Mike Wiz

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Last Wednesday or Thursday my BTE Delta Vortex kit arrived and I told people in another thread that I'd post some progress photos. Here are those photos.

Mike Wiz

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Here are some more. The last one was taken last night after I finnished a ton of sanding..... You shoulda seen the mess!

Rocketman612

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Mike,
Thanks for starting this thread. The DV looks super and a fast build. Have you done anything different yet or are you building it stock ? Take care, Pete

Mike Wiz

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Pete,

I may invert the engine and cowl it in on top. I haven't decided that yet. When I get the motor box built, I'll have a look at what's involved and how I think it will look. Then I'll make my decision.

Say, did you see in the 91 2-cycle thread that Webra has a new .91 comming out? I think one of those would be perfect on this plane. Humm.....Now I'm not sure about that Saito 100 I bought for it...... I hate how I always second guess myself on things like this.

BTW......Yeah, It's a pretty fast build, but I'm a slow builder. I've really been putting in a lot of time on it since it arrived.

Wiz

Rocketman612

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Mike,
I went to the German Webra site and I agree the 91 looks like a winner with the TNII carb. My 32 is sweet and the TNII carb on it is great. I did not see a price or ordering info... I would keep the fixed gear if your inverting the engine as the damage to the engine and firewall would be significant of the retracts malfunctioned and you had to belly it in. Pete

Mike Wiz

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As to the engine, I think I'm going to sit tight with the Saito 1.00. No sense in switching to a new and as of yet unproven engine. That said, I'm sure the Webra would have been great. I think the MVVS .91 is probably a good choice too.

The other idea I've been toying with is a big electric power system. (Actually, this was my first choice.) The problem there is the small fortune in Lithium Polymer batteries that would be required.

As to the retracts, I had decided not to do retracts early on it the construction process.

Cheers,

Wiz

BillHarris

I think that the DV would electrify easily. Light wing loading and humungous interior volume would make it easy to carry batteries. The initial expense would be a toad-kicker, but it would be a neat project.

Another idea would be a glow-powered Ducted Fan unit mounted topside between the fins.

I'm planning a DV once I get a 3-plane backlog taken care of....

--Bill

Mike Wiz

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The one drawback to electrifying the DV besides cost is the gear length. Sure I can bend up some music wire to make longer gear, but you can only make wire so long before it begins to get too flexable. I believe it's doable, but it's right on the edge with gear long enough to clear a 16" prop.

Still, I've been looking hard at those big AXI motors you see in the Hobby Lobby ads here at RCU......along with the pricy Hacker and Actro altertnatives. Basically, Id want 2 packs of 8S4P lipos at $600 a pop. [X(] That battery price is all that's holding me back from going with electric power.

Wiz

SALMONBUG

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thanks for nice pics and coments, mine will arrive soon I hope, it apear from your pics that it can be build on a table smaller than the overhall dimensions of the plane. I was concerned by that. delta's one piece airframe are somethime diificult to frame up on conventional building boards

Mike Wiz

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I built it up on a 30" door. As you saw in the photos the tip hangs over the edge....No big deal. This is issue mentioned in the manual.

I put the motor box on it yeaterday while I was waiting for turkey. Also bolted up the gear and mounted the engine and wheels so I could get a feel for what the finnished plane will look like. I likes what I sees.....

I'll try to get some more pics up in a day or two. Then it's on to covering. Still haven't come up with a color scheme yet. I'm thinking maybe a grey military jet like look on top with a bright red bottom with some more military looking markings. We'll see.....


Cheers,

Wiz

SALMONBUG

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would be nice with a jet style canopy

DAZZ_2003

It's my winter project:

1. http://flymodel.narod.ru/su_profile.htm

2. http://flymodel.narod.ru/delta_dog.htm

SALMONBUG

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I received mine, I started the subassemblies and I started to think about my retract instalation.
As I said earlier I'll go with a 120 surpass.
My first idea was to make a side or upside down instalation for cosmetic reason, but i think i'll change my mind and install the engine upright.
reasons for this are

1) there is a big portion of the wing to cut in case of side instalation (i plan to shorten the engine box one inche for balance consideration)
2) side or inverted instalation mean that the exhaust will be on the bottom, and will blast oil and exhaust residues on the servos and in the weel well

one last consideration. When you know that Bruce work with bandsaw and conventional tools to cut the kits, this guy make an incredibly accurate job, he really has laser eyes

SALMONBUG

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here is a pic showing the rib ply doublers I am building to mount the retract landing gear plates.

