ramboman

Hello, I will build my swordfish this winter.
Already assembled: a 12s2p a123 pack to go under the cowl, full forward.
The pack is charged in place, it's never removed from the plane.
She will get an old Cyclon 160: 2500W continuous, with a CC ICE2 120.
Planning folding wings as real plane...

Destroyer of Airplanes

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Ramboman, I would be interested in seeing your design for the wing hinges. Also How would you connect the wing spars?

Destroyer of Airplanes

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I did manage to get some time to work on the Swordfish. I installed a Williams Brothers 1/6 scale Wasp over the Rimfire1.60.

AZThud

That motor looks very nice, its a big imprprovment. One of the problems Ihad, was that to move the weight up to where it needs to be, the front end of my machine is full or batteries and motor. I was lucky enough to have this picture taken when I was out at the field (thanks Rafael), as you can see the your motor would be a huge improvement. Still she looks nice in the air and draws a big crowd at the field. Good Luck with yours!

Cheers

Destroyer of Airplanes

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AZ,

I suppose you could always stuff the front end of the torpedo with lead. Since I am building her as a MK III I will have a radar dome under the nose. This will also be a great place to put lead.Here are a couple more shots of the motor mounting method.

Paul

ramboman

Look at this...
Build the wings as usual
Don't use the wingtubes
Pivot on back mast
Ues two locks at front...

Robert Bishop

Hey Ramboman, Best of luck with your hinged wing idea. Looking forward to see how you will do it. One thing for sure is the need to make the center section mountimg more substantial. The existing design relies on the bottom wing and flying wires keeping the top wing aligned with the bottom. Keep us informed of your progress.

ramboman

OK

AZThud

Paul I did something similar to mount an engine in my H9 P-47 Razorback (the old one) what you did with the crankcase is exactly what Idid too. What you did diferently and waht Ithink is better is mount the engine to the motor mount. I mounted mine to the cowl, centered it, centered the motor, trial and fit, followed by more trial and fit or "fits" as it were. Putting the false engine directely onto the motor mount, is genius! Next time I will do it your way!!

Cheers

Rick

Destroyer of Airplanes

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AZ, thanks for the kind words. What surprised me the most is it fit correctly the first time. I couldn't believe it. I never get stuff right the first time.

The only thing had to do was remove most of the lower half of the cowling support ring. As you know the cowl is quite a bit smaller in the back and the motor slightly larger but with a bit of flexing the cowl it went through.

jmpups

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I read your advice on the Swordfish . I am considering purchasing one of these kits from A local flyer. Can you tell me, did you epoxy both the upper and bottom wings to make two full wing panels . Also I have built two ESM kits, the T28 and the Aiachi Val. Both were A royal pain to properly assemble the elevator joiner, as well as the tailwheel assy to the rudder on the Val, mainly due to such A tight space. Am I looking for the same problems with the Swordfish ? Any advice you can give me is most appreciated. Thanks, Joe

AZThud

Hi I did not join the wings, Irely on the bottom screw to hold on both sets of wings, Icannot transport the plane unless it is apart so glueing the wings was not an option but if you have something big enough glueing the wings at the top would something that you could do. If you can't transport it in one piece Iwould say leave the wings removable. The horizontal stab is one piece and you will not be revisiting the tail joiner tube nightmare :-)

Good Luck,

Cheers

Destroyer of Airplanes

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jmpups, The tail wheel is easy. I used a du-bro large scale tail wheel and mounted it on a piece of plywood. I also put it in a scale location.

Destroyer of Airplanes

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Last evening while installing the tail section I found a problem. The struts that support the horizontal stab are screwed int balsa wood on the wing training edge and the balsa wood spar. In the fuselage they screw into fiberglass fuselage. If in fact these struts are functional as I presume they are the prescribed method of attachment will most likely lead to failure. I thought about trying to harden the balsa around the screw hole with thin CA, but there is really no way of knowing if it will be sufficient. My solution was simple I used a dremmel tool to remove about 1/4 inch of material on the wing's trailing edge and spar into which I epoxied a small piece of 1/4 inch ply. I also epoxied a small square of wood behind the fiberglass. Now the struts are functional and very strong.

AZThud

I just added a couple of bits of wood to the inside of the fuse at the strut attachement points. As the horizontal stap is a single piece my conclusion is that the struts are pretty much decoration and did not put a lot of thought into them. Ihave no intention of anything other than scale flight for mine and unless I crack it up the last thing Iam worried about is the tail breaking :-)

Ihad her out to the field this weekend and our club prez was there with his video camara, he put together a video of the plane our field and club, its mostly of the swordfish and if you would like to take a look, many thanks to Jim for putting this together.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=t0-hQtP-P64

Destroyer of Airplanes

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AZ, Great video, very nice field too. Boy on final with that hill in the background she becomes a little difficult to see. Could make for some very interesting approaches.

Electroyal

This question is regarding the hardware that comes with the ESM P-51, 71" Glamorous Glen model.  It has a pull pull control system with a thin wire cable to hook up the rudder and elevator.  Has anyone flown this plane with the original hardware or does anyone suggest replacing the wire cable with a rigid control rod and if so what size?

Chuck  

mackone

I got mine in the air on the weekend , and must say thankyou to all on this thread , It was a big help to get mine airbourne .
And what a great flyer is is as well .
It was quite and engineering feat to get the Fake radial in , my solution which was a combination of all of the above , was to fill it with 800gms of lead !
so in my cowl i have 1 4s 5000 pack + 130amp esc + the fake williams bros radial with the lead . Inside the fuse i have 2 more 4s 5000mah packs which all
join in series , with a very load noise . The motor is Hyperion 55-45 150 kv which i have had for years and the Prop is a 19.9 x 14 x 3 vario prop .

mackone

My Maiden

rcflying007

mackone , thanks for sharing the pictures, looks beautiful.

mackone

Here is my Second flight vid , tricky conditions .
I still need to get my torpedo on.

http://vimeo.com/68607516

cdrc2004

Just found this great thread.

Mack1 and AZ: Great vids, thanks for posting! Both nice scale flying.

Destroyer: Is your William's Bros. 1/6th Wasp the $54.95 dummy kit? I see they sell individual cylinders and crank cases. Yours looks great.

Rambo: Any news or pics of your build?

Thanks.

retransit

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cdrc2004 took a trip to Duxford from the colonies and scammed his way into getting some pictures of a Swordfish. Since he hasn't posted them, I'll do it for him. Mostly, they are interior shots that may help with some detail.

cdrc2004

Retransit is correct: I scammed my way behind the ropes at Duxford by simply emailing and asking if I could take some cockpit photos. I've learned in life that it just never hurts to ask. They were happy to oblige and put out a platform for me from which to take my pics. They aren't too bad considering the lighting is not good for photography in the "Air Space" building at Duxford. None the less, they are good enough for anyone looking for reference photos for scale RC.

I believe this Swordfish is a Mk III. It has a radar dome underneath the nose and instead of a three man crew, it carried a two man crew: pilot and radar operator/gunner. This bird is a thing of beauty. If you've never stood beside a Swordfish you may be surprised at how big they are.

Thanks to David and Sean in the UK for making this possible. Thanks too to Retransit for posting. Cd2004 is, well, a little lazy sometimes. Cheers.

retransit

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Aw go on and say how personable you are. That's what got you in.

By the way, cdrc2004 is thinking of placing an Evolution radial on the front of his Swordfish. I just have to tighten the screws a bit more and he will acquiesce.