Taurus Flyer

3 June post deleted.

Taurus Flyer

Gents, for who is interested,
29 May our cub did organize a demo and I did receive some nice pictures of my replica 1962 NATS winner I do show in this post.
Cees

Taurus Flyer

Gents, a little update of the “Oldest Taurus on Earth”

Preparing for the first flight,

50 years ago Ed was busy to fly the original of this very first real Taurus, so I am busy too.
In the picture of the crate we can see the wings still did have three hinges for each aileron. That’s the way I will fly the Taurus too, as original as possible and the way the plane still did fly in Rhodesia, April 1962.

Engine mounting for the Os Max is ready, see picture 1. Four more threaded holes in the engine mounting plate for easy exchange the engines Os Max or Webra.
For the fuel pressure controller I do need the tank pressure and for that I can mount the Webra muffler on the Os Max. Japanese engine with German muffler mounted on an American plane controlled by a Dutch pilot. Interesting combination. Maybe to fly the plane also without a muffler for a while like the early days but then there is still a German radio inside.

The hinges are wired as we can see on picture 2. Used is the thread of a shoemaker, for the elevator heavy flat thread and the rudder and ailerons normal round thread.
I prepared three rudders, as shown in earlier pictures small and wide, and one more, medium size. I will start with a medium size.

All mounting positions are prepared now, to do is mounting the several parts as radio, landing gear, tank etc, After that the plane is ready to go for the first flight, to do next weekend if weather is good.

More to come.

Cees


Edit April 1962, no 1963

Taurus Flyer

Gents,

Preflight pictures of the mounting of the (new medium size) rudder to archive. These pictures are all important if something happens with the plane.

Picture 1 side view before the last paint action so the (visible part of the) hinges are still black.
Picture 2, check of the positions of the hinges and other details to compare with the original.

Right side of Picture 2 is part of the original crate picture so the TE of the rudder isn’t visible. Visible are the mounting screws (blue arrow) of the control lever of the rudder and the black tape of the elevator lever inspection hatch (red arrow). The original fin and rudder are a little bit thinner than expected so a note on the to do list for the future.

Cees

Taurus Flyer

Gents,

A detail of the rudder pushrod linking.

I cannot see this detail on the crate picture but I do have my own solutions to recreate a link with the lever of the rudder.
All basic materials, the round thread of the shoemaker for the hinge, piano wire of the pushrod, 1.5 mm diameter, cupper wire wrapped around and soldered together. This way of linking the pushrod doesn’t rotate while changing the rudder angle. I still have to cut away some material of the lever after trimming of the plane, after that this is the only external visible linking.
Cees

Taurus Flyer

Gents,

A finished product to show, the nose gear.

I did make the nose gear pivot points in the past, see picture 1, but there still wasn’t a steering arm on the nose gear.
I don’t have an original gear so have to improvise and first material I always have in mind is PIANO WIRE.
So steering lever of piano wire of 3 mm (1/8”) diameter, one flat side with the grinder, steel wire wrapped around and soldered, brass pivot for the cable (piano wire!) cupper wire wrapped around and soldered.
Result is visible in picture 3.

Near the rudder servo I will introduce some flexibility in the nose leg rod to protect the servo. Oh and throttle rod? Piano Wire.

Last picture made before mounting and to archive, some ingredients to make air speed. These pictures are easy for the future to combine with data for the original plans
The content of the fuel tank is 150 cc 6 Oz with Evangelista Torricelli principle to have best FA ratio.

Nearly ready to go,

Cees

Taurus Flyer

Gents,


Details, details it will never end.For drilling holes you must have attention there is always one "best place" for one hole.
The little black and white square implemented in the left site of the picture shows us the location of the 6 VDC and 4.8 VDC switches and antenna in the crate picture, of course seen from the point of view of the camera of 1962.

Vertical position we can find with the side view and an equivalent photograph of later date.

I will look for (nearly) identical vibration proof tumbler switches and can use one for the radio and maybe the other to switch on the data logger.
After some days I will experience some exciting moments, flying the first time with this basic designed first contest Taurus. No cargo lifter like the Top Flite so some less space inside but with my modern radio I still can fit the additional electronics without any problem.

Interesting, many pilots did know and fly the commercial Taurus. How many will have been built over all these years, kits, scratch? Thousands I think.
Now I do have my personal ship, copy of the crate Taurus, Father of all Taurusses.
The Top Flite will have a period in the stable I am afraid.
Weather forecast isn’t good so I have to wait a view days to make the first flight.

