Farmhand 90

[Kevin Fairgrieve]

Sound a s a pound, as they say.

 

And once I got cracking it goes together very quickly.

 

This first picture shows how much I had to relieve the crutch at the rear. A similar amount was removed from the front by F1 as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The rest went together easily enough. So thats the front half done. Now onto the back half.

 

 

[Kevin Fairgrieve]

Rear fuselage formers added.

As this has gone better than expected I now find myself needing to visit SLEC to get the rest of the wood.

That will not be untill next Tuesday, so very little progress between then and now.

 

[Kevin Fairgrieve]

Booring bits.

Aliphatic drying!!!!

That's just the bottom half. Top still to do.

You may notice that the engine box and tank bay is not yet installed. That is because I am fuel proofing it before it goes in as it will be awkward to do in situ.

[Stephen Grigg]

Really beginning to see some progress now Kevin

[Kevin Fairgrieve]

Sorry no progress today.

Spent the day painting the Flair Pupeteer.

[Kevin Fairgrieve]

Posted by Kevin Fairgrieve on 24/08/2010 20:05:27:

Sorry no progress today.

Spent the day painting the Flair Pupeteer.

 

 

So it took me a little longer than anticipated.

 

Anyway the Pupeteer is now finished and I hope to maiden her this coming Thursday. Hopefully all will go well as I am intending to take her to a Fly In a th the Osbournby club in Lincolnshire the following Sunday. The only things missing are the pilot and a gun.

 

So now the workbench is complety clear and the Farmhand build can crack on.

 

[Mikeadqual]

Hi Kevin

 

Found your thread on the Farmhand 90.  Had the kit and DVD for a few days and thus just started after watching the Steve Holland video.  Very upset, Traplet obviously selected the kit Steve built with great care!  Mine is like yours needs TLC to urge the pieces out of the sheet followed by sanding.  Fus sides with a gap and cyano didnt work and, you guessed, crutch about 3mm out over the length.  I am now checking everything before I start. Thus at least 3 hours gone already.

Laser cutting should be spot but obviously no QC exists on the Traplet the service. I hope they don't move into real plane construction as on an airliner you could win or loose a row of seats if it flew at all!

Thanks.

Incidently, having worked with laser cutting of various materials (not wood) I would never apply, paint, polymers, or even weld metal without some form of pretreatment, i.e. sanding in this case.  Laser temperatures play hell with molecules.

Mike

 

[Kevin Fairgrieve]

Hi Mike.

 

Yes the kit has caused me and a few others on another RC forum some headaches.

 

Steve has even contributed to the other thread and has had two example kits sent to him by Traplet. What appeared to be the problem was moisture. When he left the kits in a shed as opposed to a heated workshop, the kit fit was not quite as good a fit.

 

Please do check the kit thooroughly, but as I have found once the little niggles are sorted the kit goes together very quickly.

 

As yet no further progress has been made on mine as I still need to get to SLEC for the wood.

 

All the pictures from my build can be found here.

 

If you need any help just holler.

Edited By Kevin Fairgrieve on 03/10/2010 18:13:13

Edited By Steve Hargreaves - Moderator on 26/03/2012 16:34:34

[Kevin Fairgrieve]

Right then. Back to it today.

 

Took a trip out to SLEC to get some wood and other bits and pieces.

 

Edited By Kevin Fairgrieve on 13/10/2010 15:31:34

[Kevin Fairgrieve]

Progress today so far.

 

Undercarriage plate epoxied into place.

Edited By Kevin Fairgrieve on 13/10/2010 15:30:56

[Kevin Fairgrieve]

Tail support plate glued into place.

 

 

 

[Kevin Fairgrieve]

I have also made a start on the tail end. 2 sheets joined together before adding the tail commponents.

[Kevin Fairgrieve]

Tail section before top sheeting added.

 

[Kevin Fairgrieve]

Sorry for the long delay between posts, but an 8x6 shed at this time of year is a jolly cold place. Off work next week so hopefully I can comendeer the kithen. (please do not hold your breath)!!!

 

Anyway the tail feathers have been constructed and sheeted.

 

Once again there is a discrepency in the cutting of the parts. I hope the pictures will make it clear. This one is not such a big issue as I will just sand all the edges flush.

 

 

Poor laser cutting "again"

 

Elevator still to have the top sheeting applied.

Rudder

 

Tail end.

 

 

Size comparrison. Thats a Mini Jazz. The tail of the Farmhand 90 is only 2" smaller.

Edited By David Ashby - RCME Administrator on 15/11/2010 20:32:43

[Kevin Fairgrieve]

MY apologies David. But it really is VERY VERY cold in there..

 

Shan`t use that word again....

[Stephen Grigg]

Im keeping up Kevin.you seem to have enough wood there!!

