Greenfields Eastern Model Soarers (GEMS)

HK 450 Helicopter for sale

2011-08-29T23:34:00.001+02:00

The heli bug bit me me last year July and I bought an HK450 to see what all the fuss with heli flying is all about. I quite keenly laboured in putting it together and…. that’s where it ended…
Apart from briefly firing it up to check blade tracking this heli has never flown!?I just don’t have the time to invest in the countless hours learning to fly it, crashing it, rebuilding it, flying it, crashing it… well you get the picture. So I’d rather part with it.

What you get is the following (click the hyperlinks to check it out on WiFly’s website):

Complete HK450 V2 kitted out with the following hardware

3 Hextronic HXT900 servos on the head
Turnigy DS480 servo on the tail rotor
Turnigy E500 6T 4000Kv 200W Heli Motor
TowerPro H40A ESC
Telebee/Turnigy Headlock Gyro

Extras include the following:

One “crash kit” (essentially a complete heli excluding the electronics)
Funky coloured spare canopy
Spare set of fibreglass blades
Spare Heli Pinion Gears 3.17mm shaft, 11t and 13t tooth
Pitch gauge

The instruction manual (actually a T-Rex manual, but identical)

All you need to do is fit your receiver, battery, check the setup and fly.

I paid R2,050.00 for it. Current replacement price is around R1,900.00 (go figure…).

Asking price: R1,500.00 (not negotiable, excludes postage and shipping, collection preferred, Kemptonpark). Interested buyers can phone Izak on 082 859 3453.

Below are some pictures.

Finally some action again

2011-08-29T08:14:00.002+02:00

After “hibernating” for a long while since the last post, I decided to kick off with updating the Corro Mig build with some pics of the final colour scheme and some feedback on the flying.

The Mig flew very well, apart from one issue when trying to loop… It would keep rolling out of the loop when it got to the top, no matter how fast I entered the loop….? I put it down to being slightly hamfisted when folding the wing. I applied too much pressure on the top skin and managed to slightly crush the flutes which caused a pronounced triangular shaped airfoil on one half of the wing. The uneven lift distribution apart from screwing up my loops also made the Mig roll better one way than the opposite way. A new wing has been added to the extremely long (and currently dormant…) list of building projects.

There has also been two new additions to this list recently, of which the first is a 6m Nimbus 4 for which I bought a fuselage from Mike May. This one is going to be a long build but hopefully should be done by the next Sungazer event…

The second addition is a Flying Fish 60” slope racer!! My “built-like-a-brick-outhouse” DS Toko really gets the juices flowing but only starts performing well when the wind goes 40kph+!!! The Fish is slighty smaller than the Toko but according to feedback from Herman Weber and Dave Greer is less than half the weight of my Toko. The chinese seems to be upping their game as the construction on this little gem looks on par with anything I’ve seen come from some big well known brands. This one will go together in a jiffy and should be ready to fly by the next slope trip, which can’t be soon enough….

Corro Mig – Part 8

2010-11-12T08:04:00.001+02:00

Yet another photo finish! These last minute slope projects are turning into a bad habit. But then I do work better under pressure...

Last night was occupied with most the remaining odd tasks to finish up this model and the repairs to the GWS Corsair and Blue Angels F18.

I had to finish half a 2 litre Coke in a hurry to obtain the material for the canopy but once again I’m chuffed with the end result. Pity I didn’t have a little bust figure to occupy it.

Initially I had a black and yellow scheme in mind but previous experience with the black vinyl lifting as soon as it caught a whiff of sunlight made me settle on my signature blue and yellow. I’ll add some black trim tape for flair.

Covering the fuselage is as far as I got before I ran out of time and imagination…

Time won’t allow another build update here before this baby hits the slope but I’ll make sure to take plenty before and after pics and report back next week

May the fickle wind gods smile upon us this weekend!

Corro Mig – Part 7

2010-11-11T09:24:00.001+02:00

Over the past two nights I picked up the pace on the build and spent less time taking pics throughout the process.

It went something like this: finish torque rods, join wings, work on Corsair repair while waiting for glue to dry, add hard wood bearers for servos, make cutouts, install servos, make carbon push rods, check setup and throws on radio, take picture, go to sleep and come back next evening to admire handy work. The end result is very satisfactory.

If you are used to the tight spaces typical of F3J/F3B models this fuselage is simply cavernous, swallowing up all the necessary bits and pieces with plenty of room to spare. This model should be the perfect platform for an electric power plant….

Hmmm, a Turnigy Park 480 should do nicely and I see they are only R185.00 from WiFly

The wing seat on the fuselage and the wing centre line join also received some doublers as reinforcement.

Next up on the to-do list was the elevator push rod. Nothing out of the ordinary here. Not being a fan of z-bends I opted for some decent clevises instead. Some wire and a 6mm dowel completed the setup.

