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Gentle Curves - Lucas his Skywriter


Lucas Hofman
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Colours engage, that is for sure!

A pink helmet maybe. I know how to spray now.

​Off course any 1/6 scale Swarovski's that come in the post will be used.

But how do I do the cockpit coaming? I have read about using fuel tube but that does look rubber, not the leather one often sees on open cockpit coamings.I did skip that on the Ballerina

Lucas

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Hi Lucas,

Sorry but The LotH's Swarovskis are genuine 1:1 scale. angel

But you can find some 'small' ones on 'bling-bling' shoes or fancy holiday T-shirts. wink

Regarding your coaming, I made my Ballerina's one with a 5mm OD flexible tubing (with a slit length wise) covered with crêpe paper. A bit of weathering with a few shades of beige/brown and black to give it a kind of worn out/cracked suede appearance.

1450_cockpit_rcme_900.jpg

You could of course use a tiger pattern to match the fur coat...

Cheers

Chris

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with those batteries I will need some weight at the tail end! But probably 2 hours flight times....

I have glued the center 4 lugs. With slow epoxy, to make sure I had ample time to adjust the incidence to make it equal to the lower wing. Check and check again.... And then do not come near the model!

Time for the interconnection rods between the ailerons:

img_4957[1].jpg

Threaded one ball link and glued the other. Should be a slop free adjustable link this way.

Lucas

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Ready!

Mounted everything. A disappointing amount of weight is needed to get the CG on 70mm from the leading edge. I glued 80gr. into the firewall (stick on steel weigths used for balancing car wheels are great for this), and will for the first flights fix another 80gram to the battery.

img_4970[2].jpg

Quite often I move the CG more aft after the first few flight to limit the amount of push needed when flying inverted. Let us hope that will be the case here too.

img_4971[2].jpg

img_4972[1].jpg

The powertrain pulls 38A (about 500W) which a half full battery. Should be enough I think.

The ice is not reliable anymore, and there is still 30cm of slowly melting snow on our strip. It will be a few weeks until the maiden.

Regards, Lucas

Edited By Lucas Hofman on 08/04/2018 15:05:58

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  • 1 month later...

Maiden at last:

img_5044.jpg

Late in the evening, with little wind. CG a little too far backwards, but still controllable. Stall is a non event (thanks to the thick airfoil I think).

And after landing:

img_5045.jpg

Ground handling is not too good. She is very sensitive on the rudder on take off and tends to nose over. I will try with some bigger wheels and tilting the undercarriage so the axles come 20mm more forward.

But she flies!

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Maiden at last:

img_5044.jpg

Late in the evening, with little wind. CG a little too far backwards, but still controllable. Stall is a non event (thanks to the thick airfoil I think).

And after landing:

img_5045.jpg

Ground handling is not too good. She is very sensitive on the rudder on take off and tends to nose over. I will try with some bigger wheels and tilting the undercarriage so the axles come 20mm more forward.

But she flies!

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Posting twice was more tired then pleased, I think.

Two more flights early this morning. Now with 40gr more lead in the nose. Feels good now. A slight pull-up when idling 45 degree down and a little push needed in inverted flight. She turns much tighter then the Ballerina, but I start to be convinced that no inner wing stall will occur.

It is possilble to spin, easier than Ballerina. Recovery is automatic when neutralizing rudder and elevator. The powertrain gives enough oomph for big cuban 8's, but will run out of steam on a contiued inverted 45 degree up-line, as expected.

When landing with a little power and - at touch down - full up elevator a nose over is avoided. But with no power she goes. That said, our strip is mostly moss, which has more friction that grass.

I think we will be friends. But first the landing gear needs some work.

Regards, lucas

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