One of the most interesting flight maneuvers will be the four point roll of course, see picture 2, 1961!! Ed knew this could be an important maneuver to fly in the future (then, 1961) I think.

So more to come.
Cees

Taurus Flyer

Gents,

Detailed photograph of the radio, always interesting to show.

All home brewed, not adjustable pushrod- and cable links.

Picture 1, standard tank retainer as we can see in the other Taurusses. Battery position beneath the tank in most foewart position also as standard. CG is on the right position without any balast and 50 % of fuel in the tank. There is enough spare place for the data logger on the location were we can see the bended plywood of the top of the fuselage, this location is also used to insert the fueltank.

Picture 2, servo "out of centre" position, second compartment is for airspeed measurement instrumentation.

Ready for take off, soon in this theatre because there is,
More to fly.

Cees

Taurus Flyer

Gents, some engine mounting details,
Because there is strong wind and showers I have to wait for the first flight.
Tomorrow probably test run the engine so some details of engine mounting and the mount plate

Picture 1, shims under the mount plate to adjust 2 degrees downthrust I will start with.
Picture 2, I use my solder iron to mount locking wire on all the nuts of the engine compartment. Important for our club is not to loose any metal part of the plane. In the past there was a fatal accident with a cow eating a metal part of an engine so I am allert for that .
Picture 3, some more locking wire, see the blue dots, also the nuts of the Webra muffler to keep him on the OS.

Flying this plane with this engine brings back memories, My first flights also were with an engine with plain bearing, the Webra 1,5 ccm diesel. After that all ball bearings, starting with the Webra Glo Star (Don't tell anybody, I managed in the past to eject this whole engine as result of metal fatigue, no Glo Star but Go Star !!!)



More (rain?) to come.

Cees

Taurus Flyer

Gents,

One Taurus with two centers of gravity will visit an Old-timer Festival.

Sunday I have to fly my Taurus off an non regular airfield, a not so well and flat surface as I am familiar with .
With all the added equipment the Taurus is nose heavy especially with 12 oz of fuel and that can give me problems to takeoff, too low speed to rotate the plane.
The only solution was, mount a second CG in the tail so the mathematical result of the two CG’s, old and added, is a new CG exact on the right position.
The second CG has to contain about 6 cm3 lead, 60 to 80 grams.

After about 7 years I also did want to see the elevator lever and pushrod connection too so I did combine these two activities. I saw away the wood were normally is the inspection hatch.
On this location I did glue a GRE mounting plate with two blind nuts.

A piece of lead is melted and cut and sanded in the right dimensions. Two holes I did drill to mount the lead in place with a rubber gasket (picture 4) to keep the inside of the compartment dry. Yes, maybe there will be a day the Taurus will take off on floats!

Last picture, lock wire soldered in place and primer is added. Still one thing to do, paint, but that I can do after this weekend.
Now, when I remove the weight I do have my inspection hatch just as all other Taurusses.

The Oldest Taurus on Earth is waiting for the right weather for the first flight. Still too much rain and wind.
More to come.

Cees

Taurus Flyer

Gents,

As I did tell, I did visit an Old timer festival.
The organization did use a special tool to prepare the grass runway, all went well after that, no problems to liftoff..
With the added lead in the tail of the Top Flite Taurus I could make spins without any problems.
The “special tool” did like the Oldest Taurus on Earth very much!!!!

More to come.

Cees

Taurus Flyer

Gents,

An important picture to archive, first firing up of the engine.
The engine runs very well, only point is, the Japanese German cooperation is a little bit noisy.
I do not use the muffler pressure, the tank is prepared for inverted flight.as used in the past.
More to come,

Cees.

Taurus Flyer

Gents,

Generating the definitive “as build” drawings I combine with recheck of all details I did use during the redesign process.
In the past I did have two remarkable locations of the fuselage that were not visible on the crate picture.
First location is the TE of the rudder. This is not a big problem because during the test flight period I can try different rudders just as Ed did.

Second location is the tip of the right side stab.

This also would not have give me any problems because an airplane normally is symmetrical, left side is an mirror image of the right side, see for example BV141.
and there still were some details visible of the right side stab, paint scheme, hinges etc to recalculate the tip location.
During the building process I did use the calculated hinges location of the left side stabilizer for both elevator halves.

WRONG

See picture 2, especially the ratios of the pixel counts.
The distance, fuselage centre to the Left side, outside hinge is less than the same distance on the right side.

IMO the hinge on the right side does has the right position and for the left side Ed did a wrong job..
Murphy?

Indeed I did use the wrong position, left side, to duplicate, but on the drawings the right position (green circles) will be noted. So “as not build”.

