mgnostic

I finally got some fins on the Force One. If you look a the photos you can see that I added some half inch triangle stock to the base to the fin. They just didn't seem very firm despite the fact that there is also triangle stock stock under the skin. It's not very pretty at this point due to the sanded guide coat and bits of filler but I'm hoping for a nice finish. A comment on glassing the hatch; I used the cling wrap so that I could glass the hatch with it mounted to the airplane. I wanted to stabilize the hatch while the resin set up. During Spring time in North Texas the humidity varies quite a bit and the shape of the wood in the hatch would vary from day to day. After glassing it is much more stable.

mgnostic

Mmmmm...primer (You just read that in Home Simpson's voice). Back when there was a wider range of colors I probably would have painted it with Lustercote but it has gotten hard to find locally. A shame because it adheres well to the Kwik-Poly. My Holy Smoke is nearly 10 years old and still looks really good. I considered catalyzed automotive paint but that gets pretty pricey for such a small model. I was in one of the Dallas area shops and they had a selection of Brodak Dope so I'm going to give that a try. The primer is a necessity since the colored dope, particularly the lighter colors is pretty translucent. I'm going to go with yellow undersides and a gray and green upper surface. I have a set of Major Decals' British markings and am going with fighter jet look.

mgnostic

I sprayed some color on it. Insignia yellow on the bottom and light gray and forest green on top. The elevons are hinged and mounted. I will be painting on a black canopy and possibly other markings. I'm considering a clear coat but will have to see what is compatible with the butyrate dope. I have some clear butyrate dope but the decals caution against laying down anything more that a pretty dry coat. Still to come plumbing and servos.

Quikturn

My Feedback: (12)

Nice job on the paint! Looks sort of like a Vulcan.

mgnostic

Thanks, that was what I had in mind.

juanjulian

My Feedback: (9)

Very sweet paint job.

This plane is so ugly that needs a good paint job to make it look better.

Cheers

Juan

mgnostic

Well, it's been a busy summer but I finally got back to the Force One. I spent a little time on it this evening and fished the servo leads through the wing and fastened the landing gear to the airframe.

malitape

My Feedback: (213)

Very interesting color scheme. I like!

mgnostic

Thanks!

mgnostic

The plumbing is in and the servos are all installed. It is just waiting for the new receiver to come in the mail so I can start taxi testing and eventually maiden it. I'm pleased with the outcome. The only big error I have spotted was that I forgot the subfins on the bottom of the wing. I don't think it will impact the flying qualities. I didn't notice I had forgotten them until I had already sprayed the bottom with yellow. The all up dry weight should be almost exactly five pounds. I'm pretty pleased with this given that I opted for a fully sheeted wing that was then fiberglassed and the O.S. FX .46 engine is probably a little heavier than the K&B .40 on the prototype. Right now it balances about 1/4 inch behind the designated CG point. By the time that I add the receiver and padding it should only require a smidge of weight to balance. I'll post a flight report after the maiden.

