Mustang Fever

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Thanks to another Shrike aficionado, I have a set of plans and drawings of the various parts that go into this airplane.

Although I have another project underway that I must finish first, I couldn't resist getting started on the Shrike.

I'm going to go with an OS 35AX for power, and it will have Robart mechanical retracts.

I've allowed one pound for the covered airframe, but don't know if that's too optimistic or not. Total component weight without retracts comes to around 41oz, yielding an RTF weight of 59oz (wet), and a low wing loading of 14oz per square foot. The retracts add about 28 oz, bringing the wing loading up to 17 oz per square foot, and taking it out of safe hand launch range without a good wind, anyway.

Looking back on my four Shrikes (RIP, including the one in the cornfield I never found) I realized that the hand launched ones were fun, but that the ARF with landing gear was even more fun. I just didn't like the way it flew as much as the others due to the gear hanging out there. Thus, the decision to go with retracts. I was fortunate enough that a friend had some pictures of how RCRon did his mechanical setup with one servo, as I had not been able to figure that one out.

I'm going to locate enough stuff clear in the back end that balancing should not be the problem it usually is. (Elevator & aileron servos, 1450 NiMh battery pack). The lighter 35 engine should help with this, as well. As you can see by the pic, I've also made all the bulkheads from ply.

SpeedBoy

Mustang Fever , this sounds interesting . [8D]

BTW , why you dont just put a camera on a rc heli and try to find the Shrike never found. I mean if someone on your field has an heli .

RC-Captain

Did you cut all of the pieces yourself ? If yes how long did it take you and how much would you charge, when you find time, to cut another kit and ship it to me? I would send the money via paypal before you begin to cut wood.


CAP

Mustang Fever

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Cap: As I'm not the greatest cutter/builder around, I'd hesitate to do that. I would be willing to copy the templates and send them to you, and the plans if you need those.

There really isn't that much to cut. The Shrike is such a simple bird.

Mustang Fever

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Speedboy:

At the time I lost that one, no one had a heli or a camera. Anway, it was about 6 years ago and I think it got harvested along with the corn that fall.

Did some more investigating and figuring, and I think I'm going to go electric with this one. By using a combination of an Astro 40 motor, the Robart 600 and 602 plastic retracts, and a Flitepower EONLite LiPo 4S 14.8V 4350mAh battery pack, I should be able to keep the RTF weight to around 53 oz.(3.3 pounds) This will put the wing loading at under 15 oz/sq foot, which should allow easy hand launches.

Using a 9x6E prop (APC), performance should be around 80mph and at least 3.5 pounds of static thrust on the 4S battery.

Here's a shot of the fuse held together with rubber bands. The three formers are cut from 3/16 ply. The one in front will stay ply, as that's what I'll screw the nose gear to, but the two aft ones are going to change to balsa. The only servos under the hatch will be the retract and nose gear steering, and I'll put those down low. I'll probably put a shelf over them so that the battery pack can be positioned anywhere between F2 and F3 for balance. It weighs 14oz, so balance should be a cinch, especially considering that the motor only weighs 8.7oz. The flight control servos will be HiTec HS-125 thin wing servos, two for the ailerons, mounted in the wing outboard of the R3s, and one for the elevator, way in the back on a removable hatch.

I have a couple pieces of 3/8 dowel stuck in the spar holes on the fuse. As I'm making my own parts, I decided I could get a more precise location on the spars by using something round, rather than trying to cut accurate square holes for the 3/8 square that is used in the kits. The holes were drilled with a 3/8 Forstner bit, which gives very clean, precise holes. I'll be using 3/8 carbon fiber tubes from dragonplate.com as the spars. I've used the CF tubes before, on a Mikulasko Arrow, and they work very well and weigh about nothing.

RC-Captain

Nice work . I would like to see a shot of all of your cut pieces if it is not a problem. Or are you cutting as you build?

WB

Strykaas

Subscribed too...

I'm afraid power will not be that up to the task...

Mustang Fever

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Bet lunch in the Latin Quarter on that?

Mustang Fever

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Realistically speaking, if I can keep the weight below 3.5 pounds, this thing will be very peppy. At full throttle on a 4S, the motor is pumping out 900W. That's almost 300 watts per pound, which is in the extreme performance category.

