wessco

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i am

Nogyro

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Me too.......But I'm an ARF man.

Talk about flying weather over the holiday! I got in 34 flights in 5 day![sm=lol.gif][sm=lol.gif]

gboulton

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Heh...heya, wessco.

Hey...maybe that's an excuse for me. "How come you don't fly as well as Nogyro??" "Well, see, i spend my time BUILDING airplanes. "

I'll admit to not keeping track, but I know yesterday, when I only had a couple hours to kill, I got 3 in. as I said above, I went through dang near 2 gallons of gas this weekend in Patty alone....and managed to destroy the little Bulldog in between!

wessco

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I'm more of a builder and not an ARF'r....I'd like to build a Weeks Solutions. While I know it's not a Pitts, it does have 2 wings, which is the way to go. Heck, I'm not even a gasser....yet.

gboulton

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2 out of 3 ain't bad...there's hope for you yet.

===========================================

Just got off the phone with Roy over at HP Pilots...looks like the O&G full body pilots might work.

http://www.hppilots.com/gpage13.html

Anyone got any other suggestions?

gboulton

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Well, after 2-3 aborted attempts, the "cage" for the cockpit is assembled. Much finishing work remains, such as sanding, dressing up the joints to appear welded, painting, etc...but the basic cage is at least assembled and test fit.

Below are a couple of pictures...the first is of the cage as it is now, the second a screen shot from the MS FlightSim 2002 BullDog model that's available on Jim's website. As it happens, I'm ACTUALLY using some cockpit shots I took at an airshow last year, but I don't wish to post them publicly anywhere, and the flight-sim model is quite suitable for the basic structure.

gboulton

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With the cage for the cockpit framed up, it's pretty much as far as I can take it until I get the pilot figure...his size/proportions will dictate, to some degree anyway, the placement of most of the smaller bits (control stick, throttle, rudder pedals, etc).

That being the case, work has begun today on the horizontal stab. Couple of modifications from Andrew's original plans here. First, for obvious reasons, i'm going with 1/4" stock rather than 3/16" stock used in the .40 sized model. Next, once the frame is built (it will be constructed in accordance with the plans) then the entire surface will be sheeted on both sides with 1/16" balsa. This should not only provide a small bit of extra strength (for little weight gain) but will also hide the outline of the framework. I'll be routing some small grooves in the sheeting, and putting 1/8" balsa dowel in, sinking it to leave a half-round up above the surface of the stab. This should mimic the appearance of the tube framework of the actual aircraft's stab.

For the curious, here's the beginnings of the stab build:

Randy M.

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Looking good so far. You may want to run the grain in the center of the stab the other way. Would be much stronger. May not matter much if you sheet it though.

gboulton

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*chuckle*

And where were you when I was actually GLUING that piece, huh Randy???

As you say, I don't think it's going to make too much difference once sheeted...provided the sheeting runs cross grain to that center section, which it will.

gboulton

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Stab framework is done, al the joints sanded and smoothed, etc etc. It's sitting out in the shop right now under some weights as the first side of sheeting waits for the glue to set. I'll probably do the other side later this evening, then weight it all down again and leave it for a day or so to cure.

Next step...elevators.

gboulton

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[>:]

Well, went out to check on the stab (during intermission of the hockey game, of course) to see if it could be flipped for the opposite side sheeting.

Glue was certainly dry enough...but, much to my dismay, 2 edges had completely failed to seal up to the sheeting, leaving large gaps. I tried to see if some CA would draw it up, but no luck...apparently, as I was sanding the jints, I must have rocked the sanding block over the edge, and rounded it a bit.

I made an attempt to remove the sheeting, but no way that was going to work. So...bleh...all the work of the last few days is now in the trash can, and we'll do the stab again.

Ah well...such is scratch building.

gboulton

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One of the advantages of having "your own" thread is you can threadjack it whenever you please.

As I mentioned back on the 27th, the Bulldog's progress was impeded somewhat by the spectacular flying conditions over the holiday weekend..Patty went through a LARGE amount of gasoline that weekend.

As it happened, a local professional photographer, Turner Hutchison, is also a bit of an RC pilot, and was at the field on Friday. He was kind enough to train his Nikon D70, and rather experienced eye, on one of Patty's flights. The results are, imo, STUNNING, and just HAD to be shared. I humbly request that nobody save copies of these, as they are not mine to distribute.





Enjoy

Randy M.

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If you haven't rebuilt the stab yet, you could use some aeropoxy. Just shoot some in the crack and clamp it lightly. Once it sets up, it'll be bullet proof. You can get it from BVM or get the Hysol equivilent from Dreamworks Rc. It's also great for putting it formers and bulkheads.
Those are some nice pics!

gboulton

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Thanks for the idea, Randy, but I think I'm gonna rebuild it. 2 reasons: #1, even though I completely trust your statement that it'll be bulletproof, but I'm committed to getting things "just right" on this plane, and #2 I can probably have it rebuilt before I could order and receive any of it.

gboulton

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Well, hopefully I can get the stab redone this weekend...and possibly even make a start on some elevators. We'll see. (I must admit...the temptation to slap everything together with CA is AWFULLY strong this morning...BUT I'M FIGHTING IT! )

Also, Mike Dunphy up at PAC RC (my LHS, and the most awesome LHS on the planet) says he can likely get the wing cores cut for me this weekend as well.

