k_sonn

My Feedback: (32)

I purchased a BVM F-86 AFS kit from Esprit Models last Sept. I've been collecting parts as the hobby budget allowed ever since.

After seeing the F-86 ARF prototyoe fly with the new EVF 5212 fan I decided to purchase it to power my Fury. I also purchased the new intake ducting. It has a cone that covers the fan's spinner and a couple of stators to straighten out the air flow before it gets to the fan.

The AFS kit doesn't have gear doors but the new soon to be released ARF does so I purchased the gear door kit. It includes some wood parts, gear doors, air cylinders, basically all the parts needed to install and operate the gear doors.

Next, I purchased the the internal structural part kit. This kit replaces all of the wood parts forward of the vertical stabs with the exception of the wing mounting formers. These parts are lighter than the AFS parts and updated technology is used, such as replacing the ply nose gear former with a former made from end grain balsa which is laminated on both sides with carbon fiber. It makes for a light, yet strong former.

Because I'm building mine as a Fury, I purchased the Fury parts kit. This includes a new carbon fiber former and wood. These parts make the vertical stabs sit flat instead of having the dihedral of the F-86. The kit also includes some vents and bumps found on the Fury that are not on the F-86.

Lastly, I purchased the new Air Blue retracts, struts, and V-Lite wheels and brakes.

Now I have everything to get started so here goes.....

The ARF instruction manual was included with the parts I purchased so the build of the fuse will be exactly the same as the build of the ARF fuse so here's a preview of how the ARF fuse goes together.


First thing to do was to cut out the nose gear opening. Then the nose gear was screwed to the flex plates. This assembly is slide into the slots on the nose gear former and maple blocks are screwed to the rear of the flex plates. The maple blocks butt up against the nose gear former and hold the flex plates in place. A couple of marked holes at the front of the fuse are opened up and the nose gear assembly is placed in the fuse. 4-40 screws are placed through the holes and used to attach the front of the flex plates to the fuse. Alignment of the strut is checked and if it isn't aligned adjustments to the holes are made. My assembly aligned perfectly. Next the nose gear assembly is removed and packing tape is applied around the front of the flex plates and the screws are lubricated with oil. The assembly is placed back into the fuse and the screws are started into the flex plate. Hysol is placed under the flex plates and the screws are tightened until the front tip of the flex plate is touching the fuse. Excess hysol is wiped away. Once the hysol has dried, it creates a light weight seat for the flex plates.



Kirk
Not a BVM rep, just a very satisfied customer

k_sonn

My Feedback: (32)

After the hysol flex plate seats were dry the nose section formers were hysoled in place. Once the hysol was set, the nose gear doors were installed. The front door has a cut line in it because the front door on the F-86 is in two sections and is hinged so that when the gear is extended the door folds into an angle. The front door on the Fury is one piece so I sanded out the cut line. The doors are a little fiddley but with a little patience they align and install nicely. The spring to pull the front door shut when the gear retracts has not been installed yet,

More to come later .....


Kirk
Not a BVM rep, just a very satisfied customer

k_sonn

My Feedback: (32)

I measured and cut out the main gear door openings in the bottom of the fuse. The wing mounting formers were assembled from carbon and plywood pieces. The wings were fitted to the fuse and the wing mounting formers were hysoled in place. The fan mounting structure, gear door mounting structure (the air cylinders and hinging mechanisms will be mounted to this structure), and elevator servo mounting structure were built and installed. Based on the instructions, the fan needs to be installed while the hysol for the fan mounting structure is setting. In order to do this the nose had to be glued in place and the intake ducting temporarily installed. After that, the fan was installed. Current weight of the fuse with everything I've done up until now including the installed fan and the nose retract and strut is 5 pounds.


Kirk
Not a BVM rep, just a very satisfied customer

A7Bldr

My Feedback: (40)

Kirk, as usual you think of everything.
My guess is you'll spend more time detailing this thing, than actually building it...
Looking forward to that!
Jim

k_sonn

My Feedback: (32)

Thanks Jim. I think you're right, the build is going fairly quickly and I think it will take more time to apply the Flite Metal and detail and weathering.

