WOuld this be considered scale-enough?

I'm trying to finish this 100" E-2C Hawkeye project. Its been a year this month, that I have been working on it.

Mike

Looks close enough to me. Mighty fine. Give us some info---scratch or plans, what does it weigh, whose retracts. What are you motivating it with? will the radome spin while in flight?


Are you carqualled?

OK, here are the general specs:

- plans blown-up from a 70" set of plans I got off ebay.
- 100" wingspan
- Final weight TBD
- 2ea Saito 125 4c
- props: Zinger 14x6, 4-blade
- Custom cut Tru-turn spinner in a flat black annodized color
- Custom Centuryjet retracts, 90degree rotating, with brakes
- Robart air tanks
- Jet model products air valve
- Gear syncronizer
- Curtex lighting system, nav, strobe, landing
- Custom decals from http://www.callie-graphics.com
- Working tail stinger, to prevent scuffing rear belly
- Twinsync engine syncronizer, with onboard glow
- Macspro custom exhaust: running inside the engine nacelle
- JR rx/servos
- working flaps
- Klasskote paint: light gull grey and black in a gloss finish
- Fiberglassed with WestSystems resin
- Geez, this is tough to remember everything I put into this....

Radome remains static during flight.

This month makes one year for this build.

Mike

Scale enough for what or who. If you compete then it needs to be scale enough for the judge. If you build for your self then it needs to be scale enough for you. Mine are never scale enough for me but thats life and drives me to try and do better each build. Just wish I had more time, skill and patience. Either way I do enjoy the journey.

Its a nice bird!

Is it scale enough for you?

Carl

Carl,

I'm like you. I'm never satisfied with my project. Sometimes I need to just say "good enough" and go fly, otherwise I would work on this for years.

As for scale enough? I don't care to compete, I just like building near scale aircraft. I prefer project that are really challenging. Right now I'm building a Palmer plans 132" AC-130. My Hawkeye project showed me alot of new techniques for building. I wil incorporate alot of detail in my AC-130.

Mike

Uker,
If you need somebody else to say it, consider it done.

It's scale enough. Go fly.

Really, it looks like a great project. Congratulations on a job well (almost?) done.

papermache

Ok, I guess my question in all this is, what are the rules if I ever decide to get into scale competition? Someone at my local flying field said I should enter my planes in competitions.

Is there a standard AMA checklist or guide out there? Does a pilot have to do certain manuevers when entering a contest? Is this stuff documented on the AMA website?

Any info would be helpful.

Mike

UkerDuker,
That hawkeye looks really great. One of my "future" builds is going to be a 1/10 scale (8 feet W/S) Hawkeye. It's going to have all the mechanical stuff as the full scale; Ailerons that droop with the flaps,articulated rudders, folding wings, rotating radome, tailhook, etc.
Actually it's great to see someone make some good progress on a project. Some day I'll have the time to start mine. Good luck with yours, it looks great.
...Steve

Shobly,
Everything sounds possible except the folding wings. I have a tail hook that could drop down, but I opted not to incorporate it. Unless you plan to use it, its just something to look at. I would be afraid it would snag and rip the aft end of the fuselage off.

As for the drooping ailerons, I will play with some mixing in my JR 9303. I might be able to make it happen.

Mike

All the competition rules are posted on the AMA site. Beautiful plane! Good luck.
Steve

Damn, I'm disappointed Really, though, it's a heck of a nice plane and will look great in flight.

DO you think you would be able to see the rotation in the air? The radome turns at roughly 6RPM.... with this in mind, I opted not to make it rotate. Build smart, build light. If there is no real effect gained from an option, leave it out.

Mike

The little smiley face means "I'm kidding". I'm with you, and a BIG fan of the KISS principle. There was a Tucano at Top Gun, and the back seater's radar display actually worked, with a lit sweep which changed from green (search), to red (threat) to blue (acquisition). Totally worthless to the performance of the plane and I can only guess at the complexity of making it work. But it looked COOL!

Whether it turns the dome or not, the Hawkeye is awesome. Fly it til the wings come off.

khodges:

I originally bought a standard servo and modified it to rotate continuously. I then bought a reduction gear setup (see pic). After some playing around, I just scrapped the entire idea. I too went back to the KISS principle.

Mike

Very nice plane Mike! I'd like to see some videos of it flying when you complete it.

As for competitions, it may be too late without a lot of rework, depending on how true to form the model is currently and the level you want to compete at. Here's a page for reference,

http://www.scalemasters.org/documentation.html

Having said that there is always sport scale, where a picture, even of a model box top is usually enough to prove a plane's scaleness. The emphasis is on flying in this class.

Good luck!