FenderBean

I measured mine they are roughly 10-12 mm from surface to center of screw for the ball.
On a build note the top tank is in and secure and I am super happy on how it came out. I also highly recommend doing what I did to the turbine rails!
So everything in the nose half is done, I took a picture of my canopy bolt, I added a small piece of tygon under the head. This is a very common practice with large 3D planes to prevent things from cracking.

FenderBean

Sorry folks not much going on this week still waiting on a turbine, but I did decide to laminate the back pipe/thrust vector pipe mount. It pulled apart just like the turbine mounts and is very soft ply so I laminated it to prevent it from weakening over time from using the vectoring.

FenderBean

Well dang look what showed up and just want leave until they get a flight. Looks like I got my pilots for the jet!

The dang Angry Birds stole the Bipe so its only fitting the Minions get the jet.

FenderBean

So with nothing really todo until I get the turbine I decided to redo the cockpit. I am going to make my own instrument panel since the stock one is a bit heavy. Plus I repainted mine the all black just wasnt working for me or Carl and Kevin so they went to town.
Im also uploading a video with some thrust pipe mounting stuff. I trimmed off the extra carbon on the back mount and added the thrust pipe to show folks how it mounts.
I tell you I am not a fan of this area, besides the fact I no place to fly the freaking weather is just plan horrible. I need to head back to Savannah or Dothan, much better flying there all year round.

Im going to tape off the area of the dash that overlaps the bucket and paint it gray as well. This will make the cockpit look much better, I just need to let the paint setup before I go throwing tape on it.

FenderBean

Carl and Kevin did a good job on the cockpit lol I used some of the old instrument panel and I was able to use the old printed decals as well. I still need to glue everything together and paint all the buttons but all in all it looks good and is very light. I made everything out of thin balsa so after a little time, about 2 hours I bring you the old and the new hotness!

Helijet

My is nearing completion - just a few things to tidy up.
I have the full cockpit, most equipment up front along with 3 LiFe packs and a LiFe 9.9 volt ecu pack.
Mine balanced exactly at the 300 mm mark with no additional ballast.
Just something to keep in mind. Weight needs to go forward.

Dean

FenderBean

I was considering balancing mine at the 330 cg, any reason you went with 300? Yeah all my equipment is int he nose as well I will not add weight to balance just move batteries

FenderBean

A little late night painting, just about done with the cockpit i will mount everything tomorrow and secure it to the top part of hatch.

Helijet

Just being cautious. I'll start at the recommended 300 mm and then move it back to where its comfortable for me.
As you say, the battery packs can be moved accordingly.

Dean

FenderBean

Okay im not sure what SM makes their cockpit boxes from but it is very hard to work with. A pain in the butt but the hard part is done once I add some glue to better secure the windshield I will mount the cockpits to the top hatch. I think it turned out okay, I attached the pilots with a small carbon tube and used some foam/hot glue to hold them in place. I ran the tube through the seat and out the bottom of the bucket, I had to reinforce the back seat bottom since its so brittle.

FenderBean

Im adding some glue to the cross beams on the canopy to secure them. I cut some holes and will push some hysol in, as they sit they dont have anything holding them to the clear canopy. This will prevent them from fluttering and breaking. I will be adding a the cockpit tubs next.
New video uploading as well... I will not be doing much this week, I got stuck doing the new E model Apache aka the Guardian course this week, so I have to do some studies at night. Cheers!

FenderBean

Okay after a lot of work Carl and Kevin are in, I tried some different glues but in the end the old hot glue gun wins out. I had to add a back support for the back bucket since its angled and I think im going to lower it just a bit the back seat looks tilted forward to much. I really dont like all that weight it seems so heavy with everything installed even with my new parts.


For anyone who isnt watching the videos I did test the gear and brake system for leaks and no leaks at all. With the current tank I could easily lower and retract the gears 10X no problem. brakes work very well nice a smooth breaking action and I Todd sent me a new sequencer today to replace the other so I should be able to get everything finished up in the front.

