Lifer

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Thank you for starting this thread. I really like your preamble, and hopefully the keyboard pilots will stay away! Keep up the great work!

Flyfast1

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I don't have one of these, but wanted to say that the tail wheel looks pretty good! Do you have any more pictures of it?

-Ed B.

kahloq

Here.....

But...it is not sold seperately. Its part of the retract set.

If your asking about the actual tire, could be any number of wheels. There are several available from different manufacturers. I have a couple ESM tail wheels left over from other projects and will simpy use one of them. The 2nd pic is the tire Im referring too. The newer versions from ESM are a lighter aluminum hub design without bolts and a much weaker rubber tread.

Owl

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Yes!!

The UPS guy brought me my Spitty today and it looks great.
I can see plenty of opportunities to dress up its looks but not too bad in stand off mode.

Retracts are on a sailboat somewhere out in the Pacific.

I am watching what you guys are doing....

dionysusbacchus

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Thanks Casey, really appreciate that! This is going to be a basic assembly for a sport plane, but I hope others find it useful that either have or are considering this plane.

Lifer, don't like to post stuff like that at the beginning of a thread, it's just one of those things that needs to be done. Glad to have you along.

Ed, the tail wheel and main gear are really nice, I had to take mine apart to seal the nipples and thread lock everything, but they work great.


The tail wheel is an easy bolt in. I went with an extra tire that came off of a 70mm edf F-86 by Venom, it is hard foam filled rubber with a plastic rim, very light weight and that is what this plane needs in the tail.


The steering is accomplished with an external linkage to the rudder, not very scale, but this is a sport plane.

That is awesome Owl, now you can join us!


The solid balsa (hard balsa) flaps were hinged next. I just use a small PC board horn and cut a hole all the way through the flap. Us wax paper under the flap when you epoxy it in.


I made the aileron horn smaller, notice the paint that was removed when I pulled off the tape. Another reason to have some paint mixed.


This will give you a good idea of how the linkages look. Next, rudder and elevator...

kahloq

My control linkages, control horns will look completely different.

dionysusbacchus

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That's good, I'd like this thread to show all kinds of ideas, makes it more interesting and may foster other ideas and solutions!

Lifer

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It looks like the flap hinges are centered in the wing trailing edge. If so, can you still get adequate deflection? I usually start with at least 45 degrees of flap deflection as a matter of preference. Thanks.

dionysusbacchus

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It may look that way, but they are basically hinged on the bottom with an angle sanded in the bottom of the flap. You can get all the flap deflection you want the way they are set up.

dionysusbacchus

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The linkage they provide for the rudder is massive, looks more like it should be on a giant 3-D plane.
I made a smaller control horn.


I would normally place it closer to the bottom of the rudder, but that would interfere with the tail wheel
mount, it should be fine a little higher.


I'm using the Du-Bro system, it has much thicker cable than what is in the kit anyway. Kind of funny they
use all this huge hardware and then a thin little cable.

glazier808

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The Spitfire used one deflection for flaps, and that's 90°

Casey

Brad330l

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87 degrees.

glazier808

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Like I said 87°


Lol

Oops


Casey

dionysusbacchus

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Interesting, that is some serious flap! I'll set mine up for full deflection and see how it responds.

LDM

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Hey Luke glad to see you back online !!
Lots of time has passed from the good old Corsair and Hellcat threads !!! I make most of my own scale parts now , but still have my Hellcat interior kit with my CMP Hellcat in the works . Its a slow build lol.

Ok Back on subject , just curious with this bird , how is the fuse as far as Tin-Canning ?
It seems like every composite fuse I own is a cream puff that needs to be reinforced ,Is that the case with the HK Spitty

dionysusbacchus

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Thanks bud, good to know you are in touch with your creative side!

For the most part I am happy with the rigidity of the fuselage. The epoxy used does not have the hardness of good old West System epoxy, but then I really don't expect it to at this price. The only part that feels a little weak is the bottom of the fuselage at the wing center section, the rest of the plane has good support. I'm not going to worry about it because I don't want to add any more weight, it's best to just learn how to handle the plane so you don't damage it.

LDM

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thanks, curiuos but good to know . i have used flite skin with good success on the inside of the fuse in the weak areas with CA and very little weight gain , but I know what you mean , sometimes any weight gain is too much !

dionysusbacchus

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Here is the finished rudder and tail wheel steering set up. The steering is not pretty close up but it looks
better just a short distance away. With my new pull pull system the rudder is rock solid.



Just a short distance away and it already looks better. Now I just have to set up the elevator and I'll be ready for
engine and the rest of the equipment install.

I would like some ideas on the cowl, the kit method is not going to cut it. So if you have a similar cowl on another plane, please show us
what works for you.

kahloq

Looks good

Just to follow up, these are the control horns I'll be using

SPITFIREDAVE

I am in the process of building this Spitfire as well and thank you guys for all the information!

SPITFIREDAVE

dionysusbacchus

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Thanks for the pictures, looks good.

I forgot to mention that the hole in the struts needs to be filled with JB weld, then I just made a notch for the set screw in the correct location. I thought the the strut tightening hex screw was fine, I did not want to over tighten it, I didn't want to find out how weak the metal was! I put everything together with Loctite and it seems fine.

I'm using this engine: http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...dProduct=12606
With this exhaust: http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...dProduct=25278

Figured I'd keep the Hobby King theme going! Keep the pictures coming and also your ideas on cowl mounting, will be interested to see what yours looks like with the cowl on and cooling holes cut.

kahloq

I messed around with the gear yesterday. Yes the strut is sitting in the retract unit "out of the box" that wont work in the plane. I undid the little set screw...positioned the oleo where I wanted it having the unit sitting in the wing, tightened the hex bolt and then reinserted the setscrew.
When I get to actually working on this plane, I will simply grind a small flat spot on the oleo where the little set screw hits.
I also will add shims to the back rail to get the tire a bit further forward.

dionysusbacchus

My Feedback: (25)

kahloq, the problem I had with the struts is that the set screw hole was very close to where it should be, so there was no way to rotate the strut and tighten it without the screw finding it's way back into the hole. I fixed this by filling the hole with JB Weld.

I was able to shim the gear up 3/32" at the rear, this had the effect of moving the axle 1/2" further forward, so this was promising. The wheel now also sits perfectly flush inside the wheel well.


This is also encouraging about the CG location, my landing gear axle is 5" back from the leading edge, so it's only slightly ahead of the CG.

It looks like the gear are too far back on the HK spit and the angle is a bit less. This is a picture of my Spit that I took AFTER I shimmed the gear
to move them further forward. They are 1/2" further forward than stock, I've never flown a plane with gear this far rearward. I know that the closer the wheels are to the CG the more stability you have but the nose over chances increase.

OK, here is what I'll do, move the gear as far forward as possible without major modification and do the test flight, if that is unsatisfactory then I will admit defeat and pull the covering off the wings and redo the retract mounts, get the gear as close to the wing tube as possible.

I notice Scott from HobbyKing has had his Spitfire for more than 3 months now and from the pictures I've seen is basically done, but all of his threads have gone silent.

jeffk464

those look more like brakes to me.