mgnostic

MAIDEN FLIGHT! Well, I had a successful maiden flight. It was a pretty short flight, I only burned three ounces of fuel. One problem was that I waited until too lay in the evening to go to the field. The setting sun highlighted the yellow underside attractively but presented some problems with orientation. I may need to add some color to the fins. As noted earlier I am using an O.S. FX .46 engine. It is a well broken in engine in its prime and it produces a lot of power. It felt a little weird holding on to the nose of the airplane as it pushed towards me during the run up. The APC 10-6 pusher prop certainly seems to produce good thrust. The clunk forward orientation of the tank (as shown on the plans) doesn't seem to pose any problems. I probably won't be doing any longs climbs on a near empty tank though. I was a little concerned about clearance for the starter but I was able to reach the prop hub by being certain to orient the starter button so it was anywhere but on the bottom. The O.S. is an easy starter so I may try hand propping it some time. The consensus seems to be that rudders aren't necessary on this model but I did use the rudder servo to control the nose gear. With a few clicks (beeps?) of trim it taxied nicely up and down the runway. I put the flight battery and three ounces of lead in the to forward most compartment to balance the plane exactly as shown on the plans. This brought my all up dry weight to an even five pounds. The manual describes having 1/8 inch reflex on the elevator but doesn't really explain what this eighth of an inch is relative to. so I measured from the cordwise center line of the wing. This is less reflex than indicated by the reflex gauge that came with my Top Flight Holy Smoke. Based on that I pit in a few more clicks of up trim. The prop on this model sits in a slot in the wing rather like the foam F-22s. As a result the prop noise has its own unique sound but it doesn't seem to impair thrust in any way. This airplane taxies and is easier to manage on the take-off run than the Holy Smoke. I will compare these two planes since they are similar in size, both have a delta wing and I have both. The Holy Smoke was designed to have a nose wheel and two skids under the wing. I exchanged the skids on mine for wheels. This leads to a wide track landing gear that has a very short wheel base. I can make the Holy Smoke swap ends by accelerating and then making a sharp turn. The Force One also has a fairly wide track main gear but the longer wheel base, as a result it tracks nicely. The Force One accelerates quickly. Both the Force One and the Holy Smoke are tricycle gear delta wings and both seem to like to have a little speed before rotating. I have read some comments that seem to indicate difficulty with getting the aircraft to take off, basically having to yank the stick back to get the airplane off the ground. Mine sits at about a five degree positive angle on the ground and my take off seemed to go smoothly. I used about 3/4ths throttle for take off. Once the plane left the ground it wanted to pitch up. I had cranked in too much reflex and had to hold forward stick. Luckily I hadn't over done it too much and was able to trim for level flight. I don't think I ever exceeded 3/4 throttle and the airplane is pretty fast for something flying on a 10-6 prop. After making a few circuits of the field I slowed to half throttle. After sorting out the elevator settings the next bit issue is the aileron sensitivity. The roll rate is very fast, especially at speed. The elevator in comparison was, if anything, a little sluggish. Generally the airplane was neutrally stable about all axes and once I dial in some exponential into the aileron function of the elevons it ought to fly like it was on rails. With the light fading I set up for a landing. The first try I came in too high and had to go around. I came in lower the second time around and carried less speed. The airplanes low speed manners seem good. It flared easily and settled in for a smooth landing. I think it lands more slowly than the Holy Smoke. I will have to take both planes out at the same time for a comparison. Aside from the need to tweak the roll rate there weren't any big surprises on the first flight. Sorry there aren't any first flight photos but there was only one other guy at the field and he wasn't comfortable running a camera. I will get some flight photos next time I go out. I will post more comments as I finish tweaking the airplane but this concludes the build. There were a few building challenges but they were primarily due to the relatively unusual plan form of the airplane and most of my challenges were brought on my my modifications to the plane. It is a Laddie Mikulasko design and I have long been a fan of his work. Flying wise this would not be a good plane for a beginner, primarily due to the unusual shape and the speed that it is capable of. That said, I really like the plane so far. I don't know what the current manual looks like but for a seventies era manual it is pretty good with lots of illustrations and helpful guidelines. Building this airplane should not be an insurmountable task for anyone with a kit or three under their belt. One of the nicest things about this kit is that it is still available ​! Thanks everyone for following along with my build.

mgnostic

A few more pictures of the Force One along with its hanger mate the Top Flight Holy Smoke. I acquired both of these kits together when a buddy of mine picked up a box of balsa wood and parts at an auction. I could tell that there were parts to make airplanes and by puzzling through the labels and hardware kits I sorted out that I had a couple of delta winged planes. The manuals for both planes were still available and BUSA had plans for the Force One. The Holy Smoke is OOP but some one on RCU was able to help out with a scan of the plans. Both of these plans are 70's era delta wing designs. I don't have the plans in front of me but I think both had the ubiquitous K&B .40 as the prototype engine. Although they have close to the same wingspan the Force One is a bigger plane that weighs about 16 ounces more than the Holy Smoke and it has more wing area. After I get a chance to fly them together I will say more about their similarities and differences.

mgnostic

Got in a second flight with the Force One this afternoon. I dialed in 50% exponential for a big improvement in aileron response. It still has a good roll rate at full deflection but is much smoother for just flying around. Overall the flight was good but on the roll out after landing I tried to turn off too soon and flipped it on its back. The only damage was taking off the tips of the prop but that was the only pusher prop i had with me. The visibility was much better than last time but I think I am going to have to add some color up top. The gray fins just disappear at any distance. The plane accelerates very quickly at take off and even though it has some positive angle of attack it still needs a little up elevator to come unstuck. Thanks to the O.S. .46 this is probably the fastest .40 size plane I have ever flown. It probably seems faster than it is. A 10-6 prop will only take you just so fast. One nice thing is that it slows down okay. You can stooge around the field at 1/2 to 3/4 throttle quite comfortably. I took it up a couple of hundred feet high and pulled back to about 1/3rd throttle an hauled back on the elevator. It will tolerate a nose high attitude but once the speed bleads off the nose can drop suddenly into a pretty steep dive. A fully developed stall would be pretty messy close to the ground but probably no more so than with a warbird or any other jet shaped aircraft. So far it seems to carry a fair amount of speed when you throttle back so you have to start slowing down for the landing farther out than with a lot of straight winged airplanes. Once slowed down it seems to drop pretty quickly and if you let it get too slow you could end up pancaking it. I had to blip the throttle a little as I crossed the runway threshold and it flaired nicely for a smooth landing. I flew the Holy Smoke immediately after flying the Force One. It should be said that the Holy Smoke is eight years old and I'm a lot more familiar with it. First off the Force one has better manners on the ground. The holy smoke was never intended to have anything but a nose wheel and two skids in back and it shows. Both planes track well down the runway but the Holy Smoke unsticks a little more easily. The Holy Smoke is a pound lighter and is flying with a less powerful engine. The Holy Smoke has a thicker wing and all things being equal it is a little slower and more aerobatic. Both airplanes fly very smoothly and have neutral stability in that they will stay where you put them. Both planes have mild dihedral resulting from the wings thickness tapering to the tips and the sweep back on a delta wings contributes a dihedral effect. Both planes are capable of ridiculously high rates of roll at full deflection and full throttle. A high speed pass fulling up into a rolling vertical climb is pretty impressive especially with the military color scheme on the Force One. The Force One is much easier to land gracefully. The Force One plops onto the pavement without much drama while the Holy Smoke requires a landing in the grass. Trying to hand the Holy Smoke on pavement results in a series of hops and skips that often ends with the aircraft on its back. So far it is hard to say which I like better. Both planes are entertaining to fly and are different from most of the planes that you will see at the field. One place where the Force One has potential is as a "trainer" for getting into turbine aircraft. With a hot motor and its delta wing it could approximate the handling qualities of a jet. There is definitely room in the fuselage and the large hatch would provide for easy access to flight batteries with an electric conversion. IIRC one of the early commenter described mounting a ducted fan onto a Force One. Even though this plan has been around for a while it is still a worthwhile build.

