Martin's Tucano

[Concorde Speedbird]

Practice with the covering you have on a spare bit of wood, you should be ok. I was alright with just solarfilm first time, so I am sure that you will be fine too!

CS

[Tim C]

Wolston,

I think you will be fine with the GS covering, I have just covered a 60 inch Black Magic with the stuff and it goes on fine on both sheeted and open surfaces.

Its far better than Solarfilm, which I never really get on with, while its flexible and goes round curves well, once its stuck you cannot move it and the colour pulls away from the backing if your not careful.

The Chinese stuff is pretty resilient and easy to use, not far off oracover which I have used in Black before. The one aspect you have to watch is that the adhesive layer is white and not clear and you can get a white edge if you overshink, this can be removed by wiping with Isopropyl alcohol or even Acetone if your careful, try one of the nail varnish removing pads from her indoors!!

I gave up on Oracover years ago, its good, but the price is ludicrous!! A friend of of mine covered his DH88 is GS stuff and the finish is flawless Image no 7 in my gallery **LINK**

[WolstonFlyer]

Thanks for the help CS and Tim

I will get myself an iron and have a bit of a practice.

It is interesting to find that some films can be directly painted, do you think the black GS covering will be Ok to cover my little Tony Nijhuis spitfire and then paint it. I was hoping to cover both models from the same roll.

[Tim C]

Hmm ,not tried paint on this particular film, but depending on the paint you use cannot see why not. I painted my original Tucano over a film finish, it actually a clear Document laminating film and Dulux Matt tester pots from B&Q!!.

 

I would prep the surface by using a scotchbright scouring pad (nicked from the kitchen!) to matt up the surface first to provide a bond before painting and trial the paint you want to use first. Tamiya acrylics and Humbrol seem to stick to most surfaces well

Edited By Tim @ ModelMarkings.com on 29/12/2012 14:00:35

[Martin McIntosh]

Hi IanH,

The retract units are DSR-D ones from HobbyKing (DE) and were chosen for the length of the oleo legs which seem just about right. The noseleg was supplied with the castor back to front for some reason but this was easily reversed. There was a circlip missing but not too much of a problem. Whichever way you look at the noseleg mounting plate, one or other of the sets of coutersinks are the wrong way round but it does not really matter at that price. They work well on the bench and the rather larger set I have from the same source have functioned well for some time now.

Wiring , as you see below, could not be simpler. Just plug the three legged lead into the retract channel.

Hope this helps. The others in the range are suffixed A,B etc and have different leg configurations.

[Martin McIntosh]

PS

The complete weight is 6 1/2oz/180gm.

[Martin McIntosh]

WF,

Looks like from the above comments that you should be OK with the GS film. This is probably the same as I got from HobbyKing to cover the wing of my large Hurri. I thought it would be silver but was actually aluminium based and with care went on OK but the paint did not stick too well despite etching with Primol, which leads me to believe that it may well be polyester based. It was very good value.

[Martin McIntosh]

A bit more. The noseleg installation showing the steering set up.

 

Edited By Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator on 30/12/2012 22:36:20

[Martin McIntosh]

Yer tis-done.

Final weight ready to fly is 1438gm/3lb 2 3/4oz. Will test fly with a standard APC 10x5 which gives a draw of 425W on a nearly discharged 2200 3S TGY Nano 45-70C. Alternative props are 10x6 or 11x4 which draw about 50W more but since it becomes `lighter than air` at half stick on the 10x5 I am happy with this. The motor is a TGY prop drive 35/36 with a 60A esc.

Now just need a word with that weatherman------

I tried to upload a vid of the u/c but it did not appear. How do I do this please Mr moderator?

[Chris Bott - Moderator]

Martin to upload a video, assuming it's already on youtube, press the youtube button and carefully follow the instructions.

[WolstonFlyer]

That is a really nice looking plane Martin, I am sure it will fly very well.

I am just amazed that there is space for that nose wheel to fully retract.

[Martin McIntosh]

Chris, it is not on u-tube. Will try.

Thanks WF, it is a very tight squeeze but no worse than any other. 35 years since I fitted one like this.

[Martin McIntosh]

Its flown! A lull in the weather tempted me to the patch which now looks like the Somme after the rain plus Larry the lamb and friends, but despite the small wheels it got up and down uneventfully. Power seems about right and after a couple of clicks of trim here and there it was soon doing loops, outsides, cubans, slow and point rolls etc. As I suspected there is too much dihedral but this can be mixed out later.

[Chris Bott - Moderator]

Well done Martin it looks great out in the sunshine.

Can I suggest you try an APC Electric prop (APC-E)?
They are a fair bit more efficient than the thick heavy one you have on at the moment.

[Geoff S]

It looks stunning, Martin, though I think I'd have difficulty seeing it properly on anything other than a perfect day. I just wish I could build as quickly and as well.

Just curious about a few points on your Tucano.

1: weight ready to fly

2: power train, current draw and duration in practice.

Though I guess duration may still be uncertain aftewr just a few flights

3: In view of your comments re dihedral. Would you suggest those of us yet to start reduce it on our models? If so, to what? I'm not sure if the design dihedral is scale or not.