Whilst trying to test the elevator I found the servo was dead….? I could have sworn I bought all four the GWS 2BBMG servos together but on closer inspection this one looked used and felt hot to the touch after leaving it on for a minute or so. Ah well, fortunately I won’t be needing a throttle servo….

All that remains to do now is to close up the aft fuselage bottom, balance the model and add a splash of colour. Oh, and a spinner to round off that square nose.

The spinner has already been crafted from some polystyrene. Paul Carnall suggested I try using a drill as a lathe, sticking a block of foam on a dowel and shaping it with some coarse sand paper. It worked like a charm. The secret is to use as high a speed as your drill can deliver and light pressure while sanding. And if you value the peace at home, DO IT OUTSIDE!!!

Corro Mig – Part 6

2010-11-09T07:33:00.001+02:00

One would have thought after 15 years of marriage I would have learned some skills from my highly organized wife by now, especially her planning skills……!! If I did then I would have had the rights parts for last nights build i.e. the correct length bicycle spokes for the aileron torque rods.

So the bulk of last night’s available building time was spent scratching my head and eventually manufacturing my own torque rods with some wire, brass tube and ball links. The only other option would have been to mount the servos further outboard with direct push rods but I don’t like the idea sticking unwanted bits in the airflow and creating weak spots in the wings where the cut-outs for the servos would have been.

For the inboard end of the torque rods I made use of some ball links lying around which were soldered to a short section of brass tube. The other end was soldered to the inboard 90° bend of the torque rod. These will be connected to the servos via small pushrods.
	The hardest and most delicate part of making the torque rod was putting the outboard bend in it without ripping the wing apart. This because it has to be done with the torque rod already installed and the wire I had is as hard as hell!! This bend fits into a second piece of brass tubing that was inserted into the flutes of the aileron.

The section of torque rod inside of the wing is supported on both ends by a 25mm section of plastic tube inserted into the flute to take up the slop. In the end I was extremely satisfied as the whole setup resulted in ZERO slop on the ailerons.

The two servo slots in the servo tray and the plan’s lack of indicating the rudder position had me puzzled once more. After speaking to my “consulting engineer” on the project, Gert Nieuwoudt :), I decided to not add a rudder on the model as it would only complicate matters of where to route and exit the push rod for the rudder, possibly weakening the fin and as Gert pointed out the model has a very short tail so the rudder would probably not have been as effective as I would have liked. Only after our conversation it dawned on me again that as this model was originally designed as a power combat plane the second servo position in the tray was for the throttle…… DOH!

Corro Mig – Part 5

2010-11-08T08:29:00.001+02:00

Although I didn’t get as far as I had hoped I would over the weekend, the Mig has progressed quite nicely. I’m running out of time though as there are still two other models that need some reconstructive surgery before the weekend…. And the trusty old Zagi is still naked after I had stripped it of its tattered pajamas.

	Putting the tailfeathers together is straight forward and the only deviation from the plans was to add the balsa triangle stock to keep everything square and give the glue more surface area to take on
The formers have been glued in here and the fuselage sides pulled in. Masking tape holds everything in place while the contact glue takes time to take hold. I still found the ends of the correx was lifting afterwards and tacked them in place with cyano.
	The original plans are for a gas model and had this cut-out up front to allow for engine installation. I blindly traced and cut the template and only afterwards realised that it isn’t required. So I decided to utilize it as the battery bay and made a little cover for it. Makes for a convenient location for lead should I need to add any to adjust the CG
Here the spar has been glued to the bottom of the wing. The leading edge fold needs to be creased only (not cut) and when the wife wasn’t looking I nicked her rotary pizza cutter for the job… Worked a charm!

And who can resist the mockup when the parts start taking shape?

The servos installed and the tray in position. There is a LOT of space in this fuselage… Next to go in are the push rods, switch harness and receiver.

Corro Mig – Part 4

2010-11-05T08:23:00.001+02:00

Part four got underway night before last but about 10 minutes in to my soul cleansing activities our dear Eskom decided that it’s bed time for me F#&$%!!!. Working in the proximity to sharp tools by candle light didn't appeal to me.
I managed to find some 8x3mm spruce (very scarce to find) and a sheet of 6mm AAA grade balsa from Airborne Passion at a princely sum. I must admit that at least it is very good quality wood, not the usual crooked and wavy stuff some hobby shops stock.
The shear webs were made by gluing 35mm strips of cross grain balsa end to end and then cutting the tapered profiles from this strip.
The spruce was glued with polyurethane wood glue and clamped to prevent distortion. Formers F5A & B were then glued in position on F5 as per the instructions.
Next up will be the making of the dihedral braces and I should be ready to start assembly then.