Strykaas

lol


Indeed, final weight will be a key factor... I remember Mike's Shrike .40 that was powered by a SJ50, which is in another league ... Well, I won't speak about the OPS .60 powered Shrike .10 (seen on this very web site) [X(], but all those did not have these retracts...

Mustang Fever

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Here's what we're looking at weight wise:

Robart 602 90 Degree Nose 1/8" Wire Strut (1.7oz)
Robart 600 90 Degree Mains 1/8" Wire Strut (2.7oz)
Hobbico CS-63 Servo Lo Profile Retract BB U (1.23oz)
Dave Brown 3 inch lite wheels (.78oz ea)
Dave Brown 2-1/2" lite wheels (.54oz ea)
Nose steering servo HS-82MG Micro Metal Gear (.66oz)

It all comes to 8.39 oz, a lot less than I expected.

SpeedBoy

Upss ! too much time I guess . []

Anyway , the hope is the last we lose , just see what other guy found after 20 years of the crash .

Nothing that can't be fixed .

Mustang Fever

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[X(]

Strykaas

From the Titanic ? lol

Mustang Fever

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After some more consideration, I think I'm going to put off an "E" Shrike for awhile, and stick with the 35AX.

One thing I'm wondering about- the reinforcements called out for the leading edge area at the wing root. (The nylon tape and the plywood shear webs.)

These must be necessary due to stresses that occur at the wing root. Does the sheeting cave in at the leading edge without it? If so, I'm thinking that perhaps making the number 1 ribs (which are glued to the fuse sides) out of thicker balsa might be even more effective, as the sheeting would have more support underneath, rather than the band aid on the outside. Maybe 3/16 or 1/4" balsa?

On another subject, I found this review of the Shrike 40 kit. The author used a 40LA for power, which weighs almost the same as the 35AX (12.6oz) and was able to balance it correctly using only the battery pack. I included the photo of his bird:

Reviewed by: Richard Fisher - Charleston, SC, USA
Lanier Shrike 40
Specifications
* Wing Span: 43.25 in. (110 cm)
* Wing Area: 455 sq. in. (2935 cm²)
* Length: 33.25 in. (88 cm)
* Weight: 3.5 lbs. (1.6 kg)
* Engine: .40 - .46 2 - cycle
(6.5 - 7.5 cc 2 - cycle)
* 3 Servos required
Lanier says the Shrike 40 is a fun and exciting airplane, enjoyable to fly, and will provide thrills with jet like planform and speed. It is a one-piece design; the wing is permanently fixed to the fuselage. The model is a likely candidate for RC combat.
The kit comes well packed in an attractive box. No accessories are supplied, but few are required. The plans are adequate and the building instructions are reasonably complete, however no construction photos are supplied. Laser cutting is used on the various wooden parts.
Construction is relatively simple, but some portions of the construction sequence are rather unusual. The fuselage is built first using conventional construction procedures. CA glue can be used throughout except epoxy is preferred for installation of the firewall.
The wing construction is unusual. The first two steps involve gluing the 2 - 3/8 sq. in. spruce wing spars into the fuselage. The wing ribs are added by positioning the fuselage at the end of your building board, over the wing plan, and gluing the tabbed ribs in place while holding the fuselage at the end of the building board. The leading and trailing edges are then added. Then the leading and trailing edges are sheeted normally.
The two vertical stabilizers are built up balsa. They are glued to the fuselage after the parts are painted or covered.
Covering the model is a test of ingenuity. Ultracote is normally the preferred covering. However, the instructions call for adding 2 1/2 in. fiberglass cloth strips to the wing/fuselage joint. It would be impossible to get film to stick to this area so the entire fuselage fiberglassed and painted. This gave the added benefit of a fairly rough area to grasp on to while launching the model. Ultracote was used on the wings and tail surfaces.
Radio and engine installation was rather simple. An OS 40LA (12.6 w/muffler) engine was chose to power the Shrike. The center of gravity was within limits with the battery placed to the rear of the radio compartment.
The Shrike was rather heavy for hand launch even with it weighing the advertised 3 1/2 lbs. After some discussion, the decision was made to try it. The launch was not successful. The model started out okay but with release of the back pressure on the stick, the Shrike immediately bellied into the ground. The only damage was a busted prop. The second launch was made with full up elevator trim. This time the model started climbing as soon as it was released. This flight continued as was hoped. The aircraft flew very well. It was very fast and very agile. Maintaining visual orientation was not a problem. The landing was uneventful.
The Shrike 40 performed as advertised. It is not a beginner’s model. An experienced RC pilot will find that it gives a new challenge.

