CaptainHook

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I hope someone can help out out on this. I went back and read about the dreaded cowl/firewall problem, but I am still not sure what is the right thing to do. Am I assuning correct that 3/16 off the top and bottom is still the right thing to do. It's all somewhat confusing reading some of the earlier posts, hope you can help. Sheeting over the firewall seams to be the cleanest looking, but doesn't that add back to the problem? FA also hangs down past the firewall as well, so cutting it down seams to create another problem. Thanks in advance.

Jim J

Not necessarily....it depends in part which cowl you are using. The aircraft that Ken built I believe is totally stock up front and I think he also used the stock cowl from ....um.....one of the two listed on the Hostetler site.
I have that one plus one built by a great fiberglasser from Canada. The issue I believe is a more "scale like" appearance. Correct me if I am wrong Ken, but I am pretty sure that Ken did not modify his nose much if at any. Ken......Ken....you can bark in any time here. I don't think he is gone to Bomber Field yet. Ken.....give us your input.
I am up to that point. I am going to use the "more scale version" cowl and am not sure yet what I am going to do to make it fit as I would like. I think the trim down thing went somewhere along the way. You might want to read on down a few more pages to see what the rest of the comments were.
I will see if I can find the print out of this thing somewhere....it isn't indexed yet but Ken was talking about working on that....If you find the specific post number and page I will hike back there as well and take a look. Later. Jim J

Jim J

Carey, at the bottom of the page here there is a single word search engine that will search just this thread. If you put the word cowl in there, it will bring up several thread areas. Jim

Jim J

Carey, in addition, many of the builders have used the Stan's cowl and have been very happy with it.
I am pretty sure that Ken used it and I have seen his plane .....it looks and flies great. Later. Jim J

CaptainHook

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Hi Jim,

I found a post of Ken's that mentioned only removing 1/8" from the cowl (allowing for the sheeting I think). I have Stan's also. I will read some more but I will also try a little triming as well. I don't think it will tke much to get the fit.

Big_Bird

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I have to admit that what I did almost 2 years ago is a bit fuzzy. Heck, what I did last month is a bit fuzzy. Yes I did use the cowl from Stans and it's been OK. Jim I searched for "firewall" and found this from 11/2/02. I'm pretty sure that I did what was said here. My cowl does fit like a glove. It's less scale but it gets flown a lot. Lee's is nice but needs more work to be scale. It's a good start though.

"Lee, while you are thinking about the cowl fit, here is something else to think about. I have a Hostetler PT-19 and the outside sheeting laps over the edges of the firewall. It looks like the outside sheeting on the SD butt joins the back of the firewall. By over lapping the edge of the firewall with the 1/8 sheeting a tremendous amount of strength will be gained for the front of the fuselage with no weight gain. Of course the firewall will have to be cut down and beveled for a good fit with the sheeting. By sheeting this way, you will be able to get a perfect glove fit with the cowl by lightly sanding the sheeting. I realize that Wendell is depending on the fuselage inner sides to provide support through the slots in the firewall."

I leave for Bomber Field Wednesday before sun up.

Ken

Jim J

Keep us posted on how it works for you Carey.
Have a good time at Bomber, Ken. It looks like Ivan should not be any factor....going more North.
I am sure you have seen a few that affected the weather down there as here.
Have a great time and take some pics for us.
Thanks. Jim

Kellermann

Carey, as said before, I am not building the WH Decathlon, but an own design. So there is not much I can say about specifics of the WH design, however I alerted several times that the whole nose of the WH design is not true to scale, especially because the firewall is wider than high, which is absolutely not scale. I just don't remember the correct measurements, however this is generated by another mistake (sorry, Wendell, but it IS true) on the cabin uprights, which are way too short, the fuse height should be in the 19 inch range but is actually only in the 17 inch range. That makes for a "flattened" aspect of the whole fuselage, including a flattening on the firewall to accomodate for a reasonably scale windshield height. If you're not into drop dead scale, leave as is an just follow the plan and Ken's and Jim's advice, just taking care not to flatten it even more. However if you prefer a more scale look, make the whole cabin area higher and the nose/firewall included. Obviously that creates the need for a totally new cowl. In this case I would recommend getting in touch with Harald Weiershaeuser at www.emhw.de to check if he supplies spare cowls (he includes them in his excellent 1/3 scale kit). Or make your own plug as I did - I just do not offer sending you one of my cowls for 2 reasons: a) I am still finishing the plug, so no actual cowl was made yet, and b) my scale is 31.25%, not full 1/3 scale, so it won't fit anyway. Do you have a good set of 3-views, other than the one supplied with the plan, to base on? If not, I can supply you one copy of ones I have.
Tell me your e-mail address and I will send you a copy of all I got, I just don't post it because it's possibly not public domain.

