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Old 04-05-2020, 11:02 AM
  #1971  
AKB
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Join Date: Feb 2002
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HI Everyone

Well I will be a newbie to this thread. I bought this kit from Richard a few years ago and am just now, with the motivation of imposed social distancing that most of us are faced with now, I thought this would be a good time to get started on it. Richard had done some small things to it, such as put a mount on the dome to prepare for, I take it a 3w 157 I do believe. I will be removing that as I will be powering this with a Moki 250. In 2019 I was running the Moki on Hangar 9 Su 26 to get use to the engine. Was interesting to go through a bit of prop selection to find out what would work well on an IMAC style of flying I do with prop planes, considering most of these engines seem to be on warbirds and not aerobatic airframes.

So anyways I have just started basically the build. I have installed the gear tentatively, installed the tailwheel. One thing that another fellow pointed, on this thread about the integrity of the fuselage roots where the main gear mounts on to, where it too, found it weak, and making divots into the side wall, I have reinforced with washers to build it back out flush again after dremeling out the profile of the circle shape.

I relieved the area in the wing root where the main gear was recommended to be relocated and feel I am close to a good fit there. I have installed the carbon fibre pins in the wing roots after propping up the wings close to 4.5 degrees on each wing. One thing here when using my incidence meter and removing it off the rail for use as a dihedral gauge instead of a true incidence meter, I find it hard to make sure that my needle on the meter has free action. Due to the natural profile of the wing it is hard to get the meter perfectly vertical sitting on the wing, so that jewel action on the meter is free moving and not being hung up. My meter is not digital obviously so it is important to have the needle read as accurate as possible. I was thinking of installing a small thickness of double sided black hobby servo cushion tape on the bottom of the meter, once I have located the sweet spot on the wing. Anyone think that this would interfere with the accuracy of my measurement.

Next I have cut out the areas on the wing skin that fully exposes the hard points where the flying wires will be connected to. I think I will attempt to make my own version of scale hatches for these. I may have availability to a 3 rendering by a friend for these. Will see could also use G10 or light ply. Any ideas from others? I have used the faint markings on the bottom of the wings for cut outs and transposed those to the top side, so everything is now exposed and will fine tune the grinding of the carbon fiber parts when doing placement of the brass fittings.

The next thing to work at is the dreaded flying wires that we are deeply admonished to keep absolutely perfect and so they should be considering no spars, just the pins and the wires to keep those wings on. I thought in reading the manual several times I had understood what I needed to do, but once I opened up the skinny long bag that housed the flying wires, I was baffled. First there was threaded ends on each end. My assumption before looking at the actual wires in my mind is that one end might have the pre made ends done but not both. Then you would just cut from the unfinished end. Also when I looked at that them and just laid it across the wing opening for the connection and over top of the fuselage and there was whole bunch sticking out then this really got me scratching for the grey matter in my skull. And on top of that there was only 4 of them.

I thought maybe Richard sent me the wrong flying wires, that these were for another project of his. I got a hold of Richard and we talked quit extensively about how yes the wires are threaded on both ends and that with very accurate measuring all the necessary material is there to complete the flying wire task. He was just great to talk to. From his writing of the manual for this rendition of the Gee Bee, to this thread that he watches and comments on, to his friendships with the actual pilot Delmar Benjamen that flew his version in our time, and to his overseas friend Hannes( that is just Gee Bee on steroids )- Richard is just all things Gee Bee. Thanks for helping me in this endeavour and the others you have helped with our discovery into the world of Gee Beeism.


We had a further chat about planning of battery systems and placement equipment trays and to keep it simple as Richard suggested. He said if you have had two successful flights with a Gee Bee in a day, that maybe all your system may be able to handle, and not giving yourself a medical condition. So with my usual install of big battery ampacities and power boxes and backers, that are a normal part of my turbine jet installations, they are just not needed here. With small control surface movements, similar to jets I may add, and not many flights per outing, we may keep this one just a bit basic. We are already having the big weight factor on board with the radial, I guess there is no since pushing it.

So like most people in these days, with the virus happening I have lots of time to be tedious as Richard says in the flying wire planning, soldering and installation. I will start on this part today. My plan is to lay out a piece of the wire, finish making my holes in the fuselage, get an idea where the hole will be on the former, then let the excess wire hang out through the cut out of the wing. I will place the brass fitting wing connection point and back measure accordingly to get where a tentative cut would be. I am then going to put masking tape where the cut is planned and mark it with a sharpie and then will measure my left over and see where that leaves me with the next one. I think I want to try it this way before I cut anything to make sure I am using the wire wisely and not running out. If all that looks good and have done it at least 3 times to confirm that I will cut my pieces and begin the soldering task.

I am debating of whether to use a small metal cutting chop saw to cut the wires. I was thinking of trying to keep them square. Richard said that he just uses a metal cutting wheel on a Dremel. If after all measuring, if I think the material wasted on the saw blade cut may make it short on the overall flying wire needed I may go with his suggestion. Will see.

Anyways this is where I am at. Don't know how far I will get with this project, this year, I would like to do a little more running in of the Moki on the Sukhoi this year to really get a good feel for it. It does sound great. I am still learning how best to start it. The first start of the day or cold start after long period between flights is always the worst. I think the biggest problem is just not getting enough fuel to it to begin with, event with it being pumped. Also weather here has not been great for flying anything off wheels yet. Sure would be nice to get some of the first flights into the new year. Seems like a long time ago that I was burning Jet A, gasoline or electrons. Mother nature didn't get told it was spring yet. So I guess make the best of it in the shop and do a bit of Gee Beeing.

As I progress I will try to remind myself about taking pictures. I know they how many thousand words a picture is.

Cheers
Alan