Mac-

I have opted to remove the balsa at the rear of the tail slot and fit a fully assembled tail/elevator. When this and the balsa plug are eventually glued into position I will add a short length of 14 guage wire at the rear for reinforcement!

Mac-

A bag contains the control rods....2 elevator, 2 rudder, 2 aileron and throttle wire/ outer guide tube and 2 lengths of dowel. The threaded ends of the wire connects to the rudder/elevator and aileron horns.

1) Drill the dowels at each end with a 2mm drill.

2) Bend ends to form to 90 degrees.

3) CA ends into dowels and bind/glue with thread.

4) Cover with supplied heat shrinkable tube.

Note: You may need to shorten the dowels to suit your installation requirements before drilling holes at both ends!

Mac-

The wing is fitted for the final alignment of the tail unit prior to gluing the latter into position.

The supplied metal wing bolts whilst being of good quality are not to my personal liking. I much prefer some good quality plastic bolts and fastenings which will shear off in the event of a heavy landing and possibly save the model from unnecessary damage.

This Spit is very much a semi-scale model!

chris-s

I ordered one of these yesterday, arrived this morning Opened up the box to check it out and found the fus was crushed/cracked on one side at the rear of the tank bay

This follows another posting elsewhere on rcu where the guy mentioned that this part of the fus seemed very weak.

You might like to add a bit of glass or something on the inside to strengthen this area.

Chris

Mac-

Hi Chris-s

That's excellent service by your supplier, but sad that the fuz. was damaged. Have you contacted the supplier? It was probably damaged in transit. Is there evidence of damage to the box itself to suggest this?
An e to the supplier with an image of the damage will help. You should get a replacement model and the return transit costs fully reimbursed to you!
Could you post an image of the damage here please?

I assume that the weak part of the fuz. that you, and the other guy on rcu refer to, is around the servo bay area? That's because there's not much cross bracing support there.
Before you start beefing up this area with fibreglass trial fit the supplied beech ply servo mount. You will find that this considerably 'stiffens' up and supports this area of the fuz.


And try a piece of 3/16th medium balsa where shown if you want it even firmer.

In the event of future damage you could maybe use the fibreglass repair at that time![8D]

chris-s

Heres the pics, they aren't terribly clear since I had not opened the packing bags. There does not appear to be any sign of damage to the box or it's wrapping, so I would guess it happened prior to being shipped. Anyways, I phoned the guys at sussex models, unfortunately, it was their last one until new stock mid-Jan, they offered me 10% discount on this one as recompense, but I said I'd wait for the new stock, there's plenty to be building in the 'shed' anyhow.

I think, like you say, just a balsa doubler would suffice.

Cheers,

Chris

Mac-

Chris,

If they changed that offer to 20% I might be tempted!


It's not too bad but I don't blame you going for a complete replacement!

The outer fuz. damge can easily be remedied by placing a clean cotton cloth over the effected area and applying heat from a covering iron or similar The heat will cause the balsa to lift where its become indented to smooth out with the shrinking Oracover. Just slowly increase the heat until the depressed balsa lifts out!
The inside could then be filled witha little car filler and a small strip of wetted 1/64th beech ply CA'd over it.

JoeAirPort

My Feedback: (41)

This has got to be one of the best step-by-step reviews I've ever seen. Nice pic's. Can you imagine if the plane MFGR's supplied this kind of detail? Of course it would be expensive. I liked seeing how you did the pinning of the CA hinges. Very cool.

Joe

Mac-

Thanks![8D]

Mac-

The supplied 2-piece engine mount is a hard-nylon type!

I have used these before quite successfully on smaller engines without any problems. But, imo, I doubt that it will be up to the job on the heavier ASP .91 4-stroke that I intend to use. So it will be substituted for a more substantial conventional mount after the Xmas break!

Mac-

I have received this e today…..

waldopepper2 just sent you a private message at 12/24/2003 2:48:12 PM:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
RCU - report Spitfire
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thanks for the very interesting report. Do you eventually know the
empty weight of the ARF-kit, and do you see it as a potential subject for converting to electric power ?

Thanks again and the best wishes,

Sincerely,

Walter (Linz, Austria)


Hi Walter,

My Jamara Spitfire is still under construction but I estimate the total weight to be around 7lbs 6oz (118 ozs or 3345g) with retracts fitted. Converting to electric the 4.8v flight pack would have to remain if flying with more than 10 cells where BEC use would not be advisable!

I would estimate that removing the .91 4/stroke 22 ozs, throttle servo 2 ozs, fuel tank 4 ozs would save approximately 28 ozs or 794g.
A decent brush-less motor and dedicated speed-controller and, say 16 x 2400 SCR cells would weigh about 48 ozs or 1360g….a nett weight increase of approx 20ozs or 567g.
So converting to electric would increase the overall weight of the model from approx.7lbs 6ozs to 8lb 10ozs or 3912g. approx. which seems acceptable.

The wing area is 745 sq.ins producing a wing loading of approx. 26.6ozs per sq/ft which is very respectable!

