slim_pkns

The top view of the engine mount / firewall and a front view of the same.

Cheers!

slim_pkns

Couldn't add both pics in the same post so here is the other. Don't be confused by the last image. The image is a top view of the an OS Max 30 mounted sideways even though it has ST40 shown mounted vertically underlined above it.

slim_pkns

In a previous post, I was asking if anyone had ever made copies of full size plans. I found that I could make them myself at the FedEx/Kinko's copy shop here in town. I'm not sure if this place is nation wide and not all shops have the equipment for large copies but I was able to find one close by. It cost about $0.75 per square foot. The VK Cherokee Babe ended up being around $7.00. I was really pleased with the results!

flightprep: look for my PM.

safeTwire

My Feedback: (2)

Thats good to know. Thanks for sharing that SP!

buzzard bait

Slim, the side mount and upright mount are just alternative ways to install an engine. The side mounting is very nice because if you flood the engine it clears quickly. Also it is easy to get the needle valve spraybar to coincide with about the middle of the fuel tank, which is a good position. On the downside, the muffler might not fit conveniently. You would either need to make a cut out for it, or get a special Pitts type.

Upright is good too, but it will tend to lean out more toward the end of the tank because the tank position will be low relative to the needle. However, I've done it that way many times without any serious trouble. Of course, the muffler is no problem in this installation, which makes it the simplest.

The OS .30 shown is about equivalent to or less than a modern plain bearing .25, like the OS .25 LA or TT .25 GP in power. The ST .40 is lighter and weaker than a modern ball bearing 40 - 46, which would present installation and balance issues, besides being an enormous amount of power and weight for this size plane.

Have you chosen an engine yet?

Thanks again for sending plans my way!

Jim

slim_pkns

I have an OS .40 LA sitting around from my first trainer. I was hoping to use it. I'm notorious at the field for flying slow and scale (everybody else likes that 3D crap or has two throttle settings, full and idle). I consistently made 20+ minute flights with it.

You think the OS .40 LA would be too much power?

buzzard bait

Slim, I think that engine would be an excellent combination with this plane. It might be more than you really need, but it will be very controllable, and the 40 LA is light weight as 40s go.

I think the main thing is not to weigh down the nose with a heavy engine, and to have a user friendly engine that will let you enjoy the plane. Yours should fill the bill just fine. I'm not a power freak either.

Jim

slim_pkns

Yaaaaaaaahhhooooooooooooo!!!

Major T. J. "King" Kong aka Slim Pickens

flightprep

Hi Slim,

Another voice of 'sanity' RE using an OS LA .40 in your Cherokee Babe - when I contacted the O.S. people about the O.S. .35 Max S that came installed in our Cherokee Babe, the exchange was basically that our .35 would behave a lot like an LA .40, except for a higher castor oil% in fuel requirement. I had also asked about the installed muffler (it had no pressurization nipple, etc etc), but the end result is that we are planning on re-installing the side-mounted .35 OS S Max paying attention to the fuel tank geometry. Previous comments RE side mount are well taken. If we can't get *** to work the way we want, we'll tap the muffler and mount a pressure nipple.

The OS .35 Max S is, as near as I can tell, is 2 generations behind the LA series (OS Max S, then FP, now LA) - all bushing series. As the motors go, the .35 ought to be fairly close in performancnce to a .40 LA. We have a .40 LA going spare (and a .46 LA as well....) but based on the 'as configured' performance report of the .35 from the former owner/pilot, and knowing the .40 LA and .46 LA series pretty well, I'd argue a .40 LA is a good choice. Thrifty on fuel too, plus the low throttle grunt/torque isn't too bad - .40 LA can cover a lot of applications, just give it enough prop to work at the low end.

We're making progress on the rebuild, will get some pics and post in the next weeks.

BTW at our field, we have three recognized throttle setting - idle, full, and dead stick. Today all our landings were dead stick - it was a glider day, the field was more like a swimming pool than an airfield!

Brgds
Flightprep

safeTwire

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The muffler used here is a Murphy Muffler. Shaped like the exhaust port and ran straight out. The end was covered with a thick neoprene like wrap. Extremely quiet!

