paulrcpilot-RCU

My Feedback: (32)

I am starting to gather all the parts to build the Mossie. I have the glass cowls, canopy, short kit and plans. Has anyone started one and if so what retracts are you using. By the way I plan on 2 Moki 2.1's they look to fit in the cowl pretty well. Any helpful hints or comment would be appreciated. Paul

Hellcat

My Feedback: (1)

Hi Paul , I just ordered a set of plans for this and the F7F Tigercat not sure which one yet. What is he calling for power in the Mossie? We'll have to keep in touch. I will probably start mine late summer as I'm finishing up several birds right now. Thanks

Fighterpilot

My Feedback: (2)

Guys, when you build your Mosquito, oversize the rudder. Trust me on this one, you cannot have too much rudder on this aircraft. Being a tail dragger, with a single vertical fin, unlike a B-25, which has two vertical fins and rudders directly in the propwash, the Mosquito needs to be moving along pretty well with the scale rudder, before you gain rudder control over the aircraft. The take off technique is to hold full up elevator in order to keep the tail wheel firmly planted on the ground. This will give you steering control as the aircraft gains speed. You have to be very careful here not to hold up elevator too long for obvious reasons. The aircraft will leave the ground before it is ready to fly. As you ease the elevator, you have to be ready to apply rudder in the direction needed, usually full right rudder to overcome the engines pull to the left (assuming you do not have counter rotating engines). There have been occasions when I have just not had enough rudder to hold the aircraft straight on the runway. My next project is to build an oversized rudder on the existing vertical fin. The Dehavilland Sea Hornet is a very similar aircraft. A very accomplished Texas pilot had the same problem that I described above with his Sea Hornet and solved it by extending the rudder aft by about 2 inches and increasing it's height by about the same. This gave him the rudder authority needed to steer the aircraft on take off roll. On my Mosquito, I added a giro on the rudder, but it didn't help much due to the inadequate size of the rudder. I'm sure it would be a help with the bigger rudder.
Good luck, you should have a ball with this aircraft. Mine has a 96" wingspan and is powered by two old worn out G-23's. It's a bear to get off the ground, but once up on the step, it moves along very nicely. Grass runways help somewhat with ground control.

Vince

My Feedback: (1)

That background sure does look like Bomber field. I believe I have seen your plane fly there before.

Vince

Fighterpilot

My Feedback: (2)

Vince, you are correct. That photo was taken at Bomber Field this past September. Me and the guys from New Orleans Model Avaition Club just got back from the fly-in down in Edinburg, Tx. with Jim Marshal and the guys from the Tejas RC Club. We had a great time.The guy with the Sea Hornet that I mentioned is Rick Michelena and he is where I got the idea about increasing the size of the rudder. Hope to meet you in June, we'll be at the Bomber Field Warbird fly-in. By the way, that Tigercat, with the tricycle landing gear, would be a whole lot easier to handle on the ground, then again, it just doesn't float my boat like the Mosquito does.
Bill

Kickin Chicken

Hi Fighterpilot,

Over size rudder sounds good to me, how could I get in touch with Rick Michelena, I'm building a American Eagle 108" DH Hornet with ZDZ 60's, could use any help I can get. www.geocities.com/clubamac222
Thanks,
Charlie Evans
Leesburg,Ga.

Fighterpilot

My Feedback: (2)

E-mail me and I'll give you Rick's e-mail address. Rick is flying his on two Quadra 52's. It has all the performance you can want in a Warbird. The owner of American Eagle flew his on two Quadra 75's. It was a bullet.
Bill

JGrc

My Feedback: (29)

Gentleman: the following site
http://www.rawleaviation.demon.co.uk/page3.html
offers a 1/4 scale kit of this aircraft. I've talked with Richard Rawle, the owner of this firm for a long while (expensive call to the UK). He's been flying the bird for many years with two Zenoahs with counter rotating props and did not need to enlarge the rudder, in fact it doesn't need any rudder input on take off. He knows the type pretty well and for designing the kit has consulted with a DeHavilland engineer that worked on the full size aircraft in the 40's. Certainly a good contact for anybody that has an interest in the Hornet.
JG

Vince

My Feedback: (1)

I thought I recognized the plane. I will be there in June, and flying my P47, if it lives long enough. Look fo a canopy with a large Cessna Skymaster under it.

Vince

Fighterpilot

My Feedback: (2)

I'm sure this would be the solution to needing more rudder. On this kit, however, I thought it would be easier to build the oversize rudder than to get counter rotating engines and the necessary prop. If you know where this can be done, let me know and I'll consider it depending on the cost and availability. I could use an overhaul on my two G-23's so I'm sure a new piston ring and the new CDI coil to replace the points would help. Maybe that would kick some life back into the old girl.

Cdallas2

Instead of oversizing the rudder and decreasing the scale realism wouldn't it be easier to add a gyro. From what I've heard they are easy to install and setup.

Fighterpilot

My Feedback: (2)

If the rudder is of inadequate size to handle the P-factor, all the gyro's in the world won't help, but a larger rudder will. The gyro only helps if your reaction time is slow and automatically applies the necessary rudder input to keep you going straight. With the gyro on, and applying full right rudder, both my Mosquito and Rick's Sea Hornet would not turn back to the right until the airplane was just below take off speed. You need more control than that on rudder and the only way to get it is to make it bigger. It really isn't noticable if you keep the scale shape to the rudder. The Sea Hornet is now much more controllable on the ground with the increased rudder.

BentBalsa

My Feedback: (9)

Hi Kick'In Chicken

Don Smith Mosquito (post # 6)


What happened to the site address its dead, any news.



I'm building a American Eagle 108" DH Hornet with ZDZ 60's, could use any help I can get. www.geocities.com/clubama c222

Thanks JR


JR

Kickin Chicken

Hi BentBalsa,
Sorry, can you believe I was updating with some new Hornet pic's since I didn't get any pic's from our field this week end .
Dan Stevens was the only one who can/would fly in all the wind we had, it was around 20 mph with gusts around 30.
I will keep trying, but if you never worked with yahoo/geocities free web site you missing some really *6%$#*%$69 server system.
Got a couple of shots of the landing gears/4 blade props with spinners and wife guard dogs, plus as always my two grandsons.

Charlie Evans
Leesburg,Ga.

BentBalsa

My Feedback: (9)

Hi
Kick'In Chicken


Don Smith Mosquito
American Eagle 108" DH Hornet

Excuse me but a little confused we are talking about who built what kit, who is better, easier.

Which one is in the pictures

Thanks
JR