Hisham

Guys take a close look at the Mig that is built by

Ken Loftin Hattiesburg, Ms Pinebelt RC

http://akmodels.bizland.com/akmplanes.htm

Lots of modifications on this one....
Guess my plans are for this one!
Regards
H

Blade47

Hi Mr.H

I think that may be the SU27 in that picture ... I may be wrong?

Pete

hattend

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Pete, it's not just you. My aft top sheet was too narrow, also (thought I mentioned that either in an email or chat...oh well)

Don

hattend

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Yep, Ken's picture is of the SU27. I took a look at the plans in my SU27 box to see if I could get some ideas for rounding the LERX on my MiG29 but unfortunately the whole constuction of the LERX is different. If I had the urge, I could probably rig up something but I really don't want to cut everything up, now.

Don

Blade47

Hmmm come to think on it now you did tell me about the gap .... oh well ... sometimers coming into play ... ... what do you think on the Tri stock on the fins and fuse sides?

Pete

hattend

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The tri-stock reinforement looks really nice.

Your clean building board embarrasses me...LOL

Don

Blade47

Yeah but you should see what's on the outside of the picture

Pete

hattend

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Here is the modification I did to wing ribs W2-W4. On the upper pairs the original ribs are on the bottom, on the lower pair the original is on the top.

I moved the gear block location back about 3/4" because I plan to balance the plane a little further aft than the plans show. I'm basing this on flight reports and videos of the plane flying.

I also added a little more ply and made the ribs a little thicker to absorb a hard landing better (after all, I am moving the CG back so I'm a test pilot ) I wanted the landing loads to be spread out a little more...up to the spars instead of having three 3/32" ribs take all the force.

Overkill? Maybe but what the heck...

I'm also going to be moving the aileron servo one bay further out onto the wing to better balance the aileron hook up. Needed? Not really, but I want to lessen any risk of flutter.

None of these modifications are a reflection on Alex' design of the kit. As I said at the start of this build, I like to do things the way I am comfortable with. The MiG build so far has been very enjoyable and I can't wait to start on the SU27.

Don

Blade47

Don!

I know you have your fuse about 95% done but here are three gotchas I found that you may be able to correct ( you may not have these ones).

First pic is of the Fin at the bottom of the fuse ...if you go by the plan you will have to cut the bottom outside plank so that you can see all of the bottom of the fin ...BUT .... If you do then ... when you flip the fuse bottom side up you will find that the fin DOES not go all the way to the bottom and it leaves a 1/8" space .... so you can see I had to add to bottom of the fin in order to match the fuse.

OK my mistake ... on page 11 Alex does give instruction to fill the gap under the fin ... [] my apology.

Second pic is of the Tangs? that stick out the back of F8.... when you get to the part of the build that you add and glue the stab you may be VERY tempted to Glue the Tangs to the stab ..... DON'T .... you will find on the page further past the gluing of the stab that you are to CUT them OFF.... In my pic you will see that I had to use 1/16" spacer just to line up my stab ....and was about to glue it ...when I felt for some reason that the spacer was wrong and looked ahead a page and found where is says to CUT them off.....

Third pic is again the outside bottom of the fuse and in this case I have already repaired a small mistake ... as you work with the formers and side the OBF and glue into place you will find that it will round up at the front BUT because I didn't see the bottom of the fuse the bottom plank didn't not glue even with the side..... had to cut and redo ... turned out OK.

Have fun ...... I am

Pete

Blade47

Almost done ...well the building part.... need to finish the top of the wing and then...... A LOT of sanding to do..... Here is a pic with a new Evolution 1.0NX in the nose ....Had to extend it 1/4" to get it to fit well.

Pete

Hisham

http://www.hostultra.com/~migalley/mig29_pictures2.html

hattend

My Feedback: (20)

So Pete,

Did you cut the left side off your plane or is that just a trick of the flash?

I have both wings done and sheeted on top. Working on the servo mount and landing gear. I probably could have finished up the wings yesterday but I had a plumbing problem that was flooding my bathroom and then I had to go bottle beer (of course)

I am not going anywhere for Thanksgiving (Nov 25th) so I may have the wings joined and ready to attach to the fuselage by the weekend (yeah, sure) Then it's LERX time! Woohoo!

Looking good, Pete
Don

Blade47

Update!

Just the engine humps to do and the main building is completed. Aaaargh then the final sanding to do. The kit has been fun to build over all with a few of my own modes and building techniques along the way.

Hmmmm the covering ( I will be using Ultra-coat ) is going to take some time to do ..a lot of 90 and shapes to cover but before I get to that part I still may try and do some thing with the LERX to round them out.

Pete

hattend

My Feedback: (20)

I am sheeting the bottom of the wing now. I have the gear mounts in and the servo hatches all framed in. I am putting the bottom sheet on by wrapping it onto the leading edge instead of butting it up against it. This will help help strengthen it, in my opinion, by having a lot more surface area that is glued.

The instructions say not to sand/form the leading edge as it sets the washout. That may apply for the top but the bottom can be sanded down and wrapped as it isn't involved in setting the washout. If I was to do this plane again (probably will... at some point) I will figure out a better way to set the washout without the leading edge being involved so I can wrap both sides.

