop and battery power it has flown modestly well, once, but so far I have no video of it doing it.? Now I have to wait for the right weather conditions, basically virtually no wind. It could take some time!

NATO?

One of our chaps turned up with a decent camera at the field one day last week, and took these for me while I flew around with my Multiplex 330SC and Pushy Cat. Then 3 of us got together with our Phase 3 EF-16s.

Very short vid of worm's eye view of flypast

Hi Guys, Thanks for your comments and support. I'm going ahead with touching up the scratches and pressing on. Though next time I'll use the plastic primer, I even saw it on the shelf when I bought the white primer. Oh well live and learn. Decals have been ordered and have been posted, not much imagination on my part, just followed the ones supplied with the airfix kit. My Flair Black Magic is just about ready for final assembly and covering. That's all for now Regards Robert

So a pleasant evening setting up the radio, and all is good. C of G is about right with 1500mAh 2S LiFe Rx pack balanced on the cowl so should be good. AUW ready to fly, minus fuel. 4.38kg or 9.66lbs Pretty pleased with that......means the model is eligible for light scale Cheers Danny

Lol. I take pictures before, just in case. And following the first rebuild! I get very nervous of flying even my kit-built hacks...far more so than any ARTF (sorry to pollute the thread!) Danny - you'll love the 4-stroke. Beware of being dragged to the dark side - I've flown my ic powered planes much much more than my electric ones this year. In fact, I have mothballed half a dozen electrics.......

That’s the attitude Danny, top man!

Thanks David, The model took time, but all that time was enjoyable. So it owes me nothing. Any flying I get is a bonus. I have lost models on maiden flights before and the only thing I would say is make sure you have plenty of good pics before you commit aviation, they may be all you are left with. I am sure you remember this ill-fated Nijhuis Spitty? Surprisingly I am not too troubled by this one, and am in fact quite looking forward to flying a four-stroke. Cheers Danny

Not flown this one for 4 years!

Rodeo complete. Back in time for tea and biscuits

I had a motor bullet connector (soldered by the manufacturer) fail, all went well until a low fast pass at WOT...and then the heat shrink melted! Lucky not to loose the model as it was a twin. The only odd thing was the prop would very occasionally kick back a bit at start up although I double checked and could find no issues. Sort of begs the question as to how far do you check things to be sure without causing more issues. Great job there and look forward to the video in due course

Danny, I regularly fly four stroke powered models as well as electric ones. I am always more nervous test flying a new electric model than one powered by a four stroke engine. You will be fine I'm sure. Look forward to seeing the photos.

In the days when I built Swizzle Sticki used Hitec small servos. I would not like to comment on using micro servos if you areplanning to use the full throws but I would expect the 2.5 Kg servos to be OK.I use that sort of servo on just about everything these days.

That's what I thought, about six or seven models ago. Of course if you already have a big enough vice, you just need a former to bend it round using a hammer. The former will need to be pretty solid though.

I used Corona servos because I had them from a crashed airframe. 4-Max recommends these 4M-100AMG-022 10g Micro 2.2Kg/2.5Kg pull Analog Metal Geared Metal Servo from £4.94 each from 4-Max for the S-9 Chaos which is bigger and equally aerobatic. I would think your 12g DMGs would be fine. Steve

Beautiful result and an excellent achievement?

Many thanks, i have plenty of old engine oil here ?

I envy people who build and finish to a high standard, the maiden would be the icing on the cake, do job right in the workshop and the flying of it's often stress free, enjoy Danny. ?

Have heated heavy gauge to bend it, don't quench using water, submerge in oil instead, slower cool, should be fine.

Thank goodness I have now finished with the red filament. As suggested I also started having feed problems after shutting down. I have learnt another lesson, that is not to preheat the extruder part, as I started to do as part of getting the plattern/table up to a consistent heat to aid print attachment. The reason being is that the PLA in the heater would be baked to form a blockage. This required the nozzle removing, run a small drill up the inside filament, sticking the nozzle loosely back into the heater, heating, quickly removing, then using a slightly bigger drill to bite (using a toolmakers pin vice) and twist out the plug. Then I used the clearing wire to clean the nozzle. I will be taking more care in the brand of filament I buy in future. At least my white filaments are branded. Anyway I have produced a number of bits for my granddaughters project. There are side frames, wheels and connecting rods. I think she has learnt somethings useful, to sketch out what yo want to make, stick some dimensions on, to go into your 3d modelling package (Fusion 360), copy file into your slicer (Ultimaker) then import file into the Elder and so on. Plus the relations ship of Pie (not meat) with circles as a constant as 4 for a square. To cut with scalpel away from fingers etc. There is a picture below. Oh, its cardboard. Perhaps more scarily, initially she had wanted to build the Big Boy another picture. I bought a kit for scaling purposes. I had intially wanted to produce a Coronation Scot, luv the colours and shape, then thought a bit curvey up front, then tried to get her to want a DRG 03, being slab sided, tried Bulleids Merchant Navy/County class. Suddenly I was informed it had to move. I then thought Bulleids Q class, dismissed as both ugly and did it really exist. It only became a DRG class 80 as a childhood memory, that was relatively simple and colourful (in its own way). I stupidly thought I could print all the driving linkages, until reality caught up with me.

