bsheridan2002

Thanks BBT! I've been away. I would like to tell you how impressed i am with your design, everything has gone together very well and quickly. Have you any pics of your pitts we could see?

mkras

BBT,

I just wanted to add my comments as well. Your plans are excellent!!!! I've been working on the fuselage and still can't believe how easily and quickly things went together. Thanks. So anybody got one finished???? It really would be nice to see some pictures or at least a flight report.

Mike

bsheridan2002

thats the only thing that hasn't gone together well. Nobody wants to boast about their planes! Maybe they don't fly well, though I doubt it . Please, please someone show us something thats at least covered!

bbt

Glad to read that the build was smooth and that you liked my design. I guess that Rich's quality laser cut helped a lot too

Actually, I flew the plan last year before the short kit was available. I was very happy with the performance: very stable and predictible and easy to slow down. The knife edge was difficult to hold but after some reflection, the wing struts could be slightly enlarged to act as side force generators.

I used a MVVS 35cc. It was fairly comfortable but a 50cc will be more appropriate for real 3D. (see post # 139 in this thread)

The bad point is that I crashed the plane during a hover due to motor failure before taking any picture [&o].

Unfortunately, I had very little time to build a second Spirit of Pitts since the birth of our daughter last summer. So .... Sorry guys ... I have nothing to show to you except may be the progress of Oldtimer2's build. He posted some pictures in the photo Gallery some time ago.

Here are some of his pictures ...

Hydro Junkie

I might have to order the parts kit from Gunderson yet, if he doesn't mind doing a little more production

bsheridan2002

BBT,
sorry to here about your plane. Soon as I get my camara and computer to get along I'll post some pictures. except for the cowl everything from gunderson was indeed first rate.

chrisF test pilot

Hey Mike, what did you end up doing to get the plans printed, I have an HP800 and have had the similiar issues. I cant get them to print. Any more suggestions anyone??

bbt

mkras,

you had some trouble figuring out where the servos should go in the tail ... I am replying here because I didn't found your Email address and a reply to a PM doesn't allow me to attach pictures.

My suggestion is to make a servo plate (3mm plywood) and place the servos as per drawing below. You will have to enlarge the hole in S1 to be able to fit the plate (see green line). The servo plate (in blue) will be glued on the top side of the 10x10 mm lowest stick. Some vertical plywood holders (dark blue) will be used to fix the elevator servos. This should do the job.

Cheers,
BBT

Mike Emilio

test pilot . ..

The HP800 I believe has the higher dpi range and the 300 ft paper roll.
I found out the hard way, and expensive, that running through a parallel port will infrequently generate errors. Plugging into a USB solved alot of print problem. The USB driver version might not be communicating with the newer machine. The HP800 uses 2.0 drivers.

That's a relatively new machine so the print driver is probably not the cause, and I'm sure you're using the latest Adobe Reader.
There could have been corruption of the original file that was sent to you. Things happen.
I'd start with a replacement file from gunder to weed out the possibility of corruption.

rgunder

Hydro Junkie -

You are not the only one who has been asking for a return to kit production, so effective today Gunderson AeroDesign LLC is taking orders again for the Pitts kits! Unfortunately, due to some increased expenses, we have had to increase the prices, and we have changed our shipping policy to a flat 8% of the total order. Please visit the website ([link=http://www.gundersonaerodesign.com/products/shortkits/burton/]http://www.gundersonaerodesign.com/products/shortkits/burton/[/link]) for the complete list of available options.

Thanks to all for your support of this project!

chrisF test pilot

Thanks Mike, it may be the file so I requested another. I downloaded the latest GL2 driver from HP and am printing through direct IP. I believe you may be right about the file though, it has done some pretty strange things.

dubya_o

My Feedback: (1)

Hello Bernard,

Thanks for the great design! I was just wondering how the CG works out with 3 servos in the tail? I've got the fuse framed up and the tailfeathers and one wing panel built but I've been sidetracked by my job and haven't had a chance to work on it in about a month and a half.

