Chad Veich

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Thanks Gianluca!

Chad Veich

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Progress has been slow on the Hellcat as my brother and his wife recently sold their house and he has been doing some minor renovations so that they can finalize the sale. I have been completely inundated with other work which has kept me out of the shop much of the time. We did get a little work done on the new horizontal stab which was turning out very nicely. I say was because I discovered an error today that is going to result in me having to design and build a third horizontal stab! A somewhat embarassing development which I'm only sharing to illustrate some of the pitfalls of designing what we hope will be a competition level model. We had completed the stab up to the point of adding the tips which I was doing today when I noticed that it seemed much too fat. Sure enough comparing my stab with the scale drawings indicated that I did not have near enough taper (as viewed from head on) to match the full size. I assumed that the horizontal stab used the same airfoil from root to tip, as does every other airplane I have ever designed, but that is not the case with the Hellcat. I will now be designing yet another stab, this one with the proper progressive airfoil section. You can be sure I will be very certain to pay attention to the drawings from here on out!

I did make some progress on the vertical fin which, thus far, appears like it will work nicely as designed!

Luft-Gangster

Never apologize for the persute of <u>Ultamate Perfection.
</u>Just<u></u>my 2c worth. Your designs are always at the leading edge.
Keep up the good work!!!

Chad Veich

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Thanks for the encouragement and the kind words Luft, much appreciated.

Ram-bro

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Chad, love your work. Since you are truely going the scale route on this model, will it have the "Tail Down" flight attitude that the full size had? What in the full size contributed to that?

frequent flyer

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If you make a cowl plug and send it to me I'd be happy to make your molds and parts. I also would like to build one of those birds. Perhaps we can work out a trade parts for parts or something.

Chad Veich

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Thanks a bunch for the compliment Ram. I guess I never really noticed that the Hellcat drug its tail in flight but now that you mention it I guess it does kind of appear that way. I'm using the scale thrust and incidence angles, which is what would contribute to that appearance on the real airplane, so my model should exhibit the same attitude in flight.

Hi frequent flyer and thank you very much for your kind offer. I have a good friend who does my mold making and produces the parts for my designs but if he is unable to do so for the big Hellcat I will certainly keep you in mind. He's a pretty busy guy so I will speak with him and find out if he will be able to accomodate me or not.

AB Bob

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...Sierra retracts, DaVinci Maching wheels, Robart tail wheel retracts, LASER cutters !!! [X(] Man, you have more in just some of the components than I have in most of my planes! LOL
Hey, but I can still look, learn and DROOL! Ya, I'm jealous...
This is getting good.
Bob

Chad Veich

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Thanks for checking in AB Bob. While it may appear as though we have invested a great deal of money in the project appearances can be deceiving. The Sierra main gear came with another project that we purchased from the classifieds right here at RCU at a significantly reduced price. I sold off the rest of the package but kept the main gear for this project. The robart tail wheel unit was gifted to me by a friend for doing some CAD design work. The DaVinci wheels I actually won as part of a magazine promotion! First time I ever won anything. That was one of the main reasons this project was pushed to the front burner, because we kind of stumbled into all the necessary components by accident!

Chad Veich

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Geez, has it really been more than three weeks since we found time to work on the big Hellcat?!! Technically I guess not since I had to design and laser cut the parts for the revised stab in that time. However, we were finally able to get out into my brother's shop for a couple hours and actually put glue to wood. Stab number three is now framed up and ready for the top sheeting. Obviously I never intended to build this thing three times but I'm very happy with the way this one is turning out. I have incorporated a few design changes into it which have made it both stronger and simpler to build straight and true. Hope to get it an the vertical fin/rudder assemblies pretty much finished up this week so we can get back to the fuselage.

Ram-bro

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Chad. Iam almost thinking that a Hellcat stab would be big enough to house a couple servoes........

Chad Veich

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Pretty sure they would fit no problem Ram. I want to keep all the linkages internal on this one but I'm sure it would not be a problem to put the servos in the stab for builders who were so inclined. Just got to remember that every ounce in the tail means five or six up front.

Chad Veich

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Deleted, playing around with picture uploads!

