Tee Bee

Here's the assembled but unpainted vacuum-formed pilot bust that came with the kit. The cowl had to be cut up to fit the engine, then it was fiberglassed on the inside. Here I'm glueing the phony sheet metal covers onto the fuselage with Formula 560 Canopy Glue. I've used it lots of times to hold canopies on my 1/2A planes with good results. Strong and dries clear.

Tee Bee

Meet Rich Klaus

skaliwag

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I see Her Klaus wears Lip Gloss

Tee Bee

He's sweet. Hi, Steve.

skaliwag

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Oh...If you say so. Better keep him in the closet.

flyinrog

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Dude, 4 oz tank with a .10la?...that thing will fly for an hour!...looks good ,but could be a bit squirelly up there..good luck with the maiden...think you have it secure enough to hang from the ceiling?..I do see a canopy on it right?...Rog

Tee Bee

Rog. With your reference to hanging from the ceiling and to the canopy, I'm assuming you're referring to the Lil' Extra pictured earlier. It's got a 4oz tank and a 15LA. Been flying that one since January. Very good flyer and lots of fun. Took it to SMALL this year as well.

Mr Cox

I would be more worried about the large bugger in his nose, that's got to be a distraction during flight...

Tee Bee

My hands are too big and clumsy to be painting microscopic nostrils! But thanks.

Tee Bee

Just about finished, folks. Installed a piece of Tygon fuel tubing to deflect the exhaust below the gear. Made a little keeper for it from clear lexan and glued it to the bottom of the sub-wing. Hopefully, it won't rob too much power. I still need to run the engine in before flying it. Weather is bad, mosquitos are thick at the flying field, and I start work again tomorrow so I'm not sure when I'll maiden it.

BTW, the Fokker is sitting on my next build thread subject. Hint: It's designed by a well known poster on this board. Stay tuned.

vertical grimmace

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Pretty cool. I may need top do that to mine. Just not too fond of electrics anymore. Let us know how it goes. How does the engine run with that tubing? You may find it restricts the exhast too much and it may need to be eliminated.

Mr Cox

That looks great! What's the final weight?
I've been tempted to try something similar on an SE5a, but have a few other things to finish first. I think a diesel conversion would be really cool too.

I don't think you'll need that long tube on the exhaust though, the muffler outlet is already quite far from the fueselage, and you'll probably do fine without it. Also anything longer than about 1" is often a power robber, just tach it with and without the tube to check before maiden...

vertical grimmace

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One thing I can attest to, this airplane flys great. It spins wonderfully and is very easy to fly overall. I just need another motor for mine, but i have a bunch of glow engines that would be good candidates.

Tee Bee

I haven't run the little engine yet. I need to get some sunny outside pics of it before I slime it all up. For those that have flying examples, where did you end up on CG? This one is just a tad noseheavy per the manual.

lildiesel

Just think how realistic he'll look once he gets smeared and soaked in castor oil laden exhaust...

jeffie8696

Good job, excellent work. Ilove it.

Tee Bee

I broke in the little OS .10LA last night and it's now performing great. It was too dark to use a tach but it seems to run just fine with the exhaust hose attaced. I look forward to flying it at the first opportunity.

jeffie8696

VIDEO !!!! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE

lildiesel

Another reason to try an .09 diesel and run a long exhaust tube down and away from the entire plane. Just sayin'... [8D]

Tee Bee

You diesel guys just won't give up on me, will ya? FWIW, my wife hates the smell when I come home from a good old hot and sweaty afternoon of flying glow. If I convert to diesel, I just may have to live in the doghouse.

Poor weather and lack of time has kept me away from the flying field this week. The maiden awaits.

SGC

Tee Bee
You can change the smell of diesel by useing olive oil in the fuel, exhaust is wayyyyyy less offensive and doesnt go black, but only use in new engines as like synthetics it will strip out the varnish and carbon deposits , which a well run engine may need for compression.
Stewart

buzzard bait

Are you serious? Instead of kerosene? Extra virgin or the cheap stuff? Not to get the thread off track, but, wow...

Really nice conversion. I'm surprised it worked so well with the long tubing...good to know. Sometimes those extensions rob power and sometimes they don't. Good luck with the test flight.

Jim

SGC

Olive Oil instead of the Castor oil for the lube, altho olive oil is lower in viscosity at room temp it is equal to castor at around 150-160deg and is higher than castor above this point it is more thermaly stable,one of the main reasons for its use in cooking. After run oil is needed too as it will gum like castor if left after use. The use of olive instead of castor completely changes the exhaust smell.
Stewart

skaliwag

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Does it smell like fine Italian cuisine or Ranjeet's Japati Palace

Tee Bee

Well, I decided that today was the day for a maiden on this one. My son and I got up early, loaded up some toys, and arrived at the field before dawn for an attempt at a Dawn Patrol flight. With the tailskid, the 1st takeoff roll was exciting but after a few zigzags the little Fokker finally clawed it's way into the air just before hitting the grass at the edge of the runway. The climb performance was somewhat marginal and it seemed very noseheavy requiring lots of up elevator trim to hold altitude. After getting it trimmed out, I made lots of low passes and we had a blast watching it. Decent turns required leading with rudder, otherwise the adverse yaw made them ugly. Typical for a WWI bipe, I guess. I finally adjusted to it's flying style and really started to enjoy it. Landed it with about 1/4 throttle on the mains, chopped the power, and held the stick back. Other than dragging both wingtips on the rollout, it was uneventful. Looked like some of the full scale landings I've seen with these types of planes.

For the second attempt, I held the tail, ran it up to full power, and released it for faster rudder effectiveness. That did the trick and it made it into the air before getting into too much trouble. Just as I started getting comfy with it's handling and really having fun with it, the little OS .10 quit during a low altitude turn. It sank like a rock, hitting pretty hard in the grass next to the runway. The landing gear was totaled and it ripped out of the fuselage, tearing up some of the wood in the process. Tough break.

I still think the project was worth the effort. It will be repaired and flown again. Will take some damage pics and post them when I get a chance.