combatpigg

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Just when you thought all the SWRs that could be built, had been built.....look what pops up. DeHavilland made some interesting looking planes, but I always thought their VooDoo / Vampires looked like clunkers. There is a pretty cool looking model out by Weston UK of the Vampire that spurred me on to trying a SWR version.
I tried first to do a glass over foam fuselage, but it didn't turn out very good, so I made another foam pattern to chop up and make templates out of for a traditional wood job.
The planking is 1/8" x 1/4" balsa and it was very easy to work in.

Raymond LeFlyr

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Chriminy Chuck,

You're just gonna have to start making time for your hobby. You know what they say, "all work and no play . . . " Hmm, come to think about it, what do they say about, "all play . . . "?

combatpigg

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Raymond, I just place a call to "Labor Ready" for general laborers and for $5.50 an hour they can get quite a bit done. I sit back, monitor their work and sip Yukon Jack.

Raymond LeFlyr

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Wow! $5.50 huh? I don't get near that much around here.

BTW I forgot to tell you that your work (as usual) is pretty darn neat.

combatpigg

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Thankyou Sir. It's not so easy to see the little marks on the ruler any more.

I didn't like the looks of the first empennage, the booms were too flimsy and the control surfaces looked too small. I used real tough 1/4" balsa for the new booms and real light 1/4" balsa for the stabilator. By the time the stab is airfoiled, there isn't much heft to it. The trick will be doing a halfway clean job of rigging it to a servo.
Next steps will be mounting the wing to the lower fuselage and mounting the upper hatch too.
The exhaust duct and fuel cell need to be figured out, also.

forsakenrider

Do you plan on landing belly-up or dirty cyclon?

Mr Cox

Tall grass...

combatpigg

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The only times they get dirty is if you hit a mole hill, cow patty, or just crash......then it doesn't matter how the engine is mounted. Most of the time flying over grass [hay] is pretty clean. When the hay is chest high, the planes can be tough to find after touchdown....then it is good to tow a streamer.

combatpigg

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Here's some more rough carpentry. The exhaust duct is done with 1/32" ply and the fuel cell is installed with a balsa tunnel that leads out into the open. I've put some 600 degree JB WELD marine formula on order to glass the exhaust tunnel with, it's a new product to me. If it works there, it might be the answer to my failed backplate pressure taps on AMEs.
Next hurdle is to mount the wing and top hatch.
This project is fun because it is full of little challenges to make things that will fit and work together that other designs don't have.

Remby

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That wing is thin, you must like quick, flyby landings. How fast do you think will this one be? Twin servo setup? Wow, small for a engine that "big", must be getting close to the limit of prop driven model speed ability.

All this talk about hay, I did not know it grew there this time of the year. Won't see any here for five months or so.

Your model has a fresh look, lots of ideas tossed together, and it looks new, and yet one could almost remember seeing one before. Thats a neat trick.

Looks great, need some pictures of it finished when you get her there!

combatpigg

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Remby, the landing approaches take practice to nail down to where they are "at your feet". I'm happy if they are within 50-100 feet. Thankfully I fly off of a huge field.

These models look and sound faster than they really are, it's safe to say they do over 100 but look like 150.

.40 size models that actually do 150 seem like dogs after flying a smaller .061 Cyclon powered model.

The 1/2A C/L speed record is over 150, so there is room for improvement here. This is hopefully the year that I get sound recordings to have dopplered to find out how fast they really go.

These planes are the most fun when you fly them in front of guys who haven't seen 1/2A of any kind in the last 20 years, they are the ones who get a charge out of it.

combatpigg

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Here is some more evidence that 1/2A modeling isn't completely dead on the West Coast. At the last minute before covering I thought about tapering the wing down....more like the full size plane.....but lazyness prevailed. A scale wing would have about 2 inch wide tips. These photos were taken on the back deck at dark with a 250 watt porch light, I like the contrast compared with shots taken indoors.
Still waiting for a replacement engine to arrive, then the fuselage work can continue.

kersplat

[X(]With a Cyclon up front, it should "FLH"

combatpigg

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Confuscious say it is better to FLH than to FLS .......learn a lesson from Confuscious and a half hour later you are stupid again....
Confuscious say he who go to bed with itchy butt, wake up with..........

gabe200

My Feedback: (21)

thats nice is the wing sheet balsa i see youre going to use the famos bladder what else

combatpigg

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Hi Gabe...yes the wing is a solid sheet of balsa with a spruce spar.

jeffie8696

Sweet plane, don't forget the video.

combatpigg

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Thanks Jeffie, I'll try.