Matador build by Big Bandit

[Big Bandit]

Hi Mike,

We don't have flying fields like that anymore, flipping eck you must have some memory if you can remember the month and year that you last crashed . I can't remember what I had for dinner yesterday.

Anyway onwards and upwards hopefully. The shed time is limited because I still feel grotty, but I've got a bit done today, I do feel a bit miffed in that my boss is always saying I need to take some of my annual leave, and the first time I have a few days off, I feel like I've been rode hard and put in the stable wet. I think I know the bod at work who gave me the lurgy and its one of my team, vengeance is sweet .

Back to the Matty, gussets in, apart from the first lower one in the pici, "told you I was feeling grotty"

Get the old mini tool out and start scalloping, nowt like scalloping gussets when your feeling a bit grim.

And don't forget to save the sanding dust, some say I'm obsessed, most would be right. When I need balsa coloured filler I'm sorted, a bit of thinned Ambroid with Acetone mixed with sanding dust and the jobs a goodun.

The next job is to give it legs. To form the undercart I tend to use a very high tech method, of Mole grips and a hammer . Mark out the wire bends off the plan to the centre of the bends with a permanent marker pen. Clamp the wire in the mole grips to the mark and bend by hand to the desired angle. Hold the wire still clamped in the Mole grips against a solid surface such as a garden or house wall and wrack the grips with the hammer. With a bit of practise, it's surprising how tight a bend can be formed. the only down side to this method is a sprained wrist and a large builders bill. It's far cheaper in the long term to invest in an engineers vice, and bolt that to a solid surface, clamp the wire to the mark (up to step 3) in the vice then whack it with the hammer . Job sorted.

Fit the throttle outer tube, cowling former and servo tray mountings, I've also added a cabin floor doubler of "Miralite" (1/64" ply

also added a wing seat doubler, just needs sanding.

All of the gussets scalloped, and the fuselage as strait as a die.

As for the electronics, I've chosen the metal geared New power 9g servo's, I've used a few in the past and never had a problem. These will be fitted onto a servo tray as is my normal practice, with the tray isolated on rubber grommets on the mounting rails.

I've also built a 4.8 V 700 M/ah Nims pack, and left the servo's cycling on the servo tester to check for capacity. Up to now it's looking good.

Edited By Big Bandit on 10/04/2012 21:16:27

Edited By Big Bandit on 10/04/2012 21:19:24

[Mike Etheridge 1]

Chris,

The whole of your modelling techniques seem to reach well beyond my standards with devices I have not heard of before.

As for model plane crashes to be fair I have had about three in the last 6 years, but I have managed to repair the models each time. As for remembering dates, well it was easy with the photograped model because it was the end of the school holiday.

Epsom Downs is still available as a flying site but now you have to join the flying club EDMAC at very little cost. In the past there was no charge but obviously some control is now necessary for safety reasons.

The car park is located some way from the flying area so transporting models and equipment is a bit labourious. As they exercise horses on the downs in the mornings, flying is restricted to the afternoons.

Unfortunately my work ran out last April having been self employed for the last 10 years. The last electrical design jobs I did were for a fire practice building at Manston Airport in in Kent, and for a helicopter hanger at Nether Wallop in Hampshire. A bit different from my usual schemes. It's strange retiring but unfortunately I did not have a choice and now of course I can concentrate on hobbys a bit more.

Mike

[Big Bandit]

Hi Mike,

The beauty of forums like this one is that methods and techniques can be shared very easily, and I've learned quite a lot from some of the other people on the forum and there are some great modellers on here. We can all learn from each other.

As for kit a lot of stuff that I use is just cheap readily available kit from the model or hardware shops, and some is out of my old tool bag from my gas fitting days like the Mole grips. Some of the other stuff is just home made like my balsa stripper, mini drill and mini sander.

It's a shame that you had to retire, but as you say it gives you more time to concentrate on hobbies. I've been fortunate to work in the public sector for most of my working life and don't really want to retire yet although I could, the team that I lead is one that I've built from scratch over the last nine years and I suppose I'm not ready to let go just yet. I am however semi retired so I have more time to do the things I like to do.

This week was supposed to be preparing roof trusses for the garage, but I need to be sanding them outside then giving them a coat of Cuprinol now the weathers put paid to that idea. Hence I've had time to work on the Matty.

