Mick Reeves Gangster 63 Lite

[Nigel R]

I wouldn't know, I've never had one fail...

[Jonathan M]

Nor have I, but if in the long distant future I needed to re-cover then I'd rather have everything apart.

[Andy Stephenson]

I've had flocked hinge fail but only at the base of the rudder because of landing loads imparted by the tail wheel. I would always use a pinned hinge at this location as a minimum.

[Jonathan M]

Decided to use the wire U/C and 2.25" diameter wheels supplied in the kit.  I had previously thought about fitting bigger wheels, say 3", to cope with our patch - plus I was worried about the axle bits which had been cut too short for a collet each side of the wheels on the rear ones - but decided to give the original equipment a go.

 

The trick was to solder a washer to the axle just before it became a radius, using a simple wooden jig to keep the washer in its correct place and perpendicular to the axle (ignore my substandard soldering skills!) and this left just enough room for the collect to fit and its grub-screw to bite.

 

 

[Jonathan M]

The steerable nose-wheel setup however proved to be a bit of a headache!

 

Firstly I realised that I hadn't thought the thing through properly - i.e. the geometry of using the servo-arm side opposite the rudder clevis meant that when I applied left rudder the wheel turned to the right...!  (I'd copied the setup on my Boomerang, but forgotten that in the case of the Gangster the rudder linkage exited the rear fuselage on the other side.)

 

 

 

The rough-and-ready dodge was to swap the nose-wheel connection to the same side as the rudder, but this meant using a hole closer to the centre (so less steering movement), but even worse this then left the linkage is a complete and unhappy floppy mess, which compounded by the friction at the firewall end of things (which I'd hope will at least lessen with time and stray engine oil!) made an awful graunching noise - so not at all happy!

 

 

There are only two proper solutions:  either make the nose-wheel fixed and lose the steering connection altogether (which is my plan C), or use a separate steering servo (Plan B).  I've only currently got a HS85MG going spare - not as big/strong as a standard but at least it is metal geared.... and will fit once I've moved the throttle servo over a bit!  Aaaargh!

 

[RedBaron]

Jonathon - Its looking good.

But the solution to the "Aaaargh!" bit is to 3D print ones servo mounts. Then in the situation that you have, one can easily alter the design i.e. move over the throttle servo and add to the design another servo. Then just print the new design for the mount whilst one has a cup of coffee.? 

 

[Nigel R]

Doh! Happens to all of us, this kind of thing.

 

Option d, use a bellcrank. Small lite ply plate flat up against the fuselage inside would work fine to mount it on.

 

I must admit I would just fix it dead ahead. Simplifies matters somewhat. I'm lazy. 

[Jonathan M]

RB - its not that moving the throttle servo is such a big deal (after all I do seem to enjoy playing with small bits of balsa!), its more that I just really want to get this long-running build finished as soon as possible!

 

Excellent thinking Nigel - love the simplicity of the bellcrank solution, which will also go a long way to reducing the floppiness.

 

How, if the nosewheel was fixed, would one turn the model while taxiing?

[Andy Stephenson]

Jonathan,

With the tail servos in the back of my G63 I used a separate nose wheel servo with a spring saver to protect the gears.

 

Edited November 24, 2021 by Andy Stephenson

[Nigel R]

Up elevator, blast of throttle. 

 

If the main gear is close enough to the cg the nose will lift or become very light and turn with rudder

Edited November 24, 2021 by Nigel R

[Andy Stephenson]

Trying to taxi cross-wind is always a problem as models always want to weathercock so with a tricycle u/c I use down elevator when taxing to get nose wheel steering authority.

Edited November 25, 2021 by Andy Stephenson

[Jonathan M]

9 hours ago, Andy Stephenson said:

Jonathan,

With the tail servos in the back of my G63 I used a separate nose wheel servo with a spring saver to protect the gears.

 

 

 

Andy, is the spring-saver a home-made or off-the-shelf item?

[Nigel R]

biro springs and the guts of an electrical connector block?

[Andy Stephenson]

Jonathan,

I made mine more or less the way Nigel describes, but you can buy them just look for "Dubro Over-Ride Servo Saver".

Edited November 25, 2021 by Andy Stephenson

[Piers Bowlan]

11 hours ago, Andy Stephenson said:

Trying to taxi cross-wind is always a problem as models always want to weathercock so with a tricycle u/c I use down elevator when taxing to get nose wheel steering authority.