Tango Juliet

Signed on.

skyflyer47

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I flew my shrike with electric power, an axi 28-26-08 70 amp opto speed control and 4000 mah battery. wieged less than 3 lbs and hand launched with no problem. got 8 min flights easy.

rugerstall

Hey guys I'm a RC pilot who hasn't flown in 5 years. I was looking for some tools in the shed to day when I spotted my old Lanier Shirke 40 kit. I desided what the hell ill dig it out and see whats going on. I had the Fuse started already and have seemed to miss place my instruction book. I have the Blueprints just not the book. I think I can tackle the build with out the book, because there is enough of you shrike fanatics out there. If any of you guys could be nice enough to help out an old pilot get back into the hobby, it would be much appreciated. My e-mail is [email protected]. After a quick run to the hobby shop to get new glue supplies and a few tools i should be good to go. Hardest part about building these is figuring out the color scheme.

rugerstall

[link]http://http://manuals.hobbico.com/lan/lana1725-manual.pdf[/link] Found the book!!! for the shrike 40

Mustang Fever

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I've shelved the project for awhile. Between bad fields and bad wind this year, I don't need another land based glow bird right away. Seems the only way I can fly these days is get my sea planes down to the lake early, before the wind starts howling.

Maybe some other time.

Mustang Fever

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Here we are, only 3 - 1/2 months later, and winter is moving in. It's too windy to even fly helicopters, so I'm hacking balsa to keep from going mad.

Here's my approach to doing the ribs:

1. I centerlined all the rib drawings so that keeping things indexed is easier.
2. I pasted the pattern to two pieces of 3/32 balsa that are pasted together, and cut the rough outline with a bandsaw. I use a disc sander to get the final shape, leaving just the black line at the edges. (This is because my rib outlines were traced from the balsa carrier in a Lanier kit.)
3. As I'm using 3/8 carbon fiber tube spars instead of square spruce, I drilled 3/8 holes in the fuse sides with a Forstner bit, exactly centered on where the square stuff would have been located. I measured forward from the saddle formed by the 1/4 balsa TE to get the locations for the 3/8" holes on the ribs- 1 - 7/8" forward for the aft holes, and 7.5" forward of the rear holes for the front holes (R1-R3 only)
4. The ribs in the kit are scored along the bottoms so that the building tabs can easily be removed. To duplicate this, I traced the upper outline of each rib, flipped it over and lined it up with the bottom, and used somewhat heavy pressure with a ballpoint to follow the curvature. That left enough of an impression on the rib so that I could trace the curvature in ink on both ribs. I'll cut and sand the tabs off after the wing is done.

I've also decided to make this a hand launched version, OS 35AX power, as light as possible. There is enough room in the fuse ahead of the rearmost bulkhead to get three mini servos in there (throttle/aileron/elevator) so I'm going to give that a shot. That, combined with a solid tail section should make it possible to balance with the battery only. I'm hoping for 55 oz total, wet, so that wing loading will stay at 15 oz per square foot, making it easy to hand launch.

Quikturn

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Hi Bob, Glad to see you plugging away on the Shrike. It really is a fun airplane to fly. I put an OS FSR 40 ABC in mine, it can turn a 10x6 prop at 11,400 rpm. Mine too is a hand launch version. I launch it by myself with a good toss.

After 3 flights I realized I needed to decrease the throws a bit and it's much more manageable. Inverted flight needs more push on the elevator than expected. Maybe that means it's too nose heavy. Also, it's hard to see at times especially when turning on final approach. The dual rudder control I added works great. No flutter even at high speed. Once I get the engine and airframe tweaked some more I plan on adding a Macs tuned pipe for a few more R's and to keep the airplane cleaner.

Mustang Fever

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That's a pretty one

DMehalko

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I have a shrike 40 kit NIB in the classifieds in case anyone didnt want to scratch build one

Strykaas

Bob, no more updates ?