west6008

Just wanted to display my winter project I flew for the first time yesterday.
Its scaled up from a British Veron rubber power kit .
Span is 50" , weight 42 oz, powered by an OS .10
It is well behaved, and the only thing tricky I found is that it skids
while recovering from right turns...could be that it has rudder and
elevator and no ailerons.
I didnt want ailerons because I feel they cut down wing efficiency.
Maybe I was right because I got it into a thermal after it ran out of fuel
It has no landing gear and does nice belly landings on the snow

combatpigg

My Feedback: (3)

Nice looking model! It could be fun to sort the right turn problem out. I'm guessing more dihedral is needed. Make sure that the lateral balance is checked. The fore and aft CG should be easy to look at with a hands off dive test. Those guys in the aerodynamics forum could be of some help. One of those guys "over there" helped design the F-4 Phantom.

I don't see why that plane can't fly like a champ with a little bit of detective work. I built a similar plane with marginal dihedral, R/E and it flew like you describe yours' does. After retrofitting it with ailerons, it flys 100% better.

BMatthews

Definetly a lack of dihedral. To get a low wing model to turn well from rudder you'll need an unsightly amount of dihedral. In fact from the pics I'd say you're luck it's flying in a controllable manner at all. On the other hand the model looks great!

Any chance of adding ailerons?

AlphaWhisky

That`s a great little project. About thirty years ago I did a similar job on a Keil Kraft rubber powered FW190. In this instance I left off a few of the spindly stringers and planked the whole thing in 1/32" balsa strips, installed a Cox .049 and flew it controlline.

I`m currently thinking of doing something similar to your project based on an old Veron DH Chipmunk kit that has been gathering dust here for the past 25 odd years i.e. increase the size and install r/c and three functions - ailerons, elevator and throttle. What is the finish on your model i.e is it planked with sheet balsa or just plastic film or similar over the original stringer format....?

Curious.

Alan W

Hueydriver

Nice machine....is the Veron kit or repro still available (I'd love to build the rubber model)

I had a similar experience with a 1/2A rudder/elevator only CAC 12 Boomerang that I scratch built many years ago. The moments between the Harvard and the Boomerang were very similar (the real aircraft shared many of the same components), but increasing dihedral on a partially swept wing can make it really drop the nose in a rudder-only turn.....it's also twitchy in pitch. Not uncontrollable, but a bit disconcerning at first.

NB, there's nothing better than watching a scale machine thermal!!!!!

west6008

The Harvard is just like its rubber powered ancestor, uses spruce for the fuselage stringers.
The fuselage is planked to the canopy, and the wing center section is built into the fuselage,
with the the wings joined by steel rods and tubing. The wood is painted with Sig Cub Yellow
which matches the Super Monokote.
Veron plans and printwood, last I heard, are being sold by the original designer.
I got this address from Mike Stuart's excellent website in the UK.

Phil Smith : Write to him at 32 Verwood Crescent, Southbourne, Bournmouth, BH6 4JE for an illustrated list (£1 plus 30p postage).

I found the technique for right turns--dive a bit first.

I had a REALLY close call with the Harvard yesterday, the rudder hinges broke off while
I was doing a tailspin !!
Just before it broke off, I had enough steering to head back from over deep woods,
and managed a hot landing just in front of another patch of woods. No damage.
I had a nice evening walk to find the rudder, and was amazed to find the 1/2 " Dubro
hinges broken at the hinge line.
In many years of using these hinges, I've never seen that--I've had them pull out, but
NEVER just snapped off. I tried breaking one and it was a fight using 2 pairs of pliers.
I like doing spins because I used to watch Harvards doing spins over our farm in the 50's,
but now I'm scared to try any more.
I was throttled right back, with full left rudder and full up elevator. The controls dont bind.
The fin is solid to the fuselage.
Maybe theres a lot more stress on the tail during a spin than I thought?

Hueydriver

"Veron plans and printwood, last I heard, are being sold by the original designer.
I got this address from Mike Stuart's excellent website in the UK.

Phil Smith : Write to him at 32 Verwood Crescent, Southbourne, Bournmouth, BH6 4JE for an illustrated list ("

Wilco, West 6008. I've done some e-mail exchanges with Mike and have a Comper Swift on his website http://www.ffscale.co.uk/comp_app4.htm
Were the Harvards based out of Summerside in the 50's? We used to fly Hueys from Shearwater in and out of there during the 80's for IFR training.

west6008

The Harvards I remember as a kid were east of Calgary where on one memorable occasion
my Dad was driving me and my little brother along in our 1947 Plymouth when we were
passed by 2 Harvards 50 ft overhead which made an impression!

We were in the low flying area I guess

Thomas B

My Feedback: (4)

Great little Harvard, there.

The ability of your Harvard to thermal is much more about weight and wing loading than the tiny, if any, loss of wing efficiency caused by adding ailerons.

An interesting experiment would be to build another wing, identical, except for adding ailerons. The new wing can have exact scale dihedral.

With good construction techniques, and care taken to have a close fitting hinge line and and minimal gaps, the new version will thermal as well as the other, and turn much more effectively.

I have a small 24" AT-6 electric model and it requires coordinated turns with rudder to turn best. This is partly due to it being a parkflyer with an indercambered airfoil.