bem

My Feedback: (1)

Hi,
I got the MK tailwheels yesterday. It is tiny, 24 mm diameter, and it has an O-ring as tyre.
I selected to use the tyre from the MK wheel on the original Oxai blue tailwheel rim since the Oaxi rim has deeper mounting for the tyre/O-ring and the O-ring will have less chance to come of the rim then.


Blue Oxai rim with MK tyre.



I bought 5 MK tailwheels so I have spare "tyres" now.
I'm little tired of the Oxai tailwheel, if it will be any more problem with it I will replace it with something better and more reliable.

While I hade the fuselage upside down on the model stand I also took some photos of the dents on the stab leading edge and underside, not a pretty sight. It is about same amount of damage/dents on both stabs.


As I said before in this thread the surface on Galacitika paint/clear coat is very frigile. A plastic film covered stab do not get such damage/dents.
I think I try to find plastic film in similar orange color as used on Galactika on some of the stripes and make some nice cover on leading edge stretching little deeper on underside stab.
Since the stab has curved leading edge ordinary plastic like Oracover "orastick" or "orafilm" can be tricky to adhere without wrinkles so probably better to use ordinary plastic film and iron it on despite it is paint on the surface.

/Bo

bem

My Feedback: (1)

Hi,
Up next in the flying is Swedish Championships F3A July 9-10.
I will be Contest Director (and also compete in F3A class).
It is at the same time national contest in the Advanced class (A-18 Schedule used, named N-17 that is slightly modified A-18) that is named "Nordic" class here in Nordic countries. If we get enough flyers (minimum 3) in "Sport" class we will also run that.
It will also be "Border Cup" (or perhaps "Borderline Cup" in English) that is an "open" contest at this contest. From abroad mostly Norwegian flyers use to participate in this contest, and the Swedish flyers of course.
It will be a challenge for the computation team since it is so much going on at the same contest.

So I will keep practicing now and prepare for the contest.

/Bo

bem

My Feedback: (1)

Hi,
It was a while since anyting was written in this thread.
The Swedish Championship in F3A and Nordic(slightly modified Advanced A-18 named N-17 here) classes is now finished, and Borderline Cup in both classes was also held at the same time.
Swedish Champion 2016 in F3A class was Anders Johansson, Linkopingeskaderns model flying club. National Champion 2016 in Nordic class was Tomas Johansson, Linkopingeskaderns model flying club. Winner of Borderline Cup 2016 F3A was Ola Fremming from Norway, Tonsberg model flying club. Winner of Borderline Cup 2016 Nordic was Espen Kvien from Norway, Vingtor RC Club. Photos of the medalists below.

Some info about the event below, that might be of interest also for other people then from Sweden and Norway.

Preparation:

I was Contest Director at this competition. Hosting club for the event was Karlstads model flying club and their grass model flying field was used.
As Contest Director it was rather much to do, for example:
- Planning the event together with the hosting club and establish safety rules for the contest, flying sectors (two sectors was used), officials needed, food for competitors, snacks etc for public, parking areas for cars and caravans/tents, outline of pit, public area, safety lines etc on the model flying field.
- Measure of the flying sectors to be used and place the poles in middle and ends in each sector (poles was 2 meter long x 2 for total 4 meter plastic drain-pipe tubes 10 cm diameter that was painted white-red for one sector and white-green for the second sector).
- Scoring computers and power source for them. Two laptops (one as spare) with scoring application installed, MultiRes application was used http://www.pekkalan-paja.fi/multires
All powered from 12 volt 95 Ah AGM battery with inverter (pure sinus wave), and color printer. Database for scoring application running directly from USB 3.0 SSD external disk (easy to connect to spare laptop if first laptop would fail).
- Judge binders with judge protocols etc. Chairs for the judges, and storm umbrellas.
- Sunshield for the pilot and for the judges (the sun was in the flying sector for about two hours AM before leaving the sector).
- Scoreboard, various signs and banner on the field, signs at roads guiding the competitors and public to the contest site.
- Contact media and give them info about the contest and inviting them to the contest. (It later resulted in two articles in local newspaper before and after contest, and a webb-TV interview at the contest.)
- PA system with wireless microphone so info to competitors and to spectators could be made.
Etc.


