Canadian Man

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Well this will be my first build thread and it is a little different.

One of my friends purchased this jet from another friend. Had a bunch of successful flights on it and then had a flame out. This was all shortly after totalling his FEJ F-16 on it's maiden flight due to loss of radio so when this happened he was "done" with jets. He is now back in it with a large bomerang and building a Tutor this winter![8D] Anyways, on the flame out of the EF the nose section of the fuse was destroyed and it is beyond repairable.

So that leads me to the build thread. The only other one I could find was on a french site and it was not very detailed especially because I don't speak french.

So a few month ago I agreed to buy this pile of parts from my friend and he would order a new fuse along with other items required. I just received the fuse 4 days ago so now to start.

This first picture is of the damaged fuse. The nose was completely destroyed, the canards and the front formers. When I received this project all the parts were removed from the old fuse and in a box.

Basic details thus far are.
-Kingtech Kero start 140 turbine will be installed.
-all the other equipment is what was installed originally. Jr 8711 servos on control surfaces

Canadian Man

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first step was to unbox the new fuse and see what I had gotten myself into.[8D]

None of the formers except the front 2 were installed.

Canadian Man

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Here are all of the formers. It seems like they just threw in a whole kit as there are some duplicates for the nose cone and tail that were allready installed.

Another thing I noticed was that the wheel well covers that are installed on the damaged fuse I have are not included. So this means that I will need to try to get the mains off and reuse them.

The nose opening cover was damaged in the crash so I will fab one up. Shouldn't be too bad. It's just a rectangle.

Canadian Man

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next step I needed to make backer for the blind nut for the vertical tail fin. Piece of ply cut and Hysol'ed in place. Used a screw driver that was just the right length to hold it in place.

Canadian Man

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Next step I could do was the canard former up front. I got the former in place and installed the canards as to get the right spot. I also used the front mounting plate to make sure it was in position.

I used epoxy on the bottom part. Once that was cured and I could take the Canards out I put in some paper towel in the holes and hysol'ed around the holes. These pics are in the next post.

Canadian Man

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Opps. Sorry for the duplicate pics.

Canadian Man

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Next step for me was to get the vertical fin mounted. This meant removing the aluminum pinch mount from the old fuse off the former and getting it aligned on the new one properly.

-removed the aluminum mount from old fuse.
-positioned new former in new fuse.
-installed vertical fin and held in place with blind nut installed on the ply plate I installed earlier.
-got aluminum clamp lined up and in place.
-Fastened with cyano
-removed vertical fin
-removed former with mount glued on.
-drilled holes and installed back plate with nuts and bolts.
-reinstalled former and vertical fin and Hysol former in place.

Don't judge my epoxy job! It's hard to do almost blind with your arm tucked in there and your head in an awkward spot.

Canadian Man

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The next step is the one I have been dreading the most. Getting all the main formers installed and the wings in the correct position.

-I had to remove all the aluminum wing mounts from the old fuse. 4 in total.
-I then positioned the 3 formers and turbine mount in the new fuse and bolted it together.
-I installed the wings temporarily in the holes.
-Using tape I went from the wing tip to the fuse and got them positioned as accurately as I could. I used the gap in the wing joint. I tried to use measurements from the wing tip to a point on the fuse but the wings are slightly different lengths.
-Once the wings were in position I installed the aluminum mounts, made sure the formers were in complete contact and temporarily mounted with Cyano again.

Canadian Man

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Overview of the wing taped in position

A note on the tape I used. It is the fiberglass infused tape that does not stretch. I try to have this on hand always comes in handy. Didn't want to use anything else as the wings are heavy and if the tape stretches than it's all out of line.

Canadian Man

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Once that was done, I removed the wings, removed the formers. Drilled holes through mounts and fastened with backplates.

Then reinstalled everything and reinstalled wings and once again got everything lined up.

I only had 3/4 of a tube of Hysol So I started tacking certain points of the formers.

Need to order more Hysol to continue former fixing.

Pepperpete

This is really interesting! Keep it up.