I am including a pic of my plug just for your info. Just don't be fooled by the perspective...

Marcus

CaptainHook

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Marcus, Jim, Ken, I took 1/8 off all the way around except for the upper corners (more) and It seems to fit well without the sheeting. The upper corners needed more to match F1AA. It look's like a little sanding and things will come together nicely, the front of the cowl is 8" from the firewall. The cowl was rough, out of square and I trimed the rear of it to match the length on the plans. I have decided to wait until I get my ZDZ and muffler in (tomorrow) to cut the opening for the cooling exit. I do have some good 3-views and some awsome photos so I'm taken care of there Marcus, thanks for the offer. I am hoping when I get these mods past me including F16 and F17, things will go smoother and quicker. Got to get going on that Stuka too!

Kellermann

Well, Carey, nice to hear that. Just go on. I am sure you'll have a pretty nice flyer...
Since this is a very democratic thread, what about sending us some pix on that Stuka?

Marcus

CaptainHook

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Hey guys, the ZDZ, muffler, spinner came today. All looked great except the ignition box that has a nice dent in it. I am sending it back for replacement to Chief. Stuka......I'm sure we can manage to get a few pics. I plan on starting it in about 6 weeks after the SD is framed up.

Kellermann

Hey Fellas,
I am glad to inform that Ken's Jungie made it at Bomber Field, placing high in the money.

Second place - Best Civilian Post 1941.

Congrats Ken, well done!

Marcus

CaptainHook

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Ken, you must build a super looking model. Congrats! Is this becoming a habit for you to place high in the $? I have the fuse framed up after all the hassle of re-working all that was wrong, looking good now. I did receive the Bambula 26 x 10 for the ZDZ, ouch! That is a massive hub and blade for a 3 1/2 to 4" spinner to handle. Looks like the Tru-Turn that I have will have to be traded away for something that will work. Any thought's on what I should purchase or will the 3 1/2 work with some alterations?

Big_Bird

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Somehow I missed out on the $$$ but they did give me a nice plaque.

Chook, here is a photo of the 4" spinner with the Bambula 26x10. I bought the spinner pre drilled and cut from RC Showcase when I bought the engine. It's worked out just fine.

Well, I guess now is as good as anytime to tell you how I nearly lost the SD at Bomber Field. It's the closest that I've ever come and not lost the plane. I think it was Friday when I was pulling the banner. I had made about 4 complete circuits of the field when I started another S to N pass in front of the pitts. The banner was flying great. All of a sudden I lost the banner and the SD went straight up. As I tried to regain control of the plane, I noticed that I was having to push too much down elevator. At this point I or my spotter didn't know what caused the line to break. The plane by now was at 300' at idle and I'm finally pushing enough down elevator to get it to start descending. Of course, I'm pretty nervous at this point due to the strange control response. As I came down, I clipped a small tree with the tip of my right wing and the plane landed rather abruptly in high weeds breaking the prop and slightly bending the right main gear. At this point it was obvious why I was having to push down elevator. The tow cord had spoinged forward and wrapped around the left upper tail brace, trapping the left elevator in about the 20 degree up position. With all of my pushing forward on the elevator stick I had actually broken the left elevator. Thank goodness for split elevator halves.

Now back to the cause of the broken cord. While I was flying a beautiful 96# B25J had taken off. The Mitchell had come down between the banner and my SD. The 60' cord cut a thin gash across the top of the 25s wing about 10" out from the right prop as it wrapped over the wing and then, as seen by marks on the wing, it skittered in toward the prop. There was yellow paint from the 25 on the pink cord. The prop may have been what actually cut the cord 5' from the tail end of the SD. I sure was thankful that the cord broke.

Here's the strange part. I had no recollection of seeing the B25J nor did my spotter. This probably happened in 2/100 of a second. The 25 was probably going in the vicinity of 100 mph and the SD was probably traveling at about 35 mph. A lot of people did see what happened and their stories were remarkably similar.

I thought that you might like this true war story. I fixed the elevator and landing gear and flew it twice more. Later I'll tell you about the Corsair flight. Yes we found the banner and it will fly again.