FenderBean

Just a quick pick of the underside of the cockpit, be warned its not pretty but its in.
Also a new video of the gear door servo setup, to hard to get picks but I simple used two JR heli ball ends as the rod. It works great and I put a small slow in the radio.

for those who missed it in the videos my F-14 build is located here
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/glob...-14-build.html
Merry Christmas

FenderBean

Okay small update the Airpower sequencer is in and everything is working. It took a lot to get it setup with my current setup but its in and I made a video showing everything and I even show the gear working. It uses about 10 PSI (this is rounding up) per cycle, its more like 5 PSI but just to be safe. I opted out of using the brake function since I could not get it to work so I just ran it normal through my receivers. I had to make two "Y" harnesses to make everything work and both the 2-way valves and the door servos had to be a perfect match since you can only adjust one. I managed to do this without any kind of matchers so thats a plus. Anyway just a little update the video is uploading now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyTK...ature=youtu.be

DiscoWings

My Feedback: (76)

Your taking a big chance with that pos sequencer, the glitches can be really bad, it may only be glitching slightly but in flight it glitch trigger a quick cycle.
Air powers logic board sucks, the gsf-150 does the same:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sb5n...Zexe_HXXJ5XIsg

FenderBean

It's not glitching like that it's more like a digital servo sound. I will keep an eye on it and if becomes a issue I will swap it out.

Helijet

+ 1 re Discowings comment. Several of the guys in our area tried the units and all failed. Ruined the weekend for each of them.

Dean W.

FenderBean

Are we talking about my unit or the one in the video? The one I have is different than the one in the video from disco. Well I can always pull it and just run it without a fail safe.

FenderBean

Okay my fellow avanti xxl owners it would appear my pipe is to long. Skymaster is going to build a new one and send it my way, it should be here sometime in January. I will post it when it arrives, it's for a p200 size turbine.

FenderBean

So with nothing to do until turbine install, I decided to make some decals for the jet. Pretty simple stuff, the hard part is making them fuel/cleaning products proof
I also fixed the elevators and added the back screw to hold the elevators better. I used some hysol which I applied to the inside of the carbon tube holes. I let it dry for about an hour then lubed the carbon rods on the elevators and inserted them into the holes. It makes a perfect NO SLOP fit and with the aft screw in the elevators have no slop. I glued a small square ply block next to the elevator pin locations for the screw and drilled threw the inside out to the block., this makes it easy to remove the elevators if needed.


the decals are covered with a gloss to protect them from cleaning and fuels. I hope everyone had a great Christmas and Happy New Year

DiscoWings

My Feedback: (76)

ok how exactly did you "make" decals?

FenderBean

I used decal paper and edited/sized as needed then I printed them with my printer. The last step i applied a high gloss fuel protection, this is just two sheet I made for some random decals I needed. I dont fly JR but I figured I would make one since I have friends that do. Im hoping to add a vinyl cutter to my tools so I can do more advanced things and cut my own decal stencils when needed.

The clear coat I used matches the clear coat of the jet so it gives it that painted look instead of a decal.

FenderBean

Well I got the turbine so I started on mounting today, I cut some of the inlet duct to allow the turbine to move forward as far as possible. After that I cut the turbine rails to all the turbine clamp bolts some clearance, which brings me to alignment of the turbine and hard mounting. The P200 is a big turbine but it fits very nice in the jet with plenty of room.
I uploaded some videos on my youtube channel as well, its been slow today since I have been going over my other project that has arrived checking to make sure its all good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAGG...BAxA8bHVCw3VQQ


http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/glob...-14-build.html

FenderBean

I spent this morning trimming the rails and the inlet duct to allow clearance for the FOD screen. The one supplied is pretty bulky and I had trim a small area on each rail for the outer ring of the FOD screen. The duct work too a bit since the I had to trim of a bit for the FOD screen, but its done and the turbine is ready to be lined up and hard mounted.
I have a small video uploading as well showing a couple of things about the soft wood in this area, for the folks with larger turbines I strongly suggest you either beef up the area or secure the rails by gluing them in. The Mod I did on the rails I recommend for any turbine size. Or you could just cut new rails out of the nice a/c ply.

FenderBean

Well the turbine is in and I tell you I think thats the hardest part about turbine jets is getting the turbine lined up with the center line and the pipe centered on the turbine I haven't found any good way to do it yet, but its in and so are the rails. I used three screws per side to secure it to the rails. I had to trim a bit more of the inlet for the fuel line and on the bottom of the right rail for the temp prob cable and I had to make a 6mm to 4mm step down for this P200. After reading the instructions on it I guess im spoiled to the newer more simple setups and It doesn't help nobody responds to a question on the jetcat forum either
Oh well I will figure it out. I spent the rest of the evening ponder turbine equipment placement, have to deal with those valves is cramping my style lol. Anyway its back to work tomorrow so things will be a bit slower on the builds.