When cross-wind taxying use aileron to stop the into-wind wing lifting and the subsequent weather cock.

Edited November 25, 2021 by Piers Bowlan

[Andy Stephenson]

Piers,

I've never noticed the ailerons having any effect during taxing. Wheel steering authority is the effect I'm after.

[Piers Bowlan]

Well that is the standard full sized practice at any rate but maybe not so effective at model sizes?
I see the logic of forward stick while taxying, to improve directional control with a model aircraft.
Not recommended for full sized light aircraft because of the danger of a prop strike, so always taxying with the stick back (for tail-wheel or tri-gear types). Not so much an issue with a model, depending on prop/ground clearance.

 

[Andy Stephenson]

Due to the balance point being close to the main U/C the plane can teeter on the main wheels, applying down elevator will push the tail up and the nose down when revving the engine thus putting pressure on the nose wheel. Full-size practice may well be different and really doesn't have much of a parallel at model scale.

[Kim Taylor]

19 hours ago, Nigel R said:

Up elevator, blast of throttle. 

 

If the main gear is close enough to the cg the nose will lift or become very light and turn with rudder

That's what I do with my 'Lite' which has a fixed nosewheel. Works perfectly well for 'normal' steering, lining up on the strip, etc. but I do struggle to turn it around after landing if there's a good breeze blowing. Have promised myself a 'post landing extra rudder travel' mode but haven't got around to actually doing it yet - too busy moving house (again!!).?

Kim

[Andy Stephenson]

Ground handling with a steerable nose wheel properly set up is a breeze compared with a tail dragger especially in a strongish wind.

[Jonathan M]

Meanwhile back at the ranch...

 

Opted for Nigel's bellcrank suggestion.  There's no inline shock-absorber as per Andy's setup, and the bellcrank arms are of equal length.  But the 'gearing' via the much longer steering-arm at the nosewheel compared to the servo arm - plus a modest degree of play via the bellcrank connectors etc - should hopefully prevent any sudden shocks from damaging the rudder servo.  (If practice proves me wrong, then its another £12 for a new servo plus a shock-absorber for my sins!)

 

 

But going back to the CG business, with the U/C completed and the motor in place, this is now showing at about 5" which is way too far back!  No alternative then but to hoik the battery out from its cosy rearward position and construct a new berth for it under the turtle decking just below where the throttle servo is.

 

[Nigel R]

18 hours ago, Kim Taylor said:

Works perfectly well for 'normal' steering, lining up on the strip, etc. but I do struggle to turn it around after landing if there's a good breeze blowing

 

That's true enough. A fixed nosegear can be sketchy when turning downwind. As Andy says, no substitute for a proper steering.

[Jonathan M]

CG business:

 

Having realised last week that my cunning plan to plonk the RX battery nicely aft so to ensure the model wasn't going to be nose-heavy resulted in... a tail-heavy situation with the CG at 5" from the LE.  So hacked out the original balsa bedding and made a new side cot for the battery in the next bay forward, and CG now happily right on 4".  (Instructions state 3" but this is the usual excessively cautious advice, and Andy S tells me that his is just over 4", so happy with 4" as a starting-point for myself.)

 

 

 

 

Edited November 30, 2021 by Jonathan M

[Jonathan M]

Carbon Capture:

 

Decided to remove the cylinder head from the Irvine 46 (mainly just to make life a little easier cutting and fitting the cowling, which I did next), and found that it was... a well-used engine!  Not troubled at this stage as I've already had it on the test-stand and it starts easily and runs very well.

 

I can always do a probably unnecessary strip-down and clean-up later on if I feel like it.

 

[Jonathan M]

Cowling malarkey:

 

This is the bit I wasn't particularly looking forward to.  The flimsy plastic cowling had already had several layers of cloth and Poly-C to help stiffen it and, although it wasn't up to the standard of a proper glass cowl, it was much better than before and I felt confident enough to proceed to hack jolly great holes in it.

 

The measuring and guessing and hacking all went fairly nicely, and finally had the whole thing accurately taped down to both the fuselage and the spinner-disk, except that where I came to drill the holes and drive in the self-tapping screws (from my own collection) the cowling seemed to pull slightly down!

 

Is it "good enough"?  Although it won't of course make the blindest difference to my very average flying skills, I know in my perfectionist's heart that it isn't really good enough, and will no doubt want to re-do it again properly tomorrow!