I’m starting to think I may have to sacrifice my flying this weekend just to be sure the project is completed on time. Rather safe than sorry

Corro Mig – Part 3

2010-11-03T07:14:00.001+02:00

More dust! After doing some “on the sly” outline shaping on a bench grinder at work yesterday (yes, I know it’s not the right tool for the job…) all that remained on the formers was to finish the cut-outs. Drilling big access holes first allowed the sanding drum on the dremel to make short work of this task.

Now the dihedral ply braces for the spars remain to be made. Only thing is, I couldn’t find any damn plywood stock, although I’m sure I had some…. The liteply used for the formers won’t be up to the task. Just the right excuse to visit the hobby shop today I guess.

The main spar also calls for a 5mm yardstick to be used, something you don’t find in hardware shops anymore. I also don’t look forward to cutting this from a hard wood so started thinking about other options. Speaking to Paul Carnall he suggested making a spruce capped vertical grained balsa shear web spar, so the shopping list for the hobby shop grows.

The above pic shows the fruit of last night’s labour and the GWS 2BBMG metal gear servos I’ll be using on this project. They’re pretty noisy from what I recall but their ruggedness makes for ideal use in a slope soarer bound to have some rough landings.

Stay tuned for part 4 tomorrow

Corro Mig – Part 2

2010-11-02T07:27:00.001+02:00

I had forgotten what plywood dust smells like! The wife wasn’t too happy when I tackled the making of the formers on the lounge floor last night while catching up on some of my favourite “crime soapies”. She deflated a little this morning after seeing that I had removed all evidence of my activities last night.

After first having to scratch around for the liteply I knew I had but couldn’t find in the mess I call a workshop, the templates were marked out on the wood and using a pin, the position where all the cut-outs are supposed to go were marked.

I finally figured out how to convince the wife to start buying me the proper tools I need…. It is bad for your wellbeing using improper tools! Losing digits to slipping exacto blades will seriously shorten your model building career….

After much cussing and cramping fingers I called it quits after getting the wood cut into appropriately sized rectangles and decided to quietly slip into the workshop at work today to finish off the final shaping.

Former F1 calls for 3/16” (5mm) ply, I think primarily to be able to bolt a motor/engine to, so I substituted it with liteply as well as this model is meant for the slope. Should be OK…. I hope….

Only a couple of balsa formers remain to be cut and tonight I’ll hack out all the cut-outs in the ply formers.

Note to self: Stop by the hardware shop for some contact adhesive today.

PSS Corro MIG 7 in the making

2010-10-31T23:15:00.001+02:00

With the GEMS 2010 PSS Fest just two weeks away and really wanting to have something else to fly apart from the F18, it does not leave one with enough time to take on a huge project to complete.

Scratching around on my computer I came across the plans for a correx Mig 7 (which you can find here) and Gert Nieuwoudt has mentioned that he is taking his along again. According to him it builds in less than a week, so it seemed like a do-able project, even with my slower-than-others building skills. So Friday I printed out the plans and with Maizey’s Plastics in Edenvale conveniently close, collected a sheet each of 2mm and 3mm white correx. I really wanted it in yellow as I had a yellow and blue scheme in mind but the 2mm they only do in white .

Quite incidentally, while speaking to Emma, the sales lady there, I learned that Maizey’s intend to discontinue the straight fluted correx in favour of the s-waved version. The reason being that the latter version is stronger in both axis which is better for the bulk of their customers that use it for advertising boards and the like.

This is a real pity, as it is exactly the straight fluted version that we need, especially when utilising the flute as a hinge line. Apparently the s-wave stuff is also realy horrible to work with…. Emma couldn’t say how much longer they would have the straight flute stock around so if you have any correx projects in mind in the foreseeable future you had better go stock up on some correx.

Yesterday I cut & stuck the tiled templates together and marked it out on the corex. Today I got around to cutting out the various parts and this is the fruits of my labour:

Next step is to mark and cut out all the 3mm plywood formers. Time to get dusty

GEMS Logo

2010-10-29T21:49:00.002+02:00

It is a little old news for some but we have a new logo. After kicking around some ideas (and there weren’t many to start with….) we decided on the one on the right

HTL#6 – Relaxed Competitive Flying

2010-10-20T23:08:00.000+02:00

The title of this post may sound like a bit of a contradiction in itself but last weekend 23 pilots competing in the 6^th Highveld Thermal League proved that not only is it possible but it is a welcome change to the usual frenetic pace of the man-on-man events. This event was, for the first time, run on postals style rules with no matrixing, man-on-man slots or normalising of scores.

With a working window of 7 hours from 8:30am to 3:30pm and six flights to do in the session, you could arrive when you liked and finish when you chose. For those that didn’t want to or couldn’t spend the whole of the day at the field, this was ideal. It made for some very relaxed flying as you could arrive at the field when you liked, quickly fly your six flights and leave or spend the whole day and complete your flights at your own pace. Although quite leisurely it also doesn’t allow you any mistakes, apart from the one throw-away allowed, as there is no normalizing of scores.