Canadian Man

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Here is an overview pic with nose cone installed.

Lots of work ahead. Will continue with any further updates. Ordered more Hysol today.

To Be Continued!

Canadian Man

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Thanks Pepperpete!


One other thing to note. The new formers had been "proofed" They tried to stay away from the perimeter but there is some on the edges of the new formers.

I made sure to sand the edges of the new formers before installing them as to get good adhesion.

andrewpohlmann

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Looks good and glad you were in to the project! Can't wait to see it in the air again.

Pepperpete

Canadian Man I just realized you are only a few hours away from me. Do you fly at Caley? I haven't made the trip down yet to fly there (usually I head to Princeton in BC) but it sure is a small world. Looking forward to see more of your build!

bidrseed2

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I bought one of these models at jetpower this September. I'll start building it in December.

With reference to the build thread on the French forum, if you download the google "chrome" Web browser on your laptop, then you can use its built in translator- works great!

hooker53

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This is a great build thread. The kind folks will look for when they are going o build a Euro themselves. Thanks for posting.

Canadian Man

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Pepperpete.

I have flown at Cayley once a few weeks ago. I have been trying to make it to Princeton or tofield but life gets in the way..There are 5 of us that fly at a private grass runway outside of Calgary. Cayley a few weeks ago was my first time off asphalt. It was different

Bidrseed2. I posted a thread a few months ago asking if there were any ef2000 build thread. Gilles (the guy on the French thread) responded and emailed me about 30 pictures of how he has re worked his EF to get better cg. If you want I can email them to you. It's a huge file!

bidrseed2

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I'd appreciate anything you have on it! I'll send you a pm with my email address.

Out of interest, what were the CG issues he had to contend with?

Canadian Man

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I never asked him but I would assume it was too far back. He switched a lot of things around and made a mount in theo nose cone for his 4 batteries.

I emailed him tonight to ask some cg questions. I will post his responses here.

Thanks

Jonathan

mikedenilin

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Hi Jonathan,

I am the original owner of this EF-2000 that you are rebuilding. It's nice to know that you are making it live again. Here is the link to my tech blog about this plane.

This plane has 3 main tanks and can stay up there for over 12 minutes with a Jetcat 160sx. I have some additional information about the set up and flight info and would be happy to share that with you. Feel free to email me at [email protected]

http://tech.globaljetclub.com/2011/0...echnical-note/

I am putting together another one with electric retracts and plan to put a K180G in it!

Regards,

Mike

Canadian Man

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Thanks Mike!

Sent you an email.

Canadian Man

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Next step while I'm waiting for my Hysol to show up is cutting the intakes. First picture shows the intakes as they come. The standard setup allows very little room for the main tank.

Intake ducts were cut to just beyond the former they rest on. Used a new exacto blade and small detail scissors to cut them.

The plan with cutting them is make a tray for the main tank to sit on. It will be fastened to the tray and the tray will be removable.

Canadian Man

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First picture is of the turbine mount rails that were installed on the damaged fuse next to the new one. I don't know why they were shortened but the new former set comes with a horizontal piece that spans 3 formers.

The Rear and middle are bolted and the front is a slot in the former that a tab on the rail fits into.

I wanted to add the same bracket as the back 2 have to the front to fully join all 3 formers that holds the wings and engine.

Pic 2 if of how the bracket will be installed.

On next post.

pic 3 is of the bracket on the top side to mark the bolt hole location.

pic 4 is of the almost finished bracket. Drilling the two holes into the former were difficult but I acomplished it with using my smallest drill. Holes were marked and bracket removed so threads were not damaged.

Cheers!

Canadian Man

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Pic 3 and 4.

Opps Pics are out of order.

This is Pic 3 and Pic 1.

Anyways. One thing I noticed when bolting it all together and you can see it in Pic 3 is The former and bracket don't line up straight. This is because the front former is at a slight angle and also when the 2 holes were drilled in the former the drill had to be at a slight angle. I enlarged the holes a bit with a file and all sits nice and level now.