Ken

Big_Bird

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Here are a few more Bomber Field shots. The Spacewalker is Jack Haynes new 1/2 scale. It weighs 37 lbs and is powered by a 3W 100 twin. It flies great. The OV-10 Bronco weighs 80 lbs and is powered by 2 Fuji 64s. These engines are really impressive as is the highly aerobatic Bronco.

Big_Bird

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Here are a few more shots. All of the photos were taken with an Olympus C750 Ultra Zoom digital camera. The quality of the planes at this meet has to be seen to be believed. The B25 shown here is extremely detailed including the cockpit. The Gulfhawk (Bearcat) weighs 50+ lbs and is powered by a DA150. It's all fiberglass and flies very well. An interesting feature is that the center section of the wing has it's own receiver and battery pack so that it just bolts on without having to hook anything up. I don't think the German push me/pull me plane flew. The Stuka flew a lot.

Big_Bird

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a few more..... Jim, I don't want any more flimsy excuses about not coming down next year. The F-86 won the best jet award.

Big_Bird

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last ones..... The Monocoupe is one of my favorite shots but I have to wonder, when someone goes to the trouble of building an outstanding airplane, why doesn't he put a pilot in it? I love this shot of the Ju52.

Jim J

Good Morning! Congratulations Ken!....on both the award and the GREAT SAVE! NO, no excuses for next year. Whale watching will be in January for 2005 in Maui. The whales were few and far between off of Maine this year. Nova Scotia had a few more but nothing to write home about. The rest of the trip was fine.....almost ran in to the Bushes at Kennebunkport but they left a couple days before we got there. We stay about 6 blocks from their compound...
Back to modeling. The thrill of it all really comes to a sharp edge when something like that happens. I would never have considered the rebound of the tow line but I have been whipped by a broken ski line when I was near the back of the boat when a line broke......it hurts like........bad! Leaves a bad bruise but no broken control surfaces!
Back to the dogs here. I will get off at noon today. The new "spam" blocker blocks my RCUniverse communications on new posts....I will have to work on that.
Also, the Decath is coming along. I am framing the wing....finally!
I am covering a friends P-51 TopFlight (RTC) this weekend so I probably won't get much done.
He wants his done in Monocote....I am doing mine in Stits as well as the Decath. SOunds like fun their Marcus. I hope you get some great pics! I have a couple of friends here with Decaths and posted some pics last year of one of them. I don't remember if I sent you the cd or not......kind of fuzzy minded here if it was more than an hour ago!
Have a great week end to all and hope to see some more pics......did you post the site where the pics are Ken....I will look back again here....thanks again for the pics and keep up the great record there Ken. Later. Jim

Kellermann

Hey Jim, that's great news, that you're framing the wing.
I haven't started yet, a couple of other "urgent" projects got in the way, like fixing and refinishing my sport SD lookalike which I fly every weekend, had a mishap on landing last saturday, now the long overdue re-covering will be done after fixing the broken LG plate.
Also some lightening is planned.

Ken, I share your thoughts about phantom pilots on otherwise big, beautiful scale models...the Spacewalker is nice, but I think a pilot doll IS A MUST.
By the way, the Monocoupe is on my to-do-list, someday...

Nice to hear that you saved your SD from re-kitting...

MArcus

Kellermann

Carey,
the correct size for a spinner would be at least 4 1/2 inches, remember that the fullsize has an overgrown spinner...look at the pix, you'll notice what I mean.

Jim, yeah, you sent me the CD, thanks again, those pix have been VERY helpful since the fullsize I am modeling after is the same model/year, only that she has been recovered and also the interior is new.

Marcus

Flying Hog

Thinking about a winter project......I think this is it.

Kellermann

Welcome Aboard, Hog,
just go for it, you won't regret it.

Marcus

Big_Bird

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I have to make a correction to post #1564. I said that the bomber came down between my plane and the banner. A new photo has surfaced which shows the bomber came from below up between my plane and the banner. The banner normally flies below the SD. In this photo it is above the SD and the bomber is also higher than the SD.

This has to be one of Dick Lee's most lucky shots because he got it within a second after the bomber cut the cord.

Ken

Big_Bird

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Here are new photos of my SD at Bomber Field made by Dick Lee.

Hog, welcome. I don't think you could pick a more fun project.

Maybe it's just me but it sure seems like the interest in SDs on this thread has tapered off. Maybe I've posted too many other things than SD stuff when posting became slack. If I did, I apologize. There was no intention to hijack the thread.

By the way, I pulled the banner again today at our annual Helicopter contest and will again next week at the Austin TX Big Bird flyin.

Ken