RE: CMP BF109F BUILDING THREAD
 

clandestoy

See page 14, post 341 of a hidden in fuse pull pull (or push push) type of system that eliminates all slop and yet does not depend on the other "pull" side to work. Kinda like a redundant linkage. This system can also be used for the rudder if you take time to engineer it.

Garage still shut down, but new foundation poured today. Finally some construction among the destruction.

Steve

RE: CMP BF109F BUILDING THREAD
 

Steve,

Thank you very much. I see what you meant when you say it could be adapted for the rudder.

Regards,

Cesar

RE: CMP BF109F BUILDING THREAD
 

Hello everybody. Its been months since I lasted checked in. WOW! alot of reading to catch up. Poor Snappa ....... bloody rotten luck it was.... end to a grand effort he put forth too I'llsay. Chin up !!

Alot of good advise gathered here as well as the RCgroups thread . Newbies to this plane would be welladvised to READ EVERY page BEFORE building. Yes .!! I did fly mine as well. An elecrtic conversion with a Eflite 160 outrunner. I maiden in on a very gusty day . ILL ADVISED. The manors once in the air were impeccable , ROCK SOLID .......it didn't offer to stall that I could tell. My plane was 15LB AUW . I had a bit of a scary landing , a gust caught it as it touched and lifted it up about 10 inchs and then stopped. The extra lumber under the rails prevented a cracked rail. But, I wasn't without an issue ..... my is/was vibration , really bad , I traced it to the spinner. So, my flying the CMP109 has been grounded till I either fixed the CMP spinner of got another . The glow chaps at the field thought it natural for my plane to be nosiey and vibrate and jump up and down. :D They rather enjoyed it and thought it proper. I almost didn't maiden it that day. The shakening backed out many screws . I've tried to rebalance and improve the mounting on the shaft. I think I got it going on now.

FOr the price its a whale of a deal . But, maybe not a great first warbird or for someone only used to assembling H9 airplanes.

HOTROD TODD .I read you built a KMP 109 ..have you flown it yet ????????

Here are a couple pics of maiden day. These are post flight. If you look close , you can see the back of the spinner looks "FRAYED" .........well it is ........the spinner shook so violent it shreaded the backplate as it hit the firewall and the pilot turned around in his seat .....I had screw falling out all over.. [X(] Personally , I find the spinner to be the weakest link in this kit. As scalecraft said, the spinner being so big and complex is probally what keeps this plane from being modeled by other companies more as 109's are very popular aircraft.. Hopefully someone will come to the rescue with an aftermarket replacment.

RE: CMP BF109F BUILDING THREAD
 

Yeah I had a cerimonial dump trip the other day.... gone is the bag that was the me109.... now building this one http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_8439357/tm.htm much better quality!

RE: CMP BF109F BUILDING THREAD
 

the tail and rudder setup on the p51 would work well on this plane

RE: CMP BF109F BUILDING THREAD
 

It appears we all agree that the spinner provided by CMP is probably the worst part of this kit, with the supplied linkage taking a close second. And yet it is what makes the greatest impression when you first set eyes on the plane; it is a key feature of the plane's silhouette. I would have gladly paid a few bucks more for a decent spinner that will not disintegrate at first opportunity.

That said, has anyone found a "drop in" replacement spinner for this animal that will not require a second mortgage? I tried David Platt but his spinner requires the propeller cut outs to be done by the purchaser, not a big deal if you have the ability to do such a task. But for someone with two left thumbs like me, it is nearly impossible. I would have to buy half a dozen spinners before I got it right; great for Mr. Platt, but pocket draining for me. I asked if he would do it even for an additional charge and he wanted no part of that.

Has anyone found a spinner for this kit that comes with the cut outs already done that is of the correct diameter? I tried looking on TruTurn's web site but did not find any made specifically for the ME-109; I did see a large selection for P-51's though - popular model that one.

Looks like the ME-109 is the red headed step-child of the spinner world.

RE: CMP BF109F BUILDING THREAD
 

Yes , the SPINNER is a big part of the Bf109 whole look . I'm sure is cause of the lack ARF kits of this model. I once read the Bf109 was THE most modeled plastic-kit airplane , even more than a Spitfire or Mustang.

You should contact Darrell at Sierra Giant scale and encourage him to make a spinner. He has the dimensions, and has made 109 spinners in another size before. He indicated to me he was going to turn some Alum CMP 109 spinners. But, I'm sure he wants to have many requests before proceeding ...So I think he maybe the best hope for an ALUM CMP109 spinner in any volume. He made up the KMP and CMP retracts for the 109.

RE: CMP BF109F BUILDING THREAD
 

Fearless,

Thanks! I am actually planning on ordering the retracts on Tuesday; I spoke to him earlier this week and he said he was finishing up a new batch of the retracts. I'll ask him about the spinner when I call to order them. Alas, there may be hope!

I hope some one at CMP is reading this thread. It is probably getting them more exposure to this model than any of their advertisement. Advertisement that I have never seen by the way. They should use what they read about here to make ther product a bit more appealing to the discerning modeler (discerning - thats my $20 word of the day).