The final scores showed just how good the conditions were and/or how well the pilots picked their launch windows. Out of a possible 3500 points Alan nabbed first place with Paul just 1 point behind. The top five spots were separated by a mere 7 points!!!

The weather looked dubious at first. With low clouds, it looked like it could start pouring any minute, but by mid morning it was clearing up, making the thermals easier to find. Post event feedback indicates that the format of the competition was well received and enjoyed. We’ll definitely be doing this again next year.

If I may be permitted to blow the GEMS bugle a little…It is now just short of a year since our club’s inception and although we fared pretty well under the old ETB banner, I think we can all be proud of the performance and achievements of our club and it’s pilots. With the entire competitive core of pilots from the old ETB club, it is no wonder that our newly founded club has wrapped up first place in the club results of this year’s Highveld Thermal League after the 5th round at SGC already. THREE CHEERS TO GEMS!!!

Wolfgang: “ You gotta go that way Peter!”	Volney studiously tinkering with his AVA
Johan looking on as Gordon is about to launch his 2m	Ole Piet looking either tired or dejected… you decide
Nigel in the javelin position with his XPro	Xplorer at the ready, Paul contemplates the conditions
Ever present and dependable Martie preparing to feed the hungry pilots	Getting to grips with his own design home built Tulani (or is that the Emoyeni?), Piet confided in me it was only his lack of regular practise that prevented him from kicking everyone’s butt on the day…..
Baby Nicole: “I’m so sorry for you uncle Evan…. Don’t be too hard on yourself, you’ll do better on the next flight”	“Hey uncle Evan! I’m cheering for you!”
Nigel doing his best impersonation of a winch chute while Wolfie looks on perplexed	Not everyone comes for the flying. Martie taking a welcome break after having fed the masses.

AND THE WINNER IS……. ALAN!

CONGRATULATIONS!

And to cap the the day, Gavin Lundie treated us to a flypast with his Tailor Craft. Lots of waving and shouting from those wishing for a flip, couldn’t persuade Gavin to land on the field……

Maybe next time…

Club Notice - powered flying

2010-10-05T13:23:00.004+02:00

Whoa!!! The first entry in months and it has to be to issue a word of warning to our members and visitors.... :)

As of end of September all flying at our field will be exclusively thermal. No form of powered flying will be allowed at all. This quote was posted on the MGA blog by Lionel:

"Members of GEMS (Greenfields Eastern Model Soarers) were informed on Saturday of a Falcon breeding / training site located next to the field. To prevent startling these highly strung birds, and with immediate affect, no powered flying (gas, IC, electric or electric assist gliders) is permitted from or around the field. This implies that only thermal RC soaring is permitted.

We have informed the landowner that we will notify all prospective pilots of this restriction & sincerely request that you comply with this. We will shortly consider erecting a signboard at the field informing members & visitors of this specific requirement.

Should you have any queries regarding this matter, please do not hesitate to contact Paul Carnall or myself.

Regards,
Lionel Brink
GEMS"

2010 Sungazer (or is that Cloudgazer).....

2010-04-30T07:03:00.021+02:00

Although the weekend turned out to be a bit of a disappointment as far as the weather goes, the socializing, the Saturday evening free barbecue, salads and beers, the free cold drinks and hot dogs on the slope all make up for the lack of flying. Even though the gloomy weather prevented quite a few pilots from coming, the collection of aircraft that made it to the slope was something to behold. Altogether 22 scale gliders in the line-up for the group photo and a few others sitting on the sidelines made for impressive viewing.

With this being the 3rd Sungazer, the trend towards ever bigger and bigger gliders is quite apparent as the growing collection of 4m+ gliders and the noticeably smaller number of Far East ARF's present will testify. Quite a few "old timer" gliders were also dragged out the hangars with two Minimoas, a Grunau baby, a Ka6, Ka8 and a very unique SG38 filling up the ranks. Pity we never saw the SG38 flying.

Battery power saved the day for many of us and enabled us to at least get some airtime. Ken Kearns' electric ASH26 saw the most airtime of all by far and also managed to chalk up the furthest out landing I think anyone has ever had the privilege to witness at this venue. The ASH's powertrain gave up the ghost and Ken nonchalantly bettered his Fox’s record of last year by at least another 200-300m. Measured on Google Earth (is it as the ASH flies or as the crow flies…..?) the ASH landed at least 1800m from where Ken was standing! All this without putting a scratch on the plane.... We won't say anything about his ego ;o)

Charl has promised to build a Scratching Post Trophy for next year and knowing how daring Ken is, he’ll probably be first in line as contender. Another fearless pilot trying out for this future trophy was Herman Weber who tempted fate twice over the weekend but each time managed to save himself the walk of shame. First with his Junk Mail Special (an unidentified scale looking glider) and the second time around with the immaculately detailed ASG29 complete with retract that he recently scooped up from Andries Gouws.

