Since my last post, have had 11 flights and all has worked well. Weather has been terrible here , even last night had wooley hat and two jumpers on, nearly got the gloves out, wind quite strong but amazingly down the runway. Flew 3 nights ago, wind was evil and full 90 degs across runway, thought would give it a go and had 2 flights and was really lucky to have 2 landings, wind was so violent, called it a day in end, credit goes to model, last landing was with power on full flap, 90 degrees across the runway at no more than walking pace.
The ball bearing restrictor in the up line works great, gear looks scale like and softly enters the wheel bays.
The nose gear extension system has worked well and the trick with the 3 in1 spray oil with PTFE content seems to have cured all my air leaks on nose retract cylinder. (o ring rolling over)
The smoke system is working slightly better now, i am using a piece of brass tube one size bigger than my original setup ( I think it was 3mm RS tube), but have crimped the tube vertically this time, not hoizontally at the end, and not quite at the end. I left the end round and the crimp starts about 8 to 10 mm from the end and crimped down to .015 thou. I am using the last of my MT smoke fluid ( about 3/4 liter) mixed with regular diesiel and I am getting good results. Found some food colouring in the kitchen and tried a test tank with some red mixed in, but it doesnt mix properly and made no difference. I tried a powered dye that you use for dying clothes, but the powder dosnt want to mix with diesel and when you pump it into the tank, the felt filter extracts the dye and powder and you just get clean diesel in the tank. I tried without a filter, but it just cloggs the fuel pump. I know that dyes are normally injected directly into the jet exhaust and not mixed. Anyone with any experience of this.
A dozen or so flights ago I noticed that i was pulling more noticeably in the turns. I checked the C G of the model and found i was quite nose heavy. I repositioned the batteries and set the CG correctly. What a difference this has made.
To improve the CG even further, for take off, I wanted to fit the smoke tank in the rear section, instead of under the canopy area, just below the engine starter motor. I found that the hand wash , Cussons Carex from Sainsburys 99p, refill bottles, hold 250 mls, which is about 30 secs of smoke, would just about fit in here. I had to repair my engine mount area when it cracked recently, and fitted a balsa block in the rear of this bay, so the bottle was just too long and hindered the rear spar tube. Iam sure that your fuselarges will accept the bottle. I did a water pressure test and found these bottles fail at around 60 psi, so it is no good for my forced air smoke pressure system, so abandoned the idea for the moment, but would be good for anyone looking for additional fuel behind the CG or a conventional smoke system with electric pump.
I tried my flycamone2 inflight video recorder again and had nothing but problems with it. You might recall a spent a lot of time experimenting with this camera and got so good results, but now it has deteriorated the same as most other peoples. I spent a few hours investigating the problems, i think i have cracked it. My last 4 flights recorded perfectly and camera hasnt missed a beat. I cant make it fail, so if you have one, belive me, a lot of people have spent a lot of time to come up with a fix, so read here for more info. Not saying that my fix is the 100% answer, but from being an expensive mantel piece ornament, it is now a fully working piece of equipment in the field box.
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_68...tm.htm#7876612
Happy flying, cheers Tim