zadeda

A great field for flying! Tell me, do you wing covered with glass or just painted?

steph69

awesome flying mate pity the gopros cant zoom I have the hero silver3+ and I am really disappointed that every time I fly with the gopro on my head strap you can hardly see the plane . a bit of zoom would make the gopro much better.

ENZ5573

My Feedback: (7)

Hi LDM

Its great when it works! still new,have about 8 flights on the setup. when I first got the unit had a bad controller,they sent me a new one, no problem! now this year it starting acting up again,they have an updated controller.. I ordered it,as soon as I install it. I will let you know how it works..

Thanks,Vincent

ENZ5573

My Feedback: (7)

Hi Zadeda
Its just painted! no glass

Thanks,Vincent

ENZ5573

My Feedback: (7)

Hi steph69

Thanks, yeah I agree... that is the only bad thing about that gopro.!! If it only had auto zoom,lol

Thanks,Vincent

hpergm

After a very long time lurking and learning a lot from this thread (since like page 50 or so) - its time to report also on my finished bird.
The build had been inspired by those using the FG-84 radial (notably the Taiwanese gentleman, I cannot remember his nick), Hot Rod Todd - the webpage of whom gave excellent tips on the finishing and many others.

After reading up on the potential design shortcomings of the FG-84, I decided to go for the new FG-60 - which lived up to its promises 100%. It flies the bird with authority (6,800 with an APC 22x10, AUW ~26.5lbs, Thrust-weight ~1:1) and does not require any hacking on the firebox. If one just leaves the factory weights on the firebox sides, and the bird will balance at the designated range, even with a Sierra tailwheel and a full cockpit, including a full body pilot.


Without a lot of words, I will just give out a few pics of the "modified" parts of the build. Hope they also become of use to somebody else..

Regards,
Hector.

hpergm

Let's start from the gear.

Wheels: like many others, I went for the Williams Bros, added the nuts and cut off a nipple from a Robart plastic air fitting for the valve. Primer, color, drybrush and presto. Also relieved the hub for the head of the shaft to avoid incomplete closure upon retraction.



Gear Covers: here, a little more involved surgery was required to obtain a sliding lower part to avoid thrashing the covers in hard landings. Overlapping panel is 0.2mm litho, glued and blended in with model putty. Mr. Color (Gunze) primer was a 100% match of the factory color!


Gear Cover Mounts: Along the way a few more improvements on the attachment method so as to look more scale (and less ARF) and also be lighter and more adjustable (read: flush-fitting). Mounts by K&S (16mm thin walled tube), silver soldered together. Thin silicone tubing sleeves for vibration isolation, sandwitched between the mount tubes and the 2mm machine bolts.


Scale Details: Finally, some scale touches in the form of a brake line made by heavy duty electrical wire (mounts by soda can material) and fake mounting bolts in the scale locations.


End Result:

hpergm

Cockpit: went for the Team Propag kit (CZ) and also found a Dragon 1:6 figure of Erich Hartmann. Took some time to think how to make the front dash removable... Microscrews from Marklin were used. Other little scale additions like the coaming padding, etc inspired by Hot Tod Todd's bash.


A little work on the side panels by Top Flite:


Dash and side panels fitted:


Rear panel and coaming:


Erich @ the office. He will fly at airshow mode, so Luftwaffe hat on and life vest off (which makes strapping him in much easier). Hands reach the controls great (not too short - not too long). A small pain in the butt made sure that there is no inadvertent ejection during a roll (i.e. a woodscrew).

hpergm

Engine Installation: went without a hitch - no hacking. Used longer stand offs (50mm) and made a plenum connection for the carb to breathe through the fuz to avoid leaning-out or richening-up in flight due to pressure changes in the cowl. Just measured some plastic cups from the wife's cosmetics colletcion (she does not know) and glued one in a central bore on the firewall. A Keleo ring provides Audio entertainment.


Side air vents were opened with a Dremel and a fine bit to allow airflow through the engine compartment (the FW is a little challenged when it comes to cooling). Also a good place to hide the Ignition Kill LED. Finally, the exhaust stacks were given a "rusty" look.



A lot of wiring, including temp sensors for every cylinder - took some time to tidy up and avoid scuffing or interference. Temp sesor boards were mounted on the bottom of the firebox. Finally, guide tubes were installed (drinking straws) to allow positive aiming of the screwdriver cowl-on for engine tune-up.

hpergm

Cowl & Cooling: Baffling was deemed necessary and was provided my means of a 2.5mm ply plate (plane needs the weight up front anyway) and a TF dummy radial stuck on. Careful template cutting made sure it is really close-fitting. The whole thing was bonded using construction sealand/adhesive which also retains a small amount of flexibility.



On the cowl bottom, large aluminum louvres were glued (found in the local hardware store) to provide a 4:1 outlet/inlet ratio. A lot of bending was required to match the contours, but when painted the effect is almost invisible.


End Result:

hpergm

Cowl Mount: of course, with a baffle in place, there is no way to use the (stupid) cowl mounting system that TF provides. Here, I took the path of many others on the top and also tried an alternative solution on the bottom.