The competition:

Day 1 (July 9):
It was a two days event, July 9-10 with practice flights on Friday July 8.
Perfect weather in sunshine with light to moderate winds, just a short perion of dark clouds late in afternoon first day but timetable was held despite this.
After the opening ceremony it was time for pilots briefing where all important and latest current info about the contest was announced, and last part was to demonstrate how the pilot sunshield was used and how it was adjusted. Then it was two brefingflights P-17 for the judges.
Then the competition started and we followed the established timetable during the first day without any delays. It was 3 rounds in F3A class and 2 rounds in Nordic class finished the first day, and all flying was finished in the evening 10 min before timetable. First day of the competition was performed without any problems at all. It was to some surprise rather much spectators the first day. I heard some comments from the pilots "wow spectators". Not so common to get much spectators at F3A event these days, I was competitor in 1978 Swedish Championship F3A and at that contest it came during the two days unbelievable 3500 spectators. As Contest Director I tried as good as I could to tell who was next to fly etc trying to make it more interesting to the spectators. But since I was also competing in the F3A class it was some periods of silence when I prepared for and performed my flights and also when various things in the contest demanded my attention. We had also large signs in the public area near the pit with the Schedules (P-17, F-17, N-17) including descriptions. I saw that it was rather many of the spectators that was looking at these signs trying to understand what we flew in the sky. Since it is not allowed to make any comments during flights it is not much one can do to help spectators understand more about the maneouvres what we do in the sky. I had an idea before the contest to let the helpers say in the PA system wireless microphone (we had two wireless microphones) the next manouvre the pilot was to fly but I forgot to ask the pilots if that was OK at briefing and then I did not want to bother to ask them. But as far as i know that would be allowed and not violate any rules (and if all pilots say it is OK at pilots briefing it should be OK). That way it will be little more interesting/fun for spectators I think. I have flown at contest where helper annonced in a mic so spectators could hear next manouvre and it did not disturb me at all.

Day 2 (July 10):
We started at 09:00 AM with 2 rounds in Nordic class and 1 round F3A class flown. All flying was performed without any incident exept one: one pilot lost power (electric motor) at one take off and had to do an emergency landing in the high grass outside the modelflying field that resulted in a damaged landing gear (the cause was later fund to be a faulty connector).
In the afternoon it was time for 2 rounds final flights flying F-17 Schedule with 5 best pilots in the Swedish Championship. 3 pilots accepted to fly (2 pilots had not practiced anything on F-17 so they declined, I was one of them). 3 best Norwegian pilots from Bordeline Cup was then invited to fly in the final (but their scores did not count in the contest since final was only for the Swedish Chamionship, not for Borderline Cup). After the two final rounds with F-17 flown place 1, 2 and 3 was as below in Swedish Championship 2016 F3A class.

Results:

Swedish Championship 2016 F3A class:
1. Anders Johansson
2. Johan Brorsson
3. Alexander Moberg



National Championship 2016 Nordic class:
1. Tomas Johansson
2. Daniel Bergqvist
3. Sven Lofqvist



Borderline Cup 2016 F3A class:
1. Ola Fremming (Norway)
2. Anders Johansson (Sweden)
3. Kjell Tore Pettersen (Norway)



Borderline Cup 2016 Nordic class:
1. Espen Kvien (Norway)
2. Tomas Johansson (Sweden)
3. Daniel Bergqvist (Sweden)




Some photos with comments below from the contest:
(All photos above and below by Jorg Drenske, member of hosting model flying club.)

