OV10 Bronco
 

These are some photos of the progress on my 1/5 scale Palmer OV10 Bronco. The Palmer plans are terrible but the airplane is starting to look like a Bronco.

RE: OV10 Bronco
 

What is the span? That looks really nice!

Who made your retracts?

By the way, your shop is super clean! Looks like my wife, Mrs. Clean, paid you a visit!

:D:D

RE: OV10 Bronco
 

The span is 96". I'm shooting for about 35 pounds all up weight. It will have two Hitec 225BBMG servos on the elevator, one each on the rudders, four servos (don't know what type yet) on the four flap sections, one each on the ailerons, one each on the engines, one for the retracts, one for the lights, and one each for the onboard starters. I built the retracts after investigating all other options and felt that I could do better for a lot less money. They work great and are very scale in appearance. The engines are a conversion of a 24.5 cc Robin weedwhacker engine with Zenoah hubs and mufflers, CH ignitions, and my design onboard starters. They are converted and are being tested on a big Stik. The fiberglass parts and plastic canopy parts come fron Stan's and are well done.

I plan to copy the Viet Nam era Navy Black Pony group that protected the Brown water navy PBRs in the Delta. Still doing a lot of research on the pilots and the airplanes.

I have built and am currently flying the Uravich 80" OV10 and if this one flies as good as the smaller Bronco, I will be happy.

And the shop doesn't always look that clean.

Gaines

RE: OV10 Bronco
 

Bronco looks really great. looking foward to seeing it fly. When do you expect to have it ready?
I was very please with my new 80" Bronco ARF - but now I realize it is still just an ARF, DARN-IT!!

PS: We took a vote - We have never seen your shop dirty!!!

RE: OV10 Bronco
 

Thanks. I hope to have it ready to fly by this Fall. Maybe at our October IMAA event. But there is still a lot of work to do.

If your Bronco ARF flies as well as my scratch built, you will have a ball with it. Just make sure that both engines are VERY RELIABLE!!!! Mine weighs 21 pounds (well 22 pounds since the engine out induced crash and rebuild) and still flies like a slightly over weight trainer.


Gaines

RE: OV10 Bronco
 

gsmith6879, I apologise for budding in on your thread, But I would offer a WARNING on the Hitec 225bbmg servos. There have been reported too many problems with them binding up and burning out . Hitec is aware and will check out those servos. I pulled them out of my electric Duelist after I heard about the problem and shortly afterwards while checking them out on the workbench for my own research sure enough, both started to operate much slower and then started to smoke. I too am building a 56 inch Bronco but will surely go with a different brand of mini srevos. Most people could care less what I would have to say on my findings and results but I sure don't want to see anything bad happen to your Bronco. Respectfully yours, MM

RE: OV10 Bronco
 

Mike:

My Tiggerkitty has the Hitec HS 205BB servos, which Hitec replaced with the HS-225 series. These have given no problem in the more than 13 years since going in the plane. Mine are plastic geared though, is the problem you mentioned only with the MG servos?

Bill.

RE: OV10 Bronco
 

What did you do for retracts on your 80 inch Bronco???
The ARF kit can use Spring Air with wire struts, but I assume you did much better?????

RE: OV10 Bronco
 

Good feedback. I have 4 of these servos on a smaller funfly airplane and they are doing fine, but I don't want to take any chances with this big guy. Will go look at what is available in that size and power.

Gaines

RE: OV10 Bronco
 

I used the Spring Air mechanics and built my own struts. A little complicated but they work well with the Spring Air actuators. I tried the original 3/16" wire struts and they just didn't work. Looked and acted like an elephant on stilts. I built a set for our Club President, Mike Wise. He is just finishing his scratch built OV10 and we plan to fly them in formation...yea, right!

You can come up and look at them and I will give some basic drawings that I made. A good machinist could make them more scale.

Gaines

RE: OV10 Bronco
 

Bill and Gaines, Mine are the metal gear type 225's. The facts are on the work bench. While testing, they got warm, they started to slow down, one got hot and stopped working, the other started to smoke just a little bit and stopped working. Thirty bucks for each [ 4 of them ] ain't cheap. They would have been the cause of crashing a VERY EXPENSIVE Duelist. There are other reports on this website about them. Now here's the laughable part. I went with Tower TS 35's and have not had a problem yet. I have over 150 operational tower servos and have had only one or two failures on them in six years of steady flying. No, this is not a sale's pitch, it's just from my own expierience with different servos. By the way guys, this may amuse you. My Bronco will be using a phenolic tube to join the wing panels outward of the engine booms. Makes transporting much easier with the outer wings removed and not having to dissasemble the main wing from the fuse/booms. Kinda novel huh ? Lastly, I thought about sending in the burned-out servos ot Hitec but I think it's more trouble than there worth. I just feel uneasy about them from now on. Seeya, MM

RE: OV10 Bronco
 

Hi Gaines, do you have some drawings for the palmer Bronco retracts?, could you share it with me, I'm in the process to get all the gear to strat building one.

