Kellermann

Hans,
is that cowl the original Weiershäuser unit? Does look a bit strange in format for me, it used to be a very scale outline both front and side/top views...
MArcus

NightSwan

Marcus,

it's the original cowl. We'll post some more pics soon.

build update :

My fuse is done!! Only the cowl and LG to screw on

We're getting on quite quickly now...

Hans

Kellermann

Sounds fantastic, when do you expect the maiden flight to take place?

About the cowl, guess it's an optical illusion due to the angle of the picture.

Pleeeeease update the pix on the site.

Will try to work on mine this weekend.

MArcus

Kellermann

Guys,
I just found a picture of John Chevalier's Sd flying at Top Gun - at www.franktiano.com
Really looks a fullsize, congrats John.

Marcus

NightSwan

Maiden is planned for monday in a week (the 31st)

Will keep you posted on progress..

Hans

Big_Bird

My Feedback: (1)

Here is a photo that a good friend took at the Joe Nall flyin. Very good looking SD or Citabria, can't tell which.

Ken

Kellermann

It's hard to tell, but the wingtip format indicates it could be a citabria, however it's not for sure.
Anyway the tips aren't 100% correct, either resembling a Citabria or a SD.
However, it's better than mine since it's done and flying. Mine is still on the workbench....

Marcus

apalsson

My Feedback: (1)

I really like the colour scheme on this plane.
I wonder if it's replicating a particular full sized one or is just a good example of an eye for good colour and pattern.

Big_Bird

My Feedback: (1)

Judging by the wing tips I agree that it looks more like a Citabria than an SD. However, the color scheme is more of an SD type than the typical Citabria. Anyway it looks very good.

Off the subject. Who makes the big SD sold by Dessert Aircraft?

Way way off the subject. I went to a Warbird flyin in Waco Texas last weekend and came back with two nice plaques for the Ziroli Corsair with the Brison 5.8 cu in engine. Flies about 100 mph down on the deck using a 24x12 prop.

Ken

Newflee

Well here's my .02.
I think it's a SD because of the gap at the ailerons. Looks like the ailerons are hinged more near the middle of the aileron spar than at the very top as a flat bottom citabria wing would be. Either that or the builder used door hinges on his citabria..
SD color scheme of course as has been noted.
Ari, I've seen this scheme on full scale before. Probably just doing a google(image) search will turn something up.


Ken your going to need to dedicate a room to all your prizes soon.


Lee

Big_Bird

My Feedback: (1)

Lee, I have boxes of these things packed away. In the olden days they gave away trophies and these were far more cumbersome to deal with. I just about don't have any more room on the walls of my little building barn to hang them. They are still fun to win but not near as much fun as they used to be.

Weather should be getting good for painting the SD.

Ken

Newflee

Yep it's getting close but we are having a funny spring. Not more than a week ago we got over a foot of wet snow in a few hours. Actually all of canada got whacked pretty good. We had days of temps in the twenties (celcius) preceeding the storm. Go figure.

I'll be getting around to it soon but I have a lot of other things to take care of right now. For the time being it's nice to hear what others are up to.


Lee

Jim J

Congrats on the success there Ken. It looks good and the trophies speak well of it as well.
The wind here in Oklahoma has been bad for about 6 weeks now. I have flown only three times in the last six weeks. There are probably more flyable days than that but I can't take off on most days. It has been pretty warm for May as well.
Spring must be just around the corner up there Lee. They have had a lot of bad weather in the Dakotas and Minnesota up that way. Not the snows but the tornadoes and winds there have been pretty bad this year.
THe plane in the pic above is pretty. Do all Cits have flaps or just some of them? I didn't look up the registration number but I wonder if it is a real number. Either way it is a nice looking plane.
I have been moving the shop around to get the wings set up to build so that will be the next step. Did you guys do the wings and boxes before you did the top of the fuse?,...I was thinking it would be easier that wayso I could fit the spar boxes to the spars without having to slide them off and on the spars mounted on the wings? Any suggestion on that? I read the part somewhere back about wrapping with the FG tape to reinforce them.
Have a great evening to all. Keep the thaw going up there Lee!
Jim

Newflee

Jim, I built the entire center setion first and then built the spar boxes and spars. Actually, I did exactly what Ken posted (with pics) a long time ago. This thread is getting so long that it would be good if an index was made so that new guests could access the info that they are looking for. Even though most of the posts lately haven't been "hardcore" building info, it's just amazing how the post tally adds up.


Lee

Newflee

Ken, since you have a good number of flights on your SD it would be interesting if you did a thorough preflight and let us know how the various components have performed....not that you don't do that often.
I think Hostetler builders in particular would like to have some field test reports on any critical or questionable items that were built to plan.


