RE: Handley Page Halifax - Nexus Plans

RE: Handley Page Halifax - Nexus Plans
View related threads: (in this forum | in all forums)

Logged in as Guest

Users viewing this topic: none

Printable Version

All Forums >> RC Airplanes >> Twin & Multi Engine RC Aircraft >> RE: Handley Page Halifax - Nexus Plans

Page: << < prev 1 2 [3] 4 5 6 next > >>

Login

Message

<< Older Topic Newer Topic >>

RE: Handley Page Halifax - Nexus Plans - 10/12/2007 4:39:34 PM

Steiny

Posts: 72
Joined: 3/27/2006
From: Sherwood Park, AB, CANADA
Status: offline

Hello again Bob,
Glad to hear you've started on your Halifax, it's nice to know I have company in building one.
I have used the Dubro 3.5T tires on mine (slightly smaller than plan due to how the retracts worked out), this tire is hollow and will give a little bit of shock adsorbing on landing. Not sure about foam wheels, have never really used them plus they don't look very scale to me. I am using Robart struts and would recommend struts as landing gear regardless if they retract or not, they do a superior job to any wire set up I've seen, but they definitely do not look scale.

As for the exact dimensions of the wing you need to pick one dimension on the plane that you are scaling to such as wing span? fuselage length? etc. and then scale everything else off that dimension. I chose to keep the 79" dimension, you will then notice that the wing chord is a little short, the fuselage is a little short etc.; I am sure Mr. Robins did this intentionally to help the flying characteristics (shorter tail equals less weight forward of the CG for balancing). It was about this time in the project (last fall) that I asked myself if all these little differences really mattered on a relatively small bomber that is classified as a sport scale model? My answer was no as at the end of the day the plane stills looks like a Halifax and unless some one is out there with a ruler and a 3-view the only person who will know is you. For me this plane is a test case, some day in the future I will build a ~ 100" version which will be done exactly to scale. There is no doubt if you ask 10 different people about the scaling of this plane you will get 10 different answers, it's your plane and if you want to make it exact scale don't let anyone tell you any different.

As for cutting balsa, I believe everyone has the same problem crushing balsa in cross grain cuts with a knife. I bought a cheap 9" band saw for $150 CAD about 10 years ago and it works great, on the inside cuts I use a knife to get the rough shape and do final shaping with a Dremel tool.

Long note so I should hang up.

Cheers,

Mark

(in reply to BobGeezer)

Post #: 51

RE: Handley Page Halifax - Nexus Plans - 10/13/2007 1:14:41 AM

BobGeezer

Posts: 35
Joined: 7/27/2007
From: SouthamptonHampshire, UNITED KINGDOM
Status: offline

Hi Mark,

Thanks again for the encouragement. I think I'll go for the conversion. 1.5" off the tip and 1" on the root should do it. Then the nacelle placement and rib positions will remain consistent with the plan, but shifted out-board a bit and I'll have a scale wing-to-fuselage ratio. I'll re-do the maths to check.

I have yet to cut a rib and there's good weather on Saturday, so bang goes building day. Guests on Sunday, so it's down to week-day energy which is never guaranteed. Heh! it is a hobby, not a day job.

Regards,
Bob

< Message edited by BobGeezer -- 10/17/2007 9:30:51 PM >

_____________________________

Where does all that time go...?

(in reply to Steiny)

Post #: 52

RE: Handley Page Halifax - Nexus Plans - 10/18/2007 11:57:48 PM

BobGeezer

Posts: 35
Joined: 7/27/2007
From: SouthamptonHampshire, UNITED KINGDOM
Status: offline

Hi Mark,

Well, I went to the shop today and ordered some Robart 4" inflatables. I've exhausted all avenues in trying to find 4" foam wheels. Perhaps they just don't stand up to the hammering planes that big give them. We're doing a biggy - so the actual plane is much lighter than you'd expect for the size of wheel. Ho hum. Oh, by the way, I know this is a try-out for you, but for me, this is the _real_thing_ so I have to get it as good as I want it to be. This is not a throw away. I can do detail later, but the essential thing is to get the configuration right. That's why I'm going for 9x7 3-blade Graupners and moving the nacelles out along the wing for "very close to" true scale. I know it's ambitious for my first build, but I'm very techy and have built boats before... What could possibly go wrong? Hmm....

I've also admitted to the shopkeeper that I'm planning on buying Saito FA 30S engines and he's used his discount to get fairly close to the moors models price, so I think I'll go with him because of the personal touch. I assume you found doing everything in fours is quite pricey! The OS30FS here are still above £100, so I'm in a similar price range. By the way, what _is_ this "Saito sound" everyone comments on? I'm not sure I've heard one yet and although I know it's really just advertising blurb, I am intrigued!

