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Anyone seen one of these In person yet? Mine is due tomorrow,, I guess I'll be the one to do a full review

http://www.maxfordusa.com/hansabrandenburgw29.aspx

pimmnz

Built a 100" version a long time ago, 9lb with a FS90. Taxiied on grass with those flat bottom floats, never needed water...never actually got wet...the surface area of the floats and the AUW meant that the loading on the floats was so low that it could be operated of grass. And it was. I still have the airframe but it needs an overhaul before it's serviceable again. The original wings have a double taper in the spar, thickest where the struts attach. nice airplane, but mine had quite a large pitch change with power changes. Not difficult at all but noticeable.
Evan, WB #12.

Charlie P.

Almost bought one this summer, but no, I haven't seen one in person.

I do have a Maxford Mentor-G and it is a rugged and nice gas model, but the float bracing was WAY below the task and folded up on the first landing AFTER I landed and turned to taxi in. A float grabbed and rolled into the prop. Those watching and me as well were stunned.

When I called Maxford they said a redesign was in the works for August '12. I asked if those who had bought the existing float kit would get the redesign at a discount and the answer was "no".

I'll likely buy from Maxford again, (I like that SPAD!) but I was a bit disappointed. Cost me $20 to redesign with Lowes aluminum stock.

That said, I'd really like to see a Hansa in use. I have had one of those in mind long before they were an ARF. I ended up ordering a Widgeon as a seaplane only model for the lake. If you get one be sure to keep us posted!

scale only 4 me

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It should be here tomorrow,, I'll document the assembly here,

A subject I wanted to scratch build for a long time, actually bought Arizona Models plans, but not the builder I once was I guess.

It should be fun,, I ordered the ski kit too

cf-drg

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I saw one at Shuswap this year and it looked pretty good.. Didn't seem to have a tapered wing but the taper is so slight on the full size that you don't notice it.. Guess mine won't be one of the few out there now.. Here's mine , 84" WS and powered by a Saito FG-14.. Putts around real nice..

scale only 4 me

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Came home for lunch and found it before the wife did

looks well packaged and very strongly double boxed,, I'll pull it out of the box tonight

scale only 4 me

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First impressions are pretty good, only one little ding on the float, must have been from factory not shipping

I see a few things that would lighten up the airframe. The wing tubes and landing gear are heavy duty, thus heavy, The landing gear could be carbon fiber and the wing tubes thinner and still be plenty strong IMO.

Construction and covering looks pretty nice, the only things I see is they didn't sand the fuse sides smooth and it shows in the covering, the engine area isn't 100% symmetrical, doesn't look terrible, but you can see it.

more pics here
http://s7.photobucket.com/albums/y25...view=slideshow

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more pics

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The wing does have the subtle leading edge sweep after all

Nice plane btw

pimmnz

No chaps, the actual thickness of the wing, yes, there is a plan taper, but if you look at the wing from the front it is thickest, tallest, highest, where the struts meet the wing, then tapers to the root and tip from there. Undercambered, with the wire/scalloped trailing edge. Two different tailplane shapes too, depending on early or late production. Serial should prolly match the tailplane etc if you are anal about that sort of thing. Navy lozenge on the wing and tail top surfaces and usually 'clear doped linen' underneath. Nice model for just puttin' around...
Evan, WB #12.

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Cord thickness is about 30mm at the root, 25mm at the wing tip, so it does have a cord taper aswell.

Charlie P.

Just note the number is level with the ground/water on the full scale - not at an angle like the ARF prototype shows.

scale only 4 me

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Come on guys, it's a $200 ARF not a Scale Masters contender,

Had to take a look at the skis, they're made from molded Bamboo about 4.5mm thick, don't look to have any waterproofing on the bottoms, I'll rub on some furniture oil when the time comes. No hurry if ya know what I mean.

Once again, they came double boxed,, not really necessary, but nicely protected from getting crushed in transport.

I'll start the assembly tonight

Charlie P.

