Starting my Duellist.
Wow. The wood blocks in this kit are nothing I've seen before. 1st laser cut kit for me and so far I like it. Its the Pica version and the wood quality seems excellent. Its also the most advanced kit as far a being a 'builders' kit. I guess I've become spoiled by Great Planes and Goldberg etc. Its basically a box of wood, a plan and a manual that says "build plane, cover and fly". Twinman and Will, forgive in advance what might be silly questions.

1) Dihedral. Very little I'm thinking. The dihedral brace they give you can be installed a couple ways with different results.

2) Flaps. I'm thinking from the 2nd rib to the 4th which would make them about 6" long finishing where the nacelle will start. What do ya think?


Here is a picture of my shop and the first bit of work.
Every year about this time I say goodbye to my table till spring.

Kirk:

On the Super Duellist we decided to put the flaps from #2 rib to #6 rib. BUT, since the SD is a modification of the Duellist Mk II it has more ribs than the Mk I, so you would then run them approx to rib #5, the first one outboard of the nacelles. By mixing them in as "Flaperons" you still have full control, and when in use as flaps the prop wash will have full effect. With the flaps as short as you proposed I doubt they would do much for you, and just add weight to the airplane.

The airplane is a low wing design, so for neutral characteristics upright and inverted it needs a bit of dihedral. As designed it's just about right. I'd leave it alone even if you do 0-0-0 the hard way by remounting the wing and stab.

One change I do like is adding shear webs to the spar to the rib past the nacelles, doesn't add a lot of weight but does add a lot of strength.

Bill.

ya, I'm gonna put in the shear webs.

Thanks for the advise on flaps. I'm unable to mix the flaps to the ailerons (quadra flap) with my 6xa-s so will have dedicated flaps that I can adjust the travel on but not mix to ailerons.
Going to use a separate servo for each aileron, engine and flap. (I think)

I'll keep posting as I go and am looking for all you double propeller heads wisdom.

I am glad to see I am not the only one that builds on the kitchen table.

Barry

Good project KIRKNIK. It's nice to see you started the thread right after you started. Please keep us posted with losts of pics as you go along. I'm also building twin with one servo per flap. Do you think you'll be using three Y-harnesses to do it? I'm wondering if I do that if it will cause too much current draw on one channell.

Thanks Damon.
Ya, I'm planning 3 "y" harnesses. I have used em before a couple times with no problem. Probably go to a bigger rx battery maybe 1600 mah or something like that.

I'll keep posting pics.

Well the wing frame is done. Turned out real good. Nice and straight and after a bit of careful sanding the leading and trailing edges are good.
Gonna stop here on the wing until the gear comes in so its not sheeted until after the gear is test fit and wheel wells are in. Anyone know if you can still get the pre-fab ones? Don't see em up here.
About the servo's I guess using 3 in each wing (aileron, flap and throttle) is the way to go. The flap one would have to be outboard of the nacelle I suppose? Anyone use only one servo for flaps in the centre of the wing and use plastic pushrods (nyrod) out to each flap?

Latest pic...........

Kirk:

Check the plan. The original used a single servo in the middle for both ailerons, you can still use onr there to operate both flaps. This would not allow flaperons, though. Two servos side by side, still in the center, would work the flaps and still let you have the flaperons.

The aileron servos are the ones that will be outboard of the nacelles.

Bill.

Kirknik,

I am using a single standard servo to operate my flaps. My flaps run from the fuselage to the nacelle. They DO slow the plane down and they DO cause the model to pitch up when deployed (therfore I have set up my Tx to mix in some down elevator to compensate). If I were to do it again, I would do as William suggested and extend them 1 rib bay beyond the nacelle (I'd probably connect the outboard section to the inboard section with a short but beefy torque rod. I would also increase the flap chord by about 1/4" to 3/8".

I'm still building but have pretty much as far as I can without the landing gear and its back ordered. Anyone know if there is a problem getting the B&D gear?

Anyway, tail feathers are built. Rudder is about 1 inch longer and taller than stock. Still very impressed with the quality of the wood, but the trailing edge bevelled stock was too short. Someone mentioned a lot of sanding and no $%##@&^% Nacelles are framed but cant finish until their on the wing and dont wanna sheet the wing until the gear is in.
Hey muucksmear, Re your last, the photo seems to show the trailing edge 'notched' to fit the fuse. Thats different from mine. Anyway, the wing bolts are right where the servo will have to go, but I would like to use one servo for flaps instead of separate ones on each wing. The servo for ailerons and throttle out in the wing is enough weight out there already. Any ideas?

