John Baligrodzki

Thomas,

Very nice work on the 229. Looking forward to seeing you finish this interesting aircraft. Been following this thread from the start.

Very glad to hear a DO 335 is next up. Curious what your plan is for building? Are you going with the Don Smith plan or are you going to make a mold?

Regards,

John B.

invertmast

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John,
Both...

invertmast

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Well, got a bunch done over the past few days in anticipation of flying this thing on sunday.... if it doesn't snow tomorrow.

First up was getting the lower strut landing gear doors installed... ended up having some issues with the upper strut doors and had to remove those, but i'm going to try to re-install them on saturday:




Then got the outer wing panel attachment bolts drilled and tapped.. then I had one of these snap off, permanently attaching the right wing panels forward wing tube to the center section. Anyone have any idea's on remove a 4-40 bolt that is counter sunk about 1" Below the surface?

Then the nose gear doors were converted to electric actuation with a pair of HS82MG servo's:


Gear servo and valve installed:


All of the outer wing panel control surface linkages were completed. The hatch's cut and installed and all of the radio programming completed:



Then I cut out the holes for the wing panel servo extensions:


Then everything.... fan units, batter mounts, rx, match box's, gear sequencer, thrust tubes, all the extensions... yadda yadda yadda............ was installed and the outer wing panels put in place. Tom also dropped by this evening and we did a CG check... good news is, we'll be able to get it into CG with only 8 to 10oz of nose ballast needed... Anyways. here is a photo of all the Stuff needed in the nose to get it to CG ( four- 6s 5000 lipo's, 8oz Nicad battery, 2s2300 A123, 3s2300 A123).


The 3s2300 A123 will be replaced by another 2s2300 A123 battery for receiver power, and the 8oz Nicad battery was just used to determine how much nose weight was needed to get it into CG..

Ramstein44

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Invertmast, that is simply AWESOME!

invertmast

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This thing is by far the most complex model i've ever dealt with when it comes to radio programming. 12 servo's, 2 match box's, 1 gear sequencer, 40 feet of servo wire, 2 batteries, 2 switch's, 9 channels, SIX Mixes, a very complex model it all forms..

But damn is it cooL!

Ramstein44

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Youre damn right it's "cool"! Let me see if this works, I't normally works for my kids with me.....Let's see, how does it go again..

CAN I HAVE IT, CAN I HAVE IT, CAN I HAVE IT, CAN I HAVE IT,CAN I HAVE IT,CAN I HAVE IT,CAN I HAVE IT,CAN I HAVE IT,CAN I HAVE IT,CAN I HAVE IT,CAN I HAVE IT,CAN I HAVE IT,CAN I HAVE IT,CAN I HAVE IT,CAN I HAVE IT,CAN I HAVE IT,CAN I HAVE IT,CAN I HAVE IT,CAN I HAVE IT,CAN I HAVE IT,....Working yet.. Should I keep going..lol.

No but seriously, AWESOME.

BobH

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OH its not just cool, its EXTRA COOL.. where you gonna fly it? I'd like to see!.. lol

invertmast

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Our home field here in Harrisonburg.. its all dependent on this snow forecast though..

glazier808

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How about a live webcast of the maiden here on RCU?  

invertmast

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LOL... we'll video it

Ramstein44

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I know everyone here is excited to see the maiden. You'll hear from me after that.

invertmast

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I'm expecting to hear from allot of people if the maiden go's well and it flies.. The big question is, How many are Tom and myself wanting to sell before spring/summer. As I have three other projects to finish before then for myself and customers.

BobH

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The field is still off I81 yes? Right behind the hotel? I've been there a few times and flow some years ago. Snow today.. here. Not a lot but enough. And you only have grass..so[]

invertmast

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Bob,
That is the one. Ill hopefully know by tomorrow evening if it will happen for sure or not.

JeffH

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You might want to postpone for a warmer day. Lipos do not perform nearly as well in sub 40 degree weather. I have had smaller batteries that would not put out any amps until they warmed up a bit. I would keep them in my back pockets to warm them up. My 110 amp ViperJet EDF picks up RPM noticeably after a lap or two when its super cold out.

invertmast

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Jeff,
That is what we are leaning towards. The following few days are going to be up in the mid 40's to low 60's

JeffH

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40-60s MUCH better on the batteries and your fingers!!

wphilb

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Did you solve the bolt issue?

invertmast

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Bolt issue is fixed.
Right now, everything is done except for paint and we are fine tuning the gear doors and balancing issues.

jeffk464

It seems to me this 335 design was for a light bomber not a fighter. Some of the 262's were lost because of poor piloting, I heard a few retellings where the 262 pilot tried to get in a turning fight with mustangs. If the 262 was used properly, zoom and boom, it was pretty much untouchable.

invertmast

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I got the wing tube out of the center section and fixed the goof up from that:


Then between yesterday and today... The fan units were installed, Extensions routed, steering servo mount plate mounted, steering pull pull installed, Rx mounted, Air fill valve and pressure gauge installed and all the air lines plumbed, routed and pressure checked. Thrust tube extensions made, Parallel battery adapters made. Essentially the entire airplane is READY TO FLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pictures:






So... tomorrow we plan to do the maiden

BUT

We did a taxi test trial tonight after getting everything finished. Acceleration on 6S is pretty good considering the weight. But my front yard is a bit bumpy and the Nose gear strut mount pin sheared off during the trials. After looking at the material in the break, its pretty obvious this material is pretty cheap junk. So my buddy Tom is modifying some Grade 8 bolts to replace the shear pin since we don't want it to shear off again. He has one done, so tomorrow morning we will repair the nose gear and one of the door's (the door servo arm broke).

Then, we are going to pack up the airplane to go FLY IT!!!! We will have two or three video camera's at the field, one of which is HD so we should have a good bit of video from different view angle's..

Hopefully all go's well, b/c if it doesn't, i'm not screwing with another one of these this year. lol

glazier808

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Best of luck to you!

invertmast

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Thanks Casey!

We have the C/G about 1/2" forward of the calculated position, so it should be nose heavy enough... If not, we can slide 2 of the lipo's forward a bit more... maybe lol

jeffk464

Yup, good luck. Looking forward to the video.

irocbsa

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Good luck tomorrow! Looking forward to the flight report.