Hey! Guess what? No ribs cut yet... Too much real life and flying going on... I put my GPS in my trainer again at the weekend to track its flight. It does 40-80mph most of the time and has reached 98mph once! This time I flew as high as I dared - keeping visual control of the plane. To my shock, I found the altitude above ground was 900 feet!!!! That's much too much as 400 foot is the ceiling for flying here. Oops! At least I'm aware I could get into trouble if I go too high.

I think from studying the book at the shop and from internet searching I'm going to have to build my retracts from scratch. At least the shopkeeper let me into the secret that "oleo legs" are nothing more than "legs with springs in" so I know where I stand now. I thought they might be pneumatic/oil damped or some such thing... It seems all those high prices are just for a spring and a sliding joint.... D'Oh! With a leg either side of each wheel, even I can come up with something suitable I think... until it comes to the crunch! Get out the brazing kit!

Regards, Bob

< Message edited by BobGeezer -- 10/19/2007 12:06:31 AM >

_____________________________

Where does all that time go...?

(in reply to Steiny)

Post #: 53

RE: Handley Page Halifax - Nexus Plans - 10/19/2007 4:20:27 AM

Steiny

Posts: 72
Joined: 3/27/2006
From: Sherwood Park, AB, CANADA
Status: offline

Hello again Bob,
Considering this is your first scale build from plans you certainly are ambitious building your own struts, please post pictures as I am curious how you do it. I'm not sure how far you are moving out the nacelles but be careful not to go to far remembering that if you have a engine flame out it will be that much more asymetrical torque from the opposite side wanting to spin the aircraft. I have no experience with this myself, it's just what I have heard about it. I have had an engine go out on the Twinstar but it was not really a big deal as the engines are very close to the fuselage; a little rudder and it just kept flying.

I don't really have any updates on my Halifax, since putting it in primer last week I have not done a single thing. I have been putting in a fair bit of time on it lately and I'm a little burned out. I'll post some pictures of something over the next few weeks, any particular part you want to see?

Cheers,

Mark

(in reply to BobGeezer)

Post #: 54

RE: Handley Page Halifax - Nexus Plans - 10/20/2007 1:22:01 AM

Wayne22

Posts: 4310
Joined: 4/10/2002
From: Edmonton, AB, CANADA
Status: offline

Yeah....all this nice weather, you should be out flying and saving the building for the winter months

.

The Air Museum in Comox commissioned a scale Lanc build. What they did was have two sets of throttles, and Y'ed the outboard (OS26's) together, and the inboards together. There was never an issue if an inboard engine went to sleep, but if #1 or #4 went out, they had to throttle the remaining engine back to idle in order to control assymetric thrust. The loss of almost 50% power resulted in a powered glide which they could almost (but not quite) overcome by dropping the flaps.... The last time this happened, they almost lost it, so it was immediately retired, and not hangs in the museum....

_____________________________

All I ask is for a chance to prove that money can't make me happy......

(in reply to Steiny)

Post #: 55

RE: Handley Page Halifax - Nexus Plans - 10/20/2007 5:11:17 PM

Canuck1

Posts: 1088
Joined: 7/1/2002
From: Edmonton, AB,
Status: offline

Mark
I built a 90in Lancaster a couple of years ago and it is still flying

I used 4 x OS.25FX engines. They each have an 8 oz fuel tank and pull her along nicely. I used Sullivan Nyrods for the throttle set up with two servos. One servo works the inboard engines, and the other works the outboard engines. This system has worked very well for my lancaster, and the sound of four engines is awsome.

Craig

Attachments

Click for fullsize	Click for fullsize	Click for fullsize	Click for fullsize
Click for fullsize

< Message edited by Canuck1 -- 10/20/2007 5:42:48 PM >

_____________________________

Eat, Sleep, Fly

(in reply to Wayne22)

Post #: 56

RE: Handley Page Halifax - Nexus Plans - 10/20/2007 8:29:33 PM

Wayne22

Posts: 4310
Joined: 4/10/2002
From: Edmonton, AB, CANADA
Status: offline

Hey Craig!!!!! Are you back in town???

_____________________________

All I ask is for a chance to prove that money can't make me happy......

(in reply to Canuck1)

Post #: 57

RE: Handley Page Halifax - Nexus Plans - 10/20/2007 9:18:06 PM

BobGeezer

Posts: 35
Joined: 7/27/2007
From: SouthamptonHampshire, UNITED KINGDOM
Status: offline

Oh, No!

