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Chris's Bella Ballerina HD


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You really should try it, Andy. I must say I was a bit 'unbelieving', but in fact it makes sense as a result for both higher viscosity & optimized pressure. I was happily surprised.

What happened with your compressor? surprise

Bella's cowl is completed now and I hope to post pictures tomorrow when dry. I also intend to have a few 'reunion' pictures of the bits & pieces that are ready up till now. Stay tuned, gents...

Hakuna matata

Chris

BRU - BE / CTR Reunion Control

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Sometimes a new motor costs more than replacing the whole compressor, sign of the world we live in.... my big shop compressor started giving grief it would hum but but not turn without a nudge, i tried the capacitors, and had given up and bought anothet. I stripped the motor right down but couldnt find anything wrong. It of course has been working fine since. May have been a start winding open circuit and I may have nudged it somehow. But mine didnt smoke
Really impressed with the finish on your cowl
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... umm... Electricity and smoke aren't generally best friends, but as Danny wrote, very often the price of a new compressor won't be much higher - or even less - than a replacement motor. Hopefully you'll find a reasonable solution, Andy.

Thank you, Danny. I was really surprised myself as I don't think I ever had such a 'uniform' result with a spray can. And definitely not with such a 'high gloss' one.

A touch-up gun and an airbrush will be on my wishlist for next winter as the paint waste with a spray can really is on the high side. I must start talking to The LotH about it... wink

Hakuna matata

Chris

BRU - BE / CTR Waste Control

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Hello gents,

As promised I took a few pictures when I had a ‘reunion’ of the Bella bits that are ready so far. As the cowl and battery hatch are completed, I could hardly name it the classical “I couldn’t resist to have that ‘naked’ picture” in this case… wink

1471_fuse_sofar01_900.jpg

I even had to quickly make a ‘dummy’ taxiway as suddenly the Bella seemed to have been expanding now.

1476_fuse_pierre01_900.jpg

Pierre is still in need of some ‘colour’ but I’ll soon send him out for a holiday in the sun…

1481_fuse_sofar02_900.jpg

A closer view to the completed parts installed.

1480_fuse_pierre02_900.jpg

I decided to give the combing a slight black acrylic wash as I found it to be a bit too ‘brown’ after looking at the last pictures.

1482_fuse_sofar03_900.jpg

I followed Peter’s advice regarding the ‘brownish’ touch of weathering for the stainless exhausts and I’m happy I did. I guess the prop spinner needs some 'holiday tanning' as well.

I’m also pleased with the decision I took to have that extra work to build those Turbomeca exhausts as I find they give an additional touch of ‘truculence’ to that sweet female dancer… I’m afraid I do like ‘opposites’ somehow… angel

Hakuna matata

Chris

BRU - BE / CTR Brownish Control

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Thanks a lot, gents.

Regarding the spinner, I think I will decide what to do when having a better idea of the final colour scheme of the Lady. ‘Metal’ could indeed be a nice option, Jack. But then a ‘real’ ali one would increase my total weight again.

Talking about weight, I must remember to put the fuse on the scales to provide Rosco’s vital information.

I have a question here.

Before ‘dismantling’ the Bella again to go on with the build, can I try to balance the fuselage at the CoG to have an idea of the weight distribution… or is this a “rookie’s totally useless idea” without having the main wing & tailplanes so far??? blush

Thank you in advance for your comments to this.

Hakuna matata

Chris

BRU - BE / CTR CoG Control

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Thank you, Peter.

I could have known it was a daft question... blush

On the other end, in full size, we used to locate the fuel tank in the main wing so that when half full, the wing's CG was on the same spot chord-wise than the entire plane's CoG. Besides the welcomed 'in flight' stability, that allowed us to work on the airframe for flight envelope adjustments without having the wings mounted to the fuselage. Just putting the wheels on weight scales and adopting some momentum formulas. Also handy when you can't afford a full scale hangar in the mom's garden...

Thank you as well for the nice words, KC.

Speaking of words, not sure what I should notice in my "wording on the spray can"? Of course, English isn't my native language. After re-reading that part, I realized that it seems a bit 'childish narrative', maybe. But then on the other end, I can't really know who is supposed to read it, can I? devil

So, after being called "mildly autistic" by The LotH, I'm now guilty of 'Unwinese' practices as well...

Or could it have been my own version of Lewis's 'Jabberwocky'? ... wink

Hakuna matata

Chris

BRU - BE / CTR Dialectics2 Control

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... ooh... now I 'get' it, KC. enlightened

I was re-reading my text several times but didn't seem to find anything "Unwinese" or "gibberish" written in my description. question

I never taught about the spray can label on the picture, of course... surprise

Glad I could learn you a few words of genuine Flemish and thank you for giving some light back in my neurons's dark tunnel.

Hakuna matata

Chris

BRU - BE / CTR Flemish Class Control

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Hi again,

As promised - and for the sake of Rosco - I had the Bella fuselage ready for her ‘weight’ sequence.

So, I added the rudder servo and servo-plate, the servo and servo extension for the elevator, the aft-fuselage Depron bottom & took a picture…

1484_fuse_weight_900.jpg

To be honest, I thought it should be more than 853gr with the detailing of the cowl and battery hatch & the included landing gear, but then I realized I forgot to add the ESC… blush

With the Plush 60A at 65gr and a 4S/3300 at around 370gr, it sums up at about 1300gr.