/Bo



Modelflying field is prepared for the contest on Thursday July 7:


Veranda at the clubhouse and the Flextents tent (6x3 meter) ready for the competition:


Most of the pilots stayed at hotel or hostels but some pilots had caravans/camper or tent:


A banner was made for the contest at entrance to the modelflying field:


Planes in the pit area:


Planes in the Ready Box 1 and 2 area, judge area seen in the backgrund:



Large signs with the manouvres (P-17, F-17, N-17) in spectators area:


On first day in the afternoon black clouds gathered in the east but did not quite reach the model flying field, but some short burst of rain came down for a short period:


Most of the final flyers gathered with the FAI judges before the final flights began:


2 of the 3 Norwegian pilots that was flying in the final (together with the 3 Swedish pilots) prepares at ready Box area:


Prices (medals and cups), it was also 2 bags with food from local area in lottery, and all judges got a bottle of wine:


At the price ceremony even one of the competitors dog sat in the grass and almost tried to clap the paws:



Ola Fremming 1st place Bordeline Cup 2016 F3A class, prices: Cup, Diploma, Challenge prize (he has won it 2 times now and if one more win it will be his for ever) and flower:

bem

My Feedback: (1)

Hi,
I decided to make the battery tray lighter today by grinding away as much material as I dared on the carbon laminate tray.

Before the lightening the tray had a weight of 45 gram:


After grinding with my Dremel I was very pleased to se it was 17 gram lighter, now it weight only 28 gram (it is also lightening holes under the velcro):


My Galactika is with good margin below 5000 gram now.
It should be around 4990 grams.

It is very unhealthy to grind in a carbon laminate, very hazardeous dust.
I had to use a breathing mask, and the black dust was all over the place when I was done.
And as usual the whole work took about 3 times longer then I thought it should take.

/Bo

Jason Arnold

Hey Bem,

When working with carbon, I have the nozzle of the vacuum next to the work piece sucking the dust away. It works well.

Cheers,
Jason.

Dansy

My Feedback: (53)

I have a vacuum table, I still wear a mask with carbon, even with everything suck into the filters...

FinnSpeed

Nice weight reduction. Now the tray is how it should really come from factory! My self built battery tray weighs about the same.

bem

My Feedback: (1)

Hi FinnSpeed,
The original battery tray that came with my Galactica I did not use because it is little to short in my view, it is only 175 mm in length. Therefore I made my own battery tray from the start, it is 250 mm long.

Oxai Galactika original light yellow battery tray (3.8 mm foam laminate with glass outer layers):
Length: 175 mm
Weight: 17.7 gram, with same amount of velcro I use on my black battery tray weight is 25.1 gram


My black carbon laminate battery tray (3 mm PT model "Herex" foam lamninate with carbon outer layers):
Length: 250 mm
Weight: 28 grams (after leightening) with velcro

My lighted battery tray mounted in the plane, laying on two 8x8 mm square carbon beams and held in place by 4 plastic straps:


An added bonus with the lightening holes is that I now can reach the landing gear screws if needed without to take the battery tray out of the model.
And the LiPo flight battery will get better cooling now also through the lightening holes.

/Bo

bem

My Feedback: (1)

Hi,
Some updates on my Galactika.
I have been flying as often as possible (as time and weather permit) the last weeks in preparation for the last F3A competition for the season here in my country, the "fall" competition that is traditionally held in town Linkoping, this year September 3-4.
The weather varies here now, some days with rain and some with real nice weather. Yesterday when I had my plane with me in my car to work and on my way home drove to the full scale grass airfield where I fly most it was clouds/fog almost down to the ground and drizzle so it was only to drive home and unpack the plane. But today the weather was much better, but very windy.
It was winds up to 11-13 meter per seconds (24-29 mph) in the afternoon and evening when I made about 7 flights. No problem flying at these winds but landings are risky with gusts throwing the plane around close to ground but once down to approx 1 meter height the plane came out of the worst wind gusts and I was able to do reasonably smooth landings.

The windsock and a flag at the airfield show how windy it was today:


Here are two photos of my Galactika I took this evening at the arirfeld:


On the airfield for this season there are two new aerobatics full scale planes in the hangars, one Pitts S-1S Special biplane and one Giles 202 (two seat) monplane:


There is also, since two seasons, a YAK 52 in the hangars at the airfield:




And there is more - on the airfield it will be Swedish Championship in full scale aerobatics September 10-11. They will compete in classes Sportman, Intermediate and Advanced (but not in highest class Unlimited). The Giles 202 will compete (but not the Pitts Special).