Cheers,

Chris.

[Big Bandit]

Hi All,

Just managed a bit more today before the old ticker gave me a few problems so I had to stop and take a rest for it to slow down. I must admit that I'm completely fed up now of this bug I've got and the problems It's giving me. Any road up back to the Matty, As s my normal practice these days is to mount all of the servo's in a ply tray, and isolate this from the airframe with grommets and spacers.

And from the underside which fixes to the fixed servo rails. Note the spacers. The current small servo's have no real isolation from vibration, so it makes sence to me to mount the servo's as intended then isolate the mounting tray, I may need to sand a bit off the edges to stop any contact vibration through the airframe.

The next job is to fuel proof the engine bay and cabin interior / radio compartment. I use two pack for the first coat, and this is really old stuff (1.99 on the price label ?) .

Mask off any area's that will need glueing at a later stage, and paint the stuff on.

Not forgetting the radio bay, in my case using a diesel, it gets everywhere that's not sealed. It may look a bit rough at the moment, but a quick sanding and a second will see it sorted.

The tank mounted on the bulkhead with the side cheeks and the bottom sheeted cowl done. The excess to be cut off and sanded later

The servo tray isolated on rubber grommets, don't over tighten the mounting bolts.

The servo's ready to be connected up to the throttle and control surfaces.

And ready for the motor to be re-installed after trimming off the excess and a good sanding.

I'm off for a rest now to let the old ticker to catch up, back in a bit.

Cheers,

Chris.

[Big Bandit]

I'm back, sounds like some spooky horror movie from the 80's. Anyroadup I've knocked up the cowl and given the complete fuselage a coat of sanding sealer prior to covering in heavy weight rag tissue. weighed it, and 7.3 oz which ain't bad.

Including the cowl.

First problem . As for the rag tissue, the standard sheets are too flipping small

Plan B, Litespan, so it's away with the dope, and out with the Balsa Lock and Jenni brush. The Jenni brush is Danny Fenton's idea and works really well.

Give the airframe a coat of Balsa lock, I tend to do the whole airframe and not just the outer edges . I don't have one of these all singing all dancing digital sealing irons, in fact up to a couple of years ago I used a 20 year old travel iron.

It is important that the temperature is set properly, so one of these is worth a fiver.

Paint on the Balsa lock and leave to dry for about 20 minutes then iron on the litespan around the edges, then turn up the wick and shrink the covering sticking it to the uprights and cross members.

I've done the other side and bottom today, The upper side has been purposely left until the pushrods are in, so the next job is the tailplane elevator, fin and rudder.

Then the servo tray can be fitted and the pushrods made to the correct length.

Hopefully I can do a bit more tomorrow, but I'll see how I feel.

More later, cheers,

Chris.

Edited By Big Bandit on 14/04/2012 20:44:15

[Mike Etheridge 1]

Keep it up Chris,I imagine you will put the push rods or snake tubes in next and make provision for the flight battery and reciever?

Mike

[Big Bandit]

Hi Mike,

Not done much at all over the last week after getting over the lurgy, I did however get the PAW ran up in the garage to set up the throttle responce.

I'll be down the shed in a bit to get some more done, may be the tailplane.

Cheers,

Chris.

[Steve W-O]

Looking very good, the engine seems to run very well to.

[Mike Etheridge 1]

Chris,

As Steve suggests,a good engine performance including the 'throttling back' which is often criticised with diesels.

The only work I have done on the Matador is to replace the celluloid on the front of the cockpit. I used heavy duty stuff and had the usual wrestling match with it so its still not up to standard but looks better than before. Your clamps would have been useful.

I may fit the side windows prior to changing the motor for the brushless unit, however I am involved in a fly-fishing contest this week at Grafham Water so may need to sort the fly tackle instead.

Mike

[Big Bandit]

Thanks Steve,

I had run this one before and wasn't too happy with the throttle response, so I'd ran it earlier in the day, then filled the tank again. For the first start it refuses to run by flicking, so it's the electric starter which I hate doing on diesels, after that it runs fine. With the silence on it's hard to prime through the exhaust, another I brought a few days ago on Ebay is really easy to flick start so I may change the carb and silencer over.

Cheers,

Chris.

