Pica Spit 1/6 Scale
05-18-2003, 05:54 AM
#2
My Feedback: (5)
Pica 1/6 Spitfire
I have the Pica Spitfire and I love it! It was a lot of work to build; a lot of carving and sanding, but very enjoyable and not difficult. One thing I strongly recommend: modify it for split flaps! I studied a three-view of the Spit and built mine roughly to scale size. All you have to do is remove a section of the wing bottom sheeting at the trailing edge and build the flap from thin ply. Mine are about 1 inch wide, 8 inches long, and are activated by a single servo in the center of the wing pushing a semi-flexible cable in a tube.
My Spit is powered by an OS .91 Surpass turning a 14x6 prop. It has Spring-Air gear with Robart Robostruts. The plane is a real joy to fly! A little right rudder and a touch of up elevator makes for easy, scale take-offs. It tracks beautifully through all the basic manuevers. I don't do any snaps or spins, because thats not the way I like to fly. Mine is balanced a little nose heavy, so stall recovery is no big deal. Its been a while since I intentionally stalled it, but I think it gently drops the left wing. Nose down, a little throttle, and its flying again.
For landing I drop the gear and then about 45 degrees of flap. Then I fly a normal sport-plane pattern. She floats down and sets on the mains. I have landed it a few times without flaps, and it has to come in a lot faster.
See my club's site at www.rcrcky.com
Mine is the one with JEJ on the side. Good luck!
My Spit is powered by an OS .91 Surpass turning a 14x6 prop. It has Spring-Air gear with Robart Robostruts. The plane is a real joy to fly! A little right rudder and a touch of up elevator makes for easy, scale take-offs. It tracks beautifully through all the basic manuevers. I don't do any snaps or spins, because thats not the way I like to fly. Mine is balanced a little nose heavy, so stall recovery is no big deal. Its been a while since I intentionally stalled it, but I think it gently drops the left wing. Nose down, a little throttle, and its flying again.
For landing I drop the gear and then about 45 degrees of flap. Then I fly a normal sport-plane pattern. She floats down and sets on the mains. I have landed it a few times without flaps, and it has to come in a lot faster.
See my club's site at www.rcrcky.com
Mine is the one with JEJ on the side. Good luck!
05-18-2003, 06:51 PM
#3
1/6 SPIT
Thanks Ho2 , what method of hinge did you use on the
split flaps? also how thick is the wing sheeting? and what was your total weight?
I HAVE read in Flight Journal that a real spitfire
has a gear down , flaps down, stall speed of 65 MPH . The split
flaps on the one in the article went down 80 degrees, i dont really know what version it was.
saw the pics , nice plane
Dan
split flaps? also how thick is the wing sheeting? and what was your total weight?
I HAVE read in Flight Journal that a real spitfire
has a gear down , flaps down, stall speed of 65 MPH . The split
flaps on the one in the article went down 80 degrees, i dont really know what version it was.
saw the pics , nice plane
Dan
05-18-2003, 08:29 PM
#4
Pica Spit 1/6 Scale
Dan, Here is a pic of the flaps on my Clark 1/4 scale Spit. The hinges are sections of 3/32 tubing glued to the flap leading edge and the wing trailing edge and the a small piece of glass cloth glued over the section to give it some strength. Uses a 1/16 wire for the hinge. Uses a swingie hinge to actuate and I get the full 85 degrees deflection. The sheeting is 3/32 on my wing. The real Spit had piano hinged flaps so this looks very scale and is real easy to do. Don
05-19-2003, 01:13 PM
#8
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Pica Spit 1/6 Scale
Originally posted by smchale
Don,
You're really flying (no pun intended) through that project!
Looking good mate!!
Btw, nice wallpaper in the workshop.
Don,
You're really flying (no pun intended) through that project!
Looking good mate!!
Btw, nice wallpaper in the workshop.