Allred

Thanks, Matt for this very interesting and helpful build log. I have inherited an old Force One, which has now been recovered and refinished by a friend, the original builder. Our plans are now to convert it to electric power. I hope I can upload a photo, and I hope to continue to do so as the conversion takes place.

mgnostic

Allred, your buddy really rocked the covering job. The details of an electric conversion would be pretty interesting. It should be possible to mount a pretty big battery pack in the space allocated for the fuel tank and it will be close to the CG so it won't complicate balancing the plane over much. Given the performance of brushless motors, I wouldn't be at all surprised if you could exceed the performance of a glow motor.

juanjulian

My Feedback: (9)

My handme down edf force one chrashed due to reverse aikeros due to progran error. It was minor damage so rebuilding it.

The front nosee needed new sheeting, edf base needs to be done again.

Will add here a diagram in pdf of edf base for reference and if someone wants to go edf. It is a fun plane and very robust.

They changed this format How do you upload pictures?

malitape

My Feedback: (213)

Maybe just upload pdf file?

mgnostic

Juanjulian, to post a picture look at the tool bar across the top of the Quickreply window. There is a row of icons and the one for uploading pictures is the third from the right. Good luck on your repairs.

juanjulian

My Feedback: (9)

Had to dowload pictures from movil phone to pc to be able to post them here.

The EDF base made from poplar wood 1/8 inch worked but did not managed to survive the flip over crash.

This time used the same poplar wood but added two skins of 1/16 playwood, the base were edf sits is1/8 plywood

Since fixing plane decided to make a new color squeme, so it looks more modern and propably can sold plane easily later.

Hobby king covering is superb liking it more than monokote and oracover.It shrinks a lot so any mistakes goes away with more heat, also is thicker and not transparent so repairs like mine with dark brown not notice.

Cheers

Juan

mgnostic

Hey Juan, good job with the color scheme. That is also a pretty nifty way to adapt the existing propeller slot. It would be interesting to see someone build a Force One that was a ducted fan conversion from the beginning.

malitape

My Feedback: (213)

Yes, me too. Thirteen scars on my hand dictates that to me.

mgnostic

Did you get into a prop? I've been lucky so far, just spanked knuckles and some scratches from a wooden 10-6 prop. My understanding is that pushers require extra care because when you are tuning the engine you are more likely to catch the leading edge of the prop.

malitape

My Feedback: (213)

It was actually an electric hand launch Delta wing, Matt. It cut across the top of my hand and left some peculiar markings. I've launched dozens of times before. Somehow kept the throwing hand up too long at launch, so now no more rear mounted props for me. EDF's have come a long way, look good and fly good. I love Delta type birds, just not with props, hence my interest in an EDF mount for this bird.

mgnostic

I watched one of the local guys launch a Stryker using the molded in grips and your post came to mind. Several of the local flyers have up rated them with in-runners and APC props. Very fast but I could see where your injury could occur.

mgnostic

Starting to get a few flights under my belt with the Force One. I've installed the fuel tank as depicted in the plans with the opening to the back and the clunk facing forward. A high speed pass into a rolling vertical is very impressive to see but it the fuel tank is less than full the engine burps quite a bit due to the clunk being uncovered. I'm not a big fan of overly long fuel lines but has any one tried installing the fuel tank in the conventional manner with the opening to the front and the clunk to the rear?