drmikie

Gents,

Finally finished the construction phase!!! This is the all composite version. I put in two Fuji BT24 gassers (copied F82FAN). Even with these heavy engines I had to add 680 grams of lead in the nose. It weighs in at a heafty 33.2 lbs.!!!

I was concerned about the excessive play in the gen V retracts so I drilled out and tapped two holes in the flat locking part and put in two set screws. They no longer wobble. I also replaced the springs in the gear with much heavier duty springs. As supplied, the gear were bottoming out.

Going out for engine run in and some taxi testing. Should be flying shortly.

Dr. Mike

F82FAN

My Feedback: (10)

Nice job, Doc.
That is one beautiful bird.
THat gear mod is exactly what KMP should have done from the get-go.
You must not have as big of batteries up front as I do (5-cell, 4000Mah NiMh X2), plus my gun-nose weighs more than your glasser does - even with the scale mods.

33lbs will take more throttle to keep going, but those Fuji's are up to it.
I am running 9" of pitch on my 3-bladers and it settles into a groove nicely at 3/4 throttle.

Take off at half-flaps or she will run for a LONG time!

Wally

nemesis4u

My Feedback: (77)

F82FAN , drmikie, et al...

His ALL COMPOSITE B-25 weighs more also due to the all composite wing.. it weighs in more than a balsa wing version!

CHEERS!

TOMAS
VQ WARBIRDS

mjjolley

Wally,

You're making me want a B-25! Here's a little more inspiration...

http://www.fox24.com/news/local/fox-.../44200697.html

Matt

F82FAN

My Feedback: (10)

Job well done Matt. They finally found a newsman that knows the diff between a Learjet and a C-150!!!
I'm proud to say "I know that guy"!
Thanks for the pats. Theres a guy here on RCU that has his up for sale

BTW... LOVE the tie. [8D]
Props forever.

Wally

mjjolley

I'm seriously considering one... I sold my Wing B-25 several years ago and have been missing it. What a nice bunch of airplanes! You guys are really doing a nice job!!

Matt

F82FAN

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WE never got an update on the Pitts maiden, did we???

F82FAN

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This would scratch that itch nicely...

http://www.rcuniverse.com/market/item.cfm?itemId=511093

Wally

Eldher

Well, she's complete, minus a final inspection. Planning to mainden tomorrow, but forecast is for rain
So, we'll see if it comes to pass or not.

Below you can see her on the balance stand. 85mm with gear up. She sits pretty

Say, Dr. Mike, your's is looking great.
Is that the default paint scheme for the composite or did you redo yours completely?
And how'd you set up your CG?

drmikie

Eldher13,

The decals were for the Apache Princess. I got a set decals of the old KMP version Heavenly Body. I also made several decals. I repainted the engine cowls and vertical stabilizers. The reason I wanted the Heavenly Body scheme is that I live spitting distance from the real Heavenly Body. I have invited the owner and pilot out for the mini Heavenly Body flight and they have reciprocated. I should be able to post photos shortly of the big and little Heavenly Body together.

The CG was set with gear up and 85mm from the leading edge.

Photos of the both........

Eldher

DrMike,

Very nice. Thanks for the info.

Any idea when she'll fly?

drmikie

Eldher13,

I just got the engines tuned. I had it out to our field and did some taxi runs to center the nose wheel and reeve up the engines.
I am going out of town for a month, so I anticpate the maiden flight around June 15th or so.
I will post the video.

Dr. Mike

F82FAN

My Feedback: (10)

Bravo!!!
Best wishes on the maiden - I hope you beat the rain.
If you think she looks good on the balance stand, just wait till you fly her right past at full wail on the deck. You just have to remind your self to FLY - and not be a spectator -she's awesome.
Keep us posted.
Wally

mjjolley

Wally,

Are you planning on going to Bomber Field in September?

Matt

F82FAN

My Feedback: (10)

You bet!
The plan is to have all four of the girls there: B-25, T-cat, BF-110 and F-82
Terrific twins forever!!!

mjjolley

I can't wait! I just picked up my trailer today...

Matt

kahloq

Got a little more done on mine today. I was able to fit an extra large air tank from Robart in the plane under the nose gear with some dremel work. I won't have to worry about not having enough air
I did have to dremel out some of the glass area near where the stearing arm for the nose strut is. You can plainly see this. I had ot do it because a couple times, the pull/pull connectors got hung up on that area prevent the gear from retracting.