No excuse. Costs no more to do it right. ;-)


Bamboo skis? I'm intrigued. Gonna try klister wax?

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Started with the assembly on the wings, First thing I notice when I slid the wings on were the tubes we very tight, after working the tubes in/out a few times they did loosen up, but are still tight. Something surprising is there is no wing bolt attachment at all. I guess they are relying on the wing struts to hold the wings in place. Not sure but I may add a blind nut/bolt of some kind,, We'll see after finial assembly

I didn't like the wood blocks they give you for the servo mount, looked to me like the wood would just split, so I used 3M double sided foam tape. I also rubbed a couple drops of Medium CA on the wood so to seal the pores of the plywood. This tape sticks very well, never had it come loose before, I used cap screws for the hatch, ditched the oem Philips screws. Used the supplied Ca hinges for the Aileron. T-pins help center the ca hinge. all straight forward. But, missing from the kit was control horns for the ailerons, I had a set of light weight ones that should work fine, I used epoxy for those. Z-bend pliers worked great for making the pushrods

Next the ail & rudder servos, Cut out for servos were too small for the hs85 servos I planed to use. Also the Ply base is very thin, maybe 2mm ply. Not shown but I'll add a piece of wood to give the screws more bite.

Problem going forward is the pushrods end up below the servo horn, I had planned on making a z-bend, I could use the ez connector supplied but it would make adjustment difficult.

scale only 4 me

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Horizontal stab is straight forward, remove covering and glue down. It comes with holes for screws in the stab, but no pre drilled holes where it sits on the fuselage. So you have to measure to get it square as you drill the holes. I centered and drilled the aft hole, then used a tape measure to make sure it was straight as I drilled the last two holes. Carpenters glue was used, much easier to clean up than epoxy, and I'll most likely leave the screws in, looks better than an empty hole.

The slots for the CA hinges were not cut deep enough for the supplied hinges, so I had to run the #11 blade deeper to get them in correctly, not a big deal but I will say, it's better cutting deeper than trimming the hinges.

I choose to install the control horns before I glues the rudder and Elevator hinges. It's much easier to screw them to get this way, just need to remember to hook up the push rod as you install the surface.

Another Tip,,
I like to tap the threads of the plastic piece before I screw the control horns on. I just Chuck a screw into my cordless drill and work it back and forth like a tap. So much easier when assembling and you do need to push near as hard as you put it together.. less chance for the screwdriver slipping and doing damage.

As suspected the plywwod servo tray was very thin and broke as I pull the servo out to change the servo horn, I added reinforcement pieces made from 3mm lite ply. Z-bends again at the servos and a drop of CA to hold the new Pushrod Sleeves in place

next will be Motor install

Gray Beard

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Not only have I not seen the ARF but I have never seen any photos of the full scale plane. Being a WWI freak and having a lot of books on WWI planes I find this odd. It's really a cool looking plane! Something I have never seen modeled at any fly in.

cf-drg

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Gota say, I would consider one of these if I didn't already have one..

scale only 4 me

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I must say, I'd consider one even if I did have one the size of your nice 90" span one.. There was a point I wouldn't have thought of a smallish electric plane, but in the last couple years I've found these little guys to be a lot of fun for not a lot of work, money, and hassle at the field/lake. I can run over to the local pond at lunch time and get a few flights in, getting a daily fix of flying doesn't have to consume hours anymore.

Any how,, Engine install pretty straight forward, No mounting hardware is provided, so I used 4-40 Stainless steel cap bolts with blind nuts. There are lines scribed on the firewall so the X mount was used as a template. Hobby King Turnigy G15 950kv motor will be used. Powered by a Turnigy 45amp ESC.

Difficulty with the hatch/upper deck at the engine compartment design is it leaves you very limited access to the area you'll want to mount the ESC and battery. What I most likely will do is mount the dummy engine with magnets so it's removable easily to help with the battery placement, the esc is wedged in below the battery platform,, Just about impossible to secure it via zip ties as you really can't get your fingers in there, it doesn't seam to move around, so I'll leave it as is and keep an eye on it for chafing.