I've only got 6 channels. Ailerons, elevator, throttle, rudder, flaps, gear - no - all used up. I guess there's no way I'm going to have dual throttles unless I buy a whole new set. Wifey dear is never going to agree to that... Perhaps I can do something clever with a PIC , some photo-transistors and pulse width modulation... Hmm.. perhaps not! If an engine goes, I'll just have to throttle down and shout "dead stick" as it'll be almost true :-) The Saitos should be reliable enough for this not to happen until one of them runs out of fuel... shouldn't they?

There's too much good weather here too. It's really hampering my building efforts, but helping my Spitfire run in its engine ;-). I _shall_ cut some ribs tonight! Yes, I'm doing it, I'm doing it.

I'd love to see some all-angles shots around the Hali Mark, if you can do that. There's nothing like seeing the model "from the ground" as if it were full size to make it look really good. Yeah, do take a break. You seem to have been working on it flat out for months now. I really don't think mine will even be assembled by the end of next season at the rate I'm going, but we'll see.

The retracts are a design on grey-matter at present, so I'll try to gather my thoughts and put something together in terms of drawings and notes. What I'm really wary of is bolting something "really strong" straight to the wing. That last thing I need after a bumpy landing is a rebuild. I'm looking to put shock-absorbancy in 1) wheels, 2) legs-springs, 3) undercarriage mounting points. That should allow me more than one landing! We fly off grass, but the earth is not soft if you get it wrong. I've not flown off tarmac or concrete, but I expect they're even less forgiving.

Regards, Rob

< Message edited by BobGeezer -- 10/20/2007 9:21:12 PM >

_____________________________

Where does all that time go...?

(in reply to Canuck1)

Post #: 58

RE: Handley Page Halifax - Nexus Plans - 10/20/2007 9:18:40 PM

Canuck1

Posts: 1088
Joined: 7/1/2002
From: Edmonton, AB,
Status: offline

Wayne
Finally back.......................looking forward to flying a few birds next year. I have heard that your F16 is a great flier

Craig

_____________________________

Eat, Sleep, Fly

(in reply to Wayne22)

Post #: 59

RE: Handley Page Halifax - Nexus Plans - 10/21/2007 12:59:32 AM

Wayne22

Posts: 4310
Joined: 4/10/2002
From: Edmonton, AB, CANADA
Status: offline

quote:

Wayne
Finally back.......................looking forward to flying a few birds next year. I have heard that your F16 is a great flier

Craig

Well we were thinking about you over there..Glad you are back home safely!!

The F-16, yeah it is a pretty groovy flier. Dave P has tons of video from Tofield, but I haven't seen any of it yet....

****

Bob

What kind of radio do you have? JR has channel expanders which can give you more channels to work with.....

< Message edited by Wayne22 -- 11/4/2007 7:18:08 PM >

_____________________________

All I ask is for a chance to prove that money can't make me happy......

(in reply to Canuck1)

Post #: 60

RE: Handley Page Halifax - Nexus Plans - 10/21/2007 9:33:53 PM

BobGeezer

Posts: 35
Joined: 7/27/2007
From: SouthamptonHampshire, UNITED KINGDOM
Status: offline

Thanks Wayne,

I have Futaba which I think is limited to the 6 I bought it with. So is JR a fully modular system then? Can you upgrade/enhance each set to add more channels?

Regards, Bob

< Message edited by BobGeezer -- 10/21/2007 9:41:46 PM >

_____________________________

Where does all that time go...?

(in reply to Wayne22)

Post #: 61

RE: Handley Page Halifax - Nexus Plans - 10/21/2007 10:52:40 PM

Wayne22

Posts: 4310
Joined: 4/10/2002
From: Edmonton, AB, CANADA
Status: offline

I just found out that is is not proportional, so would not be any use on throttles

JR Channel Expander

quote:

Do you need an extra channel, but not a new radio? JR's new Channel Xpander lets modelers control up to 4 servos from a single channel. Scale modelers can use it to activate lights, wheel brakes or open canopies. Sport and Aerobatic modelers will find it useful for activating smoke systems and deploying flaps. While it is non-proportional, the

Channel Xpander allows modelers to adjust the activation and end points of each servo individually, as well as reverse direction. The unit is powered through the regular receiver pack, but can be powered separately with its own battery pack to keep current drain on the receiver pack to a minimum.

_____________________________

All I ask is for a chance to prove that money can't make me happy......

(in reply to BobGeezer)

Post #: 62

RE: Handley Page Halifax - Nexus Plans - 10/23/2007 5:19:23 PM

Steiny

Posts: 72
Joined: 3/27/2006
From: Sherwood Park, AB, CANADA
Status: offline

Hello Bob, Craig and Wayne
Thanks for the input on the throttles, as I used a foam wing and did not accomodate for push rods I have mounted a small individual servo for each engine on the firewall. I have seen other people use this technique and