The specs on the 40LA are close to the 35FP, plus, there are many exhaust options available today.

(Yes...there is a plane in the photo!)

slim_pkns

So THAT'S what a Cherokee Babe looks like!!!

Thanks for the pic safeTwire. Same plane as the one on the table from your previous post. Do you still have it?

flightprep: do you have everything you need to get yours back in the air? Did you get my PM? Let me know if there is any way I can help.

safeTwire

My Feedback: (2)

The "Cherokee Babe" does indeed have very fine lines!

Same plane as on the table. Table photo was pre-maiden sans the muffler. After several flights and engine tuning, the cowl was installed.

This was the first plane that I flew with digital proportional control. Before this, it was Galloping Ghost Pulse.

First flight was 4/3/72...47 flights later, retired it and hung it up at LHS. (used to keep a flight log )

flightprep:I appreciate the work involved with your rebuild. I had a mid-air with my PT-19, and it's taken me about the same amount of time to rebuild just the nose, than it did to build the whole plane!

flightprep

Hi Slim, I received your pm about a week ago, I replied in the affirmative with addresses etc - it sounds like you didn't get it, so I will re-transmit, it was sent from a handheld and maybe it didn't connect properly.

I think I have all I need, now it is down to rebuiilding the servo mounts, here the plans are helpful; covering will be straightforward, and presuming I can formulate some high castor glow fuel, it should be flyable in March/April.

safeTwire, many thanks for the encouragement, the rebuild has come together fairly quickly (faster than we thought as there was no really bad damage). Biggest challenge was taken care of by a friend who made a custom fit replacement cowl. I will send some pics of the rebuild, but they will nto be of the same high standard as your most recent photo...

Brgds
flightprep

safeTwire

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There are NO standards here flightprep!

Each and every effort put forth in this hobby earns respect!

slim_pkns

OK, I have an idea of how these fuselage sides go together! WOOOHOOOO! Progress has been made. It looks like there's an upper and lower sheet that make up the wall, a doubler up front (looks like it may be made up of a top and bottom piece as well), four vertical braces, and a top triangular brace towards the rear that will form the rounded top.

It's tough to visualize as I said before. The plans show the fuse side parts as hidden lines (dashed) and the isometric view is confusing because the layers of parts look different between the left and right halves. Of course almost nothing is labeled. I'm really thankful I have a nice forum like this to get help.

On another note, I've worn out the welcome to build at the girlfriends house. I knew it was going to happen so I took it slow and didn't move too much stuff. She thought it would better to offer her place for building so that I would spend more time at her place. Heheh, she had no idea what she was in for. If I'm not spending too much time with the plans, I'm spending too much time here posting on the forum. Of course, I ALWAYS spend too much time flying but she knows it always gets dark at some point.

More soon!

safeTwire

My Feedback: (2)

So now when you're over there, you are with her...and when you're home you can do what you want!

Sounds like a "Plan" to me!

flightprep

Here's a brief photo update showing the Cherokee firewall reinforcements as an FYI. Basically we soaked the oil out of the weak balsa, and scraped out the few really bad parts (fortunately the bad parts were mostly surface wood). We then took a piece of Tyvek envelope material, about 2 inches by 8 inches, pinholed it to let the glue get a good chance to bond, and cut out engine mount holes, a throttle cable hole etc.. We slathered it all up with 30 minute epoxy, forcing epoxy into the pinholed tyvek material, then clamped it all in place to keep the tyvek snug whiel it set up. It really did a great job of strengthening the fuse/firewall.

Because our new cowl is a bit larger at the firewall mounting point than the original, we took advantage of the extra space and epoxied 3/8 wide strips of 1/8 inch lite plywood around the sides and bottom of the fuse at the firewall. After tiding it all up with some light spacke, it's been coated with some rust-oleum to strengthen/protect/fuel proof.

The shots below are pretty self explanatory, showing the fiewall area form the front, bottom, and both side views.

By the way, Slim, I have a pm for you, please look for it.

