Weston Capiche 50cc Build

[Gary Manuel]

I was lucky enough to get an AGM-55 petrol engine for Christmas. Totally unexpected and I had no plans of building another model of this size. After much head scratching and scraping of pennies, I decided to put it in a Weston UK 50cc airframe.

There is very little information about this model available on the internet. I have not been able to find a single build blog, so I will be very much working in the dark.

The box it comes in is massive .....

..... but it might come in handy at a later date.

My first step is buy all the bits I'm going to need to build it. I've got most of it as listed below. The only bits I haven't got yet yet are a decent spinner and I need to check what length engine stand-offs I'll need.

The cowl is pre-drilled for the fixing screws, which pre-determines what the total engine length needs to be. I was surprised to find that the kit is supplied with a set of four x 50mm stand-offs. The engine comes with a set of 68mm stand-offs.

Temporarily fitting the cowl and measuring from the firewall to the front of the cowl gives a measurement of 167.5mm.

The engine with the AGM supplied stand-offs is 170.5mm, giving a clearance of 3mm from the cowl to the spinner back plate. That sound OK to me, so I don't need to order any more stand-offs.

A 90mm (3 1/2 inch) spinner will fit nicely, so I'll get one ordered.

Edited By Gary Manuel on 08/02/2018 16:11:09

[Gary Manuel]

It will be fitted with this rather nice Genesis Canister exhaust system supplied by Weston UK.

Servos will be Hitec HS-7955TG (24Kg 0.15s @ 6V) on the Rudder and two Elevator halves and Hitec HS-7985MG (12.4Kg 0.13s @6V) on Ailerons and Throttle each on their own receiver channel. The 7th channel will drive a Rcexl Mk2 kill switch.

Receiver will be a JR RD922 DSM2 PowerSafe system using 3 satellites, failsafe switch and 2 redundancy power supplies.

Both receiver batteries will be 2100mAh 30C 2 cell LiFePO4 batteries.

Ignition will be powered by a , a 2100mAh 30C 2 cell LiFePO4 via an AGM heavy duty switch and Rcexl kill switch.

The Capiche looks to be fairly standard construction but unusually has pull-pull control on rudder and seperate elevator halves.

 

Edited By Gary Manuel on 08/02/2018 16:28:36

[ken anderson.]

nice photo of the box there Gary..

ken Anderson...ne..1...box dept.

[john stones 1 - Moderator]

Love your box picy.

Bob had a big Capiche, not sure if it was 50cc.

[Martyn K]

I love these big builds. Following.

I can imagine that if I cam home with one of these, i would be placed inside said box with the contents inserted where the sun don't shine..

[Adrian Smith 1]

Glad to see you took the plunge with the 50cc Capiche, Gary. If it flies anything like the two smaller versions from Weston you will not be disappointed! I had the Capiche 140 (still got it) and it is brilliant the way you can throw it around. Plus pound for pound it is the best value around for a 50cc aircraft. I am tuned in matey

[Gary Manuel]

Carbon fibre spinner ordered.

[Gary Manuel]

One thing that kept niggling me was that the firewall and the cowl are pre-drilled, resulting in there being no adjustment of the engine mounting position. I was concerned about whether the engine mounting holes would be in the right position on the firewall for my engine and whether the engine prop shaft would be in the centre of the cowl opening. I just had to try it before starting the build proper.

Engine loosely fitted to the firewall using the AGM supplied stand-offs.

It sort of fits, but doesn't quite feel right. The holes in the firewall appear to be slightly too close together, resulting in the stand-offs angling inwards.

The stand-offs are not quite flush at the firewall. This is something I'll need to sort out later to avoid putting unnecessary forces onto the engine mounting lugs. It looks like some or all of the holes in the firewall will need elongating a little.

It will be OK for now to allow me to check the fit at the front of the cowl though.

The engine sits nicely within the cowl without touching at any point.

Looks like it's bang on.

Perfectly on the centre line .....

.... and the clearance between cowl and prop driver is as expected. Happy with that.

Edited By Gary Manuel on 09/02/2018 17:29:21

[Rich too]

Nice one Gary, sub’d.

[Adrian Smith 1]

What was the courier charge, Gary if I may ask?

[Gary Manuel]

Posted by Adrian Smith 1 on 10/02/2018 11:46:00:

What was the courier charge, Gary if I may ask?

