bhoffo

Found it : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=582cgcgh4Yc

Not sure if you have another one.. this is the 'Test Flights' Pt 2.

Bruce H

Peter_OZ

My Feedback: (1)

think there is two in that series. Had way too much flap dialled in on first flight and nearly lost it as a result as it blanked out the tail feathers.

Engine was marginal as well, took some tweaking to get a little more rpm. The 62 is quite good in it now compared to back then but will be much better with the GT-80 in the nose.

bhoffo

So now have the fillets close to finished on the fuselage; in the PCK Kit they supplied ply (about 1/32") for the actual fillet but in the plan it calls for 1/16" balsa. I tried the ply - soaked it (didn't de-laminate by the way) but there was no way it was going to bend into the contours it needed to be in for the fillet. I then traced the shape onto a sheet of 1/16" balsa and wet it down with amonia based window cleaner (Windex) - it curved around without any problem and made a nice looking job of it.
Back today to fitment of the wing and roughly carved out the L/E section of the wing in the Fiberglass cowl; set it all up in the lounge room with main gear down and the tail feathers/canopy in-situ just to see how it all looked... What a Monster!

A few photos now to show what I'm up to.. Next step is to finish off the engine box (dowell & fiberglass all joints), check (again) the incidence of the wing and then start to glass the fuselage... maybe at this time next week I'll be finished to that point and I'll start to look at the stab/elevators and all connections that end!

Bruce H

bhoffo

Well I've been back to working on htis 'on again' - 'off again' project for the past 6 weeks or so... once again it's coming along but really nothing more to show as far as photographic evidence goes... the most major work I did was finally installing the Stab/Fin assembly with all the connecting paraphernalia for the movable surfaces.. the next major work is the fitment of the main and rear wheel doors and organising how they open close in sequence with the legs...

But in the mean time I thought I should build the interior of the cockpit as the base of this will impact on the location of the servo tray mounted in the Fuselage..

I'd purchased from dbalsa.com a complete Cockpit 'kit' for the Tempest about 16 months ago... hadn't really checked everything when the package arrived, just opened the box - was a little gobsmacked by all the parts and closed the box again as I was no where near ready to assemble it. Around 2 weeks ago I again opened the box and started to put it all together... The instructions say "you may have to cut the frame to allow for fitting inside the fuselage" - an absolute understatement! The frame is made from about 5 parts of 5/16" brass tubing which telescope inside each other for fitting... there was no way known it was going to fit inside the fuselage!! The kit was for a Vaily 96" Tempest... the instructions say for a 1/5 Scale Vaily Tempest... they also say for a 92" Tempest/Typhoon... If it was for a 92" model I'd expect it to be smaller... Anyhow, I set about cutting, unsoldering and resoldering the joints... still not happy and it was 'so' heavy... So I duplicated the shape of the frame and made one out of 1/4" dowell... much lighter and this time it fitted! Then to start putting all the parts together... The instructions are terrible!! It appears to me that whoever wrote the instructions did not perhaps have English as their native language... no problem with this but if that's the case then surely someone who speaks English reasonably well should have been employed to do some editing? There were no photos or diagrams to show which bits go where (apart for one rough one for the control column) - as the builder you're relegated to continually looking at the website photos and trying to figure out which part fits where... many of the parts are numbered with a felt pen but many are not.... many parts of the construction are just omitted and pieces not referred to at all! At one part of the instructions it suggests referring to a CD for more information but that wasn't included in my kit either! I put the 4 pieces of the 'dashboard' together and have it all painted... if I install it into the cockpit frame as it's meant to be the dashboard will be outside of each side and the top of the Fuselage!! I'm going to have to do some serious cutting here to make it fit and thereby goes the Scale realism of the interior... I emailed the supplier 'DBalsa' last week asking for information and relating to them my disappointment with the kit... so far I've had no reply.... The Kit wasn't cheap at $175 and I'd expected more from it.. Also hoped that they would have the decency to at least respond to my email.. Not happy. ...... The model continues.....

Peter_OZ

My Feedback: (1)

mate I have the same tempest, not yet started and also have the dBalsa cockpit kit. I have seen others build the cockpit and cut away fuz structure to fit the cockpit in - Nooooo not for me anyway. I'll be using plastistrut, easy to work with and light!

Annoying when you pay out big bucks for a product and it does not fit!

bhoffo

Hi Pete.... yes exactly!! I'd seen on other sites where people had built the cockpit into the model as the Fuz was being constructed.... even had I been ready to do that I can't see how it would have fitted. Others have cut away major parts of the main 'crutch' and internal formers/doublers which I wasn't about to start doing either... Still have to work out how the Instrument panels are going be cut to fit 'sort of' scale like in the model... A royal pain in the A%%se!!

Peter_OZ

My Feedback: (1)

yes I'm not looking forward to that bit. Can't understand anyone cutting away the structural integrity of the fuz load bearing crutch to fit this thing in [:@]

spitmad

I installed the DBalsa cockpit as it was already built by the original owner and yes it is bloody heavy and I did have to cut away some of the fuse crutch, I then install 1/2 ply doublers and carbon fibre stringers along the sides of the fuse for added strength........probably why my finished model weighs 48 lubs !!!

