DB Sport and Scale Auster J1 Autocrat

[Danny Fenton]

Thanks Alan, I love working in wood.

A bit more done, now this is a real chore to me, I hate fitting radio and linkages, a real struggle for me.

I made a slight error in that I mounted the aileron servo after I had figured out where the horn would be. ended up having to put a bend in the pushrod, not enough to be a problem, but enough to upset my OCD.

First a couple of shots of the flap completed but not yet fitted. Now I know how I am going to mount the servos I will position the horns accordingly.

 

 

The linkage may look a bit Heath-Robinson, but there is not much slop and wont blow back, as I said I hate doing linkages.

 

 

 

 

There is bags of deflection and the aileron is still detachable for covering.

 

Cheers

Danny

Edited February 23, 2021 by Danny Fenton

[Danny Fenton]

corrected my error on the aileron and mounted the servo first. As you can see I do not make my servos removable.

 

The flap is now fitted and works well, over the full 100-150-200ms gives full travel, on the innermost hole on the servo arm.

 

The horn on the flap surface is quite short, to avoid those pesky rear spars, so blowback may be a concern, seems fine, but I think avoiding serious amounts of flap at anything other than an idling glide is asking for trouble, just like the full size.

 

no flap

 

 

About 20 degrees

 

 

Full flaps, should be around 51 degrees for scale. I have a friend whose wife had an Auster 5 until recently and he said full flaps was never needed.

 

 

This piccy shows the view from inside, but is before the horn has been added, just to give you an idea. Might be an awkward sod to cover as the flap is permanently fixed in place.

 

Did anybody have information on the position of their Rx? and how to gain access to the tank?

 

Cheers

Danny

Edited February 24, 2021 by Danny Fenton

[Eric Robson]

Hi Danny, I can't help much with the access to the tank but my Me 109 with a Saito 125 is prone to flooding with the tank being too high. I bought it second hand ,  it had not been flown and  the bulkhead had been cut away for the rear exhaust on a petrol engine. I am going to go for a chicken hopper system to lower the feed pipe It is ok once running but if I fill the tank then don't start it right away the fuel comes out of  the carb (messy stuff) but nice sound and good flight times. With modern fuels the tank should need very little attention no gumming up nowadays and if mounted secure with the pipes not stretched you should be alright. I always fit an inline filter between the tank and carb in an accessible position and a filter in the fuel can . I would imagen the tank on the Auster to be in front of the dash and you will be detailing the cab so making access limited. I would think the RX would fit near the tank but any where accessible would be fine don't forget to wrap it in foam so any leads that need to be disconnected for transport are easy to get to. I hope this helps 

Cheers Eric.   

[Danny Fenton]

Thanks for responding Eric, all useful information. Usually we can remove a wing and have access to the inside, however with this high wing cabin model, with as you rightly say a detailed cockpit I reckon my only course of action is a hatch underneath, directly inline with the exhaust ?

Is it feasible to put the Rx and batts in the cowl?

 

Cheers

Danny

[Danny Fenton]

Planed and sanded the entire wing to shape, you were right DD a great deal of wingtip wood ended up as shavings. A very odd wingtip shape, but that's how the full size is.

 

 

 

 

And repeat..........................

[Eric Robson]

 The Brian Taylor Tempest I am building recommends the battery mounted under the tank bay, I have not decided weather to f it a Laser 100 or go electric with the same set up as the Fury they both weigh the same , but either will be a lot heavier than the Merco 60 in the original so I will put the battery inside the fuselage. Putting the RX and batts in the cowl is ok but wrap them in polythene as there is always a mist of fuel around the cowl. 

Cheers Eric.

[Dwain Dibley.]

I made the switch look like the step on the full size if that helps with the switch position..

[Dwain Dibley.]

Made a hatch here. The tank seems to be inaccessible. 

Hatch for servos and switch.

[Danny Fenton]

Thanks DD, great pics, and gives me food for thought.

 

Cheers

Danny

[Dwain Dibley.]

The rx is under that hatch as well mate. I think I put the battery underneath behind the engine.

D.D.

[Danny Fenton]

Not absolutely certain, as i really wanted a silver and maroon Auster, but this one I really like....

 

 

Cheers

Danny

[Dwain Dibley.]

The Cream Dream. ?. Nice tho.

D.D.