Pete, you're way ahead of me but we'll probably fly on the same day (first warm day after snow melt

Pics to come later

Don

Blade47

Well I finished ALL the sanding this weekend. It seems to have come out to abut 3 3/4 Lbs to 4 with out hardware other then the two control rods for the ailerons ...not bad at all.

With the new Evo 1.00 NX spinning a 14x6 I should get about 15. something Lbs thrust ,,, which should make for about a 2 to 1 ratio

Pete

Blade47

Hmmmm Maybe I am building a Rocket? Well the bottom is done ... but oooh what ajob to do ..over all about 9 hours to do the bottom and ONE full roll of grey.

Now for the top of the wing and the fuse.

Don ? any pics yet?

Mr H? any pics yet of your build?

Pete

hattend

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Well, I just got back on the satellite and I really haven't been doing much on the plane other than some rough sanding.

I hope to get some pics posted soon. But it has to show something interesting first...LOL

Your MiG is looking really good, Pete.

Don

Hisham

Guys
I am a bit slow .... Cause lots of work !!
However, this is my progress....
Have sheeted the right wing and still
didn't decide on engine....
Will be using mechanical retarts!
Enjoy
Hisham

hattend

My Feedback: (20)

Cool. Pete and I will be tackling the SU27 next so it's good to see your work in progress.

Don

Blade47

Nice work there Mr H .. what engine are you going to use?

Pete

Blade47

HI Mr Cwesh.

You having any luck getting you MIG back in the air for Christmas? Would be great to get a flight report on how it flies after your mode to the nose.

I was going to ask you if the C/G is between the 6 to 8.5 range you would have better control all way around the MIG?

Pete

cwesh

Hi All,

Got the plane finished. Flew it last weekend and it is still in one piece! That Mag 1.08 does make it get up and go! (And the engine is not fully broke in yet!)

Right now I have the CG at ~5" behind F4, I think, any way it is about 1" aft of the CG point indicated on the plans. It flies like it is a bit nose heavy. Elevator reponse is not that good. I do have the throws set for max amount of throw, and while it handles good, it does not respond like I would prefer. (Caution! I like "responsive" planes!) It loops fine. Rolls are not a problem, I did cut down the aileron throw, it would roll quite fast. I will try to measure what my throws are tonight and post them here. (Aileron, Elevator)

The landings I did required almost full up elevator to hold the nose up a bit, to allow it to slow down to land. Still a bit fast on landing. Right now I am not sure if I could even get the plane to stall at the 5" CG point.

At the current CG setting, the plane is very stable. If it wasn't for the elevator response concern, I would be very happy with it as is. The next thing I am going to try before moving the CG is to play around with mixing flaperons with elevator to see if that helps with pitch control. I have some mixes set up so I can turn that mixing on and off, don't want to "have a problem" too close to the ground! If that does not work, I am going to move the CG back 1" and test again. (repeat as necessary!)

Speed: It is not a fast plane, as least it is not as fast as my G.P. F-14. Of course the F-14 does buzz along at 120 mph+ (That one has retracts!) I would estimate it to be in the 90 mph area. Still a good speed.

Rebuild Summary:

I stripped off the old covering (Painted Coverite) and rebuilt the nose. The firewall was installed 1.5" further back, since I was stuffing in a Magnum 1.08 in it. New nose installed and covered with UltraKote this time. The prop ended up .75" further back, since the Magnum is longer than the Tower .75 I had in it before. Running a 13x8 APC on it now, 12x7 on the .75.

Weight: This is where it got interesting. I thought the plane originally ended up at 8.75lbs. One lead brick coming up! At the time all I had to weight it was a 10lb spring food scale, not accurate at all. Now that I have a digital scale, I was really off! It used to weight 9.75lbs! No wonder it didn't want to fly on a .75! During the rebuild I weight the covering I took off. It weighed 18.3 oz! The ultrakote I put on weighed about 5.6oz. Nice loss of 12.7 oz! Now add in the increase in engine weight and the plane now weights 9.25lbs, a net loss of 8 oz. Not sure how one can build one that weighs 7.50lbs with all the 1/4" wood used. I have a Great Planes F-14 that is about the same size, but it's construction is a lot lighter and it still weighs 7.25lbs. Of course one hard hit and the F-14 is done, where the Mig will just smile at ya and keep going.

Attached are some pics of the plane as it is now. Took these last night.

Enjoy!

hattend

My Feedback: (20)

It looks really nice, Chuck! Wow!

Are you going to do the 1" CG move all in one shot or in 1/4" increments?

I have GOT to get to work on mine again in earnest, you guys are making me jealous. I hate being slow. Hard to believe I used to throw a kit together in a few weeks when I was a kid, now if I do 2 planes a year I'm speeding. Must be a free time thing

Don

cwesh

Since I have flown the plane at 6.5", the first move will be 1". After that we will see!

Later!

cwesh

Rechecked the CG and throws:

CG is currently at 4 7/8" back from the aft side of F4. It will take 6.7 oz of lead to move it to 6"

Aileron throw is 3/8" at the tip and 3/4" at the root each way
Elevator is 1 1/8" each way
Rudder is 1" each way.

Just the like the instructions call for, now how did I manage to do that?

Later!