Brgds
FlightPrep

slim_pkns

Nice! Thanks a bunch for the update. I'm away on a business trip to Florida so nothing new from me for now. It been good to get away for a few days though, even if it is for work. I'm more anxious to get back to it than ever!

FlightPrep: Got your PM. Cheers and thanks!

flightprep

The weather has not cooperated for flying, so we've made a bit of progress on our Cherokee rebuild. We tried to figure our how the servos had been installed, but when they were removed with their mounts by the previous owner, no good clues had been left behind - and some of their remaining modifications were not consistent with what made sense to us. Having plans really helped sort out the servo placement, so with plans in hand, we were happy to remove the left-over main bay 'innards'. We left one cross-sheet in for enhanced structural integrity (but cut some holes to allow servo tray mounting screw access). We then took the easy way out and installed a standard Futaba 3-bay servo tray (for S-3004 servos) on balsa ply rails. We installed the servo tray just a bit aft of the schematic suggestion to accomodate the control rods that came with the plane. There is plenty of room inside the fuse, and having 2-way access (underneath through the wing saddle plus a big top hatch) makes this easy to fit. There is a pic below, especially for Slim.

We found a similar oddball situation with the aileron servo mount, so we just installed some lite ply servo mount rails to bridge the wing halves and said 'done'.

We had to make a new top hatch (gone missing) and a new fuel hatch cover (oil soaked beyond recovery), so it was scrap balsa to the rescue.

We epoxy enamel spray painted the white cockpit trim areas, painted on some black side windows, then monokote covered the plane with a black/gold/white color scheme. We rather like the yellow/black/white 'Navy' scheme on bigger VK Cherokee Club build (see the thread at http://www.theflyingknights.com/phpB...opic.php?t=169), so not being proud, we took some cues from that design.

Fortunately the wheels/tires/con rods seem to be serviceable, now that they are cleaned up.

Posted below are a few more pics The Cherokee is not quite done, but the heavy lifting (especially major repairs and covering) is complete. The new cowl needs a bit of finish work and painting, plus we ahve to install servos, nose wheel, and con rods and horns.

(And, since the iron was hot, we finishing off the covering of a Sig Kobra in to resemble RAF Red Arrows livery - I will post a pic of that on my homepage for anyone interested, all we need to do is swap a .OS 25 FX from the Little Stick into the Kobra - in the pic a .25 LA is in to hold the nose down).

Enough monokoting, we're on to building an Ultimate Bipe .40...

Brgds
FlightPrep

flightprep

more pics/views below, I had trouble posting the shots (the files aren't that big) in the companion message above / Flightprep

safeTwire

My Feedback: (2)

Nicely Done flightprep! Keep up the good work!

flightprep

Many Thanks for the kind words safeTwire. Our main worry now is finding some good
castor so we can fly it with the .35 OS Max.

Took a look at your gallery, the PT rebuild is a nice story - we're impressed !

Sorry we can't be at the QRAM show this year, otherwise would try to say hello in person.

Brgds
Flightprep

safeTwire

My Feedback: (2)

Thanks for the compliments flightprep!

Fox still makes fuel with 100% castor as lubricant.

My father worked on the PT-19 when it was in "Action"! I built this plane in his honor...and re-built it in his honor too! I get sentimental with models!

Sorry you cant make the show. It will be there next year...the year after that...etc.

flightprep

Many thanks for the tip on Fox fuels with castor - I haven't seen these products at the LHS and am even having a hard time finding castor (I have found a place to mail order, and ther are some speed shops I can try).

A friend will be at the WRAM show, and I see Fox is exhibiting - I 'll ask him to get me a gallon.


Brgds
flightprep

squeakalong

My Feedback: (8)

Hi, flightprep. I have purchased AAA Castor at local pharmacy's in the past and have added an ounce or two to a new gallon of fuel as added lubricant for older engines with good results. Perhaps you'll be able to locate the AAA Castor in your area via some phone calls. Hope this helps. Love that Cherokee Babe! Built one many years ago and flew it with a Magnum .28; White with Metallic Green Monokote and gold pinstripes. Darn it all.......there I go again thinking about yet ANOTHER build project Happy building!