[Danny Fenton]

How did you do the exhaust DD? Quite fancy making something scale up, how easy is it, and can it be done with silver solder, and copper pipe, flexi, or does it need some thing in steel and welding?

 

Cheers

Danny

[Dwain Dibley.]

Hi Danny, I didn't go that far Mate, sorry. I did a scalish cockpit and paint scheme. I would imagine it would be easy enough, I created a scale exhaust on the B.T. Cessna using an old Heli boom. LOL

I am sat here at work (dinner Hour) looking at your blog, and I was just thinking about doing another Auster, but this time electric.

I loved the last one, painted, if you remember, in the Army Air Corps Colours, using warbirds colours paints.

D.D.

[Danny Fenton]

4 hours ago, Dwain Dibley. said:

Hi Danny, I didn't go that far Mate, sorry. I did a scalish cockpit and paint scheme. I would imagine it would be easy enough, I created a scale exhaust on the B.T. Cessna using an old Heli boom. LOL

I am sat here at work (dinner Hour) looking at your blog, and I was just thinking about doing another Auster, but this time electric.

I loved the last one, painted, if you remember, in the Army Air Corps Colours, using warbirds colours paints.

D.D.

When I looked the other day DB Sport and Scale had one in stock ?

 

Cheers

Danny

Edited February 25, 2021 by Danny Fenton

[Basil]

Dwain, love your on/off switch. Really creative thinking.Mind if I pinch your idea.

Bas

[Danny Fenton]

Started the port wing, well rude not to.....

The fit of the ribs on the main spar is too tight, this was the same on the starboard wing and I put up with it, but actually it caused issues with alignment and builds stresses into the wing, so on this wing I sanded the spar a very tiny amount to make it thinner. The ribs were stil snug, but not now tight.

One thing I have struggled with for years is cutting 36 inch long strips on a cutting mat that was shorter than this. Usually I move the wood/ruler/blade along, why the hell didn't I think of this before, lay a second cutting mat alongside the first!!! Doh....

 

On with the wing, I didn't mention on the first panel that the rear spar should be packed with 1/16 shims, not mentioned in the instructions.

 

 

Then the upper spars added, and the leading edge, which in my kit is as hard as oak!!

 

 

Another thing that caught me out on the first wing panel was the distance between the root rib and rib 1. When it came time to fit the wing retaining assemblies they were an awful fit, the gap between the ribs was at least 6mm too big and packing pieces were required. Also the provided wing sheeting for the first bay was too narrow. The plan is incorrect.

 

 

So set the distance from the root rib to rib one using the retaining assembly ? As you can see it is a way inside the line.

 

Cheers

Danny

 

 

Edited February 25, 2021 by Danny Fenton

[Dwain Dibley.]

2 hours ago, Basil said:

Dwain, love your on/off switch. Really creative thinking. Mind if I pinch your idea.

Bas

Help yourself Basil. ?

D.D.

[Andy Sephton 1]

Finally found the thread Danny ... looking good if I may say so.  However, given that more Austers were produced with flat four engines, I would have preferred to see one of those modelled.  And yes, I know I have a vested interest! ?

 

[Chris Bott - Moderator]

On 14/02/2021 at 16:41, Chris Bott - Moderator said:

Adding text between pics, when you've uploaded them they sit at the bottom of the page but there's a + (plus) button for each one. Hit that to place it in your typed thread. I guess it goes where you left the cursor.

For anyone doing build blogs with a series of photos, we've found an option which allows resizing, should you wish.

After you've hit the + button as above, and added your photo where you want it, double click it to see more options. 
Here, I've selected 500 as the display width. The full size pic is available to blog readers too.

 

[David Davis]

52 minutes ago, Andy Sephton 1 said:

Finally found the thread Danny ... looking good if I may say so.  However, given that more Austers were produced with flat four engines, I would have preferred to see one of those modelled.  And yes, I know I have a vested interest! ?

 

 

Ah a white one! I may not have to finish mine as one of these!

 

 

Edited February 26, 2021 by David Davis
Typo

[Danny Fenton]

That white one is Andy's wife's Auster, well until recently that is. Andy very kindly sent me loads of detailed pictures of Kilo Xray, and of course being a modeller he knew exactly what to photograph. I am sure if you want a copy of the set he could be persuaded ? 

I think Andy is taking the picture from his Jodel, of Jacqui flying her Auster. Lovely picture and I bet it is framed on his wall at home.

 

I was asked by a forumite to explain how the hinging works on my Auster. The technique is often used by Brian Taylor to great effect, I first saw it on his 70" Hurricane plan.

The idea is to use  short lengths of copper tube which is a close fit to a length of piano wire. The copper tube sections are fitted at the root and tip of the aileron, directly on the pivot line.

 

But first maybe I should back up a bit. And explain how I modified the aileron on my Auster.

 

 

Here you can see the full size ailerons are of the friese type. This means that as the aileron trailing edge lifts it projects a lump of aileron leading edge into the airflow under the wing. This lump induces drag. This drag means that the upgoing aileron/down going wing has more drag, and the aircraft is yawed around keeping the turn balanced. If you didn't have friese ailerons then you would need a lot of rudder to balance a turn.

 

So if we look at the root or tip of the aileron, it is easier at the root you will see the leading edge is radiused from a point at the lower surface. 

 

 

Here you can see the radius, the hinge point, and the rear wing spars are curved to fill in some of the upper gap between the wing and aileron.

 

 

Here is the plan of the aileron on the DB Auster. You can see that the ailerons are flat fronted, and some mylar hinge material is used to form the hinge.

 

If you use a compass to form an arc that radiuses the leading edge (dotted line) and then find the centre of the arc, that is the hinge point.

If you look further up you will see the hinge point on the full size is a long way back from the leading edge too.

 

I built the aileron as is and added more wood, but you could equally design a new aileron around that hinge point.

 

 

Transfer the hinge point to your newly shaped aileron, X marks the spot.

 

 

Make a smallish hole using the piano wire you will use for your hinge. You have to have a steady hand, and must get the hole in exactly the same spot on the root and the tip.

 

 

Clamp the aileron in position in the aileron opening of the wing and using a short piece of the same size piano wire, use the holes in the ailerons to poke through the adjacent ribs.

 

Run the long piano wire through the adjacent tip rib, tip aileron, root aileron, and root adjacent rib. Test that it swings nicely with a nice close gap, but doesn't rub, throughout upward and downward travel. It will be sloppy without bearings but you will be able to tell.

 

If its good, slide the short lengths of close fitting brass tube onto the piano wire, and after opening the holes up slightly, slid into position.

 

Once everything is lined up, a tiny drop of thin CA on the tube sticking through the balsa will lock the tube in place. really go easy, any CA gets inside the tube you are in trouble. Once tacked remove the piano wire and with it safely out the way use a bit more CA to ensure a solid bond. This CA loves gluing brass and alloy to balsa, and I find the balsa will break first.

 

I hope that has helped explain it further, I may actually have made it even more murky. If so let me know and i will make a mock-up.

 

Cheers

Danny

 

 

 

 

Edited February 26, 2021 by Danny Fenton

[David Davis]

I see that Andy's Auster has a flat windscreen, like VH-MBB. I'd always assumed that flat windscreens were fitted when the original curved windscreen was no longer serviceable and that the flat windscreen was a cheaper option than an OEM replacement. I also assume that the registration letters on Andy's aircraft are painted beneath the port wing in red. Am I correct on both counts or were flat windscreens available as a factory option?

 

My model will not be as authentic as your's Danny, besides I was given it 9/10s built! The windscreen remains to be fitted and I had planned to finish mine as VH-KSB if I made a good job of the windscreen or as VH-MBB if I made a horlicks of it! Kilo-Xray is now another possibility. I'll probably go with the scruffy-looking option if I cannot get the windscreen to fit, that way any minor faults in my construction can be blamed on authenticity!  

 

However, work on the Auster will be delayed because the fuselage and tailplane of my Big Guff vintage model went up in a LiPo fire on St Valentine's Day and I've been persuaded by club colleagues to build a replacement. One of them is even building a new tailplane for me so I feel obliged to get on with that. Picture of it in its prime with your humble servant. 

[Danny Fenton]

Hi David, I think that you seeing a flat screen on Jacqui's Auster is an optical illusion. I think its still curved but in three sections?

I hadn't noticed it until you pointed it out.

 

Even Grangers three view shows the screen as in three pieces.

 

 

 

Cheers

Danny

 

 

[Danny Fenton]

A bit repetitive, but progress. About to do the capping strips on the port wing upper side, then it can be lifted from the board.

 

 

Cheers

Danny