Now, if I want to stay around 2,2Kg ‘all in’, that leaves me with the fact that my tailplanes, main wing, covering for the fuse and final deco scheme should stay maximum around… 900gr… crying

As I don't desire to start it all over again and as it is a bit late to give up now, I guess the only thing left to do is to just start with the tailplanes next… angel

‘Weight’ matata

Chris

BRU - BE / CTR Overweight2 Control

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Not looking too bad Chris but I can't really comment on the weight. As my version was smaller and not built from balsa etc. I have no idea if you are on target (I can't remember what Mr Miller had on his plans?) for what the AUW weight is supposed to be but to be honest, at 1.3kgs, without wings and tail, I think it is possibly a little bit heavy however, as you have noted, that weight includes your flight battery so you might be ok.
Preferably, someone who has built the model as per the original design might be better of commenting on the weight so far.

Apart from that, it looks to be slowly coming along. I'm looking forwards to how you are going to tackle the wing build part.

Rosco

Edited By Rosco on 10/08/2016 07:02:02

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The Ballerina article says 71 ounces or 2 kilos ( 71 ounces is 4pounds 7 ounces just a fraction less than 4.5 pounds)

As long as any excessive weight is up front it should be OK but if it's at the rear of fuselage then even more weight would be needed at nose! A very lightweight tailplane is advisable.

Chris, I will always think of silver spray cans as " Chrome Spit Lacquer " from now on!

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Thank you for your help, gents.

@ Rosco > I could imagine that with your 'Lilliput foam thingie' build, you couldn't really be of help... wink

But as I promised the Bella's Weight Manager to weight her, I just did. And she's definitely "a little bit heavy". I did the early mistake to use too much ply in the front part of the fuselage, too bad that I didn't think about the laminated 'Deply' in time for that part of the build. I could have won some 150 > 180gr just there. Too late now...

@ Peter & KC > I noted in the magazine that the prototype weight was around 2040gr, but I would have liked to compare to some electric powered Ballerinas. I did some - a lot of, in fact - research in different build blogs but the weight quotes I found are not really comparable as they are in totally different build progressions or at different scales. frown

@ KC > Instead of using the words 'spray can' in the future, I'll stick to "Spit Lacquer' for the sake of 'Unwinese"...

I'm back at La Grotte tomorrow and I'll have a hunt for the stuff I need to start with the tailplanes. smiley

Hakuna matata & thanks

Chris

BRU - BE / CTR Progression Control

 

Edited By McG 6969 on 10/08/2016 18:55:52

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Hello everybody out there,

It may sound strange but the exceptional rainy and windy days here in BE gave me the motivation to ‘crawl’ back into La Grotte after the ‘ballast’ news for the Bella.

So, 'swimming' on with the tailplanes next, this time I started with a ‘reunion’ picture.

1489_tail_reunion_900.jpg

I’m intending to use some 3mm Depron, reinforced with 2mm CF rods and laminated together to be married to some 6mm balsa TE & LE for the hinges. Following my learning process, I’m planning to use pinned hinges for the vertical surfaces and Blenderm tape for the stab to elevator hinge.

1493_tail_closeup01_900.jpg

As the tailplanes will be removable, the idea is to keep them together with a pair of 2mm stainless cycle spokes glued into the fin and fixed through the stab & the end of the fuselage. A small strip of 0,8mm ply will be glued under the fin to obtain a firm base and the fin fairings will be carved from 2 scrap foam pieces.

1494_tail_closeup02_900.jpg

The products involved are shown here but I forgot the Pritt stick to tack the plan cut-outs to the Depron… angel

@ KC > don’t use the last picture info to translate - or ‘Unwinese’ - it to “Spit Lime”… the Flemish word ‘lijm’ just means ‘glue’, so if you want to have a go, “Bison Spit Sticker” might be better… wink

Not so sure if I understand everything I’m writing down here - about the 'build projections', I mean - but I do hope that the actual 'building' of it will be a bit easier to follow… frown

Comments and/or ideas always welcome of course.

Hakuna matata

Chris

BRU - BE / CTR Bison Control

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Hi Chris, been watching your progress for a while now great job really enjoying your build. Interested how you intend to use the cycle spokes to mount the removable tail plane, did something similar years ago on an open class thermal soarer. Ended up having to introduce slight bends in the wire to stop it sliding back out of the copper tube and had to increase the diameter of the wire as it easily bent. Not good on a thermal soarer might be fatal on a power model.

Have used Blenderm tape on a small foam model but not on a larger model, may be others can give an opinion if this is a good idea or not. I always end up over engineering things, why use 6 hinges when I can fit 10 !!!!

Keep up the good work interested to see how this developed,

Paul.

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I'm interested to see your tail build too.

I'm not sure why you'd want to have a removable tail but it's your build Chris so you can do what you like!

The tail us a pretty critical part of the model....stating the obvious I know..... but to have it removable allows for it to be in a different orientation each time you put it on. It might be extremely minimal but if you watch how far a control surface moves everytime a trim switch is clicked and note the difference in flight,then you'll know what I mean - very small movements on the control surface makes a big difference to the model in flight.

I guess what I'm saying is that it would be better to have a tail that permanently stays in the same spot. Yes, it is only the rudder and elevator that are 'trimmed' but if the entire surface is moved ever so slightly each time then it will forever have to be 'trimmed' during flight. Am I making sense?

Sorry Chris but again,another thing to consider is weight. It really will make a big difference at the tail end. Be careful about over engineering it my friend.

Rosco
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I think that 3 mm depron is not thick enough even when reinforced with carbon fibre rods.

Also the fin is goingtobe awfully floppy if just held with those spokes.

Have a look at the latest RCM&E and my Super Marauder or look at the Super Marauder build blog. The fin is supported with two 1/4" dowels

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