Mick Reeves Gangster 63 Lite

[Jonathan M]

My covering skills leave a lot to be desired (photos carefully selected to avoid those with unsightly wrinkes), but at least no-one will notice when it's zipping along at two-houses high..!

 

 

Masking-tape mockup of white upper-wing stripes.  Cowling still needs a few more wraps of wetted cloth to de-flimsyfy it further before sanding smooth and painting brown.  Original plan was for a black cockpit, but the bare balsa makes me think maybe a white one would be fun at least... even if it does nothing for my non-existent knife-edge flying skills!

 

[Jonathan M]

Covering and trim business all done!  Decided on a black cockpit in the end, but yet to work out how to affix the canopy as I don't quite trust canopy glue to stick to shiny film!  I suppose some sort of screw fixing will also be needed, then a few strips of scrap brown film to hide/tidy up things.

 

Then just the engine and U/C to fit in place, glue in the hinges, make up the control surface linkages and fit the RX, battery and switch.

 

Will leave the cowling until after the first few trim flights - as I'd guess the model would likely need at least some right-thrust.

 

 

 

 

[RedBaron]

Jonathon - Looks great. I think it will be my next build after completing my Chilli Breeze.

I have never had a failure with canopy glue, it takes awhile to cure but when done just try and pull it off.

[Jonathan M]

Thanks for that RB - I've got to the point where I really like having to do as little more than the bare minimum ?

 

How's your Chilli Breeze coming on?  Electric or proper?

[RedBaron]

My C-B is "proper electric". The wing structure is complete apart from sanding down to a nice finish, hinging the ailerons and printing the servo mounts. Today I am planning the fuselage front end conversion. I am thinking about starting a thread on the build as I use 3-D printing a lot for example yesterday I printed a motor mounting box as part of the conversion. This is only temporary as it would not be strong enough for flying but it does help plan the conversion structure. Also it will be a great help in designing the printed cowling.

Also yesterday I printed a wing leading edge sanding device, designed from the wing section. I find this makes wing sanding an easy job and with a result as close to the designed wing section as it is possible to get.

[Jonathan M]

Wide-ranging applications of the plastic tech!

 

Yes, a build thread for your (proper electric of course!) Chilli Breeze would be really interesting to follow.  I've got the plans for mine (proper IC) pinned to the wall, but it won't be started for a while as I've got a couple of slope soarers and an own-design Peanut Scale to build first.

[Guest]

Very smart ,well done

Jim

[RedBaron]

Jonathon if you get to start a C-B then I have a full set of ribs modified with tabs to align them properly and also with steps to align the l/e and t/e pieces. No doubt these could be posted in my thread if I get to it.

[Jonathan M]

Thanks for that Jim, appreciated.

 

Red Baron, thanks for the kind offer of ribs for the Chilli Breeze.  I've already in fact got a pair of foam-cored wings cut for mine, but was thinking of a built-up wing for extra lightness.  Will PM you.

 

Jon

[Jonathan M]

Battery snug against aft bulkhead with the help of a few bits of scrap balsa and some CA.

 

 

A bit cosy in the aft bay, but at least nothing snags anything else - and colour coded aileron extension leads run forward through next former for ease of plugging in.

 

 

Tail hinges epoxied in and elevator horn on so far.

 

 

Nearly there....! ?

[Mark Jones 10]

14 minutes ago, Jonathan M said:

Battery snug against aft bulkhead with the help of a few bits of scrap balsa and some CA.

 

 

A bit cosy in the aft bay, but at least nothing snags anything else - and colour coded aileron extension leads run forward through next former for ease of plugging in.

 

 

Tail hinges epoxied in and elevator horn on so far.

 

 

Nearly there....! ?

Is that elevator pushrod the inside piece of the snake ? 

[Jonathan M]

Yes.  The outside (red snake) is flushed off where it exits the fuselage.  Same with the rudder snake on the other side.

 

I'm not overly anxious about it flexing unsupported at full up elevator... at least when I applied hand-force on the snake inner it felt pretty stiff.

 

 

Edited November 22, 2021 by Jonathan M

[Mark Jones 10]

5 minutes ago, Jonathan M said:

Yes.  The outside (red snake) is flushed off where it exits the fuselage.  Same with the rudder snake on the other side.

 

 

Ah I thought so. There isn’t really any strength in the yellow inner. The red outer needs to only show about 1/2” of yellow otherwise it will bend. I know from experience. I lost elevator authority and crashed 

[Jonathan M]

Thanks for the warning Mark!  There are two possible retrofit options to prevent this:  either glue-on a ply support-bracket midway between the exit hole and the horn, or temporarily remove the M2 studding for the clevis and epoxy in a length of stiffening rod of some description...?

