Sickle - skid plate?

Sickle - skid plate?
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Sickle - skid plate? - 8/19/2007 7:46:25 PM

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Joined: 8/1/2005
From: Vancouver, WA, USA
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Has anyone noticed any significant wear on the bottom of their spad sickle from landing on surfaces other than grass?

I've added the front skid plate which worked great on my dogfighter - piece of 2 mil the width of the fuselage w/ pieces of 2-56 rod glued in for forming and reinforcement. Held in place with 3M contact adhesive and the screw for the firewall.

Pondering adding a layer to the mid section of the wing - maybe a 4" wide strip of 2 mil to the front half of the wing to help with wear from landing. Our club field has a plastic mesh material for the landing strip and this can wear material a bit from belly landings. Pondering either a piece of corplast or maybe a piece of that thin flexible cutting board plastic material.

Appreciate any input.

somegeek

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Fly safe, have fun. Measure three times, cut once. The man who makes no mistakes does not usually make anything.

RE: Sickle - skid plate? - 8/20/2007 7:54:40 AM

Posts: 526
Joined: 8/25/2002
From: Nacogdoches, TX, USA
Status: offline

A piece of sign vinyl on the bottom will help, and when it starts to wear out, you can remove it or cover it with another piece. Other than that, a piece of 2mil sounds like it would be about the best solution! Let us know what works, 'cause now you have our curiosity up!

Blue skies,

DL

(in reply to somegeek)

RE: Sickle - skid plate? - 8/20/2007 2:09:54 PM

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Joined: 5/22/2003
From: Vernon, CT, USA
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I use two 90 degree pieces of scrap PVC glued back to back and CA'd to the bottom of the fuselage just behind the firewall. It looks like a tail skid but we'll call it a nose skid.

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John

(in reply to DLSmith2)

RE: Sickle - skid plate? - 9/1/2007 7:17:04 AM

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Joined: 8/1/2005
From: Vancouver, WA, USA
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Was pondering some of that flexible cutting board material but after wandering about my home looking for 'material' I spotted my almost empty Cool Power fuel jug. After emptying the remains into a jar and moving the pump over to a fresh gallon, I got to cutting up the empty jug and made a strip roughly 3" wide and about 16" long. This is my main skid plate piece for the middle of the wing. This is the main area that took abrasion during landings on our strip.

I also made some 1" x 2.5" strips for the wing ends. I installed all three pieces using 3M spray adhesive.

Will give them a test run tomorrow. Unfortunately our club field doesn't have any green grass until the spring and then it's brown for the summer so grass landings are very dusty/dirty. Not a good place for a belly landing.

On a side note I also tapered the control surfaces to hopefully remedy the fluttering hum I heard during my maiden set of flights. Also swapped out the APC 10x6 for an APC 10x8.

This thing moved nicely during the maiden flights. Hope this 10x8 really wakes this thing up!

somegeek

_____________________________

Fly safe, have fun. Measure three times, cut once. The man who makes no mistakes does not usually make anything.

(in reply to John Palica)

RE: Sickle - skid plate? - 9/1/2007 10:48:35 PM

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Joined: 12/31/2002
From: Lakewood, NY, USA
Status: offline

Skids look good SG.
Bring a 9x8 prop also in case the 10x8 doesn't unload .
Awaiting the next flight report.
Jeff

(in reply to somegeek)

RE: Sickle - skid plate? - 9/2/2007 6:22:02 AM

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Joined: 8/1/2005
From: Vancouver, WA, USA
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These skid plates work great! All the wear from today's landing strip landings is on these skid plates and it's not bad at all.

The 10x8 did not speed up this plane as I anticipated. It didn't allow this .46 AX to wind up. I switched back to my 10x6 and it woke up. Pondered using a 10x7 but will try to buy a 9x8. Prolly would not have hurt to do some bench measurements to compare the 10x8 to the 10x6. Anyways, the 9x8 & 10x7 sound like the next step. Thanks MGS.

Next thing I need to do is to cap the wing ends.

Also still have a slight bit of flutter hum sound on flybys. Gonna try poly-u gluing in a few skewers to the control surface flutes to add some rigidity.

somegeek

_____________________________

Fly safe, have fun. Measure three times, cut once. The man who makes no mistakes does not usually make anything.

(in reply to MrGreenSpeed)

RE: Sickle - skid plate? - 9/2/2007 9:42:43 PM

Posts: 2084
Joined: 8/1/2005
From: Vancouver, WA, USA
Status: offline

Thinking about this more...

Currently, even with the 10x8, I can coast in at idle and pull up to slow down and go to WOT and climb out vertically with authority.

I could definitely give up some thrust with this setup and run a smaller, steeper prop for speed. Curious now what the 9x8 will turn. See APC also makes an 8x9.

somegeek

_____________________________

Fly safe, have fun. Measure three times, cut once. The man who makes no mistakes does not usually make anything.

(in reply to somegeek)

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