/Bo

bem

My Feedback: (1)

Hi,
This evening was fantastic - calm and warm (and no mosquitos to disturb) with a beautiful sunset later in the evning. I made about 10 flights, practicing half of the P-17 flights from right and rest from left. Manouvre nr 9, Figure S with ½ roll integrated, I have most trouble with in the last part. Sometimes it looks good and somtimes not so good.
Tomorrow is "open house" at flying club at the full scale airfield so it will probably not be any flying tomorrow for me unless I travel to my modelflying club field (40 km from where I live).

My Galactika today in the evening with clear blue sky:


/Bo

bem

My Feedback: (1)

Hi,
Made 5 flights yesterday. Windy when I arrived at the airfield (little late in the evening) but later the wind calmed down.
Two of the full scale aerobatics planes was up flying also.
The Pitts S-1S Special made it's 3rd flight I believe at the airfield with the new owner/pilot (he was flown in on a two seat Pitts Special some weeks ago so he could handle his own single seat Pitts S-1S Special).
The Pitts S-1S Special is not that big and almost look like a big RC plane in the air. It flew great and at landing I saw that the pilot was side slipping on approach so he could see better in front of him, and at flare he pointed the plane parallell to runway and made a nice landing.
The other aerobatic plane, Giles 202, was also up flying but at first flight the pilot had to land rather quickly after practicing on some manouvres in the schedule since he had got some water in the cockpit after washing the plane with water. The inside of canopy got water drops all over the place and he could not see properly for aerobatics flying then. He landed and dried out the water and later made another flight.
I took some photos below of the planes. It started to be dark outside so my iPhone photos was little dark.




/Bo

bem

My Feedback: (1)

Hi,
Another 10 flights this evening, 5 from left (in wind towards me) and 5 from right (in wind from me).
It was overcast and the clouds had a dark grey color making it hard to see the model.
It is almost dark here now at 8.30 p.m. so I stopped flying at that time.
Maybe It will be flying tomorrow evening also, we will se.

/Bo

bem

My Feedback: (1)

Hi,
Some update.
On Friday Sept. 2 I was out flying in the evening with my Galactika but ESC stopped working in flight.
On manouvre P-17 nr 3, Knife-Edge Combination with ¼ roll, roll, ¼ roll, the ESC failed and I was rather low in flight then but managed to get the plane back to the landing area at the airfield.
When I opened the canopy on my Galactica I smell burnt. I tried to apply power gently but the motor had a terrible sound so I went home and unmounted the ESC and it had a clear burnt smell but I can not see any external sign it was burnt.
I checked the ESC, that is a Master Mezon 90 with BEC, with JeiBox and in the log it was status 193 and F, IM and M was shown.
According to the Master Mezon manual it is this:
F = Huge over-current condition. This error causes the motor to stop immediately. You should check for any ESC or motor damage and also check for any wiring defects.
IM = The controller maximum factory current limit has been exceeded.
M = Commutation error – a commutation error occurred, the controller has recorded an error when reading the motor position.
I use Falcon 21 x 14 V2 electric carbon prop with Hacker Q80-14XS with my Master Mezon 90.
When this ESC problem occured it was rather late in the evening and back home I changed to a Master Mezon 130 with BEC and then tested the motor and it worked fine. By now the clock was 00:00 in the midnight and I had to go to bed because next day was competition and I had to go up 5 hours later and drive 3 hours to competition site.
I checked weight on my Mezon 90 and 130 and the 130 is 25 grams heavier. So the CG on my Galactika would need to be adjusted.
The competition:
When I arrived I checked the motor and ESC again by running it on full throttle on ground for about a minute and my Futaba telemetry box that I had started and selected to show current showed 65 amp at full throttle.
So I decided that it would be OK to compete.
At my first flight I noticed that my Galactika was to nose heavy despite I had moved back the flight battery some, so the plane was little sluggish diring the flight.
Flight two was still nose heavy and on flight three I moved the battery lottle too far back and it was slightly tailheavy I felt, and on flight four I had the CG reasonably good but still not on the sweet spot I was used to.
Anyway, it was a great event and on Saturday rather windy and overcast but on Sunday sunshine and moderate winds.
In F3A class the present Swedish F3A champion was beaten by just a few points by another pilot that very often is on second place, so it was great for him to at last take first place at a contest. It was also competition in Advanced class (named Nordic class here in our Nordic countries) and here the present National champion won tis Contest also, as expected.
Photos of the planes for place 1-3 in F3A class below, and the persons on place 1-3 in both classes.
The competition was well organized with lunchmeals both days and the hosting club Linkopingeskaderns modelflying club had arranged so it was plenty of officials that helped as scribers and made food for us. At the contest the MultiRes scoring application was in use (it is the standard application now since some years here in the Nordic countries).
This contest was the last F3A contest for this year here in Sweden.
At this contest we also had our "annual meeting" for F3A Sweden where we made plans for next years competition season. I was keeper of the minutes at the meeting and wrote the protocol that will be published soon at www.f3a.se
As for my Master Mezon 90 ESC I will send it in to the dealer where I bought it and we will se if it is covered under warranty so I can get a new that way. I prefer not to use Mezon 130 in my Galactika with the extra 25 grams weight compared to a Mezon 90 (maybe I will get a Mezon 90 "light" to save some more weight since it is 15 grams lighter then Mezon 90).