Thanks
Raul

RE: OV10 Bronco
 

I fabricated the gear from the Palmer drawings, photos of the full scale gear, the photos of Century Jet and KMP gears on the Internet, and a few hand sketches I made as I went. If you look closely at the photos you will see some additions that I made to strengthen the gear. I used Century Jet 75 degree actuators on the mains and Robart 110 degree on the nose. The spring loaded trailing struts on the mains and the nose gear struts are stainless steel from Century Jet. Century Jet and KMP both offer this complete gear on their websites.

RE: OV10 Bronco
 

Thank you Gaines, I will start to work on them as soon I receive my plans, hope you finish yours soon. Another question is, did you make the conversion for the Robin engiens, or is there someone who sells it?

Thanks

Raul

RE: OV10 Bronco
 

Gaines,

As a former all around machinist with over 35 years in the trade I have to say that you did a beautiful job on the Bronco Landing gear! Real Craftsmanship!

Do you have any formal experience as a Machinist?

Bob

RE: OV10 Bronco
 

I did the conversion. Thay are good little engine but you will have to keep the weight of the Bronco at about 30 pounds for them to fly the airplane OK. The Robin engines are easy to convert. Zenoah G26 prop hubs and mufflers bolt right on.

RE: OV10 Bronco
 

Gaines, How much does you bronco weights? And whic kind of finish do you will use? Is the wing surface balsa planked, or is it an open bay structure?

Thanks
Raul

RE: OV10 Bronco
 

My Bronco will weigh about 35-38 pounds when finished. It is fully sheeted with balsa or very thin ply. I plan to finish with 1/2 ounce fiberglas cloth and West Systems Epoxy and then auto primer and acrylic enamel.

RE: OV10 Bronco
 

Bob,

Thanks for the compliment. I have no formal training as a machinist. I did all the work on a small Taig hobby lathe and vertical milling attachment after making the major cuts on the aluminum blocks using my 10" table saw with a carbide tip blade (I don't recommend this - very dangerous if you aren't carefull) and then finishing with a disc sander, Dremel tool with various sanding and grinding tools, and sand blasting to get the final finish. A lot of hand work, but I am ver pleased with the result and they work great.

What you don't see in the photos is an internal reinforcement on the main legs made from Chrome Moly tubing. The outer leg is just 2024 aluminum tubing and round stock machined to look like the full scale legs and then JB welded to the steel inner strut legs. Very strong and relatively light.

The proof will be if they hold up under normal use on the Bronco.

Gaines

RE: OV10 Bronco
 

I have finally had some time to work on the Palmer OV10. All of the control surfaces are hinged and the servo linkages are complete. The nacelles are structurally complete and waiting on some exhaust parts to complete the installation of the MVVS 26cc gas engines. I have worked on the front end of the fuselage the last few days installing the nose gear, doors and other stuff needed to make it look like a Bronco. I am using the Ultra Precision UP-3 valve to actuate the gear and doors. Works great. The next big job is the cockpit. I don't like working on cockpits so I saved it for last. There is a lot of work to do before installing the 9 piece canopy into the frame. I'm also going to start glassing the horizontal stab, elevator, rudders, ailerons, flaps, hatches, etc. There are a lot of parts on this thing and I want to get a head start.

RE: OV10 Bronco
 

I've been working on the Big Palmer Bronco for the last few weeks and have made some progress. We are having a mall show this weekend so I was getting it ready to display and thought you guys might like some photos. I will be mounting the MVVS engines, cutting the cowls, and plumbing the exhaust next. Still putting off working on the cockpit. My target weight of 35-38 pounds is still looking good.

RE: OV10 Bronco
 

Gaines,

That is looking great! Gee, it's been a year since you first posted and you have all that work done. I haven't even started assembling my 80" ARF. Shame on me!

Bob

RE: OV10 Bronco
 

I'm with Bob - VERY nice work on the gear. I'm floored at the quality it clearly has....

Pneuman

RE: OV10 Bronco
 

Well I work slow but steady.

I have completed the nacelles, wings, stabs, elevator, and rudder on the Palmer Bronco. All of those parts and associated hatches, covers, etc are glassed with 1/2 ounce cloth and primed with Stits epoxy primer. They will be sanded and then the panel lines and rivet will be added last. The Bronco is built like a battleship with overlapping panels, fiberglass covers, and about a zillion exposed round head rivets. The wing and horizontal stab are the only areas that have flush rivets.

The engines have been fit and the scale exhaust exits are complete. I had a devil of a time working out that little detail. I'll provide photos of this installation when I do the next full assembly before final paint.

I had been putting off working on the cockpit but finally jumped into the task last week. The photos below show the basic ejection seats for both the pilot and observer, all the boxes, parts, and pieces that make up the interior. Everything you see that is gray is removable to facilitate detail and finale finish. I have not started adding all the dials, switches, lights, and gauges as of these photos. All four of the canopy doors open and lock in a semi-scale fashion. The big spring loaded struts that help open the doors on the right side are almost exact scale.

RE: OV10 Bronco
 

Incredible plane! I like the canopy latch detail, where did you find the hardware? Is the interior all scratchbuilt? Keep up the great work!