[Big Bandit]

Hi Mike,

I do hate doing glazing because I'm not very good at it and usually wind up adding some trim to cover up the edges. One method I did consider was to cut some balsa shapes to fit into the glazing cutouts then glue them to a piece of MDF or similar so that they fit into the cutouts from the inside. Then a set of windows can be formed by heating up the acetate then press them in situ or use the old pop bottle and heat gun method that I use for canopies.

A mate of mine uses small screws to hold the glazing on but he uses very thick acetate, next time I'm round his place I'll get some pici's of his Junior 60.

Anyroad up I did manage to do a bit this morning and sanded the tailplane and elevator.

Then covered both in litespan. The fin is also built now.

Just let it dry, then sand and cover. If I can get the tail assembly fitted I can then concentrate on the pushrods and fuel proofing the engine bay.

Cheers,

Chris.

[Mike Etheridge 1]

Chris,

On my Matador the tailplane is flat. I seem to remember years ago on our 'own design' models we used Clary Y wing ribs and 60% Clark Y on the tailplane. You could buy whole sheets of printed wing sections and you just needed to cut out the right sizes to form templates to make the wing and tailplane ribs. The sections NAC 6409 and 4309 also come to mind.

On my Matador the leading edge of the wing where it sits on the wing platform leaves a bit of a gap that needs sorting out.

Mike

Edited By Mike Etheridge 1 on 22/04/2012 15:09:26

[Big Bandit]

Hi Mike,

This one is fairly close to the original free flight version which appeals to me, and the control surfaces are small by modern standards, more like trim tabs so it will be more of a guided FF model. I've not altered any of the incidences and I've purposely kept it light.

One Matty I had as a teenager was covered in heavyweight tissue and flown with a Mill's P75 on a large prop. It could be made to fly lazy left hand circles under power and right hand circles on the glide and never more than 15 to 20 feet high in classic FF style. I'd like to emulate that again with the intention of using the radio to just keep it within the boundaries of the field.

I don't remember the printed sections for wing ribs, for OD's I had to plot the ribs from coordinates above and below a datum line then join up the dots with french curves. I still have all of my drawing kit somewhere apart from my old drafting machine, as it took up too much room.

Then when I got my first computer (Commodore 64) and a pen plotter, I wrote a program in basic to do it for me. Not very elegant, but it worked. These days I use Profili and import the DXF files to AutoCad and so incorporate them into my own drawings.

Cheers,

Chris.

[Steve Hargreaves - Moderator]

Looking good Chris......the mighty PAW seems to run very well too....with a very good response to the throttle....I noticed that you didn't let it idle for very long before opening up again though.....how well does it respond after a prolonged idle? This is usually the problem with small diesels.....they cool very rapidly & then either cut out or cough & smoke a lot before getting up to speed.

Might be adviseable to blip the throttle during your decents for landing or you might find there is "no-one at home" when you open the throttle for an overshoot.....

PS...I bet your garage smells good after that run.....

[Lee Damms]

Hi Chris, your covering technique is obviously a lot better than mine, this is the first time I've used litespan and I couldn't get the creases out. Not too bad on a flat surface but a nightmare round the wing tips. The cowl I covered in black seems ok and hopefully the fuselage will be easier, any pointers would be welcome. Regards Lee

 

Edited By Steve Hargreaves - Moderator on 23/04/2012 11:04:48

[Steve Hargreaves - Moderator]

Looks good to me Lee.....Matty not that far away from a maiden flight by the looks of things......

[Lee Damms]

Shouldn't be too long Steve, I'm just not very happy with the litespan I think Chris Bott made the right decision using nylon and depending how tough this is it may end up been recovered. I even tried opening the sheets up and leaving them 24hrs and trying to get the creases out before covering.

Lee

[Steve Hargreaves - Moderator]

Maybe you could iron the Litespan to get the creases out before you apply it.......

Then again...maybe not......

I think the trick is to get it very tight before sticking it down...as you say easier on flat surfaces than curved!!!

[Mike Etheridge 1]

So this Litespan stuff---is it just tissue that you would paste to the balsa structures as in the past?

In the distant past we used to soak the issue first prior to laying it on the balsa frames and this always got any creases out. Previously we used to fix the dry tissue to the balsa frames and then spray with water,however we found this less effective for removing creases.