[Mark Jones 10]

1 minute ago, Jonathan M said:

Thanks for the warning Mark!  There are two possible retrofit options to prevent this:  either glue-on a ply support-bracket midway between the exit hole and the horn, or temporarily remove the M2 studding for the clevis and epoxy in a length of stiffening rod of some description...?

Yes I was just thinking you could cyano some thin piano wire just for the amount of yellow showing down inside it. You really do need something. Hope you didn’t mind me mentioning this as I would hate to see your model crash. 

[Jonathan M]

Much appreciated.

 

Of the two options the internal stiffening one is the more elegant, and quickest to achieve.

[Mark Jones 10]

4 minutes ago, Jonathan M said:

Much appreciated.

 

Of the two options the internal stiffening one is the more elegant, and quickest to achieve.

No problem mate. Glad I noticed. The internal wire is simple way to stop it bending I think 

[Nigel R]

Concur with the above. The yellow is so flexible it won't hold worth squat, if there is very much showing. Aim for around 1" at full extension, that sort of thing.

 

options...

add some more outer, stuck to a ply triangle, to extend the red outer toward the surface

use a cut off length of M2 studding, sized so you can wind it to the point where one end is up close to the red outer and the other has the clevis on it

epoxy a length of plain wire in the yellow outer

or

a bit scorched earth, but, uncover the fuselage underside and retrofit closed loop wires

 

The servo ends look very much like they need reinforcement, too.

 

From experience also, normal threaded pushrod wire (the plain wire with rolled threaded ends) don't have a properly sized thread and won't bite in the yellow inner - don't use these!

[Andy Stephenson]

A relatively short length of thin piano wire pushed down the centre of the inner which only needs to protrude about an inch or so into the fuz at full extension. I'd say 18 or 20 gauge should sufficient to prevent bending.

[Jonathan M]

Advice taken Nigel and Andrew.

 

Raided my stash of 2mm connector wire with threaded ends to fit the clevises (both from RC World) and made up +/-100mm lengths for both ends of the tail snakes -  everything now fully rigid wherever unsupported by hard-points.  Yes, the wire is slightly too small a diameter for the inside of the Sullivan inner snake, but with enough epoxy pushed down the tube only a destruction test will budge it.

 

 

 

 

Then glued in the aileron hinges and fitted connectors.

 

 

At 100% travel on the TX getting +/-30mm, which is the maximum available given the geometry.  Instructions say to start with 18mm and increase if necessary.  (I recall Andy Stephenson saying earlier that he needed as much as possible for a decent roll-rate.)

 

 

 

 

Edited November 23, 2021 by Jonathan M

[Shaun Walsh]

What method did you use to hinge the ailerons Jonathan?

[Jonathan M]

These things Shaun (which were supplied in the kit but not quite enough (!) so I bought more).

 

Fiddly, time-intensive business it was:  first I greased all the knuckle areas with vaseline, then using 5 minute epoxy glued the hinges into the moving parts (i.e. elevator, rudder, ailerons), then when this had gone off I repeated the epoxying in the static parts - and in each case then spent another few minutes constantly moving the control-surface (and cleaning off excess gobs of epoxy) to ensure the that the curing epoxy didn't permanently bind the hinge.

 

[RedBaron]

I have always hated gluing hinges as they get in the way of covering, maintenance etc even with the hinge pin removed. Also its a bit nerve wracking whilst the glue is curing.

So for many years I have just drilled through the relevant surfaces and pinned the hinges in place with sections of cut to size cocktail sticks using a suitable drilling template and used no glue at all.

So far I have never had any functional or maintenance problems with this method.

I am toying with the idea of doing something similar with Robart hinges but have not tried that yet.

[Nigel R]

Canopy glue and mylar hinges.

CA and flocked hinges. 

 

Both a million times easier and cleaner!

[Jonathan M]

Every day's a school day!  (I guess the long-term maintenance option for mylar or flocked hinges is simply to slice them down the hinge-line and start again?)

 

In the meantime, I weighed the airframe plus engine and U/C:  total is a shade over 5lbs empty (my original target guess was 5.5lbs) so this is very pleasing.  Wing loading at this weight is 16oz/sq ft and power-to-weight roughly 170W/lb.

 

But a rough finger-balance test before shutting up shop indicates the CG might be a bit too aft?  Will wait until the engine and U/C are all properly fixed in place then do a proper balance measurement.  If this does prove to be the case, then the battery can simply be dug out and moved into the next bay forward.