And that cat? Hanna, my quality insurance employee of course in the picture for this important fact.

More to come

Cees

Taurus Flyer

So,

2 July 2011, 14:05 Dutch time, Airfield “de Veldhoek”
3 Beaufort wind , some showers, so weather conditions weren’t ideal but good enough for a try out.

After a while the first successful flight was a fact.

Some circuits, some maneuvers. First impression, it is a winner, more or less as expected. Much more sensitive in the pitch than the Top Flite Taurus but very nice to fly and maneuverable.
Easy controllable for takeoff and no problem to touch down again. Picture was made on location after the flight.
I mainly did use the flight to trim the plane, but after that all levers are still nearly neutral, see the picture.
After a while flying a looping and roll also went very well the first time.

I did have to think about the past, remarkable noisy sound and the high revs of the small engine. Also interesting to know Ed must have think the same after flying the Flop, ”Now we are on the right way!!”

After that successful flight it started to rain again, so end of the show for today. I did shoot the pictures myself, there were no visitors.

Next step will be, prepare the plane for old school pattern flying, adjust the right location of CG, engine angles, throws etc. and maybe find someone who can shoot pictures during flight or maybe even a video.
More to come also about the flight characteristics.

Last pictures of a very, very small detail. Pinhole of the antenna, also did the job very well.

Cees

Taurus Flyer

Gents, important post,

FIFTY YEARS TAURUS

A short impression of the second flight of the Wester Taurus, the replica of the first successful contest Taurus of Ed Kazmirski.
Goal of the video, practicing our skills to shoot a better video of classic pattern flying.

[youtube]mK8TGW-fL44[/youtube]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mK8TGW-fL44

The Taurus flies gorgeous.
Even the ailerons do have 2 hinges each, as original, the controllability of roll is optimal, no flutter until now.
Don’t forget, the power level is low, with the 0.36 engine.
More to come

Cees

AndyKunz

Congrats, Cees.

It's always good to hear a successful maiden flight report.

Andy

Taurus Flyer

Thanks Andy,
Nice to have such a message of an USA member, it’s finally the replica of one of your most important classic pattern planes.

This week I did prepare the spare engine, my Webra Blackhead 6,5 ccm, the b(l)ack-up for the OS Max.

The Webra is for about 30 years with me but still new, so before using the engine for propulsion it has to run for a while. The fuel I use for that contents 20 % castor oil 80 % methanol and no nitro.(see the picture 2)

After some hours the engine was ready to go and built in the plane, so the Oldest Taurus on Earth is a Dutch German (Multiplex, Webra) partnership now.
Today the plane did make three successful flights with the Webra. I have to search for the right glow plug and adjustment for a while to create a reliable idle, after that the main engine will be mounted again to start the test program, “back to the future”.

Africa? Hanna has family there!!

Cees

Taurus Flyer

Gents,

Flight report, flight 8, 9 and 10 on 12 July 2011.

First flight of the day as expected, landing with dead stick on idle, so low needle a half turn more open, after that no dead sticks anymore in flight 9 and 10 and a reliable idle also on very low revolutions per minute.
Nitro content of the fuel 5 percent, glow plug ENYA 3 engine Webra Blackhead 6,5 ccm.

Flight 9, check differential of the ailerons flying rolls and that was far too much, see the picture 1. It’s nearly impossible to keep the flight level so I did have to abort the attempts.
The angle of the levers is about 34 degrees from vertical (see black dotted line).
Main reason of this large angle is the forward position of the pushrod pivot in the nylon blocks. I will reduce the angle with 50 percent to about 17 degrees, see the yellow indication. The picture will help me to have control over this adjustment. Travel “up” of the ailerons is now about 7 mm and “down” 5 mm. The Top Flite values are, 5/16, 8 mm up and ¼, 6,35 mm down so less difference.
Flight 10, spin (or “vrille”) did go very, very well. Idle, full up and rudder.

I still have to adjust the throws of the elevator with observing the dimension of the looping but the spin was already convincing and easy controllable also to stop with the stick in neutral position. The CG already is on the nearly right position.

The “model in flight” pictures are made after the test period in flight 10 by a colleague member of the club. Also the “modelers in action” picture.
More to come

Cees

EscapeFlyer

My Feedback: (1)

With all the work put into this project, that flight must have put a big smile on your face. I think it looks great. Thanks for sharing Cees!

Brian

Taurus Flyer

Ilikebipes, enjoy the journey back in time. Don’t forget, we aren’t on our destination yet.

