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Joined: 9/1/2002 From: West Chester, OH, USA Status: offline
Moving canopy (cont)
pic 1/2: I used Hobbico's razor saw (42T per inch, 1" deep, #HCAR0264) to cut the FG frame and clear canopy while it was attached to the fuse. This saw is a very fine tooth saw and cuts very easily through both materials. The saw was brand new and a courser blade may not work as well. I started at the crown of the canopy and sawed through and then did each side using from 1-2" of the saw to cut the sides. Scotch tape helped to hold the frame and clear canopy together while sawing.
pic 3/4: The two removable sections are cut out leaving the three stationary sections of the canopy.
pic 5: I immediately marked each section cut out as to its location and also F/B (front/back) on both sides and inside.
pic 6: The 1/16" ply that I pre-bend yesterday will be used to re-inforce the frame.
< Message edited by samparfitt -- 2/14/2008 8:52:58 PM >
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Joined: 8/3/2002 From: N. Scituate, RI, USA Status: offline
Hi Sam, I like the jig you made to slot the brass stock. I'm at that point now on my Dave Boddington Hurricane build. Hope you don't mind if I borrow your idea for slotting the brass stock?? Great idea!! The Texan looks great! Nice work. Thanks, Fred Menna Check6
Posts: 1740
Joined: 9/1/2002 From: West Chester, OH, USA Status: offline
Yo Fred, Always happy to help. Just keep out of the same plane as the cut off disk in case it shatters or pieces of brass go flying out. I also fed the brass from the right so the stock is going against the direction of the disk (less likely to pull the stock in and jam it). -------------------------------
Moving canopy (cont)
pic 1/2/3: I first worked on the front moving canopy where the brass stock goes on the outside of the canopy. I cut the 3/16" brass stock to length and allowed an extra 1/4" on each end so I could cut half of each end off so I could use screws to attach them to the side of the fuse. I drilled holes on each end and screwed the brass guides to the fuse. I attached them about 1/4" higher than the bottom of the stationary FG frame. Again, I used the #0 size screws.
pic 4: Here's the brass stock that will be for the back sliding canopy where the brass stock goes inside of the canopy. I can see that it will be difficult to get the back inner sliding canopy into the brass guides. It looks like I'll have to attach the back canopy first to the brass guides and then screw the brass guides to the fuse. I'll have to cut the brass guides just right so I can get a screw driver to them. The front outside canopy will be much easier to attach: just slide the canopy on from the end.
pic 5/6: Here's a partial construction of the front canopy dry fitted in the brass guides. I was going to use a 3/8" wide ply to lap over the front stationary part of the canopy but that's not working due to the difficulty in getting the moving canopy to exactly match the radius of the front stationary canopy. Instead, I just screwed two 3/16" wide plys to the front of the moving canopy and let that butt joint the back of the stationary canopy. The front has the ply on the inside of the moving canopy but the back of the moving canopy has one piece of 3/16" ply on the outside. Presently, I've got screws and scotch tape holding it together. It's been a lot of trial-n-error to get everything aligned properly. I cut the inner clear plastic about an 1/8" shorter than the outside FG frame and will be gluing the previously mentioned yellow split tubing to the clear plastic and allowing the FG frame to overhang the outside of the brass guides. Presently, this seems to work best.
pic 7: The gap in the back so the moving canopy can slide over the center stationary canopy.
< Message edited by samparfitt -- 2/15/2008 4:14:34 AM >
Sam I have been following your build. You make things look so easy, and I plan on stealing some of your methods for my Corsair build. I enjoy reading and viewing your pictures, good explanations, and great quality. Thanks for sharing your stuff.
I have to agree with Graig. It's an amazing build. I have just recently bought a Midwest AT-6 kit and I plan on starting building very shortly. I have been so inspired by your build. I have to say, I am amazed by the tremendous speed in which your build. Thanks for the inspiration.
By the way, I plan on fitting split flaps to my Midwest AT-6. The kit does not offer that option from standard. I have read somewhere, that a guy named Rich Uravitch or perhaps someone else might have some plans that include flaps. I would be grateful if someone could help me with this issue.
Michael
< Message edited by rc-fly -- 2/15/2008 3:22:04 PM >
_____________________________
GP Extra 300 .60 (RIP), YT Freestyle Rush (flying), Avistar (flying) ,Midwest AT-6 (awaits building), TP Contender (sold)
Posts: 1740
Joined: 9/1/2002 From: West Chester, OH, USA Status: offline
Thanks for all the compliments.
----------------- Moving canopy (cont)
pic 1: I got all the screws in holding the 1/16" ply for re-inforcement. I zap-a-dap'ed the sullivan yellow guide tubes onto the bottom of the FG frame. Previously, I thought I would put the yellow tubing on the clear plastic but it was best to have it on the FG frame. The yellow tubing came from Sullivan's #506 blue/gold pushrod set. This yellow tubing fits, perfectly inside of the brass guides. Other sizes are too small or too large.
pic 2: closed position.
pic 3: Open position. I had to remove the front two screws holding the front brass guides so I could slide the yellow tubing into the brass guides. The built up ply on the front of the moving canopy needed room to get by the front stationary canopy so I had to move the brass guides out about a 1/4" from the fuse sides. This is a low tech moving canopy so the canopy is only going to be manually operated. It'll look cool in the 'pits' with the canopy open (also, it probably won't hurt to have some air circulating in there when it's 90 degree out at the field!).
pic 4/5: I screwed in the brass guides for the back moving canopy. I also hooked up the red LED to the instrument panel. This LED is different from the Nav LED's in that the instrument panel LED is red when not lighted whereas the nav LED's are clear when they are not lighted. In theory, the instrument red LED should only be on when there's a malfunction but I'm taking a little liberty on having the LED on all the time.
pic 6: The back brass guides go all the way to the back opening of the front canopy.
