John,
Not a problem.. When I eventually get to come visit my ancestoral home I'll have to get you to show me the local flying fields..

Rob

Rob

No worries mate! After reading the instructions I was a bit concerned about mounting the elevator servo which seemed to be the old cover the mounting plate in glue and shove it up the tailpipe method. Maybe we have become too accustomed to more sophisticated elevator linkages on the bigger Hawks but this did seem a retrograde step. However due to the excellent fit of the servo mount between the formers it was quite an easy job using Hysol and a little care. I have now completed the horizontal and vertical stabs and linkages and as soon as my Wren pipe arrives I can finish the rear end of the Hawk. Nosegear next and have not yet decided on forward or rearward retraction of noseleg as I have retracts that will suit both.

John

John
No problem.
Also go for forward nose leg, works good.

Paul

Dave,sorry no spare!

Paul

Paul

Unlike the typical run of Chinese ARF's the Fox Hawk needs a bit of thought and building work as opposed to just screwing it together. Nothing too difficult I think as the manual is very clear and comprehensive, a set of smaller hands and thinner fingers would be good. It would appear that the cockpit set is an extra item and not supplied with the kit, I will contact DW and ask him to order one for me.

regards

John

These little beauties arrived today. Jet 1A main leg oleos, nose oleo and forward retracting nose retract with built in steering arm. this is a fine piece of work, the ball link on the steering arm does not vary in position either vertically or laterally during the retract cycle, just a very small sideways movement of the steering rod from the servo which will pass through a slot in the mounting former. Retract angle is around 115 degrees so the former can be fitted vertically, going to work on this next as it looks like a nice easy install!

John

Nice.

Good choice on the retract . I have also used them on mine and they look great.
Here are some pictures. Not a very good quality though because they were taken from a mobile phone.

Jet Addict,
do you have Jet-1a part numbers for the gear you have?

Rob

Hi Rob,
I dont have the part number but if you contact Als hobbies they should be able to tell you. I bought the retracts from them.
I had difficulties finding that nose unit but after sending an email to Ali i had my answer in 10 minutes.

Zack

Hi guys,

i did a build thread for this bird. It is in german, but there are some useful pictures maybe.

http://www.rc-network.de/forum/showthread.php?t=152008


BR

Cat

I have a factory now that makes CNC Struts for me..
I need someone to measure the distance from the ground nose gear mount point and the same with the wings.
I'm going to then have some custom struts mated with the retract bodies to get as close to scale as I can..

Rob

The retracts look very nice. Hi Paul.

I have just made my self a new set of main legs after the euro kit ones cracked after a hard landing.

Hello Jim [8D]

After 2 years flying I'm still loving my Foxcomp Hawk.

I even still love the Stumax EDF unit which is faultless in operation along with its Schulze controller.

But I'm fed up of over-hyped lipos which have insufficient life at big EDF powers for them to be cost-effective. A year ago I decided to branch out and bought an autostart MW44 Gold, fitting it in a Boomerang Nano with the aim of finding out about and getting used to turbine operation.

What I found out is that the full autostart MW44 is less hassle to operate than EDF, and the Nano needs no more washing than the Hawk! And flight times are much longer. And the frugal MW44 is very affordable to run even on DIY store paraffin. Besides which the Nano is enough fun and versatile enough regarding the roughness of the take-off and landing area that I felt no need to immediately move the MW44 into the Hawk which could be rather more fragile ref landing zones.

Well, I've saved up and bought a second MW44 Gold and tailpipe and am about to retro-fit it in my Foxcomp Hawk. Apart from every other advantage, my MW44-equipped Hawk will weigh about 2lb less on landing than it does as an EDF model, which will help when taking off and landing on the rough flaking concrete area we often have to operate from.

As I don't have the turbine mounting lugs in mine, I can pick and choose where I fit the engine. I'm wondering how much leeway I have with the location of the MW44. I'd like to use a simple one-tank setup with a 1200ml tank like that in my Nano positioned centrally and just in front of the turbine, but I'd have to move the engine aft about 6 inches from the usual position to get the centre of the tank slightly foward of the CG, which is where I think it should probably go. I did read earlier that one builder needed to add tail weight to his P-60 version, and as the MW44 is quite a lot lighter than the P-60, it struck me that it could go aft a bit, especially as the tailpipe will then be shorter and weigh less. Naturally I'd position the significantly heavy bits of avionics and engine ancillaries as far forward as poss, and could even use twin 2S A123s (with some weight penalty over lipos) to help with the CG.

Whaddaya think, guys?

Gordon

Hi Gordon,
I agree with you on all counts, I have over 3 years on my Hawk now (time fly’s!) Next weekend will be its 4th British Nationals outing!
I have hundreds of flights on it now and I still love flying it. One of the nicest airframes I have flown.

As for the Wren 44, well, what can i say? The engine is at least 5 years old, has done...I don’t know how many hours...never been back for service, still runs perfectly.
In my opinion there is nothing to touch it in the small turbine class.

As for your changes, I would not put the turbine too far back, I followed the standard installation and still needed a little nose weight.
Are you using the intake (or part of them) that you have for electrics? This will affect the location of you fuel tank.
I use the 2 standard conformal tanks supplied by Jim (you could still use these) I them have a UAT under the cockpit area.