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Speaking of wing cores, in our "information you might want if you're ever silly enough to try this yourself" category:

The "multiplication" factor from Andrew's original .40 sized plans is 1.772727272727.... which is to say if you take the 6" scale on his plans, and bump it up to 10.6363636363... inches.

With this factor, the wing has the following dimensions:

12 7/8" chord
Top wing is 3 sections : 10 5/8" center section, 2 33 11/16" wing halves, for a total of 78"
Bottom wing is 2 sections, each half being 37 7/32", for a total of 74 7/16" with 7/8" of dihedral at each wing tip.

shakes268

Ok, you used math....I'm done here

gboulton

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[sm=lol.gif]

Dude...I even used some trig...Ms. Brashear would be SO proud of me.

Nogyro

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Hey, did you graduate from HCHS? My son had Ms. Brashear. She just retired last year.

gboulton

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Yep, sure did...sorry to hear she's retired...I had, actually, just checked their website and she's still listed as faculty. I was gonna give her a shout next time I was down that way with a plane.

For all the griping and muttering and making fun of her I did in those days, she was a heck of a teacher....I mean, look at me, i even remember enough trig to calculate dihedral!

gboulton

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Just a quick shot of the new stab frame ready to be sheeted:

gboulton

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Couple more quick shots...the stab sheeted, with the tubing detail added to the top, and then a shot of the actual Bulldog that shows the tube framework in the stab being replicated.

gboulton

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WARNING TO SHAKES268 : MATH CONTENT!

Did a bit of weighing tuff this morning. Obviously, many of these are estimates, but I think we're going to be in that 16 - 18 lb range I was hoping for.

Fuse : 2 lbs 5 oz
Tail feathers : Estimated 1 lb (horiz stab is 6 oz, vert stab is 4 oz, estimated another 6 oz for rudder and elevators)
Wings w/ 2 servos : 4 lbs (estimated by weighing wings w/ servos from Giant Aeromaster, same wingspan...added 5 oz since those are built up wings, mine will be foam core)
4 servos (2 elev, PP rudder, Throttle) : 7 oz
2 batts : 10 oz
2 Switches/Rx : 2 oz
2 tanks (smoke/fuel) : 8 oz
Cockpit Frame : 2 oz
Remaining sheeting on fuse : 6 oz (estimated by weighing 6 sheets of 1/16 balsa)

This comes out to 9 lbs 12 oz. The stock G-62 w/o muffler is listed at 4 lbs 9 oz. Since I'll be having RC Ignitions lighten it, we'll call the muffler a wash, and go with that number to come up at 14 lbs 5 oz

This gives me, essentially, about 3 lbs to "play around with" or to make up for things I might have missed or not weighed (a pilot figure and various control surface linkages for example)

Given that my current G-62 hauls around a 16+ lb PW Extra like a foamy, and I've seen what nogyro's does with his 17lb + WH Extra, I think we're right on track to have a G-62 perform quite well in this aircraft, and we should keep the wing loading down BELOW what it was on the .40 sized Bulldog.

gboulton

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Vertical stab came out of its "press" this morning, got all sanded and such. Took the opportunity to set it and the horiz. stab on the tail...no real reason, it just happens to be the first time the project has had a chance to look vaguely airplane-like, so thought I'd share.

gboulton

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I really MUST share this...I know, i know, it's not anything special, nor is it anything a few thousand of you haven't done before...but for ME, it's a pretty nifty bit of engineering.

I scraped together a "test" control surface this evening, to practice making the hinge line the way I want it. I'm hoping to duplicate a scale look and function, with a rounded LE and TE that mate up, with a center point hing mostly concealed in the hinge line. Not only does this add to the scale appearance, but it significantly reduces the airflow disruption over the hinge line, versus standard "point to point" angled TE and LE.

I still have some practice to do to get the edges to marry up closer to "flush", but for a first effort, this ain't too bad for little ole me.

I've left these pics a bit larger, to show some of the detail:

Stickbuilder

HCHS ??? Would that be Hickman County High School? I graduated from Hendersonville High School in a building that does not exist any longer. 9old time Tennessean here) (transplanted to Florida)

GBoulton, can you tell me which hobby shop has the blanks and the profile for the wing cores. Our wing builder has wimped out on us, and I am either going to have to find someone to cut the cores, or do an overlay on Bipe Flyer's plan and do a built-up wing for the giveaway model.

Those framed up wings in one of the early pics looks suspiciously like a wing set for a WACO YMF. Did you guys ever go to Danielle's when Larry owned it? If so, did you ever see the John Deere Extra? If so, that was one of mine. I sold several large aerobats through Larry and Dana, over the years. Sad to see that the old shop is now only ARF and electric. Wayne is good people, but I miss the old shop. We have a good shop here in central Florida (several of them in fact). We probably have met. Keep up the building, and please let me know who to contact for a set of wing cores.

Bill, AMA 4720
WACO Brotherhood #1