WolstonFlyer's ballerina

[john stones 1 - Moderator]

Looks o.k to me W.F she's curvaceous not hump backed

John

[WolstonFlyer]

Thanks John

I am going to get all of the fiddly infill bits done later tonight and then start on the front end, I need to make a battery access hatch etc.

[WolstonFlyer]

I wanted to get this bit done before I went to bed, its getting on for 2am

There are a few wobbly bits but it is not too bad.

[Peter Miller]

What is that effect with what looks like all the verticals between the stringers?

I just realised. It is the shadows of the stringers on the formers.

Or is it?

Edited By Peter Miller on 01/05/2016 08:14:14

Edited By Peter Miller on 01/05/2016 08:14:46

[WolstonFlyer]

It is shadows from the stringers caused by the bright led spots in the ceiling

Edited By WolstonFlyer on 01/05/2016 09:16:33

[WolstonFlyer]

I have got the snakes installed and started looking at the front of the aircraft, there is a huge gap between the position of F1 and where the motor needs to be.. hhhmmm....

I got the same motor as BEB hoping that he would come up with some nice way to do this but I will have to put my thinking cap on

[WolstonFlyer]

Aha.. John Stones 1 to the rescue, I will just copy this

So I need some 4mm studding, nuts and washers?

[WolstonFlyer]

Laminating F1 from two pieces of 1/8 birch ply

I will have to go out to the local DIY shed to get some 4mm threaded rod, nuts and washers.

[john stones 1 - Moderator]

BEB put me on to the method W.F may have been in one of the chat threads, I have a floor lower down in fuzz on mine for the lipo and the top open, with removable hatch all the way to F1, makes getting at ESC and fitting lipo easier.

John

[WolstonFlyer]

Thanks John, does your hatch go all the way from the F5 at the back of the cockpit?

I was going to make my hatch from just in front of the windscreen all the way to F1, so I would add another former in front of F3 to create the hatch opening, do you think that is far back enough?

I have marked out my motor back plate, this 1/8 ply seems to have a very pronounced grain direction and is quite flexible so I am going to double it up like I have with F1

[WolstonFlyer]

I have found your pictures John, yes the hatch does go all the way to the back of the cockpit and your lovely GRP cowl... yikes I have never done any GRP work, I don't think I am going to be up to that, do you think a balsa cowl will fit ?

Edited By WolstonFlyer on 01/05/2016 12:26:40

[john stones 1 - Moderator]

Yes all way to F5. I felt it looked neater all one piece and was simpler to build, plus you have more wiggle room when it comes to fitting lipo to balance it up. Fitting a floor for lipo put plenty strength back in and lipo is well back to balance mine. You're motor is bigger than mine and I have servos in tail as well. Do it your own way just something to consider though. Yes balsa cowl would be fine, I just wanted a removable one and fancied a go at making one, Chris Barlow's blog showed me how to do it, and i'll copy anyone I've no shame

John

Edited By john stones 1 on 01/05/2016 12:46:14

[WolstonFlyer]

I think you are right about it being neater and giving more access, I did cut the hole in F2 lower to put a floor in for the lipo, so I think I will cut the top of F2 off and remove the existing cockpit floor and go with a full length hatch. I will have a think about the cowl, not sure what I am going to do.

For anybody that wants a laugh, this is my 'office' I work from home for an Australian software company, I am their "man in the UK" and I don't have a lot of room to store my models. Here you can see my broken Tucano, a Tinker bi-plane fuselage and my Ballerina wing and fuselage, and all of my other 'stuff'

The shed in the garden behind would make a good building space but it is full of garden tools, petrol mower etc and kids push bikes so no chance of using it as a workshop

Edited By WolstonFlyer on 01/05/2016 13:00:32

[WolstonFlyer]

I am a bit concerned about fitting this lot under the cowl, it's a rather big motor, there isn't much room.

I think I might have to go the GRP route to get this to fit..eek

Edited By WolstonFlyer on 01/05/2016 15:31:42

[WolstonFlyer]

I have installed F1 so now turn my attention to the cockpit / hatch.