SALMONBUG

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A dry fit of the main landing gear assembly
and a general vue of my progress on my DV

SALMONBUG

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it's in ! [8D]

skunk39

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Salmon,

Your retract installation looks very clean and strong. I have never installed retracts on anything as of yet, and have just received a Vortex as a Christmas present. I am seriously contemplating retract installation when I build it and was wondering how confident you would feel about how your particular retract setup would hold up on a grass strip. If you feel positive about it, could I bother you to post some added detail as to your exact install process...IE brand used, reinforcement you felt necessary or what you may do differently the second time around. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Skunk

SALMONBUG

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skunk39,

Thanks for your compliment about My DV retract setup. The DV is a good candidate for Ã* first retract experience in my opinion. You have plenty of room, more than enough wing aera to tolerate the weight increase and the setup goes straight and forward.
I decided to go with a robart pneumatic instalation with 605 HD (3/16 wires) for the main and a 607(5/32 wire) in the nose.

I selected that strong unit because I had already the main gear laying in the workshop so I had only to buy the nose gear.

I will describe the best I can with my poor english how I instaled them.

first the main gear

everithing turn around two 1/2 square spruce spars
one of the spar is instaled in the notches made for the fixed gear hardwood rail, the other is instaled 3.5 inches backward of it.
3.5 inches allow you to install 3 inches weels, make a thin balsa weel well and have a little less than 1/4 clearance between the wheel well and the weel
I made 4 1/8 plywood ribs doublers to support the spars on w2 and 3 (see picture above)
the plywood doublers are 1/4 less thick than the ribs in order that the 1/4 plywood gear mounting plate can rest on them and be flush with w2 and w3 (I hope you understood what I mean)

the plywood gear mounting plates are glued to the ribs, ribs doublers and spars with epoxy.
I also made some "congere of epoxy/micro ballon to reinforce on the back of the plate (see pics I will post)
be sure that when you make your gear mounting plates, the cuts for the unit are made so that your legs are the same lenght than the fixed gear version and that the weel is aproximatly 1/4 from w1 (with gear retract). if done like that, your legs will be the same lenght than the stock ones and the distance between the two weels (gear extend) is aproximatly the same than the fixed gear version.
the main gear is so more than 1/2 inches more backward on the wing than the fixed gear version, but I don't think that the ground steering will suffer of that situation (Bruce Tharpe agree with me on that point)

The nose unit is set so that a half of the 2.75 inches weel will extrude the engine box when retracted. I made this in order to keep the nose wire as short as possible (I fited the one provided by bruce tharpe for fixed gear) and also to protect the belly in case of gear up landing.
In order to be able to balance the plane without lead, I shortened the engine box 3/4 inches. this mean that it's impossible to install a 3 inches nose weel (it would retract in the wings spars and f2) but a 2.75 weel wil be ok.
if you go for a stock engine box you will be ok with a 3 inches weel

the nose unit is mounted on a 1/4 ply plate. I made two 1/8 ply engine box triplers and the plate rest on them. I also instaled some tri stock .

I am sure that in case of hard landing, the retracts units will broken and the wires will bend Before that my instalation will broken. It's STRONG.
be aware that in case of retract instalation you will be forced to install the tank behindF2 (good idea) or install a very small one (not a good idea). steering and throttle servo will have to move backward also. I will post pics about all that. As I said in the begining of my post, you have plenty of room and it's easy modifications



this is a part of a email I Received from Bruce tharpe


"From what I can see, your retract installation looks sound and strong. Very neat!

Bruce"


I will post some close view of the instalation and will continue to post the progress



Salmonbug

SALMONBUG

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some views

In my above post, I forgot to mention that the front main retract ply spar is doubled with a balsa spar, because the stock notch made for the fixed gear spar was too wide. You will see also that I had to make notches in the front plate of the nose unit to clear the engine mount screws

SALMONBUG

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more

skunk39

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Salmon,

All I can say is WOW and thanks for taking all the time to describe how and what you did. It's folks like you sharing and teaching folks like me, that keep this hobby \ sport a pleasure. Thanks again and I look forward to your future progress on this project.

Skunk

SALMONBUG

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say thanks to bruce tharpe to provide us wich such wonderfull hig quality builder's kit allowing our imagination to work !

A part of the credit also goes to a guy called Neil, who instaled a mechanical retract on a DV in 2001 . My instalation is sligthly diferent ( pneumatic system, no top spars, bottom spruce spars instead of balsa, diferent nose unit setup, less aera sheeted), but the main ideas are coming from the work of this guy

here is the link

http://www.deltavortex.com/neil.htm

I'll keep posted with my progress

SALMONBUG

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building the wheels well and the equipement control panel. this panel will be located under a hatch on the top of the plane. I still need to install a charging jack and a eagletree data recorder remote control panel on it wich are on order .

the equipement control panel access hatch will be closed using a spring loaded lock system (like on gliders canopy) for easy operations. I found that solution elegant. One hatch instead of a switch, charging jack air fill valve data recorder plugins, led and so on.......

on pics you can also see the airbotlle. That's the only element of the equipement wich will be inaccessible, but I never saw a airbottle fail.

SALMONBUG

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self explanatory.

SALMONBUG

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wheels wells in place