For the bottom, things were a bit more involved: glued hardwood blocks on the GRP, bored them out for an aluminum sleeve, drilled out and tapped holes for grubscrews through the wood (CA-hardened as well) and the aluminum sleeve and provided 2 long bolts on the wing saddle former. In the end, it works quite well and is not really that obtrusive on the bottom..

hpergm

On to the back, for the Sierra tailwheel installation. Here, more or less a copy of what other people did in the thread. Surgery was required on the left side of the fin for the top mount, the trade off being that the whole unit is removable.

Extra care was taken to be as light as possible (the FW A's are short nosed and thereby tailweight-challenged); used aluminum bolts and the lightest 3" foal tailwheel I could get my hands on (not shown in this post). The GFR cover was mounted using non-obtrusive micro screws.



Steering cable runs and springs. The unit was finally painted and the lightweight wheel installed..

hpergm

Stab: I decided to make this removable, so that in case of an "accident", I won't need to butcher the fuz to take it out for replacement. I am rerally wondering why TF did not go this way - the dry fit is so good that there is no slop at all...

One just needs to take care to insert a spacer between the skin of the stab and the epoxy tube beneath so that when a woodscrew is done up tight, the skin is not crushed. Screws are only necessary on the front (locating) tube. The rear is the load bearing, so I avoided weakening it. When the screw heads are painted, there is nothing really visible from 3 feet away...

Final touch was to CA-harden the holes in the fuz through which the ali tubes pass and then fuel proof the exposed wood on the fuz sides (monokote has been removed no doubt to aid good glueing of the stab).

hpergm

Canopy: Some treatment was due here, just to match the scale-looking cokpit.

The front mounting holes were opened at scale locations - micro screws used for the mounting.


Recesses were made for the armour mounts on the fronrt windshield and some aluminum duct tape was used to re-frame it so that later on some realistic weathering could be done.


The top hinge was also made out of duct tape:


Repainting:


Result, after also adding the headrest support and weathering:


I decided not to make the canopy sliding, so as to save some weight and complexity.

hpergm

Painting/Weathering: Before commencing on the plane, a test board was made and some techniques tried. Best effect was obtained by using an 0.5mm mechanical pencil to mark/score panel lines and rivets. A TF template was used (indispensible!) and steel wool was used to prepare the Monokote for overpaint.


Model Masters enamels were used to overpaint the Monokote (Green + Violet) -the grey was left as it was. Mottling was applied first, followed by the RLM75 band near the tail. Markings were obtained from Callie Graphics. A final satin coat of varnish was applied to seal everything in.


Some shading was done with dry pastels and the major panel lines post shaded with an airbrush. Exhaust marks were sprayed on using a diluted mix/wash of black and brown. Flake offs were simulated by a silver paint marker (fine tipped).


Fabric covered surfaces were simulated also with very faded post-shading.

hpergm

Ready to fly...! Some finishing touches do remain, like hood and cowl repainting & weathering. But, when the time comes, the time comes!

hpergm

Out in the flying field...


And, the video of first flight day - also posted over in the FG-60 thread.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_MYY0NlbQY

AV8ATOR

My Feedback: (5)

hpergm,

Looks great! Good flight just need to slow it down a little on landing.

Chris Nicastro

My Feedback: (3)

One thing during the flight you should consider doing is a stall test and slow flight. Try these up at altitude in case the engine quits but you want to understand the slow flight and stall character of your plane. Landings will be much easier once you understand the characteristics

hpergm

Thanks - you are quite right. I was too scared to slow it down enough...

Also very correct Chris - definately on the flight plan for the 3rd flight!

Thanks to both for your feedback.

BR,
Hector.

Hot Rod Todd

My Feedback: (1)

Looks great Hector! One thing we found out about the Sierra tail wheel installation is that the design can cause the air cylinder rod to bend (it's only 4-40 size and quite long). As a solution, I found that by adding an air regulator I can drop the pressure to around 50psi. This allows the piston to compress and absorb any shock instead of bending the rod. It has the added side affect of making the tail plant a bit better when you hit bumps.

I used a Pneumadyne RO-NK-2 regulator, and it worked fine. Just install it in the Down line to the tailwheel retract.

Here's a photo of it installed in one of my 190's.

hpergm

Hey, thanks for the tip! (and everything else).

Hot Rod Todd

My Feedback: (1)

Robart Pneumatic Retracts: Here's another tip. If you do a ground loop you'll discover that the single pin on the trunion of the Robart Pneumatic retracts will bend. You can straighten it, but once it bends it seems to take less and less stress to bend it again.

There is a fix. Much like some have done with the electric retracts, you can add a second plastic block. If you order a new trunion you'll find that Robart sends the twin pin versions that the electric uses. You'll also need two of the square sliders for each unit. You then need to make a pin that goes between the two sliders, and you can have the support of two pins instead of one. You'll also have to elongate some holes in the body of the unit (see the electric retract mod earlier in this thread). I'm not saying nothing else will break, but it adds a lot more strength to a weak point in the air retracts.

If you land on grass you may never find that this is a problem. For those that land on a smooth surface it's always annoying when a partial ground loop causes the pin to bend ending your day of flying.

dasintex

My Feedback: (10)

Where did you get that 'Pneumadyne RO-NK-2' Regulator? Thanks.

dasintex

My Feedback: (10)

Found them on Ebay!