I bought it directly from Weston UK, who do free delivery on orders over £200.

See PM Adrian.

[Adrian Smith 1]

Thanks, Gary. I have PM you back. Adrian

[Gary Manuel]

I've been a bit busy today, so I've not actually "done" anything, but I did have a look at the engine box area with a view to planning ahead for battery / ignition / canister fitting at a later date.

Everything looks well - in fact I am really impressed at how much thought has gone into the design.

On every other model I've owned, the engine box is symmetrical along the vertical axis of the fuselage. This means that the engine has to be offset to the port side to compensate for the right thrust in order that the prop shaft exits the cowl on the vertical centre line.

Weston have gone to the trouble of offsetting the entire engine box and mounting the engine exactly in the centre of the firewall. This results in much more space being available on the starboard side of the engine box for equipment mounting. Nice one Weston!

[iqon]

You want a pillow ?

[Gary Manuel]

Posted by iqon on 10/02/2018 18:35:03:

You want a pillow ?

Won't be of much use to me once I'm in a box.

Edited By Gary Manuel on 10/02/2018 19:52:01

[Former Member]

[This posting has been removed]

[cymaz]

Watching !!

[Gary Manuel]

Posted by Tom Sharp 2 on 10/02/2018 21:22:12:

is that paint on your trousers or something more exotic.

Ectoplasm.

[Adrian Smith 1]

Does the Capiche 50cc have a carbon fibre U/C, Gary? My old Capiche 140 has a dural type U/C and apart from bending the paint was not really practical after a while.

Looking at the engine box pictures you post I would say it would lend itself well to an electric conversion. Something I might consider at some point.

[Gary Manuel]

Yes Adrian - Main undercarriage is a nice quality single piece aerofoil section carbon affair. Tail wheel assembly is also carbon fibre.

[Gary Manuel]

Time to fit the engine and check the canister / header alignment.

The trial fit I had earlier suggested that the pre-cut holes in the firewall may need elongating. I realised later that the problem may have been something to do with the triangular reinforcing stock on the rear of the firewall. I need to do something with it anyway in order that the oversized washers will fit.

This is what the triangular stock looks like to start with. The hole is very close to it.

Trusty Dremel to the rescue ......

..... with a cut-off wheel on the inside of the engine box.

Recess cut to accommodate the oversized washer .....

..... like this.

A bit fiddly to do but well worth the effort.

The engine now fits directly into the original pre-cut holes without any tweaking. I can therefore confirm that an AGM-55 (or DLE-55) will fit perfectly into this airframe.

Edited By Gary Manuel on 11/02/2018 16:19:16

[Gary Manuel]

The canister silencer and header were then loosely fitted. I needed to trim 12mm off the end of the header to get them to fit.

The next two photos reveal a bit of a problem which will need to be addressed before I go any further with the silencer fitting. Note that although the alignment looks OK, the first and this next photo are taken with the model upside down on my model stand. The canister is therefore resting with the top surface (bottom in photos) in direct contact with the wooden mounting rings.

With the model on its side this photo shows that the alignment between the header and properly centred canister is out by about 5mm along the vertical axis. i.e. the drop needs to be increased by 5mm.

Note that the header is also angled down slightly with respect to the canister.

The header needs bending down by 5mm to achieve proper alignment. I'll do a bit of research and contact Weston UK tomorrow for advice on doing this without damaging the header pipe or ruining the heat treatment that it's had.

I also need to order some silicone tubing to make up the twelve canister suspension inserts to fit the slots in the three wooden mounting rings.

[Denis Watkins]

They use pipe bending springs Gary, that fit the pipe internal diameter exactly, to prevent the tube collapsing.

Old tricks involved plugging the ends of the pipe, cork or dowel, and filling with sand.

Or surprisingly, filling with water and freezing the assembly prior to correction bending

[Gary Manuel]

Hi Denis.

I'm familiar with pipe bending springs. I have a 15mm one I've used many times on copper pipes for plumbing. I've even used the sand trick for bending a 22mm coper pipe - although it did kink a bit as I remember.

It's bending aluminium (or whatever the header is made from) that I'm not sure about. Do I heat it? How much heat? Do I quench it or let it cool slowly? etc.

[john stones 1 - Moderator]

I would leave the header for now, once cans dropped might the joiner take up the misalignment.