Paul's well weathered Fox, Norbert's inimitable SB10 and Johan’s classic Minimoa all saw some airtime on Sunday afternoon on the Northern slope when a 30-45minute window presented some usable lift. Yours truly chickened out from tossing the ASG29 and rather tried playing photographer in the tricky light conditions. This point on the slope is not visited all that often as the prevailing wind direction is NW, but in recent times it has occurred all too often that the wind has come from the direction of Majuba power station.

I left at 13h00 on Monday, and as Murphy would have it, the chaps who stayed behind had some good flying late afternoon. Funny how that happens….

The Sungazer committee did an outstanding job of organizing the event and this year even saw some temporary ablution facilities being dragged up the mountain. Well done boys! If this is a trend for future Sungazer events then I might even be able to persuade the other half to join me next year. Thanks to the committee and the sponsors for making this another memorable event. Just fire the chap who forgot to order the wind.... ;o)

And here are some more pics

This SG38 is truly an amazing work of art. Everyone ogled over the exquisite covering job and the intricate rigging.

Ken Kearn's Ka6...	... and his Ka8 that won Best Vintage Glider award....	...and his electric ASH26 that did the record out landing.

Gert Nieuwoudt's Minimoa	Another of Ken's Ka6	Grunau Baby of ...

	After initial "servo problems" that turned out to be a servo plugged into the wrong RX channel, Johan's Minimoa gracefully took to the sky
	And the look of satisfaction says it all

Roll on Sungazer 2011!!!

A GEM is born!

2010-02-22T11:23:00.007+02:00

It may not be official yet (pending SAMAA registration) but a new RC gliding club has been born. Yes, yes, I know that probably everyone in our close knit gliding community know that some members from the old ETB club have been flying at a new field and have even flown a competition or two at the new polo field venue. But I bet you everyone have been wondering just who the heck this GEMS club is that hosted the F3J competition this past Sunday....

When our little ETB splinter group started the process of registering the new polo field with SAMAA we decided to keep things simple and kept the ETB name for the time being. I guess at the time it was hoped that all our old ETB compadres would join us at this fantastic new venue, but alas it was not to be. The old field is still more accessible to some of the old members and as such we, being the renegade ETB'ers, decided that it was no more than fair to the old ETB club to let them retain the name and find ourselves a new one to suit the new venue.

A good couple of suggestions were proposed; some good, some bad and some just plain off the wall! At our recent postals gathering, with a representative quorum of members being present, we kicked the idea around a bit more and with unanimous decision, opted for the new name. Although it would make for a heart warming story to admit that there is some hidden deeper meaning to the new name, we have to admit that it was much simpler than that.

Paul came up with the "Greenfields" bit, thinking it appropriate, given our world champs quality lush green launching pad. The "Model Soarers" bit was basically a given but somehow GMS just did note have that same "je ne sais quoi" sound to it that ETB had. I suggested adding the Eastern bit. Maybe subconciously wanting to retain some link to our origins in ETB. So, GEMS it became....

Maybe, with the progress already been made on the club house the polo chaps are erecting, we can have a roof wetting and inauguration party soon ;o)

ASG29 - Photo finish

2009-04-24T14:42:00.003+02:00

It's funny how time catches you unawares. Although I had been steadily working at completing the ASG29 in time for the coming weekend's Sungazer event, thinking there was plenty time left, by the time you wipe the you-know-what out your eyes your time is gone. I decided to leave the bits that isn't essential to the model actually flying, so the scale interior, pilot and spoilers will have to wait for next time.... it does have a nose release for aero tow though ;o)

The 1:3¾ scale ASG29 has finally been completed and with not a moment to spare! If it was a horse race this would have been a photo finish. All that remains to be done is to add the nose weight tonight and she is ready to fly.

Hosa Volksies!!!

Some more launch animations

2009-03-12T07:19:00.004+02:00

The more I play with Photoshop the more impressed I am with the software and the sorrier I am I never pursued my interest in photography at an earlier age in my life. Here is two more animations I created from shots taken at the new years fly in weekend on the 4th January. These scale gliders are a taster of what's to come during this year's Sungazer event at Volksrust.

Progress on my ASG29 is on it's way. I will try and post some build photos during the process. So come on! If you have a new project on the table for this event (or any other project) please show-and-tell!

Charl doing the honours for Mike, launching the big DG500.