As I mentioned earlier in this post, forgive what may be stupid questions. I have never even seen a twin, with the exception of a large and beautiful Mitchell, so kind of on my own here in the great white north. I can use the original location for the flap aileron servo for a flap servo but not if I extend the landing gear as the wheels would then be in the way.
As I'm building with 0-0-0 incedence instead of -2 on the engines, that should give me bit more prop clearance. I also agree that the nose gear becomes a problem with clearance anyway so may not be worth it to extend the mains one bay inwards.

I have 2 new OS AX.46's for this plane and they will want an 10 or 11 inch prop.
Think I can get away without extending the mains?
Our field has a paved runway so cutting grass with the props shouldn't be a problem. (on takeoff anyway)

Kirk:

I run Zinger 10x6 three blade props on most of my 40 and 46 engines.

Bill.

I gather you have no clearance problems but are your main gear legs longer than plan?

Got long legs Bill?

Kirk:

My legs are longer than some, I'm 6' 4" tall. But at the same time they are exactly the right length to reach from the ground to my crotch. Haw.

Regarding the planes, the Twin-Air has plenty of room stock for 11" props on grass, the Duellist 2/40 is marginal on grass, but OK on a paved runway. No problem with the 10" props. The 2/60 has no clearance problem unless you really go wild on prop diameter.

Bill.

Thanks Bill.

I'm 6'1" but need it to keep my head above the snow 6 months of the year.

Gosh! I'm under 6' (not to be confused with 6' under), but then again, as a tail dragger (not to be confused with dragging my butt), prop clearance is not an issue for me unless I nose over.

Kirknik, not sure what you mean by "'notched' to fit the fuse.". The photo shows the top surface of the wing center section, with centerline of the wing running from the upper left to the lower right of the photo. The short flap-like feature in the lower right is an access hatch for the switch which was mounted on the rear bulkhead above the wing saddle. You can see the root/LE portion of both left/right flaps at the bottom and right edges of the photo. My wing mounting bolts/holes are in the stock location. One of the holes is just visible behind the flap servo wire.

My standard sized flap servo is mounted on its side to acomodate the reduced thickness of the wing aft of the mounting holes. Unless you have other stuff located between the TE and the mounting holes, you could try to do the same.

No need to worry about the weight of your servos out in the wings.
A Bill mentioned, 3 bladers is a good way to improve your prop clearance. If you still don't have enough clearance, you can do what I did, and land really hard, once.
-E

Ok I get it. The part that threw me was this hatch aft of the torque rods. I thought that was the fuse and the flaps seemed to extend beyond this.

Bill, I'm 80" tall (or 203 cm, up here.) While my legs are also exactly the right length, it can get a bit expensive keeping them covered. Trousers with a 40" inseam are not cheap.

My old 2/40 ran a couple of 9x8 props quite well on a pair of Webra Speed .40's with tuned mufflers. Speedy little devil too. May she rest in peace (pieces?)

...jim

First fit together. Long way to go still. Pretty happy with results so far.
You can see the addition to the rudder i made and that I'm gonna mount the AX.46's on their side for a cleaner look.
Any guesses on how they balance out?
Think I saw somewhere they build nose heavy and if so I wanna make a movable tray for the battery in back to help balance.

I just ordered the Duellist Mk II. I am goind to try to scratch build one. This will be my first attempt at scratch building. It will be a challenge but I think I can handle it.

After a bit of delays I'm getting back to building. Wings are sheeted and gear and aileron servos are installed. Put em in sideways so just the arms will stick out. I extended the main gear about 2 inches for more clearance. Havent started on fitting the nose gear. Still very impressed with the kit and quality of the wood. "They just don't build em like this anymore". Thanks to Ledet and his post on scratchbuilding a Duellist. Big help and also an inspiration.

As you know, this kit takes a lot of sanding and then more sanding so notice my automatic sander that I've been working on for 9 years. Works pretty good too.

Kirk:

Looking good.

You did go with the B&D retract set?

Like your sanding robot too. How hard is it to program?

Haw.

Keep us posted. Sorry you're so far away, would be nice to have you down for one of our "Twinsane" meetings. Chattanooga Tennessee in July, Pensacola Florida in September.

Bill.

Thanks Will. Its seems very far away when you guys talk about what happened at your field today. Wanna know what happened at mine? NOTHING, cause there is 2' of hard pack snow on it.
Anyway, yes I did go with B&D. Seem real nice. A bit more cluncky than Robart but much more reasonabley priced.

The sander is an on going project. Works pretty good as a clamp at times too.

Looks nice!

Just getting ready to epoxy the nacelles in place and I'm worried about alignment. Any tricks out there?