I don't remember how I came across this thread, but after reading through about 6 or 7 pages I was hooked! I was never really a fan of the 109 but this kit is very appealing to the eye and made me a fan. The amount of detail is impressive and with a little extra effort one could a really outstanding plane. It took less than four days from the time I started reading this thread, till I had the darn thing ordered.

I am very impressed with some of of the work being done by some of the more talented builders. It gives me chills when I think about hacking away at the fuse, or re-engineering the controls the way some of you have. My hats off to you guys, keep up the great work.

I hope to read about some more maiden flights in the near future. I know the weather has been rough on the guys that live up here in the Northern part of the country like I do. The weather will become milder in the next couple of weeks offering more opportunities to enjoy the hobby.

Until next time, that's all for now.

RE: CMP BF109F BUILDING THREAD
 

My Saito 1.5 with Perry VP-20 installed.

Second pic shows the plumbing, the fuel line that goes off the pic goes to the tank.

Third pic, shows the ½ x 3/8 maple that I ran from the annular ring to the firewall. Then I covered that and what was left of the original soft wood setup with 1/8 marine ply. I then foamed the entire assembly to tie it together. Notice the gouge in the side of the foam for the fuel lines feeding the pump.

Pic 4, shows the engine mounted and all the fuel tubing. Notice the formost bulkhead fittings in the upper left. I can hook the fuel tank overflow to the muffler, but I will put another “T” in the line just before it goes on the muffler fuel barb.

RE: CMP BF109F BUILDING THREAD
 

Pic 5, the throttle servo is a futaba 3101, the white strip is wing seating tape, I added a second peace of wing seating tape on the bottom of the servo after the pic was taken. The plate is the mount for the servo with tie wraps through holes in the lt ply.

Pic 6, is the servo attached to the lt ply.

Pic 7, is the back side of the servo mount.

Pic 8, shows the compressed wing seating tape.

Pic 9, shows the spacer of ½ in balsa and some cross grain pop cycle sticks.

RE: CMP BF109F BUILDING THREAD
 

Pic 10 & 11, shows the T servo in place.

RE: CMP BF109F BUILDING THREAD
 

Paladin, you should move that servo out of the engine bay, too hot too much vibration to be safe,

RE: CMP BF109F BUILDING THREAD
 

My First flight has been completed! I'll post a complete write-up with some photos tomorrow. Here's some field photos taken before the flight.

RE: CMP BF109F BUILDING THREAD
 

Mr. Todd,

Congratulations on your first flight! I have a question; where did you get the spinner for your plane? It doesn't look like the stock spinner.

Cesar

RE: CMP BF109F BUILDING THREAD
 

Congrats hot rod, we gona here about that first flight?

snappa, i,ve been doing this for 25 years with out a problem. here are some pictures of planes with servo's right next to the engine.

Joe

RE: CMP BF109F BUILDING THREAD
 

First Flight Report

Well I finally had a fairly nice day here in Iowa so I decided to get the BF-109 into the air and see how she flies. It was a clear day with a bit of cross wind, maybe 8 or 9 mph, temperature around 60. I had run the OS 1.60 through one tank at home and it ran fine so I didn’t figure much more break in was needed. It started up with a flip of the prop and was running fine. I found that the low end was quite a bit rich, but since it was still breaking in I left it that way. Since I was running rich and had the stock tank I set the timer to 5 minutes for the maiden flight. I lined up on the runway and started to feed on some power. My narrow Williams bros. wheels seem to have a bit of drag on the fabric runway, and without the right amount of elevator I pulled the nose over as I powered up.

The Dave Platt spinner passed the first test and held up fine to a light nose over. I re-started the plane and was on the runway again, this time knowing to hold a bit more elevator until lift off. The 109 picked up speed fast even at partial throttle and jumped up a bit earlier than I would have liked. I quickly poured on the power and it easily climbed out without any waggle of the wings. I pulled up the gear and brought it around to see what I had on my hands. I noticed right away that I needed a bunch of up trim on the elevator to fly level, backwards from all other CMP ARF’s I have built. A little trim on the aileron and it was flying hands off. Checking out the flight controls it appeared that my settings for high and low rate on the ailerons were about right. I like it scale on low rate and a bit sporty on high. The elevator also seemed pretty good, but I didn’t want to test it too much until I got a better feel for the plane. A quick inverted flight found that it took just a bit of down elevator to hold it, indicating the CG was in the ball park. I slowed it down a bit and tried the flaps to see how they would feel on landing. My rich engine did not give me a sense of security, so I did not want to mess around at low throttle too long and risk a dead stick. I noticed that at full flaps (with the “brakes” up a bit) the plane seemed to slow well but went into some kind of weird wing waggle. It may have been due to the turbulence from the brakes on the tail combined with the speed that they were engaged. It felt different enough that I decided to land with flaps only and hold off on the brakes until the next flight. By turning the variable knob on my radio to the center point beep I know I get flaps only with little brake action.