/Bo

First place Episode, second place MythoS Pro, third place Zeque:


F3A class: from left to right is Anders Johansson 2nd place, Johan Brorsson 1 place and Alexander Moberg 3rd Place.


Nordic class: from left to right is Daniel Bergqvist 2nd place, Tomas Johansson 1 place and Kjell Mattsson 3rd Place.


My Galactika at the competition on Sunday in the beautiful sunshine.

bem

My Feedback: (1)

Double post. And I can not edit my previous post (strange).
/Bo

apereira

Good ting the ESC did not burn anything.

Regards

bem

My Feedback: (1)

Hi apereira,

Yes, I'm glad that the ESC did not start a fire in the plane. I'm also glad I was able to land the plane without a scratch since the plane was in a not so favorable position low over trees in knife edge when the ESC failed, I barely made it to the short grass on the field. I still have the Jeti Master Mezon 90 here in front of me and it still smell burnt when I sniff on it where the 3 capacitators are located.

I will probably also send in the motor, Hacker Q80-14XS, to make sure it is not the motor that is the real cause (internal short or similar) to the burnt ESC. I will send in the failed Mezon 90 also of course.

/Bo

bem

My Feedback: (1)

Hi,
This weekend Sept 10-11 it was Swedish Championships in full scale aerobatics at the airfield where I fly mostly F3A. Unfortunately it was very low clouds that prevented any competition flying. But it was fun to see the planes on the ground. On Sunday I took my Galactika with me to the airfield and the hosting club was kind to let me have it on display on a table in the main hangar. I had made an infosign with the P-17 Schedule and some info about my Galactika. It was rather many people that had a look at my model and asked questions. Most of the full scale aerobatic pilots was very curious about my Galactika and when they read the P-17 Schedule many of them was impressed that we could fly such advanced Schedule. Then I told them we have a final F-17 Schedule that is even more demanding and then they was shaking their heads.
It was even too low clouds for me to fly the Schedule but many asked me to make a flight.
I took some photos of the planes below.
And sure as Amen in church when all pilots made their planes ready to travel home the sky opened up and it was more or less clear blue sky with sunshine - typical.

Have fun watching the photos below.