Nice job Don
05-22-2003, 10:44 AM
#9
My Feedback: (5)
Spit flaps
Hey Dan. Glad you like my plane.
I built it about 10 years ago, so it's hard to remember how I did it! Had to go downstairs and look at the flaps again. I think the wing sheeting is 1/16" balsa. I cut the sheeting away from the ribs and made the flap from 1/16" plywood. I used regular Du-Bro pinned hinges. I cut recesses for the hinges on the bottom surface of the wing and the flap. Then the hinges are glued in the recesses (three per flap) and then covered with a strip of very thin (1/64" I think) plywood. I attached a short control horn to the flap and activate them with a semi-flexible cable.
My Spitfire weighs about 8 1/2 pounds I think. The .91 four-stroke pulls it around with gusto! The engine is mounted inverted so I put in a home-made glow driver. There is a cam on the throttle servo wheel that pushes a roller switch to turn on the glow plug power when the throttle stick goes below 1/3. One dead-stick landing in 10 years!
It's not exact scale, but I always get compliments on it's looks and especially the way it flies!
I built it about 10 years ago, so it's hard to remember how I did it! Had to go downstairs and look at the flaps again. I think the wing sheeting is 1/16" balsa. I cut the sheeting away from the ribs and made the flap from 1/16" plywood. I used regular Du-Bro pinned hinges. I cut recesses for the hinges on the bottom surface of the wing and the flap. Then the hinges are glued in the recesses (three per flap) and then covered with a strip of very thin (1/64" I think) plywood. I attached a short control horn to the flap and activate them with a semi-flexible cable.
My Spitfire weighs about 8 1/2 pounds I think. The .91 four-stroke pulls it around with gusto! The engine is mounted inverted so I put in a home-made glow driver. There is a cam on the throttle servo wheel that pushes a roller switch to turn on the glow plug power when the throttle stick goes below 1/3. One dead-stick landing in 10 years!
It's not exact scale, but I always get compliments on it's looks and especially the way it flies!
05-26-2003, 06:54 AM
#11
My Feedback: (5)
Spit landing gear
The landing gear is a little farther apart than "scale". But I still manage to scrape a wingtip now and then! The gear also retracts straight out (towards the wing tip) rather than out and a little back like the real plane. You can't make them retract to the exact scale location because you'd have to cut through the main spar!
I think the most obvious non-scale attribute is the thickness of the wing. It's about twice as thick as a pure scale wing would be. But this is one of the things that makes it fly so well!
Once there was a guy watching me fly at our field. He asked if I was going to be around for a while and I said I was. When he came back he had his father with him. His father flew Spitfires during the war! What a great privilege to speak to this man, who risked his life for all of us! I was honored to show him my model and talk to him! He could tell my plane was a Mark IX, what all the markings meant, and that the colors were about right. I went up and flew a demo flight for them (thank God I didn't screw it up!), and as I was taxiing back they got into their car and left. I wish I could have talked with them some more! How many WW II pilots are there still around? And what are the odds of a British pilot living in Kentucky? Wish they would come back!
The gear also retracts straight out (towards the wing tip) rather than out and a little back like the real plane. You can't make them retract to the exact scale location because you'd have to cut through the main spar!I think the most obvious non-scale attribute is the thickness of the wing. It's about twice as thick as a pure scale wing would be. But this is one of the things that makes it fly so well!
Once there was a guy watching me fly at our field. He asked if I was going to be around for a while and I said I was. When he came back he had his father with him. His father flew Spitfires during the war! What a great privilege to speak to this man, who risked his life for all of us! I was honored to show him my model and talk to him! He could tell my plane was a Mark IX, what all the markings meant, and that the colors were about right. I went up and flew a demo flight for them (thank God I didn't screw it up!), and as I was taxiing back they got into their car and left. I wish I could have talked with them some more! How many WW II pilots are there still around? And what are the odds of a British pilot living in Kentucky? Wish they would come back!