Here Andries is helping Len's T21 Slingsby on it's maiden launch

HTL #2 @ SGC

2009-03-10T14:44:00.013+02:00

Last Sunday saw us competing at the 2nd Highveld Thermal League of the season. Getting to SGC's field proved daunting but the condition their field is in is just superb. Worth the bone jarring, sump thumping drive there....

If you are expecting a full blown report I am going to have to disappoint you, but you can visit the MGA blog (link on the right) for Lionel's report on this event. I just wanted to post some pictures. Clicking on any of the pictures will take you to the album hosted by Picasa with slightly higher res pics in the album there. Anyone wanting the full res 10MP originals give me a shout and I'll email them to you.

I've been playing with Photoshop a bit lately and have managed to slap together some cool launch animations.

Here's Paul giving Evan's Emoyeni a shove

and another of Dion tossing his X-Pro

Here is "Amazing Grace" Evan putting the Emoyeni together

Dion waiting for working time to start

One of the pics that the above animations were created from. Evan's Emoyeni taking to the air

And away she goes! Dion and X-Pro

Herman calling for Dion

and Paul calling for Evan. Not that it helped.... The Jaegermeisters, Red Bulls and Handgrenades of the previous evening were taking their toll on Evan's flying abilities ;o)

Hey Paul! The thermal is THAT way! Check out the "boep".... ;o)

Young Jason flew like a champ and even managed to beat his dad. Ag nee man Herman!

Herman being helped by Dion

Herman did a beautiful job of repairing and repainting this X-Pro

and did his utmost best to scrape off the new paint job on the nose.... The soft ground made for ideal conditions and these lawn dart landings were the order of the day.

Another spotstabber by Alan

and this one by Steph and his flying broomstick

New Years Slope Fly-in at Volksies

2009-01-06T13:35:00.054+02:00

Friday 2 January 2009:

The first week of 2009 saw a bunch of the Volksrust regulars congregate at Tamatieberg to kick off the year with a bang. Norbert happily joined in when I offered him a ride and we set of early on Friday to join the chaps who have been there since Monday. It turned out to be one of the best slope outings in recent memory with all three days we spent on the mountain being flyable. When we arrived the conditions were already good and although interspersed with some slermal lift we could fly to our hearts' content. I was having a ball with the Gentle Lady in the light lift. At some point Len Thomas had his Bird of Time up and got caught off guard when a real Volksies Boomer tried to suck his model into orbit.

Len tried his best running away from the lift but to no avail and he started having trouble keeping an eye on it. I must have been the only other mode 2 pilot around, as I soon found myself with his radio stuck in my sweating hands. Not having spoilers on the plane and being warned that the wing joiner was slightly "sub standard", made it damned near impossible to bring it down without folding a wing. Charl helped as spotter in case I lost sight of the model. After getting to grips with the handling of the plane I tried getting it inverted. On the first try the BOT just rolled out of the half roll, like any half decent polyhedral ship should, but on the second attempt I got it right. Initially the plane kept on climbing but with the right amount of pressure on the elevator stick it soon started losing height. The landing was a breeze compared to the fight to get it back.

Ken Kearns, as usual, had an immaculate collection of craft. Here he is getting ready to launch the electric assist ASH26. With the motor the launch is effortless (far right).

To keep his planes true to scale Ken even goes to the extent of making his own scale pilots and he does not mind sharing info. Here he can be seen giving Glen a Pilot Making 101 course.
Glen thanked him by a little later taking out the ASH26 in a midair with his Weasel.... ;o) Not to worry Glen, we know you didn't mean to. Sod's law #27 section 14 states that with only two aircraft in the air on the slope at any given moment in time the chances of them trying to occupy the same airspace at the same time is no longer a probability but a certainty, it's just a question of how long you can avoid it. Fortunately the damage wasn't all that bad and Ken had the model up again a little later after some quick temporary field repair.

	These two beauties are from Len's hangar. To the left the very scale like built up Handley Page Victor. The T21 Slingsby below is a "rag ship" that apparently took Len two years to build. Len prudently refrained from flying these two in the quickly changing conditions.

A late afternoon storm approaching from the south had us scurrying around the mountain flying on the NW, W, SW and E slopes. By the time it eventually settled on the Eastern slope it was blowing so hard even the birds were grounded.
Ken was keen on trying out his Celair Celstar G1 aerobatic glider. This model is based on a locally (Ermelo nogal) manufactured full size aerobatic glider of which there are, as far as I can determine, only three "copies" around.
Ken asked if I would mind launching for him. I was a bit apprehensive with the gale force blow tearing up the slope but Ken was adamant he wanted to give it a try. I quickly saw that the usual way of lifting the plane until the wings started working at more or less a horizontal attitude was not going to work as the wind almost twisted the model out of my hands.
On the second attempt I only lifted it to about 45° and gave it a firm push. It still shot upward like a cork in water. Ken was in 7th heaven...... right up to the point when the right hand wing folded :0( Check out the before and after pictures below.