Since I had a couple minutes left I thought it was time to pour on the coal and do some low passes. Even with the new engine set rich the 109 really moves out. I’m guessing I was close when I figured the 17X10 prop would pull it around at about 120 mph. At full speed the controls felt rock solid with no indication of flutter. My buddy snapped a couple of photos, and I could tell right away that I would like flying this plane. The sound of the big OS combined with its speed and size make it a thing of beauty while screaming down the runway. It was getting to be time to land, so I dropped the Sierra retracts and brought it around. I backed off the throttle on the backstretch and added flaps as it slowed down. As I approached the runway I backed off to idle and brought it in for a smooth landing. The speed did not burn off quickly though, and I used a bunch of runway. Looking at the photo of the landing I did not really have much flap engaged which explains that difficulty slowing down. Once I touched down I went to full flap/brakes and was able to make the turn before the end of the runway. I taxied it back in and was very happy with the first flight.

It was getting late, but I had time for another flight. The second takeoff was much more scale and with the elevator trimmed I had little trouble preventing a nose over and getting the plane up to speed before lifting off. At this point I am happy with the CG and don’t think any changes are needed. The flight was uneventful and I had a bit more time to really enjoy the look of the plane as it screamed by. For landing I cranked up full flap/brakes this time and it really slowed well. I backed off the throttle and the still rich running engine finally quit over the runway. I kept it coming in fairly steep since I no longer had the pull of the 17X10 pitch prop, and it dropped in a bit quicker than I would have liked. The sierra struts absorbed the landing without a problem and it actually looked pretty smooth. I’ll lean up the low end a bit for the next outing and should have no problems bringing it in with full flaps/brakes.

Well that’s about it. I was pleasantly surprised at how well the plane handled. Considering the weight of the plane it felt good and did not do anything unexpected. I did not really get a chance to test the stall characteristics since the rich running engine did not allow me to back off with confidence, but during both landings it seemed rock solid as it slowed up. I bought plenty of glow fuel this year, because it looks like I’ll be running a bunch of it through the big 1.60.
Here are a couple photos from the flight.

RE: CMP BF109F BUILDING THREAD
 

Hot rod, that’s a great report!

I see you did some touchups on yours, Chevrons, what paint did you use? Did you paint over the “8” or did you peal it off? If you pealed it how(ie heat, water, a reducer)?

Joe

RE: CMP BF109F BUILDING THREAD
 

Todd,

Thanks for the report. What CG did you use?. And what throws did you use? The recommended throws in the manual?

Used already a lot of your input. Hope to maiden my plane next week.

Regards,

Eric Schumacher, Netherlands.

RE: CMP BF109F BUILDING THREAD
 

I took the "8"s off using Acetone. It worked for me, but I would recommend you are careful when you do it and clean off the acetone very well after your done. Chevron's are ultracoat white ironed onto black vinyl graphics at low temp, then cut around the edge and stick them on. Coated everything with Polyurethane when done. CG is the front of the recommendation I believe. For the throws I think I used the recommendations for medium then added a high and low. Med and high seemed to be about right. I took off in high elevator to make sure I can keep the tail from coming over as I power up.

RE: CMP BF109F BUILDING THREAD
 

"It gives me chills when I think about hacking away" I cant get to my BF109 because i am still hacking at my CMP Fw190 lol:D

Hot rodd todd , congrats on the maiden , the spinner looks great , look like it fits perfactly

RE: CMP BF109F BUILDING THREAD
 

You really have a nice plane. I just got my retracts in, today.

Where did you buy your front wheels and what size are they?

Bert

RE: CMP BF109F BUILDING THREAD
 

As shown on post #212 of this thread they are 3 3/4" Williams bros. golden age wheels. I ordered them strait from Williams bros. It takes a bit of modification to get them to fit inside the wing.

RE: CMP BF109F BUILDING THREAD
 

Hi All

Paladin, I am interested in your use of expanded foam in and around the motor mount. I plan to use a Moki 1.8 in a CMpro 72' P51 and am worried about engine vibrations .

Did you use the foam as an engine vibration reducer/absorber? Is that it's main purpose ? If so, can you gauge how effective it is ?

Thanks,

Cheers,
Merlin Man.

RE: CMP BF109F BUILDING THREAD
 

Merlin, the purpose of the foam is to create an I beam of two unassociated structures. In the case of the EM I’ve created two D sections (one on either side of the engine). With the EM and ply on one side and the fuse glass on the other. The further apart the stress bearing members are the stronger the assembly/unite. I added 2.5oz of liquid foam and took more than half of it away.

The other advantage is if the assembly still is moving ( the foam is failing) I get foam saw dust when I clean up the model long before the structural failure.

While nothing on airplanes “absorbs” vibration. This will provide a large area for the engine vibration to be transmitted to the frame eliminating stress concentrations.

Joe

RE: CMP BF109F BUILDING THREAD
 

Hi,

Thanks for that Paladin,I will certainly try this . Incidently, what can be used to fuel proof the surface of the foam? Epoxy resin?

Cheers,
Merlin Man.