Are you going to the Nats?
If so, look me up on the Show Line you can have a good look at my installation.

Paul

Hi Paul

Thanks for your reply. I won’t be able to make the Nats unfortunately, but I’m aiming to get there eventually as it’s too long since my last visit.

Even after a year’s regular use, I still get the same thrill with every start that I felt on my �44’s first startup. The little Wren is an absolute beaut.

Regarding its location, I woke up this morning realising why moving the engine rearwards would be a bad idea, irrespective of CG considerations. Access to the glowplug would be well nigh impossible without removing the engine!

So I’ll go with the normal location and twin tanks. Jim supplied both ICDF and turbine intakes not fitted with my early kit, so I can shorten my home-made intakes and graft Jim’s ones on to the stubs.

I’ll report back when the job’s done and she’s flown. My clubmates are all impatient to see (and hear and smell) the Hawk go on the MW44 and have been nagging me to make the change for ages!

Cheers

Gordon

I need to shorten the tailpipe.

How far inside the outer shroud is the end of the tailpipe? Looking at Paul's pics, it looks like about 1/4in.

Thanks

Gordon

Another question.

When running series-connected tanks, it seems to me that the first one to empty can manage with a rigid fuel pipe inside, picking up from the bottom rear of that tank, as the second one to empty, which has a clunk, will act like a bubble trap for the first one. The second tank feeds the pump through a conventional UAT of course.

Any problems with that logic?

Gordon

Your logic is good, but i use a clunk in both tanks, works fine, using a UAT under the cockpit.
So, UAT and 2 tanks all in line.
1/4 inch is good.

Paul

Thanks Paul

I'm moulding my own tanks, so glassing fixed pickup and overflow tubes into the first tank means I won't have to make provision for a rubber bung for it.

The rejuvenated Hawk will be flying in a couple or three days.

Gordon

Keep us informed please Gordon.

Paul

It’s done!!

Much to my surprise, with empty tanks the CG came out spot on what it was with the Stumax. An even bigger surprise is the empty weight .... 12lb 1oz. With 1.2 litres of juice plus what's in the bubble trap, weight will rise by about 2lb 7oz. So it'll take off at around 14.5lb and land at around 12.5lb. Which compares very favourably with 16lb on 11S 5000s and 17lb with 11S 6600s at both launch and land.

Pic 1 shows the new installation.

Pic 2 Shows the bubble trap made from a 4oz Dubro tank and Slec tank fittings. The second 2oz tank is to catch any overflow during filling to avoid spills on the ground.

Pic 3 indicates the space saved by locating the retract tank in the extreme nosecone.

Pic 4 shows one of the two scratch-moulded fuel tanks. Total volume is around 1250cc, which seems about right for a MW44. This is the second tank and has a felt filter.

Pic 5 The turbine location is the standard one for this kit.

Pic 6 shows the wooden jig I made to ensure that the tailpipe is central and the correct distance from the turbine nozzle.

I still have to fly the beast, and if the weather-men have got it right, Sunday could be the day for test flights.

Nice job Gordon.
Look forward to the feedback and video [8D]

Paul

The Hawk got its first taste of paraffin-power today, and what a revelation. Because of the wind direction and strength the gliding school had nicked our usual tarmac runway, and we had to use our alternative site of a crumbling concrete track with inch-wide gaps from which sprout large and randomly distributed tufts of grass. There’s a 20ft long tarmac run-in to the concrete which at least lets the plane reach enough speed to allow the wheels to skip over the gaps. I’d never flown the Hawk as an EDF from here because of its long take-off run caused by its excessive weight,

However, I decided that in much lighter turbine mode it was worth risking a flight from here. On slamming the throttle wide, the Hawk shot off at such a great rate that it was in the air before you could say “jack rabbit”. Ker-ripes!! There was no need to worry about that concrete surface at all. With the model rocketing skywards I was almost too surprised to retract the flaps and gear. Unfortunately the u/c refused to tuck up which spoiled the in-flight appearance a tad, but didn’t seem to affect the performance much. The CG and control throws had already been proven over the past two years in EDF mode, so I was able to do a few manoeuvres, the lighter weight and greater dynamic thrust than before giving me enough confidence to do an outside loop amongst other things. What a plane!

Because of the rough concrete surface I decided to land on an adjacent grass area, even though the grass had been too long to allow a take-off. This decision was a mistake as the noseleg dug into the soft earth and bent backwards, removing one of the nose doors in the process.

Apart from the landing mishap, and the failure of the retracts to operate, the flight was a great success, and as you might imagine, repairs are already under way.

The retract problem was a dead air valve servo, a HS55 which may well have given up the ghost on the 5.8V Sensor Switch supply. I’ve replaced it with another HS55, but will start looking for either a micro servo designed for up to 6V, or maybe an electronic retract valve. The nose door is fixed, and I’ll replace the bent piano wire stub in the noseleg tomorrow.

So how did the MW44 and Fox Composites Hawk combination measure up?

Simply magical!

Gordon