Al.

WhiteRook

My Feedback: (38)

i'm building the bates tempest , and i really dont like the canopy bates sent me , the vailly canopy is a lot better quality.

yours looks great, keep up the good work


tally ho

bhoffo

Thanks... it's a long winded project!

Any photos of the 'Bates' model?

WhiteRook

My Feedback: (38)

i have some , but i gotta load em on my computer. i'll see if i can get em posted

ive got the top half of the fuse built , working on attaching the stab and fin to the fuse , i cant believe the hours ive got into just the tail section. well said long winded it is

got some pics posted , the filler on the top of the stab is because i used 1/16th sheeting on the top of the stab and had some sagging
, I ALWAYS use 3/32 , but thats whats what happens when you go away from what you know works. the plans were wrong
on the stab and i had a rough time with it , but i got it right where it should be after too many hours of dinking arround

bhoffo

Thanks... and Yes... to build them and finish as well as reasonably possible you seem to put in hours of work without seeing any immediately visible results...

On the 'plus' side - I received an answer from Dynamic Balsa overnight.. at least they replied. They have offered help but it's a little late for that - the cockpit is all but finished, albeit without the dashboards at this time as they are going to have to be severely trimmed to fit inside the fuselage. [&o]

Peter_OZ

My Feedback: (1)

not good enough. If they are selling it as suitable for the Vailly Tempest then it should fit, not have to be cut to pieces in order to fit.

bhoffo

What he said was that it was 'scale' size... As it was when I originally put the 'cage' together, I'm pretty certain the cage would have been outside of the fuselage sides - and to ensure the dashboards fitted the whole thing would have had to have been dropped down too far. It's looking pretty good now but way different in size to how it was if built exactly as it was kitted.

WhiteRook

My Feedback: (38)

got a few pics for ya boffo, finally

bhoffo

Looking pretty good Whiterock... They are a beautiful aeroplane (I've seen the real aircraft in the "Hendon Aircraft Museum" in England) - a great pit that so few survived after the war; apparently most were just crushed and melted down for the aluminium! Can you believe that!! ??? Absolute sacrilege![]

bhoffo

Well it's taken a while and I've been remiss by not posting many photos or information on the build for this thread; however after nearly 3 years the model is just about ready for the sphincter tightening test flight!!

All servos, kill switches, redundancy units, air operated functions etc seem to be operating correctly (nearly first time too!) - So anyway, here are a few photos of the model taken today - I took it out for "show and tell" to a local field where another contest was taking place..

The models flying weight will be just on 41lbs (or about 18.5kg). I used solid 30mm steel standoffs for the engine mounts to bring some nose weight into play but still have had to put another 21oz of lead up there to balance the monster. Power plant is a DJ80cc engine swinging a 25 x 12" prop.. All painted up in the scheme of 'Pierre Clostermanns' J FE. More will be posted - (with a video link hopefully) after the big day!

trent smith

Hello Bhoffo, that looks fantastic and Im sure all will go well with the maiden. My 82 inch version still sits under a sheet about 95% completed just another victom of my "move to the next project" condition. Get some vidoe and post it if you can. Cheers Trent.

WhiteRook

My Feedback: (38)

looks impressive!! ive got the top half of the fuse done on my bates MKV and its flipped over and getting ready to put the doublers in , and bang, found another error .

the slots in the wing dowell former are not locking in correctly

and i'm also missing a fuse former , DANG IT!!!!! It was never cut , it was no where in the box.

can you spell frustration?

Peter_OZ

My Feedback: (1)

good job mate, go get it in the air

bhoffo

There is always something that doesn't fit exactly or that has to be re-done to suit your own needs.... Good luck with it too, they are a beautiful looking bird![8D]

bhoffo

Thanks Pete... hope to have a good quality video of it uploaded later..

bhoffo

Had the first flight of the Tempest yesterday... what a beautiful aeroplane to see in the air! Heart was in my mouth for most of it though; I didn't fly it but intend to in the next few weeks - I was nervous enough watching as it did a few barrel rolls. loops and imellmann turns with ease. The dry flying weight is 18kg/42lbs and there were a few concerns that it may have been a little heavy - but not a problem. I was told later that the plane flew like it was on rails, for the 'heavy model permit' to be signed off he also did a stall, it didn't even drop a wing, just sat there and looked a little mushy for a moment!

It's powered by a DJ80cc engine and yesterday was spinning a 25 x 12" prop. After the first flight the weather turned a little sour (the next flight was going to be my turn at the controls) and I thought it was better to wait for another time. Have a few good pics but unfortunately the video is pretty low quality. I had a mate doing that with an Ipad as it was the best I could get at the time; and his camera abilities weren't the best either! I edited it and cut and pasted the frames but somehow in doing so the sound has disappeared. Anyhow, this is the link to it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFlaB...ature=youtu.be

The next flight I will hopefully have a better quality video (and photographer) and will be able to deliver a better result..

WhiteRook

My Feedback: (38)

looks great !!

Peter_OZ

My Feedback: (1)

mate! That looks grouse, well done. Would love to see some pics of how you did your gear doors, especially those little slipper doors.