Before...

After...

Mike bummed the broken airframe off Ken, keen on trying to repair it. Ken just stripped out the radio gear and the pilot who had fortunately survived the crash.

We called it quits for the day when it started getting too cold and the call of a Windhoek around the braai fire could no longer be ignored.

Saturday 3 January 2009:

Saturday started off with a fresh enough wind on the NW slope that allowed me to kick off the day with a Toko-induced adrenaline rush. There are few experiences one can compare flying this carbon rocket with. One that comes close I think is that very first time as a kid you manage your first solo on your new bicycle with the training wheels off and Dad no longer keeping you upright. I get the shakes every time I fly this plane and every time it feels like the first time.

One of the highlights of the day was the launch of Len's T21 Slingsby.

	Andries Gouws, on holiday in Vryheid, had joined us for the day and was given the unenviable launching task. The Slingsby is literally more than a handful to launch with its wide body and very litte room for a proper grip. Under the watchful guidance of some of the regulars Len gave the order to launch and the plane climbed away gracefully. It soon became apparent that the Slingsby did not like turning slowly with a tendancy to dip the inside wing. It also did not like picking up too much speed. After some not quite comfortable flying, Len decided to rather come in to land and not being too confident with the handling of the plane, once again yours truly was roped in to do the honours, after ensuring me crash indemnity.

The tip stall tendency was quite noticeable and I lingered just long enough to suss out the handling characteristics and to see what the effect was of deploying the spoilers. I set up the landing making a wide downwind turn, mindful of keeping the speed within its narrow speed range. Nursing the very effective spoilers I managed to land it fairly gracefully to the cheers of the peanut gallery. Post flight inspection later revealed a bit of wash in on the wings (ooops) and everybody consented that the flutter experienced was due to the ailerons being driven by inboard servos via some bellcranks that just weren't stiff enough.

Andries launching
Piet's Omei

Charl launching Gert's
Coro Mig

	Piet could eventually no longer stand all the egging on and decided that the moment of truth had arrived.... It was time to maiden the Aero Commander. Andries was roped in to do the launching and after quite a run up the model effortlessly climbed out from the slope, doing its owner proud. Well done Noah!
Piet was ecstatic, but with his nerves in tatters, he could only manage about 7 or 8 minutes before he decided to bring it in. The maiden landing was smooth and uneventful.

Somewhere between all the launching duty being enforced on Andries, he managed to squeeze in a flight on his 3m Ash26.


Mike's Ventus 2ax with power pod strapped to it's back also got some airtime, again with Charl doing the heavy work of launching.


The Vulcan seen here being launched by Andries really surprised with it's docile handling and Len soon settled into some relaxed flying with this plane. From a distance you'd be hard pressed not to think this is the real McCoy.

Piet also had some fun with his Emoyeni in the excellent conditions.

Norbert's SB10 was graceful as ever.

Another big scale ship being launched, this time it's Mike's Diana 2 being launched over the lip.

We called it quits a little earlier than the previous day. One can only do so much flying before your energy reserves and your tolerance to the sun's unrelenting rays dries up.....

Sunday 4 January 2009:

Sunday started out even better than the previous two days and the big scale ships were soon tearing it up, like Mike's Big DG500. Once again Charl did the launching honours. With the wind registering way over 30kph on Charl's anemometer, even this 15kg bird took to the sky with nothing more than a firm heave (it's the picking up that gives you a hernia...)
Having shot close on 300 photos up till now, and to ensure some more airtime for myself I vowed to spend more time behind the transmitter than the camera for the day. I flew just about everything in my hangar and eventually by 3pm could quite happily say that I had had enough.

The year could not have started off on a better note and even the prospect of returning to work the following day could not dampen our spirits. One can only hope that the past three days was an indicator to what was to follow the rest of the year.

Catch you there next time!

Scrum Down, Thunder and Lightening, Big Kahunas, Local Fauna and Flora & Buzz Lightyear on Volksrust

2009-01-03T10:54:00.019+02:00

A couple of us went down to see in the New Year at Volksrust.... On Tuesday afternoon a rain shower was spotted moving in towards the slope at great speed.

We scrambled to pack our models away, but Piet was not in time to complete packing away his Aero Commando and tent before the wind and rain hit. ....And hit with a force it did...... . The wind was so strong it just buckled the flimsy poles in seconds.

Piet and Edmund dived in under the cover to hold it down and away form the Aero Commando.

The wind hit with such force, it was coming across the slope horizontally in great sheets and within minutes the hollows filled up with water. I have never seen such strong and determined scrumming.

Robert claims that Piet and Edmund must have had "Ball like the sheep at Oom Louis farm" to be out in the storm with all the lightening about. (I wonder about BJ sometimes??)