/Bo

Start order and Schedules Advanced, Intermediate, Sportsman and Primary (it was no pilot in the Unlimited class):


Two YAK-55:



Extra 300 and Extra 300L:


Laser 200:


Giles 202:


Bellanca 8KCAB-180 Super Decathlon:



Pitts S1-S Special:


SAAB Safir 91B (former Swedish Air Force plane):



Most of the pilots gathered before they leaved the airfield on Sunday:



Other planes at the airfield that was not in the competition below:


Another Pitts S1-S Special:



A former Swedish Air Force Scottish Aviation "Bulldog":


YAK-52:


Vans RV-4:


EV-97 Eurostar:


Piper PA-31 350 Navajo:



My Galactika on display in the main hangar and the infosign I had beside the model for the public to read more:

flywilly

My Feedback: (121)

Hi Bo,
some great shots of the full scale aerobatic planes. I really like the first plane (red, white and blue) which appears to be a Yak/Sukhoi/Cap?? (as does the next photo of the Green airplane), but they sure have slimmed the fuselage down and stretched it, too. I'd love to build a model of that! Can you tell me what it is? I've looked online and have not found anything close.
Thanks for all the sharing!
-Will

bem

My Feedback: (1)

Hi Will,
The two first planes (red-blue-white and the green plane) are Yakovlev Yak-55. The first is from 1990 and the second from 1987. They have a 360 hp engine, Vedeneyev M14P nine-cylinder four-stroke air-cooled, petrol engine. The plane is rated for +9G, -6G. These two planes are not the newer revised (2nd revision) Yak-55M.
I think a Yak-55 kit or plan for RC might be more difficult to find then for a Yak-55M (and there are also several Yak-55M kits and ARFs available).
I asked one of the Yak-55 pilots what material the landing gear legs was and it was titanium (must cost a fortune, at least titanium screws are very expensive from my experience).

/Bo

The engines with 3 blade prop:

cartercg

Hi all, the width of the t-can on the Galactika is around 740mm. That is the total width as measured on the trailing edge of the t-can. It is huge.

Can anyone with the original Galactik model (the older version with the more traditional wing design) provide me with the width of the t-can?

Much appreciated.

Regards
Clint

bandicootf16

Hi Clint

The TC on the Galactik is 600mm. I think CPLR may even call it a mini wing.

David

cartercg

Thanks David, much appreciated.

J-P

My Feedback: (1)

Good afternoon,
Could you please tell me at which CG your are flying now ...
OXAI recommend 211 mm from l.edge , but you mentioned you moved it back ..
Thanks for sharing, and for your thread.
Jean Paul from France

http://jp-f3a.blogspot.fr

bem

My Feedback: (1)

Hi,
My Galactika top wing (canalizer) and the stabs was destroyed on the ground at the airfield today when I had unloaded the plane from the car.
I had placed my Galactika fuselage, with the stabs and top wing mounted (I never remove them), at the airfield and then drove back to the parking place, walked back to the airfield where the plane was and it was not pleasant to see my Galactika had been thrown up in the air by some strong windgust and flipped it on it's side.
Damages:
1) Top wing broken completely.
2) Stabs mounting for the carbon tubes inside both stabs crushed. I can move the stabs up/down and it is not firm inside the stabs.

So now I need to make a quick repair so I can get up in the air again, and order new top wing and stabs from Oxai.
I have not a clue if Oxai even have spare parts or if they are up and running and in production again.
I goggled some and it seems former Oxai F3A is now "Hui Yang Professional F3A".
I do not know who to contact at that company by email to get their attention for spare parts (bought my Galactika from f3alorenz when he still sold Oxai planes but he do not do that anymore). I found on Hui Yang Professional F3A Facebook an email [email protected]
If anyone know for sure the email to them I would appreciate that. I do not think there is any reseller in Europe anymore. Maybe I can try f3aunlimited and see if they can order spare parts.

I hope I have reparied all damages today before I go to sleep...

/Bo

bem

My Feedback: (1)

Hi,
Canalizer/top wing is now repaired, and the stabs.
The trailing edge of the top wing is straight seen from behind so I used a square carbon tube and pegs to get it straight.
I will add a layer of 25 gram glass and finishing epoxy over the top wing also tomorrow about 15 mm each side of the repair to add some extra strength.
I have now e-mailed [email protected] to see if they respond on that e-mail address and asked if they have any spare parts for Galactika EP.
Time to go to sleep.

/Bo