Spychalla Aircraft

My Feedback: (34)

Getting back on the Hurricane, it's been nearly 5 years. Life can get in the way sometimes. Originally figured to step the firewall for a ZDZ40RE as shown in the first photos, but the firewall got weak plus the pitts style muffler would stick out. So I cut the whole front off and glassed in a new solid firewall at 1.5 degrees right thrust. Trimmed the Bisson pitts style muffler with angles to clear and sent it back to Canada and they welded it up custom for me with a single center pipe. Very nice. Everything clears giving it a much cleaner look. Leo

Spychalla Aircraft

My Feedback: (34)

I was studying the wing and realized it could use some strengthening. I like to pull pretty hard and I would hate to snap it in the middle. So I obtained a piece of 6mm square carbon fiber and epoxied it all the way through the center section and out into each wing joiner. With the Sierra gear that rotate properly it will be no problem regarding wheel well clearance. Leo

Lifer

My Feedback: (1)

Very nice job cutting the cowl!

flycatch

My Feedback: (26)

I had this plane and flew it with a Saito 220FS. As most ESM airframes it is a flying tank and that is the reason I got rid of it. Wing loading versus wing area is its' down fall.

Meschmidt

My Feedback: (15)

Leo, the center section of this plane is the weak link. The ribs are not glued well to the top and bottom sheeting. If the wing twists in flight or landing it peels apart. I used water thinned wood glue thru drilled 1/8 " holes to run down both sides of ribs and webbing on top and bottom to assure a good bond. The CF spar is a great idea also. This plane lands and flies easily. Nice fit on your engine install ! Paul

Sandy69

Yupper to the ribs - i had a dump (got jumped by the hun when a spitfire buddy was in the cockpit) and one wing peeled at the joint. The top quality Chinese plywood delaminated and came apart with very little damage - the spar popped through the top of the wing, but everything will go back fairly easily.

I found the planes flies super, can land quite slowly if you can convince yourself it won't fall, but I find take off to be miserable. Just as the tail lifts the thing swings about 70 deg left. you need way rudder at just the right moment

kenair

My Feedback: (10)

My shop is a mess but the Hurri is on it's undercarraige, airframe is at 17.75# + 2.75# to balance = 20.50 pounds RTF without fuel. 82" wingspan. DLE 35cc engine, Sierra retracts, test flights in late May. Also got our Flying Legends tickets this week. cheers - ken

radfordc

My Feedback: (14)

Got one...it's called a gyro.

TerryW

I was wondering if the DLE 35 required special cutting on the firewall ? I bought my ESM Hurri and ordered a DLE 35, also have the Sierra retracts, am quite excited to finish it and get it into the air. Also wondering what sized pilot would fit in this plane to make it look correctly, was considering the Sailor Malan from Best Pilots but perhaps it will be too big. Any suggestions on this plane would be appreciated, I haven't started it yet so there is time. Thanks

DragnHart

Hi Terry,
with the DLE35 the spinner will sit with with up to a 7ml gap from the cowl. You can't cut the engine supports back because there won't be enough room for the muffler.
I had Graeme at tag-model-spinners.com make my spinner with an extended rear and he did a great job, I specifically wanted it based on the Mk 1A and provided pictures to replicate the shape. I tried to estimate the rear measurement before the final fitting though and got it wrong. I asked Graeme to make me another one but appernently he hurt his back and so I'm still waiting for it six months later - lucky mine is a slow build. Note with these spinners that they don't use a standard back-plate.
I had Best Pilots make me a Cobber Kain replica, as that's the basis for my build, but he could only do 1/5 scale, it's too big to even fit the cockpit so I'm having to cut Cobber at the waist and sit his shoulders lower in the cockpit. He's a great looking pilot and it's a shame to have spent NZ$400 just to have to cut it up.
Cheers
Ian

TerryW

Thank you for your reply, do you have any pics of your Hurri showing the pilot ? I do not plan to put a complete cockpit in mine, I think it would move the servos around too much from the design. I had thought of putting LED lights in the machine gun ports to simulate them firing, there is a company that makes these. About the spinner would it look too far off to glue a ply ring onto the nose to fill that gap ? Thanks again for your reply.

DragnHart

Terry have a look at Sandy69's pics on page 13 of this thread, he had someone make up another backplate but you could also use balsa/ply if you can ensure it won't vibrate.
It'll be another few weeks before I start building the cockpit, I'll get some pics done in a few days with the pilot in the empty space so you can get an idea of the size.
Ian

TerryW

Great, thanks, I'll check out the pic on pg 13

DragnHart

Photos of 1/5 scale Best Pilots WW2 figure in the 1/6 Hurri; he's too wide so won't fit in from the top.