Geoff

[Martin McIntosh]

Thanks Chris. I stuck with the standard prop. because it is turning at 11400 on a fresh charge which is similar to an OS 25FX and am not sure what the rev. limits are on the E series but will try a couple sometime.

Geoff, the weight and power train are stated in a post just above. The dihedral is just a bit more than scale and unless you fly aerobatics leave as is. If I did this again I would have no more than 30mm.

[Chris Bott - Moderator]

Mmm, sensible to be cautious about rpm.

On the APC website is suggests that the max revs for an APC-E are 145,000 divided by the diameter of the prop in inches.

[Ian Jones]

First out of the hangar eh?

Well done, looks good. I hope I can make something fir to be seen alongisde it.

Ian

[Martin McIntosh]

Hi

Chris B.,

Tried an APC-E prop of the same size today. Not impressed. The revs went up by 800 suggesting to me that they are less, not more efficient. Max. power was required for a simple loop and it was a lot noisier than many i/c`s. Should have checked the balance first of course but later found it to be miles out. From the photos I think that you should be able to see why. The hole is nowhere near central. I can probably correct this with a reamer and an insert but this should not be necessary and a big black mark for APC. Don`t think that I shall be buying any more.

Someone asked about flight time on this set up. Don`t try 10mins as it cost me an outfield landing and a little damage. Mended now. First one out-first to prang!

[Chris Bott - Moderator]

hmm that's not good is it Martin.

I have to say that I've used many many APC-E's and have never had to balance one.

It does appear that you got a bad example. Being out of balance could well account for your loss of performance.

Edited By Chris Bott - Moderator on 04/01/2013 19:01:32

[Geoff S]

IIRC you're not supposed to use the hole drilled in the hub on APC E props but one of the supplied inserts to suit your shaft diameter. According to the information supplied with the props it's the outer recess that's accurate and that's where inserts locate.

I've never had a problem with APC E props and they seem to be popular amongst electric flyers.

Geoff

[Martin McIntosh]

Thanks Geoff. Not too used to these leccy things but all other APC props have the hole where it should be and are generally ready to go. As I said I shall use a reamer and try an insert. Bet I am not the first nor last to run into this problem.

Martin

[WolstonFlyer]

Martin,

I am sure there is info somewhere on the APC website that says to use the insert on the "E" props. The shoulder for the inserts is machined to be central where the rest of the hole is just as it is moulded. An insert should always be used.

Edit: I found the exact wording on the APC website on the technical bulletin page.

** Slo Fly and Electric Props off center holes:
The paper insert lists the pilot hole as the precision hole which can be used to precisely drill the non-precision hole.
Our preference is to use a tapered reamer from the front side of the prop to avoid contact with the precision hole entirely.
Unfortunately, we are forced to gate the material in through the center of all axis's which necessitates a second operation of drilling out the sprue. For this reason the precision locating rings were adopted for electric propeller production.
It is our experience that most of the time some customers fail to read the instructions for properly mounting the propellers....

Edited By WolstonFlyer on 04/01/2013 21:58:02

[Lucas Hofman]

All props I have bought so far (APC-E, GWS, HK) are not perfectly balanced, the Hobby King ones much worse then others. Balancing does take less then five minutes, and results in a silent (and not vibrating) plane.

Here is a video showing how to do it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXuNnYQO2s4

I use this balancer and like it: http://www.top-flite.com/accys/topq5700.html

You will notice the difference!

[Terry Warner]

Hi Martin

Just picked up on your topic as i had been looking to build one of these for a while now but wanted to put retracts on board. You have done a very good job on the build program and keeping everyone up dated well done on that. I am about to get the Profili software to do the wing build and get the ribs CNC'd as well. I have ordered the plan and hope to start soon on the build. I see you have also put in flaps which i have done on my latest build which is a Cessna 336 but not yet flown.

Did you put a battery hatch in as well? if not how do you change the batteries? i am guess there is something on the plan once i receive it, i guess it is the canopy..

I look forward to starting my build and once again thanks for all the info

Posted by Martin McIntosh on 03/12/2012 22:44:55:

The wing is built up traditionally with four 1/4x3/16 balsa spars, a 1/8 false LE and a 3/8 sheet true LE, skinned with 1/16 balsa. The section is RAF 30 modified to 15.4% thickness of the chord using Profili s/w. It is in `my photos`but not quite to the correct size which is :root 240mm, tip 140mm. the tip rib is moved forward on the plan by 15mm at the TE. The 11 ribs are spaced at 55mm. Will try to get them on this blog in the right dimensions but there seems to be a problem with the file format.

This is the first wng halfe with the bits fitted.

The first job is to draw the new outline on to the original plan with the spars as shown.

Note that ribs 4&5 hav lightply glued to their outer edges to take theu/c.

After pinning down the front upper spar and adding the ribs (except rib 1), add the upper spar.

Add the rear upper spar.

Cut some very light 1/8 sheet oversize and add the false LE.

Cut four dihedral braces just larger than the spars to the angle shown on the plan and glue the upper ones to the first wing half, up to rib 3.

We can now make and fit the upper skin to this. note from yhe above pic that the 1/16 sheet will be far from straight so carefully cut one edge using a ruler.

Pin to the board using a ruler. Cut one side only of the next sheet then glue together with thin cyano.

Repeat for the next sheet.

Sand both sides with one of these using 80 gri