The model would, imo, need to produce about 70watts+/lb x 8lb 10ozs weight = 604 watts approx. for reasonable flight performance.
So 16 cells = 20v x 30 amps output (est) = 600 watts approx.
2 x 8 cell packs could be charged seperately and wired together in series.

Of course using mini servos (3kg/torque) for ailerons would save additional weight, which could offset the weight of a heavier motor and /or cells!!

Therefore conversion to electric should be feasible!

The above is only my initial approximations and merely intended as a guide.


Hope this helps.

Mac

Mac-

Anyone comtemplating the conversion to electric of this Spitfire or similar size models need not buy expensive large muti-cell configuration packs or expensive chargers!

For initial flight testing the lower cost 6, 7 , or 8 cell packs may be used and merely connected together in series.

For example: 2 x7 ( 8.4v) cell packs may be charged on low cost chargers in the normal way then connected together to make 1 x 14 ( 16.8v) cell pack.

Or 3 x 6 cell (7.2v) buggy packs could be connected together as above and configure to 1 x 18 cell (21.6v) pack.

However only cells that offer a high current discharge capacity should be used such as Sanyo 2400SCRs or similar.

Mac-

The ply servo tray is now epoxied into position taking care to get the throttle slot at the front port side for an inverted engine.

The good quality glassfibre cowl proves to be a very good fit. The supplied 4 small hardwood blocks need to be epoxied onto the firewall to secure this. It's best to do this before fuel proofing the area!

No spinner is provided in the kit so I'm using a 3 inch (75mm) for the time being but a 3 1/2 inch ( 90mm) is necessary for an accurate fit!

Mac-

1) The supplied 11 oz tank and accessories!

2) The rubber plug needs ti be drilled out.

3) The supplied tubes are now fitted with the muffler pressure feed bent upwards to the tank top. I had to replace this with brass tube as mine broke off. Be careful not to close the tube off as it's bent. Fit the fuel tube and clunk making sure that the clunk is not impeded from movement in all directions inside the tank!

Mac-

The plug is now firmly tigtened with the supplied screw. The carb. feed is at the bottom, the brass angled tube feeds the muffler and the remaining tube is the filler/drainer.

Mac-

I've now ordered a new set of Futaba servos and a long 4-stroke engine mount which will be fitted in the next few days !

Mac-

Before the retract well mouldings are CA'd into place the pre-cut area may need to be leveled off with 1/16th scrap sheet.


Using a new blade carefully remove about 4mm of covering around the well hole and CA the mouldings into position (make sure that the retract control rods are connected up first!).

Mac-

The spares that I ordered have now arrived!

The replacement 4-stroke long engine mount is a definite improvement over the 2-piece mount supplied in the kit.

4-stroke engines need a longer mount and this also allows the engine to be moved further forward for c of g balancing purposes without resorting to unnecessary lead weight in the nose!

But even if a .60 2-stroke was used I would still suggest that the supplied mount is replaced!.

Mac-

Four medium-balsa blocks are supplied which the instructions say are to be epoxied to both sides of the aileron servos and then epoxied inside the aileron ply hatch plates.
Imo, this is not secure enough for a .60 + size model. These blocks will be exchanged for hardwood of similar dimensions, the aileron servos screwed to these and then all epoxied into position.

...better safe than sorry!

Mac-

The replacement hardwood blocks are epoxied into place. Masking tape is wrapped around the servo and then glued into position. 2mm pilot holes are drilled and the servo screwed to the blocks!

Mac-

1) Check that the aileron hatch ply corner mounts are secure with more glue.

2 & 3) Drill 2mm pilot holes.

4) Attach a servo extension lead to servo and feed through in wing section with the pre-fitted thread!

Mac-

1) Place the fibreglass cowl inside the supplied template and mark off!

2) Decide on the cowl overlap with the fuz. sides and mark off!

3) Mark off the distance to the spinner and seat the engine on its mount accordingly!

4) On this replacement mount this indentation aligns nicely with the crosshair guide on the firewall.

5) Allow for side and/or downthrust if used!

Mac-

1) Cut out the template a little at a time. The exiting air should have at least twice the escape area than that of the inlet!

2) If you decide to remove the rear balsa plug for installing the tail support this area until everything is in position. You may need to stand the fuz. on its rear for aligning the engine!

3) The template can now be used to mark out the cowl!

Mac-

I would like to digress from this review for a moment and say this. The Jamara Spitfire has been bought with my own hard earned cash and the images taken by myself with a digital also bought with my own hard earned cash. This review represents my own unbiased report concerning this model.
Perhaps my assembly/building techniques may not be to everyone's way of doing things but I do hope that some of you who have looked in here have derived some useful information and pleasure from it![8D]

Mac-

1) Two mount holes are drilled and aligned followed by the others.

2) The vertical pre-marked line on the firewall is not central. Next the replacement mount is trial fitted into place. The pre-drilled access hole is too close to the lower bolts for my liking so I intend to epoxy a ply reinforcement piece inside the firewall!