Kirk
Not a BVM rep, just a very satisfied customer

Eddie P

My Feedback: (4)

Looking forward to the finished product, the flite metal will be sweet to see!

k_sonn

My Feedback: (32)

Thanks Eddie. How's the A-4 coming along. Did you guys defrost yet? All of the snow has finally melted here. At my house I ended up with a total of 20 inches over a 4 day period.


Kirk
Not a BVM rep, just a very satisfied customer

Eddie P

My Feedback: (4)

Yeah it was in the mid 60's and bluebird clear yesterday at the house with a ton of snow just up the road (cold on the mountain). The skiing is great though, we needed the snow and we still need more up high for skiing and for the lakes (not at the house though, thanks). Anyway it's warm enough to shoot some paint at least.

The front yard, streets and the flying sites are clear and dry. No excuses, no complaints!

I'll get some more quality work done this week on the scooter.

Ron Stahl

My Feedback: (12)

KirK, thanks for the post of your conversion. It inspired me to finish my conversion of the AFS F-86 that I built last year, I just got conformation of the shipping from BVM and got all of the EDF upgrades as well. Sounds like it will save 3/4 of a lb and sure will save a lot of my time then designing the parts myself. I have seen both an old kit version and the new arf fly and it really goes you'll like it. Keep the pics coming; and Happy new year

k_sonn

My Feedback: (32)

Thanks Ron. The new upgrades are lighter and there are fewer parts and the new Air Blue retracts and V-Lite wheels are really nice.

Kirk
Not a BVM rep, just a very satisfied customer

k_sonn

My Feedback: (32)

Here's a video of the 17 pound ARF prototype flying with the EVF-5212 (the newest version of the fan).

[link=http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=caY1GorGYnw]http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=caY1GorGYnw[/link]


Kirk
Not a BVM rep, just a very satisfied customer

JohnVH

My Feedback: (38)

Cool kirk, maybe we can fly some formations, here is my BVM FJ3 with P70 power.

AlW

My Feedback: (17)

I bet the P70 wins!
Al

k_sonn

My Feedback: (32)

Hey John. It's been awhile. Did you change the scheme on your Fury? I thought I remember it being all blue.

Come on Al. The '09 flying season hasn't started yet and you're already dishing it out Oh well, I'd feel like the red-headed step-child if you didn't.

Kirk
Not a BVM rep, just a very satisfied customer

JohnVH

My Feedback: (38)

Nope Kirk, thats how its been for years since it was in Top Gun.

Look foward to seeing your bird completed.

k_sonn

My Feedback: (32)

The main gear doors and air cylinders have been installed. The horizontal stab and vertical stab mounting structure was assembled and palced in the fuse. The horizontal stabs were slid onto the carbon fiber tongues so the mounting structure location could be found. There was a gap on top of the the horizontal stabs where they meet the fuse because the didehral angle for the F-86 is sanded into them at the factory. A 3/16th balsa rib was made up and glued to the root of the stab. The stab was place in it's foam bed and the balsa root was sanded at a 90 degree angle to the work table. This fills the gap and allows the stab to sit flush against the fuse. Once the mounting structure location was found and the horizontal and vertical stabs were lined up, the mounting structure was hysoled in place. It wasn't fun getting my hand through the 3.5 inch opening at the rear of the fuse to wipe the hysol around the mounting structure.

THe next day I worked on the removable horizontal stab assembly. A balsa spacer was epoxied into the pocket at the bottom of the each horizontal stab with 5 minute epoxy. The stabs were slid onto the carbon fiber tongue and another piece of balsa was glued next to the end of the tongue filling in the space. The stab was removed from the tongue. The side of the fuse where the horizontal stab meets the fuse was coated with grease to prevent epoxy form sticking to the fuse. The toungue and the pocket in the stab that the tongue slids into was coated with 30 minute epoxy. The stab was slid back onto the tongue. 30 minute epoxy was added to the pocket at the bottom of the stab and a balsa block was inserted. Once the epoxy was set, the screws holding the tongue to the mounting structure were removed and the stab was removed from the fuse. The balsa block was sanded flush with the bottom skin and the grease on the side of the fuse was cleaned off with denatured alcohol. This completes the removable stab assembly.


