Airforce7

My Feedback: (31)

Turbine installed as well as the SST pipe. I had to cut about 15 mm off the inlet to get the turbine farther forward and the pipe to sit right. Still not exactly right, but it will work. I'm a little concerned about the pipe/exhaust nozzle spacing. I know the two little blocks in the kit are definitely for taking up the gap between the pipe tabs and the turbine mounting block. I just bent the pipe tabs so that I didn't have to deal with the wood blocks.

The carbon bypass they're trying to sell will likely not fit as the thrust line of the turbine mounting rails and the inlet are way off. I don't see how the top of the bypass could fit around the turbine and into the inlet. The inlet comes up at an angle and mods would surely be needed to the inlet. I didn’t get the bypass.

The gear doors and gear actuation are quickly approaching.

Ken

Airforce7

My Feedback: (31)

.

pilot tw

Hi, AirForce

I have seen your pictures , the Tailpipe was over outside a little,
so please reverse your engine mount about the ear,
which means makes it backward not forward,so it is right for fitting the plywood mount,

please cut little intake and then the p-120 can forward 15mm around ,

Best Regards

Anton

Airforce7

My Feedback: (31)

Anton,

Thank you for checking my photos. I understand what you’re saying about the mounting tabs. I'm not sure what you mean about moving the P-120 forward. Are you saying it is OK to move the turbine more forward and adjust the stainless steel tailpipe in more so it doesn't stick out the back? I'll take a look and get you another picture. I don't want to have to add more weight in the tail unnecessarliy during CG balancing.

Ken

MNModels

Hi Ken,

No need to worry about adding weight in tail for CG. Get turbine as far forward as possible!

Regards

Morne

Airforce7

My Feedback: (31)

Thanks Anton and Morne for your input!

I've done some more work on the Rafale and included some pictures. I edited the post above with all the photos and left only one image of turbine install I had before. Now you can see that I think I got it right. I put a mark on the fuselage for CG reference and I can see why you want the turbine farther forward. I think I was a little hung-up with the fact that I needed to cut so much of the intake duct off. I cut about 1 inch off in order to get the turbine all the way forward and have the SST pipe fit. Plenty of clearance now between the pipe and the turbine exhaust nozzle.

I secured the bellmouth to the SST pipe with two SST button head screws and Kep nuts, very strong and no movement. I mounted the refueling probe using 2 M3 screws glued into the bottom and held to the fuselage with Kep nuts. I also doubled up on the screws to hold the equipment plate down so ensure the canard servo is secure.

I tested the brakes and they work very well. I'll need to put some grease on them so they don't stick. I also tested the gear with the Airpower retract valve. Works great, no leaks and the gear cycles fine. On the down side, the valve doesn't have needle valves to slow the gear travel. It really needs it.

Ken

Airforce7

My Feedback: (31)

Got the wings done, just need to mount the linkage covers. The smaller cover is not high enough to cover the horn, so I just filed a slot. I was able to get ~40mm up/down travel on the elevons. Manual states 30mm. Any sanding on the painted model will leave small paint chips here and there. Not much you can do about it unless I had some touch-up paint to match. I also got the gear door off-set hinges mounted.

Issue#1, there are only 10 off-set hinges in the bag and you need 11. I need one more.

Issue#2, the nose steering arm rusted. It does not turn anymore. I need another one. I think the flux I used to solder the arm back on did it.

Ken

Airforce7

My Feedback: (31)

Those covers took a little longer than I thought. Basically I spent the evening getting them mounted. Here are some pictures. Tested the elevons with the Tx, works great. I did need to put two small washers between the wing tip and the missile rail. The missile rails fit just a little too snug against the elevons.

Ken

ARA-Jet

My Feedback: (8)

can you please post pictures of your door installations?

gilslo

Can you post pictures of your air gear circuit and fuel circuit installations

Airforce7

My Feedback: (31)

I'm attempting to get it done by the end of this weekend. I had to wait for some parts to be able to do it. Didn't want to cut into the fuselage until I had what I needed, mainly air cylinders. I got a new steering mechanism too. Much nicer than the Airpower.

My plan is to use 1-inch air cylinders all around using an UP2 valve. I thought about getting the UP4 as well, but I may be able to get away with just the UP2. If it doesn't work out, I'll use the Airpower gear valve that came with the kit for the doors that stay open. It's pretty clear in my mind what I want to do, its just going to take some time. I'll start with the nose gear door and get some pictures up here.

Stig! You did a great job on the F-16 install for gear/gear doors in RCJI. Gave me some ideas how to tackle my Rafale.

In the meantime, I programmed my rudder and elevons. Rudder is about 22mm side-to-side from center with dual rate, 25% expo. The elevons are at about 35mm up/down from center with dual rate, 25% expo. Still have a lot of components to put in there and figure out where to put all the wires. I still think balancing this jet is going to be interesting/pain.

Ken

Stig Andersen

Glad to be of help.

ARA-Jet

My Feedback: (8)

the gear doors, do they stay open when the retracts are out or do they close after the retracts are brought down?

Airforce7

My Feedback: (31)

f4reza,

How far along are you on your Rafale? Can you post a picture or two?

As for the gear doors on this particular jet, the main gear doors have two for each retract unit. The rear door stays open, while the front will close. The nose door should stay open with the retract unit down.

