thomasmuckus

I love Your alu-exhaust, and the main thing, it is thirty grams lighter than mine. great respect.

jwharkinz

Thanks
Here are some photos to show progress installing new radio gear and servos.
I have a set of mini-cock valves to aid in fueling and to help deal with all the crazy plumbing in this thing. I hope to video testing of the engine running and the smoke system functioning.
Here are a couple of pics



definitely more to come...

jwharkinz

Almost forgot to mention that I mapped the fuel system, The new mechanic is gonna need this!

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

I like the color coding on the tubing, top notch idea!

jwharkinz

Another day of creativity and the hull is almost completed. I have some detail work for sure but the main thing is that its a lot closer to flying. I have more to do on the wing and now I'll shift gears to that area and complete the landing gear pants. I love thomasmuckus's landing gear design, I would love to imitate his concept of having the flying wires attached, then have the pants installed around that. Oh well, I'll continue with my old tried and true method of origami: tire, wheel pant, and landing wire, juggle. Been doing it for 30 years, why stop now??? (heh) There are some photos here of my many attempts to accurately weigh this hull. As you can see this thing was gaining weight just hanging there, so I pulled the plug before this became too heavy! I'm going to call it 7lbs. A little fat, my main goal is to come in close to 9lbs. total and empty. I weighed 32 oz. of alcohol and it is 2lbs. Damn. this is gonna be a bomber on takeoff! looks like I'm doing some more math to determine my new wing loading. Shouldn't be all that bad, I did plan for this early on with the changed wing design. Don't you just love the unknown! (Hell NO!) We know big risk = big gain. Just makes me nervous tho.

jwharkinz

Checking in on the spinner order.

Looking to have a custom spinner fabbed for this model. The guys at Tag Model Spinners(http://www.tag-model-spinners.com/spinner/) are going to complete the work to totally rock this look.

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

Your exaust system really temps me. I am seriously considering try my hand at replicating it on my Ryan SC-M project.

jwharkinz

Go for it dude, All I did was buy aluminum welding rods(http://www.harborfreight.com/8-piece...ods-44810.html) from HF. a Propane torch, and some time with an old aluminum computer case...

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

It's tempting! What kind of propane torch did you use?

jwharkinz

Check this out, I bought the cheapest stuff I could get my hands on. The torch was from Homo Depot and was like 7-8 bills. The bottles are about $4 each I think. Most expensive was the aluminum rod from harbor freight, 20 dollars. Scrap I've had for a while, just some aluminum computer case sides. Finally I used aluminum tube 5/8 and 1/2 od for the exhaust tips, use the heavy wall as I had problems with the thinner stuff.

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

Cool, I already have the torch.

jwharkinz

Today was dedicated to wing time. Specifically the landing gear and pants assembly and mounting. I am also doing touch-up on the fabric covering and was thinking of using some kind of spray on sealer/hardener. I want to find something to help make the elevator and rudder more rigid. The scale design doesn't lend itself to hard sport flying, with more than triple the engine power I am looking into some options. I'm used to building stout lightweight aerobatic models subjected to a lot of abuse and standing up to it. It'd be nice to have that security here.

thomasmuckus

I understand Your system by the gear and I hope it works as well. Great work. Have You tested it ? How far moving the flying wires ? To the stability of the tail, I don`t belive that You must have any bad minds about this, I had build a Christen Eagle, powered by a tuned 60 ccm engine (more than 6 hp). The tail by this is build lighter than by the Ryan, the flying whires give thes a realy strenght, no problemy by the way. Surely You had to make them not as dummys
I also was a little bit afraid about the whigt,it was the reason for me to rebuild the complete wing

I used Stefano Durantis DevWing-program, very, very nice (not expensive but very great). I helps me to save 150 gramm. In time I´m at 4,2 kg (whitout colour, but with engine, radio, accu and so on)I hope to finish at 5,5 kg. If we can calculate with ca. 59 dm² aera it will means a aera loading lesser than 100 g/dm², I`m sure it will be a good score for a scale aircraft.

jwharkinz

Have a snapshot of the awesome custom spinners being machined for this plane...

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

Who made your spinners?

jwharkinz

I contacted Graham at:

http://www.tag-model-spinners.com/spinner/

John

jwharkinz

Here is a sneak at the assembled plane w/o rigging, testing the fit, and the amount of cramming I may need to address. So far it looks good tho. As you can see in the photo the covering needs to be re-tightened and then touched up. Finally I am going to spray an epoxy clear to help keep things tight. The exhaust was off a couple of degrees in clock, causing the pipes to look lower in the opening. I plan to open this a little and finish fabing the aluminum cover. This would be the perfect project for headers like the beast of turin.

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

If you're not careful that thing could really fly! Beautiful job John!

jwharkinz

Thanks FlyerInOKC, we all seem to have a little crow in our blood. Ask me what my favorite color is and I'll say; Chrome!... I love shiny things!

P.S. I can relate, hell I live it... "Builders Slower Than a Dead Turtle Nailed to a Fence Post Association
My bench where you always find the weird and unusual!"

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

Well that last one can only apply if you build your own like we do! Unless you are talking about the loose nut standing/sitting in front of the bench, then it applies all of the time!

jwharkinz

I've been referred to as "the loose nut holding the steering wheel"...

jwharkinz

And so I had to clean up after a little accident the other day. While taking out the trash, my dad lost balance going thru the door and held onto it while it pushed a row of shelves along the wall and chiseled off anything mounted to the wall over my workbench... He's fine, his pride got bruised more than anything else, I hate when that happens .

Some photos of the wreckage.



P.S. the aluminum struts pictured didn't survive..

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

At least he isn't seriously injured! Oh well, good excuse to sort and reorganize your hardware.

jwharkinz

Received the spinners from Graham and I gotta say these are sweet! Some final work to complete the hull and direct my attention to the wing for finishing. The home stretch seems to expand exponentially. There is a maiden flight in sight.

jwharkinz

Life wants to get in the way of my moment in zen(building/fabricating).

Gotta have Zen...