Chad Veich

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A bit more progess this weekend. Got the top of the stab sheeted, pulled it up off the board and broke free the jigging tabs, put it in a saddle and got the hinge blocks installed, and then managed to get the remainder of the sheeting on the bottoms of the elevators and half the stab. Hope to get the last bit of sheeting on the stab today and will then move on to getting the leading edges, tips, and hinges installed. The tips of the stab need to be hollow in order to accept the radiused leading edges of the elevators for a scale hinge so, for that reason, I plan to lay up the stab tips in fiberglass. I think that is about the best way to get to get a scale appearance and still have some strength in what will be a very thin edge.

Pic 1 - Top sheeting on. Here you can see the dotted lines cut by the laser which allow the jig tabs to be easily snapped off. Note the strip between the stab and elevator which is not sheeted. This area will be completely removed to make way for the scale leading and trailing edges that make up the scale hinge pocket.


Pic 2 - Here the stab has been removed from the building table and the jig tabs all snapped free of the structure. Just needs a bit of block sanding to level everything out.


Pic 3 - Balsa blocks installed to carry the scale hinges and then the bottom sides are sheeted. Please note that the stab is resting in a saddle which maintains accuracy while doing the sheeting. This saddle will be included on the plans and as part of any kit that may be offered. Also note that I have seperated the elevators from the stab prior to sheeting the bottoms. Not necessary but it was easier to work with the smaller sub-components in my opinion. To each their own here.


Slow but sure!

Chad Veich

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Making slow but sure progress on the stab.

First picture is of a nearly completed elevator. Just need a couple of short sections of leading edge and the trim tab.

Second pic is a look at how I am building up the hinge pocket using tri-stock balsa. The tri-stock has been lowered by 1/32" to allow for a plywood gap seal and then it is sanded to a radius to allow for the elevator leading edge. You can also see the plywood hinge anchors which will probably be replaced with new ones made from G10.

The last pic shows the elevator and stab joined with the hinge pin and the gap seal taped in place to get a feel for the final look.

Luft-Gangster

Looks great Chad! If this is a reflection of any of your previous designs I would like to get a copy. Let us know what it would require.
Thanks
Leroy

p 40

very nice Chad!!!!!!!!

Edwin

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Subscribed! Cant say anything that hasnt already been said.
Edwin

Chad Veich

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Thanks guys and welcome to the thread!

Chad Veich

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Have not had a great deal of time to work on the Hellcat due to a looming deadling on an architectural model but the horizontal is slowly nearing completion. At this point both elevators are basically finished with the exception of some final filling, sanding, and shaping. The 1/32" plywood gap seals have been added to the stab as well as the leading edges which still require final shaping. Next step will be the stab tips which will be molded from glass and then a wire joiner/control arm for the elevators. Oh, and I still need to work up the missing trim tab. Onward and upward!

glazier808

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Oh boy....something to chase my Zero's with....nice job Chad.

Casey

Edwin

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Uuuhh! How about something for your Zero to chase! We have several allied fighters in our club, I'm looking into a FW190 and Zero for next year. A buddy and I used to do dog fights with his axis and my allied. Tons of fun and the other guys loved it.
Edwin

Chad Veich

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You want me to chase your Zero's around with my Hellcat or you want to build a Hellcat of your own and chase yourself around? Can you even do that?!!

wingstrut

Chad, the Hellcat looks great, my flying buddy and I are eager to purchase a couple as soon as they are put on the market.
You are on the right trail by designing a 1/6 scale version, we have discussed about the 80 inch one and the 96 inch one, and for many reasons we both agree that the 86 inch version is the one that we want and is more practical for our needs. The fact that you are going through the build with us and the problems that you are running across and noting the changes makes me appreciate the effort that you are going through to make this a world class kit.
So all that I can say is .......BUILD FASTER!!!......Just Kidding Chad..........I'm sure it will be worth the wait................Ron

Chad Veich

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Thanks for checking in Ron. I wish there was something to update but other priorities as well as the Holidays really put the brakes on. It did not help that my brother purchased in ECOMRC Bulldog to "quickly" put together in order to have something to fly. We should have that one wrapped up within a couple of weeks and then maybe the big Hellcat will get some love again. Stay tuned...