Kirk
Not a BVM rep, just a very satisfied customer

Ron Stahl

My Feedback: (12)

Just recieved my box from BVM with all of the upgrades and conversion parts. Great manual and picture insructions in addition to the plans included with each package. Hope to get back started soon. Packing up my fan to get it upgraded to 5212 so I can use it in all of my EDF's from BVM.

k_sonn

My Feedback: (32)

Great news Ron. What's your impression of the parts? Have you started the conversion?

Kirk
Not a BVM rep, just a very satisfied customer

Ron Stahl

My Feedback: (12)

The parts look great as usuall from BVM and the inscruction book is a great source of data as well as your pictures. I have removed the turbine tank mount and pump mounts. NowI have to dremel out the rear nose gear mount that is plywood to replace it with the end grain
balsa/ carbon one. It looks like I will cut down the main wing mount wood pieces to match the ones supplied in the conversion package since they are in and aeropoxied in place. The servo mounts for the elevator look like the ones from the kit so I will double check that they donot have to move. The biggest job looks like the gear doors. Hopefully I can get back on it next week once all of the Xmas stuff is put away this weekend.

k_sonn

My Feedback: (32)

I did some more work on the Fury this weekend. It doesn't feel like I accomplished a whole lot but most of the work was time comsuming tasks.

Vertical Stab and Rudder:
The front alignment tab and carbon fiber rod was glued in place on the vertical stab and the the stab was aligned and set onto the fuse while everything dried.

The parts supplied for the rudder were for the F-86. The F-86's rudder is fully sheeted whereas the rear section of the Fury's rudder has a core and exposed ribs so I decided to modify the parts to make the rudder look more scale (but I did not add the lower balance tab found on the full scale Fury). I cut a new rudder core out of 1/32 ply and cut the left and right balsa sheeting so the rear section of the core would be exposed. The core was sandwiched between the left and right balsa sheeting and ribs were made up and glued to the rear section of the core. Once the rudder was finished it was hinged to the removable vertical stab.

Retracts:
The air cylinders for the main gear retract units face outboard. The outboard rib needed to be trimmed and foam needed to be dug out to accomodate the air cylinder. The inboard rib has to be trimmed a little also so the retract unit could be slide into place on the flex plate. I still need to glue the flex plate reinforcement and tap the mounting holes.

Flaps:
The flaps were cut from the wing. The bottom of the flap is loger from the trailing edge than the top. A hard wood block with the cut angle is provide with the kit to aid in cutting the proper angle. The 1/64th ply trailing edge was epoxied to the wing. Later this coming week I will glue the leading edge to the flaps and glue balsa to any exposed areas. Then the hinging will begin.


Kirk
Not a BVM rep, just a very satisfied customer

k_sonn

My Feedback: (32)

I was feeling a little under the weather this weekend so I didn't do much work on the Fury. The leading edges was fitted and epoxied onto both flaps. The leading and trailing edges have laser cut holes in them. The holes are used as a guide to route out the foam so 1/2 inch balsa dowels could be epoxied into the wing and flaps. The dowels have slots cut in them at the factory. The hinges slide into the slots. The dowels were epoxied into the flaps and wing making sure the slots line up properly so the hinges would be at the correct position when it is time to glue them in. The main gear flex plate reinforcement pieces were hysoled in place by lining up the predrilled holes. A 4-40 tap was run through the holes. The thread on the 4-40 screws were greased and screwed into the holes to hold the reinforcement piece in place until the hysol sets.

First Photo:
Flap leading edge fitted and epoxied in place. The holes are used as guides to route out the foam so balsa dowels can be epoxied in place. The hinges

Second Photo:
Flaps and hinges in place. The hinges will be glued in place after the wings and flaps have been glassed.

Third Photo:
Main gear flex plate reinforcement hysoled in place.


Kirk
Not a BVM rep, just a very satisfied customer

Bob_B

My Feedback: (11)

Looks really good Kirk. Debating getting the flex plate reinforcements for my Electra.

Greg Wright

My Feedback: (6)

Hey tortillini, you need them the way you land. Just kidding bob.[sm=lol.gif][sm=lol.gif][sm=lol.gif][sm=bananahead.gif][sm=cry_smile.gif][sm=cry_smile.gif]

Bob_B

My Feedback: (11)

Hey Greg,
How's the weather in Naperville?

Greg Wright

My Feedback: (6)

Hey Bob, It's f-ing cold how's it going with you.