Now you could make it semi-scale and cut up the nose door, which I'm considering and keep the main gear doors as described above. Lot of options if you think about it.

Go to Ultra Precision’s website and read the UP2 and UP4 operation and you get an idea what to do with the doors. And do a little research online of the real Rafale and see how the doors work.

Ken

ARA-Jet

My Feedback: (8)

I have both valves, I use one for my Mustang in which case the doors are always close, up or down. And I use one form my Sky master F15 where the doors are open when the retracts are down.
Attached are pictures of my wing and servo mechanism. I am done with my wings and rudder set-up. I will do my retracts next - Id like to do the retracts prior to doing the fuel and attaching the nose. I think I want as much room to work on the retracts/doors as possible.
For the wings, I built two blocks as seen in the picture and I screwed the covers on to the blocks, similar to a previous posting, the blocks thickness is a combo of 1/4 inch stick and two 1/6 ply on each side. I also opted to screw in the servo cover so the thick part is facing the trailing edge. This set up seems to be working well. See pics. One last note, I recommend this: using a 15/64 drill bit, I drilled 3/4 into the servo mounting plate so that the top of the screw gets flushed with the mounting plate's surface, see the pics. This will help the cover almost fit...

I would love to get pictures of the retract setup and the gear doors asap so if anyone has any, please post.

thanks,

Amir

Airforce7

My Feedback: (31)

Amir,

Counter sinking the aluminum mount is definitely the best way to go. To bad you didn't have any flat head screws to use instead of the button heads. I like your way much better.

Ken

Airforce7

My Feedback: (31)

I spent about 3 hours getting the nose gear door in. It wasn't so easy. Learned a lot along the way. Tried my best not to screw it up to much. Basically you need to shim the offset hinges on the door side. That's 75% of the work getting the door to work right. The other 25% is getting it on and checking movement. I'm going to use a 1-inch air cylinder to ensure I get good through both ways. I'll mount the cylinder when I find the exact spot on the former.

Checked gear movement past the door and seems OK. I’m not to sure how strong the air cylinder will be when it’s both retracted and extended. I cut a little more off the door opening to ensure the wheels clear the opening. The first hinge comes real close to the wheels; I may cut a little off the hinge tip to be sure it won’t catch the wheel as it goes by.

Ken

jair

Hi,

whats the weight of your Rafales?? With pipe,gear,fuel tanks....??

Thanks a lot!

ARA-Jet

My Feedback: (8)

Ken,
looking good...
I have another question.
The main doors are two halves. The back ones, do they open and close side ways like the front halves or do they open and close front-to-back?

thanks,
Amir

Airforce7

My Feedback: (31)

Amir,

Back doors open to the side like the front ones on this model. I looked at possibly making the back half of the doors open to the rear with the strut (like the real Rafale), but the door is actually out of scale and the tip would rotate all the way to the ground and scrape. I'm going to try and start on the rear doors tonight.

Ken

Airforce7

My Feedback: (31)

Finished up the gear doors yesterday, just need to hook up the air tubing. Actuation looks pretty good. The air cylinders don't need to be 1-inch extension. They can be shorter by nearly half. I set them up so that they are fully extended when there down and about half way when there up. I also drilled out the mounting holes so I could use the fancy wood screw with socket head to make it easy to get them out if I need to. I'll go with the UP2 valve for all the doors. I don't think I'll cut the nose door into three at this point.

Total hours to do all the doors to this point were about 10hrs.

Ken

Airforce7

My Feedback: (31)

Here are some pictures from today. Plumbed the air cylinders and worked a little more on the nose mounting plate. Ken

ARA-Jet

My Feedback: (8)

that is awsome. Thanks for posting the pics for the gear doors.

Amir

Airforce7

My Feedback: (31)

Here are some more build pictures. It's getting real crowded in there. Found a home for everything except the ECU battery. I think I'll put it just behind the gauges, under the canopy depending on the balance. I used Velcro to hold the Rx, ECU and smoke battery upside down on the fuselage frame. I also put a 1-inch thick piece of foam as a barrier between the two tanks (smoke and nose). The foam supports the nose tank from tipping forward.

Ken

Airforce7

My Feedback: (31)

Got a little farther this week. Saddle tanks are in and the fin and pipe are permanently in. Couple of things to watch out for. One is the offset hinges; I had to revisit them because they started to crack at the cylinder/hinge point. Don't over tighten the screws. I'm using M2X10mm hardware with washers now. One of the offset hinges just crumbled. I think it was a bad one as it was very brittle like it was in the sun to long. Some of the other hinges where showing signs of wear and tear. I bought a new package of a different brand as spares just in case.

On the vertical stabilizer, I used a lock washer with the M3 screw they provide. Don't over tighten the screw because I started to hear the frame fatiguing in the area of the block. My stabilizer is slightly angled to one side, but barely noticable. Should be ok.

I haven't weighted it yet, but just the fuselage with the turbine is probably near 18-20lbs already. I think the spec was about 22lbs so I think it will come in around there and with the fuel and smoke it will be pushing 28-30lbs.

I was hoping to do some taxi testing and range checks this weekend, but the weather here doesn’t look so great. Might be able to finalize everything this weekend and get some pictures from the field next week.

Ken