Eldher

Looking good. [8D]

Wondering, where are you thinking of putting your batteries? How many will you have? I'm using two 6v packs and they are both mounted under the nose gear.

kahloq

The batteries are already mounted. They are under the nose gear unit flush against the very front bulkhead. There are 3 batteries currently. 2x 6v 2700mah nimh for the rx and 1x 4.8v 1500mah nimh batt that will run the bomb drop servos. There will also be another battery to run a matchbox that will be powering the flap servos only, but havent mounted that yet. Want to wait on that one for balancing to see where it needs to go. I might parallel up another 4.8v 1500mah batt with the current one in there and have the flaps and bomb drop servos running off those two so I dont have to have a 3rd charge jack.

F82FAN

My Feedback: (10)

Getting close, eh K???
What nose art wil you be using?
Will we just have to "wait-n-see"???
thanks for the up-dates.

I flew The Dream a couple of times last weekend.
Woo Hoo - she is pure funness!

Just keep the power at least 30% on final with full flaps and you can land great every time.

PA757

Here is my Video I made at Top Gun!

Enjoy!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJS_9Xm-Y48

kahloq

Close is relative I guess. Sure I could possibly have the plane at the field this weekend doing engine tests, but its far from finished and I havent even clear coated it yet. In fact, I still have a good deal of paint work to do on smaller items before I allow the engines to actually be run while mounted. BUT, maybe by next weekend it'll be to a point where I can actually run the motors while mounted.

I just received my decals from Callie-graphics yesterday. Man they look nice and the entire lot I got done was only $33. The same amount of stuff I've had done by classicinsignia.com in the past was 3-4 times that price. Of course, maybe thats why their website is no longer working and hasnt for months.
If you need graphics....go see Callie
As for what nose art im using....well...its probably not a pinup that was actually used on a real B-25...but it does look like it could have been. I'll post pics of that when its time

F82FAN

My Feedback: (10)

I checked the web-site.
Here is the link.
http://www.callie-graphics.com/index.php
Looks like they do great stuff.
Thanks for the lead!
Wally

kahloq

A couple new pics. The tail gunner hatch thing brokenear one endwhen i was drilling the holes for the wood dowls at the front, hence why there is aluminum tape there. There is balsa support now glued underneath, but the aluminum tape smoothed out the visible fracture line. The piece will be repainted. The difference in shading between that piece and the horizontal stab is lighting only. In person, they match however, both pieces will get another coat regardless.

I also added additonal magnets at the back end for that tail gunner piece. The stock magents simply had very little pull and I highly doubt the part would have ever stayed in place even just for engine tests. They are rare earth magnets from hobby-lobby.com

kahloq

More pics. Got the wing tips basically done with servos/linkages all setup. The flaps are all on a matchbox and work great.
Now for some bad news. Like a few others, I put in a reversing y-harness for the rudders/nose stearing servo since the nose would turn opposite the rudders with a normal y-harness. Well......once that was all hooked up and I was testing things, the rudders worked fine, but they were quite jittery like the rx was being hit. The rx is 2.4ghz so its not being hit. This indicates that the reversing y-harness is taking a lot of RF noise(or creating it). The nose stearing servo never glitched nor was it jittery. So, one output lead of the reversing y-harness is bad. This is not the first reversing y-harness Ive had that acted this way and using a ferrite ring generally does not help much. Its an Expert brand reversing y-harness.
Ok...so..more bad news...........
When I was setting up the linkages for the flaps and ailerons today, the rudder servos were again going nuts jittering all over the place. I had already decided I would replace the reversing y-harness with another matchbox since I dont want to throw money at another reversing y-harness and it do the same thing. Well.....as I was getting the linkages for the flaps setup and adjusting the matchbox inputs for those servos, the rudder servos quit doing anything. They went hard over to the right and smoked. Thank Frackin God that this happened on the ground. Had the ruder servos never glitched or jittered initially and I get the plane to the field and then they decide to dothis once the plane takes off....well.....that would have been a very expensive crash to pick up having both rudders go full over one side.This is typical for me. Something mechanical or electrical goes wrong that has nothing to do with building skill. Ive lost a few planes to such mechanical/electricalfailures and people in our club just jump to conclusion that its something I could have prevented and am a poor builder or some such BS crap. Oh he's a bad pilot cuz he just crashed so and so plane. Uh huh. They dont care nor listen when you tell them actually what the cause was. *sorry* end of mini rant.

Anyhow.... both HS225 servos for the rudders are dead and now have to be replaced. Ho hum. Just another delay.

In the pics, you can see the flex-muffler pipes Im using. I routed all three together to one side to minimize oil residue all over the plane. Plus it looks cool having all three right next to eachother.