TerryW

I can see it does look a bit bigger than should be for scale appearance. I talked with Lyle Vasser and he mentioned that a lot of the models are not true 1/5th scale and some cockpits will be scale in width and a different scale in length. That sure does give the model pilot makers the fits when trying to be as accurate as possible. Lyle said he was hoping by next year he could scale down his molds to the 1/8th scale and that would be just about the right size. At this point I still am not doing a full cockpit due to the relocating the servos, then again I may change my mind. Thanks for the pics, really helps. BTW, I am planning to change the markings on the ESM Hurri to the same markings I will be using on the Hurri I can get in and fly.

raybaines

Fellows,
I have been wanting to make a start with this Hurricane for quite some time !!
I have elected to build in some cockpit detail for this 1/6 scale Battle of Britain chap.
All seems to fit quite well but I will have to be quite creative with my servo placement !!
Hope this will not effect the balance of my airframe to greatly… Time will tell.

Ray.

DragnHart

Nice work Ray, where'd you obtain your chap from?
Also your aerial mast, how did you opt to fix it in place?

Ian

raybaines

Good morning Ian ,
The pilot figure is a Kingtech 1/6 scale Battle of Britain fellow ….. sourced on the internet …. not sure if he is still available or if he was a limited run.
Perfect size and character for the Hurricane.
The radio mast is spruce and was epoxied in place with support on the inside of the fuselage . The aerial cable was fabricated from fishing trace and is secured by a small choke spring to give some flexibility .
There is some fabulous work displayed on this thread ….. hope I can follow along to the completion of my project !!

Ray.

TerryW

That pilot is exactly what I want for my Hurri, If you could give me an exact link I would so appreciate it !!!!! THANK YOU !!!!!

kwik

Here is the place I saw it first, but they have allways been sold out;

http://www.caltekonline.com/index.php?product=501

And this is the ONLY place I ever found, which actually had this figure in stock, and this is where I got mine from;

http://www.actionfiguren-shop.com/Fi...earchparam=RAF

raybaines

[QUOTE=kwik;12045944]Here is the place I saw it first, but they have allways been sold out;

http://www.caltekonline.com/index.php?product=501

And this is the ONLY place I ever found, which actually had this figure in stock, and this is where I got mine from;

http://www.actionfiguren-shop.com/Fi...earchparam=RAF[/QUOTE


Thanks for your reply Kwik … A google search of … King`s Toy wwii raf british fighter pilot ... has brought up lot`s of images but it does seem to have been a limited run.
I purchased mine from caltekonline but had to preorder.

Ray.

kenair

My Feedback: (10)

My maiden Hurricane flight did not end well, last week I took up the Hurricane up at the Gimli field. The DLE 35 ra was running nice, I pointed the Hurricane into the wind and off she went, nice climb out, 2 clicks down, one click right, cruising nicely at 5/8" power, balance bang on.

Three circuits, time to land and check for lose bits, I'm downwind with the gear down and 1/4" down flap, 3/8 to 1/2 power, about to left turn to the base leg when the Hurri rolls right over to the right and in she went, felt like my radio went dead for that split instance.

There was two flap servoes driving four pieces of flap, a metal tab joined the out flap to the inner servoe driven flap, I'm thinking this tab let go or one of the elevator servoes let go or an aileron servo or what ever - pissed me off!

A first look it seemed a total write off, but now that she's back in the shop, I can fix this. The fuselage is now 75% repaired, the DLE 35 looks ok, the Sierra gear look ok, so it's a winter rebuild project. cheers! - ken

radfordc

My Feedback: (14)

It's always better to hit a big mud puddle.

DragnHart

Sad news Ken!
It happened to me when I maiden-ed the Bf109 about a month ago - are you sure it wasn't a plain-old stall?

Ian

kenair

My Feedback: (10)

It could have been a stall, it is a fat wind though I had just flown my 1/5 Top Flite P-51 before the Hurri test flight, I followed the same landing circuit and procedures ( a continous descending 180 degree circle from my downwind turning point) , and I figure the stall would occur on the turn to final or on final and would usually snap or roll to the left. I did consider a stall but the roll to the right was smooth.

The flight reports I read is that this Hurricane lands quite slow and I was still moving quite well, so hard to tell, I will keep my speed up next flight.
Anyone else stall their ESM Hurri in flight, what are the charateristics?

cheers - ken