I found with silk and nylon that there was no need to to water shrink it and it was essential to eliminate any dampness in the fabric prior to doping so that no white blotches occured. I would try to do all my doping on nylon on a very dry day and always have en electric fire on hand. The fire would help eliminate the white blotch problem caused by condensation during the dope drying process. The fire was also usfull to dry quickly the balsa cement I used to glue the nylon to the balsa frames prior to doping.

MJE

[Steve Hargreaves - Moderator]

Litespan

Very Light, thin synthetic fibre tissue. Has been factory “doped” with a totally fuelproof resin. Weight: 28-32 g.s.m.

FEATURES
Litespan is much stronger and more puncture resistant than normal doped tissue. It is unaffected by moisture or water. Uses a separate adhesive, Balsaloc.

It shrinks slightly under the application of heat but it is quite difficult to apply....especially around corners or compound curves......

Instructions......here

Edited By Steve Hargreaves - Moderator on 23/04/2012 15:16:14

[Mike Etheridge 1]

Having read the applying instructions it seems tricky to apply but must have advantages in appearance over Solarfilm, plus I presume it does not sag after application as Solarfilm often does.

I assume it is much lighter and cheaper than 'Oracover' which I have recently used on my Super 60? I was most impressed with Oracover and the technique the manufacturers prescibe for covering fuselages-----bottoms first followed by the sides and then the tops. I wonder if this could apply to Litespan?

MJE

[Steve Hargreaves - Moderator]

It looks a lot more like tissue than the plastic films....Solarfilm, Oracover whatever but needs a special heatsensitive adhesive applying to the airframe first. It is also very light so good for smaller models. Check out Solarfilm Lite too.....this is a very thin heat shrink type covering which is very easy to use & goes on very nicely......because it is thin the colour lacks a bit of depth if you understand me.....

Their Royal Highnesses Timothy Hooper & Daniel Wynne-Fenton, members of this Parish, are a dab hand with the old LiteSpan......see Tims Pix E Major & Dannys Mam'selle threads for an object lesson in covering with Litespan....

I think using Oracover on a Super 60 might qualify for a thrashing with a rolled up copy of the Keil Kraft Handbook by an assemblage of vintage aeromodellers Mike.....a Super 60 must only be covered with doped Nylon or Solartex at a pinch.....its the law....

[Mike Etheridge 1]

Well at least the Junior 60 is covered with nylon---its had two lots, the first lot rotted! I do use the Junior 60 wings on the Super 60 so its a hybrid in both shape and covering!

What's wrong with Oracover though,the Germans know what they are doing,they even use it on full size craft and it looks ever so posh. it was Avicraft that talked me into using it?

I may well have seen Solarfilm light if so its the stuff that reminds of a coloured D------x

Mje

[Lee Damms]

Hi Steve, Just had a look at Dannys thread on the Mamselle, I've got the same creases on the tailplane but I've not risked putting anymore heat on it. Think I'll do a test piece on some scrap frame work. Mike I don't think its much cheaper than solartex given the small sheets it comes in.

Regards

Lee

[Big Bandit]

Hi Steve,

The missus recons I don't respond well after a prolonged idle, and I definitely cough and splutter before I pick up a bit . I've set the idle very low, but it seems OK thus far. On the PAW that is.

I need to set up a better test stand, that ones at least 70's vintage, and I won one a few months ago on Ebay, but haven't set it up until I get the garage sorted properly.

I've been thinking about using a plastic waste hopper to collect the spent exhaust residue and direct it into a suitable (easy to empty) container. then I can rig up a servo and old servo tester to hold the throttle more effectively without getting the whole rig oiled up. Would be a more sophisticated motor test rig and make the results more repeatable and meaningful.

My daughter always say's (as she's emptying the expensive kit from the garage) how great it smells, (and here's me thinking it's me) especially after running the bike up followed by a couple of glows and diesels. Now the bikes gone it has to be the vicious and hairy 75cc Suffolk side port mower motor "thrilling" . It'd be a lot better if Castrol did a 10/40 agricultural version of Castrol R .

I think the true test will be when it's mounted inverted in the Matty which may help the starting as the piston will help in keeping the mixture moving around rather than it settling in the bottom of the crankcase. As I've said I have another PAW now which I can always swap the carb and silencer over and it's a good starter.

Cheers,

Chris.