The plane is in the air, see the picture (also by Arjen), but, >>>>>>>>>>>>>>> we want a contest winner just like the original.

Trimming a plane is the most important activity now, so first new aileron values after changing the linking.

See the orange oval, down going aileron has more deflection now related to the old situation.

The total throw I can change by other lever dimensions on the servo. For a period I can use the reduction switches on the transmitter.

At the end I do want the max deflection so the Taurus does make one roll in about one and a half second in horizontal flight direction and under full power (ahum!) situation.

Cees

kingaltair

My Feedback: (4)

Congratulations on your first series of test flights of the Wester Taurus. You have certainly put a lot of work and research into that airplane.

The fuselage looks a great deal like the Taurus II, with a slimmer profile than the Top Flite Taurus. The wing of the Taurus II is higher, more toward the thrustline.

Taurus Flyer

Advice of the plumber with the lath, “Never change a winning team!”

The Top Flite Taurus does fly for many years with a pitot tube (Prandtl rohr) for airspeed control and data logging without any failure, so for me it’s a proven design. See picture 4

For test flying the Oldest Taurus on Earth I did copy this tube, I did give it the same connection dimensions so they are interchangeable also with the same calibration adapter to check the airspeed transmitter.

The (4,5mm diam ) tube with steel tip is mounted with one fat M5 screw on a adapter plate with the line connections in the wing near the left main leg. The transmitter will be mounted beside the aileron servo in the centre section of the wing. The little screw on the back side is to clean the central dynamic pressure tube.(remove the mosquito’s)

The whole system is soldered together, the little solder droplet near the rubber gasket is to align the base plate and prevent vibration of the tube.

Soon it is possible to try the Robbe Modis datalogger when all is mounted in the plane. The adapter plate is prepared already while building the wing in the past.

More to come, and I hope the airspeed values.

Cees

Taurus Flyer

Gents,

No weather to fly in the Netherlands so preparing the equipment to test fly the Taurus.

Using the Robbe Modis system in the near future I can store several analog signals .
The Taurus is famous for the high AOA attitude, and also the downwash I already did show.
To make the story complete it would be helpful to have a AOA measurement in the future.

Your wish is my command and because we cannot buy it we have to built it.
See the picture, the element to mount in the left side wingtip. My profit is I can combine the action with the mounting of wiring and pneumatic lines of the airspeed measurement through the wing.

So when all is going well (building the electronics, calibrating and tests) we also can show the AOA during some test flights and after that maybe stall behavior.

The old DOS computer to communicate with the Robbe Modis data logger is standby already.

More to come.

Cees


Edit: study picture of the wingtip mounting of the sensor tube

Taurus Flyer

Gents,

Aileron differential is readjusted and checked. Alright for this moment by simple check the heading in split S and Cuban 8 maneuvers during the half rolls.

Checking the loop dimensions, after reducing the elevator deflection even with 50 %, seems to be enough for this moment, even in typical Dutch weather conditions, 4 Beaufort and gusts of 43 km/h (27 mph). Left and right direction multiple rolls also to fly now after the reduction of the elevator throw.

When conditions are better I can go on with pattern flying and fine adjustment.

Have to write an e-mail to the material department, the intermolecular spaces of the windbag are increasing on several places (locations?), see picture 2.

Cees

Taurus Flyer

Gents

After answering some written questions about my MVVS engines I use in the Taurus I also I did make a video to show the preflight check of the replica Top Flite Taurus with the 10 CCM and a second one pattern fling with the plane (still learning).

The first video does show filling the Taurus with the use of the pressurized tank and the fuel level indicator of the Robbe data logger, after that starting the engine the first time of the day, so priming the have fuel in regulator and carburetor.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxUSF1-0qUY&feature=related[/youtube]

“Top Flite Taurus with MVVS 10 CCM preflight check”

The preflight check also does show some flight positions to check, for example nose down for minimum controllable flow of the regulator in Idle situation and nose up to check if there is enough tank pressure.

Second video was difficult for us to shoot, but we are learning
“Top Flite Taurus classic pattern flying”

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJ7dwJLNdSA&feature=mh_lolz&list=HL1312354028[/youtube]


The plane is small in the video so these were the maneuvers: Start, 3 Rolls, one loop, Cuban eight , spin, 4 rotations and inverted flight. After that landing

The pictures are not as clear as we wanted and the Youtube translation did make it a little worse. The noise is undisturbed that of the 10 CCM MVVS with standard muffler. For safety reason I keep the mixture on the rich side in idle situation the first flight of the day.

More to come.

Cees