[Kevin Fairgrieve]

Spent a litlle time in the shed yesterday prepairing for the wing build.

 

Started off by removing all the parts from the ply sheets.

 

Parts

Wing ribs.

Once the ribs were removed from the sheet I added the pre cut

 ligtness!!!!

And last but not least the sheer webbing was cut out.

And they look like this!!

Once again the accuratly laser cut kit has not proven to be quite so.

Looking forward to the wing build. (Not).

 

At least they are all the same width so the rib spacing shoud be correct.

 

 

 

 

Edited By Kevin Fairgrieve on 19/11/2010 17:32:07

[Mikeadqual]

Hi Kevin

 

My wing ribs and spacers didn't look as bad as yours and the wing goes together quite well.  I sanded everything down a touch to line them up and was relatively pleased with the result.  Same with the tail feathers.

 

I will attempt some photos but it is not my strong point.  I have modified the wing as I don't like wings that finish with aileron so near the tip.  The modification is easily removable but I thought I would start with something that I like the look of, so I cut an extra rib.  Again, I will attempt a photo later this week.

 

I have now got to the stage of attempting to guestimate the weight, C of G, and installation of the host of electronic bits and I have decided to mover the elevator and rudder servos a bit futher forward.  It is taking me for ever to work everything out including fitting some light from 'Braincube'.

 

I can see my next major decision will be what colour scheme.

 

Mike Cowley 

[Mikeadqual]

Hi Kevin and anyone building a Farmhand 90

 

Forgot to include from previous posting that I assumed that the 'Additional Materials Required' was wrong in that the 'Wing, flap and aileron LE' was transposed with that of the Farmhand 60.

 

Mike

[DALE BOSTON]

So Kevin, what happened in the last year? I have just completed a Farmhand 90 so was very interested in your comments as your build progressed in 2010. I had the same issues with Traplet quality control that you did.

 

What I would really like to know is how the rest of your build went and whether the completed model has been in the air yet.

 

Mine has but the initial test flight was less than inspirational.

 

I would particularly like to hear what weight your model came out at.

 

Indeed any and all more news would be most welcome.

 

Dale

[Kevin Fairgrieve]

Dale.

 

Sorry to say progress has completly stoped

 

The fuselage is complete, I have all the wood for the wing skins.

 

What I am missing is time.

 

 

I have in the meantime completed the refurb of a 1/4 scale Fokker DVIII, and done lots of flying.

 

The fuselage sits on top of the bedroom wardrobe, and keeps looking at me as if ro say finish me.

 

Who knows, after my current project, a Chorus Gull is completed....

One very embarresed Kev

[Kevin Fairgrieve]

So then.

Its been a while, but the Chorus Gull is at the covering stage.

So what was next on the list? The Farmhand.

Used lots of the wood I bought for this on other projects so need to visit SLEC again.

I hope really to finish it this time.

Kev

[Kevin Fairgrieve]

The progress to date had been the main construction of the fuselage.

Today I added the rear top and side sheeting.

Also made up the servo box for the rudder which is let into the top rear decking. You can just see in the bottom picture the location.

Kev

[Kevin Fairgrieve]

Should have gone flying today, but the building bug was firmly rooted and so I did some more.

Fitted the cowl retention devise!

Cut the rear end out for fin and tail, along with the servo bay.

Looks like this now.

Trial fitted some undercrakers.

Not sure about just using self tappers on the undercart as prescribed by Steve.

Kev

[DALE BOSTON]

Kev,

Good to see you building again.

I can strongly endorse the use of self tapping screws to secure the undercart so long as they are a decent size. I used five 3/4 inch No 10 screws. This turned out to be quite adequate, even for some very poor landings.

For what could be described as my absolute worst landing (when the plane spun in vertically from 100 ft!), the undercart ripped off leaving the centre box that ties together the fuse, the wings, the engine and the undercart essentially intact. A strong connection here would have taken out part of the fuselage making the repair much more difficult.

I don't have too many good things to say about the kit, or the DVD, but the structural design of that front box, the way it ties together all the major components, is quite brilliant. The disaster I mentioned above turned out to be repairable because the engine box collapsed within the fuselage structure absorbing most of the energy of the crash without much random damage. The repair work was to retract the engine and the engine box about one inch to it's original position and to rebuild former F1 in situ. And to tidy things up a bit, make a new cowling, and reattach the undercart.

A very simple repair compared to the write off I assumed after watching the crash. Too bad I neglected to take any photographs before and after the repair.

This reminds me of the most serious criticism I have of this whole project which is the lack of a full scale drawing of the plane. What were they thinking when they omitted that from the kit? There were so many times during construction, and during the repair, when Steve's ears must have been burning. I hope he isn't offended by bad language!

Dale