< Message edited by samparfitt -- 2/15/2008 7:45:25 PM >
Posts: 1740
Joined: 9/1/2002 From: West Chester, OH, USA Status: offline
Moving canopy (cont)
pic 1: Since the back moving canopy has to slide inside the center stationary canopy, I have to cut some off the bottom of the moving canopy. Since I didn't want to cut the bottom of the FG frame, I, instead, cut at the two black lines in the picture and just moved the FG frame up. Initially, I cut off 3/8" but had to cut another 1/8" off to get the moving canopy to slide inside the center stationary canopy.
pic 2: I used scotch tape to initially hold the FG frame to the clear plastic.
pic 3: The closed position.
pic 4: Open position. Now to screw some 1/16" thick ply strips to each edge to re-inforce the moving canopy.
< Message edited by samparfitt -- 2/15/2008 10:01:07 PM >
Posts: 1740
Joined: 9/1/2002 From: West Chester, OH, USA Status: offline
Moving canopy (cont)
pic 1/2: Got the two end re-inforcement plys screwed on the back moving canopy. I still need to add the yellow tubing on the bottom of the back moving canopy. I also still have to add some ply to the edge of the back and front stationary canopies. The back of the center stationary canopy bows in a little: I'll zap-a-dap the FG frame to the clear plastic and clamp it with a straight edge to get a permanent straight edge. That slight inward bow interfers with the back movable canaopy going forward. Due to scaling down, you get larger gaps between the moving parts and the stationary parts but it's worth it for a working canopy!
Posts: 1740
Joined: 9/1/2002 From: West Chester, OH, USA Status: offline
I've been busy cleaning up the basement and spare plane storage room for the last two days. Lots of crap to throw out and even more to organize all those screws, washers, linkages, etc. After last spring's fire in the shop, I never really got organized until today. At least I can quickly find things again. ------------ Video of the retracts:
pic 1: I figure it was time to mix the smoke system into the throttle. I had the smoke on the Aux 3 which is a lever on the right side on the JR 2.4 X9303. Since the smoke is going to be a linear mix with the throttle, there's no reason to have the smoke on a lever so I moved it to Aux 2 which is a toggle. As seen in the LCD screen, Throttle is the master (left side) and Aux 2 is the slave (right side). Now, when Aux 2 is down (off), no smoke comes out: move Aux 2 on (toggle up), the smoke pump will linearly advance as the throttle advances. I also originally had the choke on Aux 4 which made the choke either full on or full off. This would defeat my purpose of using the choke as a backup to the throttle should the throttle servo fail at full on. I moved the choke to the now empty Aux 3 so I can now move the choke linearly so I can now control prop speed by slowing choking the engine and landing with a powered engine versus a 'dead stick' and also eliminating the un-nerving long wait for the tank to become empty.
pic 2: I also set up the timer to 10 minutes. With a 32 oz tank, I should be able to move that up to 12-15 and still have fuel left. Once set, the timer is easy to start and stop using the bottom left (4th down) button which is next to TIM on the LCD screeen.
pic 3: While at the main receiver, I also moved the second remote receiver back behind the cockpit using a 24" extension that comes with the remote receiver.
pic 4/5: I figure I would check the CG again by putting the wings on and 'attaching' the cowl, prop and spinner on the front. She comes in right on CG (what's the chance of that!). I had the mains down but that shouldn't hurt since the mains actually go slightly forward when in the up position. I put the heavy dummy radial on and checked the CG again and surprisingly, she wasn't nose heavy. I thought she would be but I guess that it takes a lot of weight to move the CG forward. I'm glad that I put those four battery packs and tail feather servos forward of the CG.
pic 6: Here's Yellow's spinner. It looks like a good quality spinner.
pic 7: In case I have to add weight, I'll build a platform just above the engine that will be attached to the fire wall. I'm not fond of weight on the cowl as it puts a lot of strain on the cowl bolts plus you may want to test the plane without the cowl which could lead to disaster having a tail heavy plane, should you forget about the weighted cowl.
pic 8/9: Also, while I was in the guts of the plane, I added the last three red LED's to the front cockpit.
< Message edited by samparfitt -- 2/19/2008 9:13:45 PM >
Posts: 1740
Joined: 9/1/2002 From: West Chester, OH, USA Status: offline
Transmitter notes: Trying to keep track of so many planes is beyond my memery so each transmitter gets a detailed listing of each plane as it is added. Besides the important stuff like battery MA's, date installed, etc, I need to know what ideal RPM's the engine gets with each prop size to insure I don't take off under-powered.
Transmitter 3: 2.4 X9303
Ch 1: Yellow AT-6 Texan (101" ), 3W-75, 24X10 at nnnnn RPM's. Main hatch: Receiver batteries: 5 cell, 1400 ma, two switches (2nd & 3rd row) Top two switches: left switch for landing lights, right is nav lights. (nav and landing light batterys located in bottom of center wing) Front hatch: ignition: 5 cell, 2100 ma, top switch smoke: 5 cell, 1400 ma, bottom switch Aux 1: flaps Aux 2: smoke Aux 3: choke Built: 2008. Batteries: 2008
< Message edited by samparfitt -- 2/19/2008 9:28:30 PM >
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RE: YELLOW AT-6 TEXAN BUILD THREAD - 
