Rosco Posted April 6, 2016 Author Share Posted April 6, 2016 Thanks Chris. No offence but I think it would be better if Gaston flew your Bella however I do appreciate your offer!Well....my Ballerina has come a long way. I've now got all control surfaces working and have balanced it out to find where I'm going to fit my battery.I made a very crude balancer just to show that you don't need anything fancy and let me tell you, it took me longer to balance the plane than it did to make the balancer!I've balanced it on the marks according to the plan. How has everyone else found the balance of the model on the marks according yo the plan? I'd be interested to heat from those of you who have a flying Ballerina.I'm quite pleased with it so far. I weighed it up to get an idea and my previous guestimation of 600g seems to be correct. It has weighed in at 595g including the battery. I still have to make a pilot and the battery mount/holder.Unfortunately once again, I'm unable to post any pic's but rest assured, I will post some next time.Now for some tidying up and then some paint. Perhaps I should go have a maiden fly before I commit to a paint job?Till the next timeRosco Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucas Hofman Posted April 6, 2016 Share Posted April 6, 2016 I can give you my way of balancing Rosco. I put (with a low wing plane), 2-3mm wide strips of tape on the top of the wing in the location specified on the drawing. Then I place the plane upside down on some cushions and feel with my fingers where the tape is. You lift the plane there, note if the tail or the nose comes up and move the battery to correct (og put lead on the cowl/tail with some tape). If it balances you can lift the whole plane on the tape stripes and it will stay horizontal. This is just the starting point for the first flights. Center of Gravity is a personal preference but this start should give you a plane you can get up and down in one piece. When flying do either dive test or fly inverted to fine tune the CG. Good luck, Lucas Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Miller Posted April 6, 2016 Share Posted April 6, 2016 Iuse a similar method but I make up a couple of thin arrow shapes from three layers of Solartrim and leave them on the model on the top surface of the wing. You lay see them in apicture somewhere. Someone who shall remain nameless turned up at the club with a big Piper Cub which took off and was uncontrollable. During the wild flight I took a photo of the underside of the model.After it crashed we found that the CG was at 47% chord and later the photo proved is as we could see the balancing marrks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosco Posted April 7, 2016 Author Share Posted April 7, 2016 Hi all, Thanks guys. i use the finger method at the field. I sometimes mount a camera on my models so I need to make sure it hasn't affected the balance too much so the quick 'finger' method works. The reason I was balancing it out during the build was to find the best location for the battery and other electrics to sit on an attempt to allow me to balance it without having to add any weight to it. Here's my pics from the last few days................ I intentionally left the servo wire 'feed through assistance' string out because there is not really any structure within the wing to obscure it from cleanly feeding through however I did use some assistance to get it through when I needed to. Here I have just used a wheel collar to give some weight to assist with feeding the string through (using gravity for assistance)......... Same again.... Servos are glued into wing. I just cut some foam to fit over the servos and covered them with some tape...... Starting the electric fit out............ My quick fix balancing stand. I made this in about 10mins with some cardboard (Its not the first time I've done this so I know it works)........... Mark out the balance point (as per the plan)................ And then...........my crude balancer in action. At this stage I was trying to work out where the battery best sat for balancing it out. I had the Elevator and Rudder servos fitted already. Note that its sitting very level. In this pic the model IS balanced on the stand. I have the battery sitting over about 1/3-1/2 of the wing. I have purposely given myself some room to make it slightly more nose heavy but cannot move the battery further back.............. Here's my servos fitted. I just use some ice cream sticks glued onto some foam supports into which I screw the servos down onto. No need to buy any fancy wood, an ice cream during the build is always a nice opportunity to have a 'smoko break' and sit back from building for a moment or two, then the stick comes in handy............ Final position of where the battery will sit. I still need to make a mounting for it though. It wont be anything fancy......... AUW including battery (2200 3s). With paint and a pilot I think it will be just over 600g......... Thats it for now. Hopefully I'll get it completely finished in about a week or so and all I'll need is some paint. I might even take it out for a test fly before that? If I do get one in, I'll try and get some pics of it in action, maybe even a vid. Until then, Happy building Rosco Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosco Posted April 11, 2016 Author Share Posted April 11, 2016 Hello all, Can I just say that I've had one of those days where I just wanted to pull my hair out! .......I hate wiring. I sorted out my battery mount, nothing fancy, just some foam and another ice cream stick, but then the hair pulling began. Can I just say that wiring is not one of my favourite things, I don't look forwards to this part of a build. All I had to do was plug the wires into the RX and tuck them away..........for the record, I like to keep them (the wires) looking neat. This is my problem. First, I broke one of the small aileron servo extension leads. One of the wires pulled out from its connector and its a fiddly job to fix it up so I will be making two new ones because I don't like having two extension leads of different lengths and different looks!!!! This should be sorted by tomorrow. Second, I just cannot seem to make the wiring look neat, no matter how hard I tried. After two hours of cursing, I gave up and decided to start painting it just to have a different mindset. This is only the start of the paint scheme so please be kind to me with your tangerine comments............ As I say, It's not finished yet so please be kind with the 'Orange' comments! I'm hoping to make it look a bit more 'Reno Racer' with some more colours. Rosco Edited By Rosco on 11/04/2016 12:35:08 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Miller Posted April 11, 2016 Share Posted April 11, 2016 I like the look of your colour scheme. I will look forward to the compleed finish Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ron evans Posted April 11, 2016 Share Posted April 11, 2016 Looking good Rosco. Sure to be the lightest Ballerina in town. Edited By ron evans on 11/04/2016 13:09:23 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McG 6969 Posted April 11, 2016 Share Posted April 11, 2016 Hi Rosco, Ron is totally right as he wrote that your 'Ballerina Clementina' will definitely be the lightest of the bunch... Just joking, you know... 'Calamondina' is a very nice name as well... Hakuna patata Chris BRU - BE / CTR Jaffa Control Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosco Posted April 12, 2016 Author Share Posted April 12, 2016 Hello all Latest progress then.......... I have the electrics sorted now. Its all running and operating as it should. I've made it as neat as possible as I can inside. I'm happy now ............ I also added some more paint. I have strayed a little from my intended paint scheme but I'm not too concerned. It makes my model all the more genuine. Having said that, it might end up looking a bit more of an aerobatic paint scheme but, some of those Reno Racer schemes look pretty fancy too. Once again, it's not finished yet ............. Until the next one Rosco Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john stones 1 - Moderator Posted April 12, 2016 Share Posted April 12, 2016 Looks very good Rosco, proper little racer You have a great taste in colours as well John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosco Posted April 12, 2016 Author Share Posted April 12, 2016 Posted by john stones 1 on 12/04/2016 13:43:58: Looks very good Rosco, proper little racer You have a great taste in colours as well John Ha,ha.........I thought you might say that. I had a new tube of orange acrylic paint so I thought 'Why not'?' Once I started painting it, it dawned on me that your model is orange and I thought you might comment on it By my next post, it might have some chequers on it too Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Miller Posted April 12, 2016 Share Posted April 12, 2016 I like racer colour schemes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosco Posted April 13, 2016 Author Share Posted April 13, 2016 G'day all,Hmmmmm....... So, like I previously mentioned, I'm still in the process of painting it. I am only using acrylic art paint and doing it by brush, no fancy airbrush stuff here.Unfortunately I can't post any pic's at the moment but what I will say is that it certainly looks different! I guess I'll have to let you guys be the judges.I still have a little bit more to do but I'm really trying not to go overboard because once the paint is on, I can't do much to change it.Also, if all goes according to plan, I might get it up for a maiden on the weekend. No guarantees though.Sorry, no pics.Till' the next one, happy building, Rosco Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WolstonFlyer Posted April 14, 2016 Share Posted April 14, 2016 fantastic model Rosco, I have just read through your thread to catch up with what you have been doing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosco Posted April 15, 2016 Author Share Posted April 15, 2016 Hello all, Just a quick one. Nearly there, maybe even a maiden on the weekend?........... Rosco Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john stones 1 - Moderator Posted April 15, 2016 Share Posted April 15, 2016 First class job Rosco I love it ...it even has a 2 2 on John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Cotsford Posted April 15, 2016 Share Posted April 15, 2016 Fantastic scheme Rosco, absolutely gorgeous! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucas Hofman Posted April 15, 2016 Share Posted April 15, 2016 Impressive Rosco, to be able to do this by hand! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McG 6969 Posted April 15, 2016 Share Posted April 15, 2016 Really looking great, young man... Good luck with your 'racer' maiden. Hakuna matata Chris BRU - BE / CTR Racer Control Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Miller Posted April 15, 2016 Share Posted April 15, 2016 That is sensational. Really something super special Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyD Posted April 15, 2016 Share Posted April 15, 2016 yea fantastic thats what you call a scheme,good luck with the maiden,again fantastic, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosco Posted April 15, 2016 Author Share Posted April 15, 2016 Thanks guys.To be honest, I wish I'd kept the scheme a bit simpler. It's added some extra weight that I was trying to avoid having.It still needs a pilot also.I'm hoping to get the maiden done but it will be a tight squeeze into my weekend commitments and I still need to charge a battery or two somewhere in there too.Thanks again for the comments and I will be filming the maiden (whenever I actually get it done) so stay tuned for that.CheersRoscoEdited By Rosco on 15/04/2016 23:19:04 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosco Posted April 16, 2016 Author Share Posted April 16, 2016 Hello all again, Just another quick one! Don't hold your breath for the maiden flight report.Unfortunately I can't make it happen this weekend. I haven't been able to get any batteries charged.Not to worry, that gives me time to sort out my pilot.........a pet hate of mine, a plane that has no pilot.Cheers again,Rosco Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosco Posted April 18, 2016 Author Share Posted April 18, 2016 Hi all, Just very quickly, I've got good news. I managed to sneak some maiden flights in today. It was a bit windy and the battery I was using was not fully charged so my flights were very limited but I did get some vid of them. I will put something together and hopefully post it later with a brief flight report. Rosco Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devcon1 Posted April 18, 2016 Share Posted April 18, 2016 Well done Rosco. It's been fun watching this one come together, I love the unique take on the build. Looking forward to the Flying vid. John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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