[AndyD]

ive seen people do away with the front ply and bolt straight to to the motor cross mount,im building a small electric trainer whitch i shall try it out on,i only need to extend 20mm though.

[McG 6969]

Hey Wolston,

Fine to see you at the building board again.

As Andy wrote, if you leave the ply plate away you can bolt your cross mount right to the threads. This allows you to drill the mounting holes closer to each other into F1 and thus having more space for the construction of your future cowl. I will be making a glass fiber one, it's really not that difficult. It must be very rewarding for future access & maintenance, I think

If you have a look at Lucas's build, he has a very neat method for building his.hatch.

Don't forget about the hatch lock & the dowel hole in F1... Easier to foresee before gluing the bits together.

Keep going, young man.

Hakuna matata

Chris

BRU - BE / CTR Hatch Control

 

Edited By McG 6969 on 02/05/2016 06:33:42

[WolstonFlyer]

I think you are right about the motor mounting Andy and Chris, I can bolt direct to the X mount to leave more space for the cowl.

I have been off to modelfixings.co.uk and ordered some suitable threaded rod, nylock nuts and washers. While I was there I ordered some nylon wing bolts and captive nuts.

Oh yes the hatch lock, I forgot to drill a hole for the dowel in F1..better get that sorted!

[WolstonFlyer]

As it's raining and the kids are playing computer games I thought I would get on with the hatch, I have to make an F1a out of lite ply although I think the back of the motor mounting bolts will be in the way for F1a to push up to the back of F1

I am also concerned about the amount of strength this is removing from the fuselage, in the original design it is all glued together and makes strong a box section.

 

Edited By WolstonFlyer on 02/05/2016 12:39:46

[WolstonFlyer]

While I decide what to do with F1a and the hatch I have made and installed the battery tray and the first servo support. I think the battery tray will add a lot of lateral rigidity to the front of the model.

I am going to cut the piece of ply for the tail wheel mounting next, but I have no idea how this is supposed to work, does anybody have a picture of how to install this so it steers, I got this one form SLEC when I ordered the balsa.

[john stones 1 - Moderator]

Either groove the rudder to accept the wire from t/wheel, it'll need a right angled bend on wire going into rudder where there's plenty of meat, or put a right angled bend immediately above the plastic and attach to bottom of rudder.

When you've got bottom sheeting on and servo rail/plate in it's plenty strong enough W.F, do your own way though that's just my opinion.

John

[john stones 1 - Moderator]

Don't know if this picture of t/wheel to rudder helps, just a groove and a hole drilled in for r/angled bend, epoxied in place, picture of my Slick, full length hatch and plenty strong enough.

John

[WolstonFlyer]

Thanks John, that does help, I can visualise how the rudder and wheel need to fit

Wow that is a delicate structure in that Slick!

[Simon Feather]

Hiya, I used exactly the same tail wheel that you did on my "B" Ballerina. This is what I did.

I made a small bracket from thin aluminium sheet:

I let a small fillet of 1/8" ply into the underside of the fuz at the tail, so that the screws had something to screw into, and slotted it to take the "fin" of this tailwheel bracket. Bent the wire at 90 degrees, and it all fixes like this using an M2 nut and bolt to hold the ally bracket on. The pivot needs to be in line with the hingeline.

Has proved very successful, I've used this style of steerable tailwheel on some other models without issues, but does rely on the material you used for the rudder being strong enough to take the forces: if in doubt, reinforce.

I didn't quite get the bend right, and ended up with a bit of slack; so there is a bit of wire you can just see acting as a spacer to relieve pressure on the rudder. If you follow this idea and get the bend wrong, don't try to straighten the wire and rebend it, it'll just snap either immediately or very soon after. You'll either need to bend up a new wire leg entirely, or get new complete tailwheel depending on how comfortable you are doing wirebending.

Hope this helps

Simon

[WolstonFlyer]

Hi Simon, that is perfect thank you!