Even the Lady Sheep get a glint in their eyes when they see such a well hung gent.

Meanwhile, Robert preferred to sit in the back of his Van and braai his Wors while all this was happening.

And then, ---------------as suddenly as it started, --------------- it was all over and the rain shower passed over to the south.

Our two intrepid "front row heavyweight" emerged from under the tent to reveal the slightly wet, but undamaged Aero Commando. (See the BERG Blog for a report on it's maiden flight http://berg-gliders.blogspot.com/ )

The sun came out and the flowers took on a sparkle. (If Izak can post flowers, why can't I?)

Even the local Gecko's came out to dry off in the sunshine and survey the surroundings.

If all that wasn't excitement enough, even Buzz Lightyear popped in to see if all was okay.

And then, off he went too. ------ To "Infinity and Beyond" I suppose

Weekend at Volksies

2008-12-18T09:47:00.016+02:00

Not having had enough the previous visit, Norbert and myself decided to join some of the BERG guys for some more action at Tamatieberg. I thought we were in for another pearl of a day when we arrived at the slope and the first plane I unpacked and tossed off the side was my Toko. Although the wind started out well and we still managed to get some quality airtime, it started petering off later in the afternoon.

That was when the first casualty of the day happened when the lift died and Peter Karner lost his foam PSS Mustang. An unsuccessful search followed and Peter decided to wait and see if Mike, who had gone down to the farm, could spot it from the bottom. Not long after this the wind stopped completely before doing a 180° turn on us and a hectic 15 minute flight window ensued on the southern side of the mountain. The next casualty of the day occurred when one of the chaps from Northrand lost a beautiful (but very heavy) PSS Mosquito that he had converted from electric. The general consent from the onlookers was that the unfortunate pilot made the all too common nervous mistake of hanging on the elevator and not letting the plane pick up enough speed to get on step. The resultant "Whack!!" halfway down the mountain could clearly be heard at the top of the slope.

The flying was abruptly cut short when out of the blue, with little warning a thunderbolt struck very close to the tower behind us and everybody decided that discretion was the better part of valor and promptly packed up and left, just as the rain that had been threatening the whole afternoon started. It cleared enough a little later to allow me to get my customary spell of pre-sunset electric flying at the farmhouse with my E-Hawk 1500.

Just to show us how unpredictable Volksies could be, Sunday dawned bright and sunny with very little cloud. Typically you would expect a day like this to generate a lot of thermal activity that inevitably causes erratic flying conditions. Not this day. Mother Nature blessed us with consistent enough wind that we could fly anything and a good couple of big scale gliders were put through their paces. A handful of PSS planes and an assortment of other aircraft were also flown.

My F18 Hornet also got some airtime. Just as I was getting comfortable with the model it rudely reminded me that it has quite an authentic flat spin that needs a good 30-40m of vertical airspace and a healthy nose down attitude to recover from this maneuvre. Fortunately the only damage was to the pilot's pride....

The highlight of the day for me was when I could eventually entice my son away from the stick hut building that he and Russel was so enthralled with, to get some stick time on my aging Gentle Lady. Patience is not generally one of my strong points but the reward of seeing him complete some controlled circles and even a loop or two thrown in to keep his wandering attention on the task at hand, is reward enough for me to keep at it. Thirty minutes was all he could muster before the more interesting survival training excersize beckoned him to complete his and Russel's masterpiece of construction; a very authentic bushman shelter.

Peter Moore pitched up for the Sunday as well and had an absolute ball with his Shongololo and his ASW28. So much so that I decided that this was going to be my next slope project and the fuselage and all the required material has now been acquired. Still need to pay Dion a visit for all the scale goodies to go in the cockpit. Watch this space!!!

We decided to make the most of the opportunity offered by the excellent conditions and stuck around until 4pm before heading back. Plans are already on the drawing table to come back just after the new year to put a good start on the 2009 flying season.

Blake is getting more and more airtime independant from Dad.

Partners in crime!

No Norbert! You gotta throw it, not push it....

Thats more like it!

Tigershark in action during a low level high speed pass.

Exploding LiPo's - Spitfire shot down in Flames

2008-12-15T09:41:00.004+02:00

Last week my trusty old GWS Spitfire met it's end. Finally!!!

But not in the usual way as you'd expect, with a crash , - it's had plenty of those. Each time it was repaired and flew again. (These little foam models are amazing and are so easily fixed)

This time it really was "shot down in flames" so to speak.

Without going into too much detail, one of my colleagues had an accident while charging a LiPo battery and it exploded and the burning battery ended up next to my Spitfire. By the time we got the flames extinguished the whole rear end was burned away.

Luckily all the equipment was undamaged, except the ariel wire! Phew!!!!

Anybody need a well used -"Authentic War Bird Look"- Spitfire wing? