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Aero-naut A-10


Gary Binnie
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  • 1 month later...

A small update, some painting done.

 

It's got to the time of year when I shift from competition practise flying to sport flying, I haven't got a lot of flyable sport models at the moment so thought I should finish this one off as it's almost there.

 

Masked, primed and de-nibbed with 600 grit paper. The wing and canopy aren't sitting properly in the photos because of masking tape.

 

Despite the newspaper I always manage to overspray the bench!

 

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Thought that I had run out of grey paint but I found another can in the shed, yay!

 

Sprayed all the upper surfaces but left the underside in primer to save weight.

 

Pencilled on some rudimentary flying controls, flaps, slats and panel lines.

 

Brush painted the wheels, canopy and gun barrels matt black (Humbrol 33).

 

Was about to ice the cake with the supplied waterslide decals but the first one broke up, old age I suppose.

 

I could scan and print what's left but they would be shiny, the centres would need to be cut out (tricky) and the colour would fade very quickly (non-genuine ink cartridges).

 

Current weight without props but with the battery is 1,260 grammes. Not set the CG yet. The wing loading for the slope will be about 17 oz sq ft which is the same as my Phase 6.

 

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Looked at the CG first thing today, the instructions don't state the CG, it's on the plan. The range is 78 to 82 mm so I went mad and set it in the middle at 80mm!

 

I added 60 grammes of noseweight, wrapped in a poly bag and foam. With hindsight the two speed controllers could have been placed further forward under the canopy, also more accessible there. As there is no power switch I will need to remove the wing each time to access the power wires, if the battery was reversed (wires pointing toward the nose) it would be more convenient.

 

Removing the props moves the CG forwards by 3 or 4mm.

 

I set the elevator throw at +/- 6mm with some exponential, not sure how effective it will be in the propwash, could be twitchy.

 

Connected the ailerons using salvaged park flyer links, didn't measure the throws (used TLAR, that looks about right!) and set some differential. Differential is mentioned in the instructions, that it would have been automatic with the snake and bellcrank arrangement, I've just guessed!

 

Had a search for USAF decals in this scale but didn't find much, I tried one coat of banana oil/amyl acetate over the remaining water slides to strengthen them, a test on a scrap piece of the sheet has worked so I'm hopeful.

 

1. Setting up the balance point, with a small model like this I place it on the jig, tape a poly bag to the nose and add lead until the fuselage tips level. Stuff the bag in the nose, done! Sometimes I make the bag underweight and have easily accessible trim weights  that can be removed at the field (if needed) after the first flights.

 

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2 and 3. Connecting the ailerons, radio switched on, subtrim at zero, aileron taped at the trailing edge. Made a new Z bend, cut off the excess, done. I used the middle hole of the three on the horn for a good range of movement.

 

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4. Should mention that I didn't use this plastic part (circled in red). It is non scale and is glued to the lower fuselage level with the cockpit, I think the idea is that if you landed without wheels on tarmac etc there would be three points of contact (this bump and the plastic main wheel halves) saving the balsa from damage. 

 

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It flies!

 

Quick range check and a further check of the controls working in the right direction, I spotted the aileron differential was reversed so I removed it completely.

 

For reasons unknown my flying buddy wasn't on the field today so I had to launch it myself.

 

I launched at half power with my arm outstretched and slightly nose up (to give ground clearance if it decided to dive).

 

It sailed away straight ahead, climbing at the same attitude I released it at. No trim needed at all, the elevator response feels good as do the ailerons.

 

Had to concentrate on orientation as it's a slightly strange shape and today's grey cloud just made it a black silhouette.

 

Tried full power briefly and flew a loop from level flight followed by a roll going downwind (which was quite axial).

 

There was a small amount of fishtailing and wing rocking, it was quite gusty, beyond its limits probably.

 

I had two goes at landing, it's quite slippery and I was way too high for the first attempt. It stopped dead in the grass, the gun caught and was ripped off, opening a small hole in the nose cone. I half expected that would happen.

 

Flight time was just over 5 minutes with 3.9V remaining in each cell, I will recharge it now to find out how many milliamps it used.

 

  Cheers

 

      Gary

 

 

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