Thanks again,

Wally

rgunder

Hi everyone,

One of our customers from France sent some photos of his build. I have uploaded the photos to our website, here is the link: [link=http://www.gundersonaerodesign.com/productgallery/index.php?pd=pitts]www.gundersonaerodesign.com/productgallery/index.php?pd=pitts[/link] to the product gallery, and here is the link to the main Pitts page: [link=http://www.gundersonaerodesign.com/products/shortkits/burton/]www.gundersonaerodesign.com/products/shortkits/burton/[/link]

Enjoy, and thanks to Jacqui Nuss for the photos.

mkras

Thanks Rich,

Any flight reports from Jaqui?

rgunder

I will ask and let you know.

agertlof

My Feedback: (2)

I finally found some time and cleaned up the building room so I can start the build. I have some question that I know will sound pretty dumb to most scratch builders but since is the first build from plans in a long time and the first round fuse here it goes.
I believe I should start at the front with C1 and the fuse sides and work my way back is this correct? Also from the drawing of the front from the front It shows R,S1,S2 laminated, I can,t seem to find a piece labeled R . also if some one could please give me a general idea of the building order of the fuse I would be very thankful.
Thank you in advance .
Art

mkras

I tried it both ways and foud that it did not really matter in what order you slid the formers into place. The one right in front of the wing saddle is a little tricky to get in place. The motor box and fire wall really squares everything up. The "R" pieces are "R1" and "R2" they are shown on the lower portion of the former sheet and go inplace under the cabanes.

agertlof

My Feedback: (2)

Thanks mkras
Just a quick update if you haven't started the build yet I found that if you get F-5 in place first starting from the tail with both sides inside to inside, then put both F-2s in place then the fir Wall (F-1), then C-3, C-2, and then C-1 it works very well.
If post like this bother people please let me know and I will stop.
So far I am very impress with both the design and the quality of the kit, I normally don't like to build the fuse but this is good along nicely.
If any one would like and I can figure out how to do it I can post some pics , just let me know.

rgunder

Hi Art,

Mkras beat me to the punch, but it sounds like you were able to get everything figured out. It's a big jigsaw puzzle

I know that I would be interested in some pictures, and reading back through the thread I think that you will find a number of people interested! In order to upload photos, you have to click on the reply or quote icon above the last post, which will bring you to an editing page. When you compose your post, you will notice a link titled something like "click here to upload images and files." After clicking on the link you will be presented with a dialogue box to select the files to upload and that's it. I hope this quick explanation is clear enough.

Happy building!

rgunder

So, my reply is long overdue, but I did receive a flight report from Jaqui a few weeks ago. He tells me that his build came out at 8.8 kg (19.4 lbs) and he has 12 flights on the airframe. He says that it flies nicely with his Zenoah G62 up front. There is a language barrier, so the emails have been short, but I sure appreciate his feedback!

agertlof

My Feedback: (2)

Hi All
Here are a few pics of the build so far I took some of the placement of R-1 and R-2, these are labeled as 3mm on the plans on the fuse drawing but are really 3/16!QUOT! ply. Also there are just some general pic and one of the tail wheel reinforcement. I haven't glued the tail wheel reinforcement in yet because I wanted to ask if that is were it goes, I can't seem to find it on the plans.

mkras

If you go back into the posts a few pages you will find a detail by bbt. I modified mine a bit to accomodate the tail wheel I'm using. He also provided a detail for placing servos in the tail. If you are thinking about putting your rudder and elevator servos in the tail, you should check out the detail before you get too much further.

bbt

Last year, I started to write an assembly manual.
It's not finished. It is still a draft. So ... don't blame me if details are missing or incorrectly described. Idem if the English syntax & translation are not perfect.

This will probably not answer all your questions but this could help you ...

agertlof

My Feedback: (2)

Thanks you both for your replies. Bernard thank you for the Manuel I know it will be a big help to me.
Art

agertlof

My Feedback: (2)

bbt

Is there any way you could send me or post a full size drawing of the servo tray for the rudder and elevator servos.
Thank you
Art