I'd steer clear of heat treating it. Unless you're well versed in the dark arts of metallurgy you won't have a precisely controlled temperature of cooling process. Cold form it on a wire bender - K&S mighty wire bender will go up to 6.5mm (4SWG?).

Hi good spot thanks. I'll get the hang of the internet one day ? Cheers Mike PS Overlander have been very helpful too. First class service.

Unsurprisingly Danny, I am the comlete polar opposite to you, I never take pictures of my models until they have had their maiden flight! Taking the picture before the model has flown will surely bring bad luck! ?

That or a Hobbywing Flyfun. https://www.align-trex.co.uk/electronics/esc/hobbywing/hobbywing-flyfun-30a-mini-v5-speed-control-hw30202307.html

Personally I would go for one of these. 4-Max ESC

You know what Ron, until your question i had not realized, clearly I am a creature of habit but it should not cause any issues as the wing loading should be quite low and I do not envisage any serious tip stall issues short of dodgy piloting by yours truly but I do need to tweak the plan to show the same construction now I have done it. There are lots of claimed benefits for tip shape and profile but these are diminished by factors of scale so it is probably a case of visual appeal rather than aerodynamic performance on a model like this. Thanks for your input. Linds

First attempt at nylon & dope tonight & it all seems well so far (I’ve done tissue and dope but the method is different to what I did). Got some tips off a good friend which has massively helped. Tomorrow I’ll do the other sides & then wait for pinking tapes.

Steve, Mine is an original KeilKraft Mini-super equipped with tricycle undercarrage and its 3 channel only (no ailerons). Balance is behind the Boddington marked position but just before the upright behind the first side window. Here is an extract of the plan cg marked with the arrow. When I commented in an earlier post in 2020 during pandemic just after it was refurbished and electrified I said I needed about 30 grams of church roof but in the nose not the tail - this was a mistake as I'd originally chosen 2S lipo...and that was a bit wheezie and light hence the weight needed to make the marked ballance. Its now got a 3S lipo which made that redundant. For a 3 channel model it is quite spritely on 270 watts using a 10x5 or 10x6 prop. Alas mine is not very good at flying inverte.! Perhaps i need more "Down" than I have available but barrel rolls, loops stall turns and spiral dives (as opposed to spins cos it refuses to spin) are all fun. I flew it at Model days at Old Warden in May and was my plane in North Leeds MFC BMFA world record attempt. I get a good 10mins on a 3S 2200 mAh lipo using an overlander 2836/08 1120kv motor and 20 amp ESC. In my opinion it looks its best flying figures of eight low down and tightly banked plus of course low passes and/or touch and goes. Very relaxing to fly and really doesn't owe me much being nearly 40 years old! Enjoy flying yours it reminds me of those VW polo's from the 1990's that had multi colour paint ?.

Really nice finish, great job. I jsut hope after all that work the performance is satisfatory - the only one I ever saw slope was a brick, it was great off the sea in smooth, turbulence free air but rubbish at all the inland sites the owner tried. I hope you have a big hill! ?

Just a little bit of info for those who haven't flown theirs yet. C of G range is 85mm to 95mm from centre of leading edge. In the manual it's from the rear of F2, same location as leading edge. Mine is set to 90mm and is a dream to fly, nose heavy and she'll fall into a turn, tail heavy and it's a real handful VERY sensitive to elevator movement. You need to be very accurate in setting this up.

A work of art as usual Danny, it's nice to see an I,C, model with everything enclosed. Simon, in the past I have made scale models and spent hours on them, I never worried about putting them in the air as I had the pleasure of building them, I would not like the experience of spending a lot of money on a ready to fly and seeing it crash on the first flight.

Elevator tab and 1 coat sand & sealer done tonight. Cut out some lightening holes as well. Also trial fitted the linkage to the elevator and it all works well ? Looking forward to covering these in the coming days with nylon and dope. Waiting for pinking strips and other bits so should have near completed elevators by end of the week and maybe/ hopefully nearly done on the stab. IMG_3854.MOV

Time for another one. This is one of the smaller models and is a Kawasaki Hein. Wingspan 1390mm. It looks like a fairly complex build and I shall be making this for electric power (just to complicate things more !). The parts are cut and the building board is cleared. As with the others, this is a proof of concept build so I don't need to fly it. If anybody is interested in finishing it off, let me know.

My club (Maidstone), christened its new field on Thursday with a pilot briefing and noise testing, a little flying too. ?

Sorted the tailplane rigging, used the Reeves fork ends. cheers Danny