Float mounting also simple, 4 metal tabs are epoxied into the floats, they fit in nicely all the way and bottom out on something so no guesswork where they should stop. I did drill2 small additional holes before gluing to give the epoxy a good place to bite. (sorry no pic) I tossed the provided wood screws and used powder coated black servo screws for the cross bracing and 3mm screws with ny-loc nuts for main gear mounting.

At this stage the plane balances right on the spar, with a 3s 1800 pack midway in the battery area, no prop or cowl on yet, but looks like balance shouldn't be an issue.

I took it out for show and tell at our 1st annual Fall Fun Fly yesterday,, the typical jokes and ??s What is it? Your rudders is up-side-down, Yuk yuk,, but everyone thought it was cool. Only one other club member knew what it was.

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Finial stretch

I did decide to attach the dummy engine with magnets after all, a Forstner bit an epoxy did the trick. The engine cylinders are some sort of rubber foam so drilling was easy. Attaching magnets to the fuse also easy as the lightening holes were in the perfect spot. Scrap 3mm lite ply did the trick for support.

Wing strut attachment next, As soon as you pull them out of the box you see the prebent angles are not right and adjustment will be needed, (says so in the manual). Luckily they used soft aluminum that was easy to bend, I did have to get out the full scale tools. a 12" Channel Loc pliers did the trick nicely. The process was easier than I thought it would be at first, took a little time, but not that much hassle. Finding the hard points to attach to the wing is easy too. The forward hard point is seen through the covering, but the rear can't be seen because of the servo hatch plate, but if you feel inside you find the hardwood doubler, Center was about 19mm from the edge of the servo hatch. Drilled a pilot hole and I used the Hex type servo screws not the provided Philips.

After that was done my fear that the strut would interfere with the Aileron pushrod came true. I had to change the angle by flipping the servos so the horn was positioned near the back of the hatch, and lower on the control horn. Plenty of clearance now

While I had the wing off I thought this would be the right time to install the graphics, They went on easy, but I did notice one of the large crosses wasn't cut symmetrical, the white boarder was uneven,, I used this one on the bottom. I did place the numbers horizontal with the waterline Charlie,, Funny thing is If you look at the picture they based the scheme on on their web site, it is horizontal,, who ever built the prototype just screwed up.

Also while I had the wings off I went through and added locktite to all the screw/bolts that weren't nyloc style on the wing struts

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Cowl install was relatively easy. Cowl is Vacuformed plastic not Fiberglass, some trimming is needed otherwise it will cover up the scale like vent holes. Two predrilled holes each side are there but I added a third to snug it up at the top, that area is just Balsa so I added a 3mm lite ply scrap for the screw to bite into. I used the fold back paper trick to locate the holes and mark where to cut the cowl.

And that's pretty much it, it's ready to trim and fly,, all up weight is about 3 1/2 lbs with the 3s 1800, so there weight specs are right on. It feels stout for an EP plane but that only equals out to 15.22 oz/sq.ft wing loading. Should fly nicely.

Water testing soon

scale only 4 me

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No words rght now [:@]

chistech

Hi Tom,
I know this might sound stupid but did you have a battery in it for the water test?

Ted

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Yeap,
I moved it all the way forward too. CG point in Manual works out correct @ 25% of Mac,, It does sit on the water slightly nose up (first pic) but the slightest rearward pressure and it sinks by the stern. I guess I could try and move if forward some, with the flat bottom airfoil, I could get away with a noes heavy plane. I'm trying to stick with a stock set up as much as possible for testing.

Shouldn't be this close. Unfortunately their attempt to honor the scale outlines as much as possible resulted in a smallish float system,, It most likely will be fine under taxi, but my fear is if you dead stick for any strange reason it will sink and flip over.

I'll proceed with Taxi Testing,, if that goes well I'll maiden it as is.

mscic-RCU

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Those floats do look a little short for the fuse length