Lee

Kellermann

Guys,
let me throw in another .02

Lee, you're right about the Citabria and SD Aileron hinging, but consider the plane depicted as being a Sport Scale since it has a one-piece wing with 2 screws, and the ailerons are the pretty usual "model style" - a double beveled LE and hinges, that's all.
Looking at it again I would say it's a SD because of the wingtip contour, however it's too thin on the very tip to be a full, round SD tip.

Ari and Ken, the starburst scheme is also found on Citabrias. The registration number is not american, looks like some initials and AMA# (in Brazil for example on sport planes we have to put the letters BRA and the pilot's license number).

Jim, not all Citabrias have flaps, only the 7GCBC series (on the newer ACA series), older models most of them didn't have them.
SD's don't have flaps.

Ken, the big SD from Desert Aircraft, as fas as I know, is exactly the Bellanca XXL from Weiershäuser which our friends in Norway and Holland are building.

Have a nice Sunday - here it's raining, no flying the whole weekend.

Marcus

Big_Bird

My Feedback: (1)

Lee, all of my modifications to the SD have been previously shown in the thread. Based on the way that I built it I would not change a thing. Many times I have inspected it for cracks and loosness only to find nothing. I think one of the best things that I did was to bolt the bottom end of the strut to the fuselage tab rather than use Wendell's method. Though not completely scale, Wendell's design builds a very good plane and I highly recommend it.

If someone ever comes up with a source of wing tip lights then I want a pair. I'm not much good at molding my own.

Jim, I certainly agree with you about the wind. I passed on going to the Corsicana Big Bird flyin this weekend because of the wind (20 - 30 mph). I really wanted to take the SD down and show it off.

Marcus, I did a search on the net for the registration number of the plane above and found nothing.

Ken

Jim J

A gallery of a number of the planes built from that kit are on the following site. I got there through the DA site...don't know if you have seen these or not Ken. SOrry bout the wind. I may try to get out here if it settles down a little by five or so. Have a great evening to all. Jim J
http://www.emhw.de/

Kellermann

Ken, I don't think it's a real registration number. However, some small countries have a combination of letters and numbers, but most of the registrations known nowadays are letters, except of course, the american N numbers.
The owner of that SD may have found one of these and decided to model it after. One never knows which particular reason makes one decide upon a certain finish to his/her model.

Congrats on the latest addition to your plaque-colletction...

Marcus

Kellermann

Jim you're right, the letters EMHW stand for Exklusiv-Modellbau Harald Weiershäuser and these are the SDs our friends Sam in Norway as well as Hans and his team Pluvier in the Netherlands are building (or better, by the time being, finishing, since these Kits build pretty fast and Sam is already flying his...)

Marcus

NightSwan

Some new pictures added! (http://www.teampluvier.nl)

What's left to do for us:

- finish the struts
- cover the ailerons
- install aileron linkage
- screw on the LG (we get them back tuesday from the painter - a car body shop )
- Install a new hub on one of our engines.. one of the hubs was drilles wrong (in an old pattern). New hub is on the way from the Czech Republic - gotta love ZDZ!

- charge our batteries!!

Hans

Kellermann

Hoi Hans,
seems that your approach is more functional than scale, right?! The cockpit is crowded with equipment which does not allow for any interior replicating...but of course no one sees it at all while flying...
I see you're using 2x 5-Cell Packs and an EMCOTEC DualPowerServoInterface2001, what kind of servos are you using?

I am eager to see those beasts fly...send us some vids as soon as you get into the air...

Rgds
Marcus

NightSwan

Marcus,

yes, it's pretty crowded inside... Who thought that a 3.4m plane gets pretty small inside once you have all your equipment crammed inside. At least you can just
put your head through the window and find that x-acto knife you lost in there (no damage done)

We use hitec HS5945 servo's all around, one on each . The power interface is mostly to reduce (possible) interference due to the long servo leads.
All serve extensions are soldered from aicraft-grade teflon coated wire from the trash bin from Airbus Flashing xenon tube on the tail. The tiplight will have to
wait another two weeks or so. All stars and stripes are going to be cut from vinyl, we hope to have them on end of the week.

The props are already drilled and ready - Meszjlik 29x12 carbon three-bladed props - beautifully moulded.

Batteries are 2x 5-cell GP3300 NiMh packs for the DPSI/RX
1x 4-cell GP2100 NiMh for the ignition
1x 4-cell GP2100 NiMh for the lighting system / smoke pump

Still have to solder something up to switch the smoke pump (electrically isolated from the RX system ofcourse, so either a relay or opto-coupler)

No scale interior no.. too much tubing going around
Someday there is going an instrument panel on that white piece of gfk though!

We hope to have some pics of the finished aircraft end of this week..

Hans

Kellermann

Sounds good.
Wish you all the best, will all three planes be ready by that point?

Of course you'll be putting on a Spinner, right? A SD without the spinner is like a woman without her nose...

Marcus

NightSwan

Yes, all three will fly monday (weather permitting ofcourse)
The spinner(s) (and cowls) are being painted as well, I forgot to mention those.

Should look sweet.

Hans