RE: UNFINISHED BUSINESS!!
 

MJD, they increased the lines to 42 feet and the action is less insane now. Trouble is nobody flies it any more. [&o]

Keep searching and you'll find good vendors. The ones who promise the moon for a nickle are the ones I'm leery of.

RE: UNFINISHED BUSINESS!!
 

This thread is supposed to be about finishing up old business, not adding new stuff to the mix.
Today started out well with my wife volunteering to video the Q125 with our new [2nd hand]camcorder.
The idea was to just fly laps and let Lisa get used to tracking it with wide angle shots. She was able to get glimpses of it, but not track it. We got some good audio, though.
All was going well, I started snapping some square corners with it and there diesn't seem to be any limit to hard you can yank on the elevator .......until.......POP!!! The wing seperated, the fuselage kept going straight ahead, the engine unloaded to a new level, the fuselage made a perfectly up-right, belly scraping landing at 130 mph and the wing came floating down for a nice soft landing 300 feet away.
The front wing hold down block ripped away from the wing, the hold down block and aileron servo are still out there somewhere. The ruddervators popped loose from hitting the tall grass at such high speed, but it is a miracle how easy this will be to fix. From now on the wing will be screwed down at both the LE & TE, no more front dowel arrangements for planes like this.

For now it's time to clean things up and try to get video of the Cyclon pulling the black "bat-wing-thing" around.

RE: UNFINISHED BUSINESS!!
 

At least it's only a servo this time..! :D

MJD

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One more reason to have some tall grass around.

I'm a firm believer in front and back screws, even if they are nylon.[8D]

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CP, Glad the plane/motor survived! Let's run a doppler on that final wingless pass :)

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The endless cycle of UNFINISHED BUSINESS continues........

Me & Lisa are still working on presentable video of the Bat-Wing-Thing. It was really smoking last time out. The engine is being run on 15% Powermaster with castor added and 3 head shims.
On a really fast downwind pass, you could see the right winglet vibrating like crazy. The elevons are a little bit sloppy, but I think this flutter was limited to the winglet. I pulled the plane up to slow it down, we'll see if it becomes a problem or not.

More unfinished business, the VooDoo / Vampire. Time to make the dreaded flush fitting cowl. The form has to be made 1/16" smaller than the surrounding surfaces, to allow for a healthy layer of glass cloth. I'm using Z-Poxy resin

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They look great, Pigg.
 Whats with the USAF markings on a Vampire?? :D

S

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This is what I like about Z-Poxy for a small part like this.......the night is over, time to close the shop and the part is done. I use clear packing tape for the "release agent" and it peels away cleanly. I use a razor saw to clean up the edges of the part before seperating from the plane, working with the part before it is totally cured rock hard.

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Pretty cool CP!

Have to admire your creativity.

I'll be curious how the elevator works out.

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Rob, hopefully the elevator assy holds together long enough to prove that it works [:o]. It's built about twice as heavy as a Lil Satan's.

JM, would you believe I'm fresh out of RAF markings?

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Once you trade a week's worth of beer money for some West Systems Epoxy you won't even use Zpoxy on your enemy's plane.

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CP, I like the look of that.   Are you going to use a skid so the Cyclon doesn't become an arrestor hook on landing?

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Thanks Greg. Don't tell any one but it is kind of a copy of a Weston UK model for a .32 engine.
Yep, this thing looks like a cartwheel waiting to happen. I'll take a "wait and see" approach to it. If the model can be set to flare and slow down enough, it will hopefully just flop into the tall grass.

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Roger the West Sys, Vicman;)

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You guys are just a couple of "Epoxy Snobs"

Here's the fuselage with a layer of 3/4 oz cloth on it. It took about 2 drams of epoxy. Real nit-picky work to get to where it's "good enough to go".
Gotta keep it in perspective, I can only fuss over stuff for so long. Landed in too many fresh "cow pies" and hit too many "lone fence posts" to care too deeply about the "Concours D'elegance Award" :D
Man, in this stage.... it really looks hideous. I've got a 2 part automotive primer that actually might match the grey Monokote, we'll see.

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No way CP - 'tis a thing of beauty!
I especially like the exhaust route

Battleship gray was chosen for a reason.

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Well, I take it back Rob, [since you think the plane looks OK]
Only VIC is an EPOXY SNOB now. :D.

Hey Dudes and Dudettes, go to the Exreme Speed Plane forum and check out Rocket Rob's Miss Ashley Q-40 video. Then picture yourselves "at the helm" [8D].

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Oh no you didn't!

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just can't help myself - sometimes.

Whilse on the topic of epoxy snobbery.
There is a second video of the ME 163 on my Vimeo page and the home made carbon prop is laminated with west system epoxy and hangs together until the pipe comes off , engine overheats, heat softens epoxy and the prop explodes mid runway.

I need to ramp it up and save a paycheck for some of the German high temp post oven cureable epoxy:( but the West Sys did very well for the prototyping and proof of concept!

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I only use west or MAS too for general laminating or layups, but regular 6 and 30 minute variety for bonding small wood parts in place when I don't feel like waiting 4 hours for the snobbish epoxies to cure.

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Rob, when your 163 had the meltdown, at least you could say it was performing a "scale like manuever" [8D]. I never would have guessed that high temp epoxy would be used for props...seems like you would be trading something else off [like tensile strength, ductility, etc.] for the ability to withstand heat.

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I think most of the high temp resins systems are also the strongest. They usually need post curing at elevated temp to achieve full strength and the heat resistance. I've never used West. I still have some Fibreglast System 2000 I bought many years ago that I like. I also have a gallon of HTR 212 that I've never used. MGS allows lighter layups because it's not so viscous. But it's expensive these days?

Rocket Rob, that's some pretty cool stuff you fly. I really should get some of my fast stuff flying again. I have a small 29" Me-163 kit I'm debating to power electric or glow. I had one, must be 10 years ago, with a speed 400 motor and 8 nicad cells. It weighed in at 14-15 oz. and flew like a typical 400 racer of the era. Today with a LiPo and a light BL motor it would be a floater and fast. The instructions also showed a 1/2A engine in the nose with a tuned pipe exiting at the rocket pipe in the back. I have a couple VA's waitng for projects.

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How's that for a paint match? To top it off, the paint is fuel proof. It is bone dry in less than 2 hours. I'm just going to let the canopy glue set over night, then fly this thing. I don't see how the canopy glue dries through and through with an air-tight seal.

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Beautiful CP!
The 45deg head on shot looks wicked!

Paints dry - Let's fly!

Good thing the grass is coming up also!

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Don't feel bad about putting your props in a 140F oven for a few hours to post-cure. Also, do you mix by weight or volume? Or are you already doing everything you can to keep them together.. :)

MJD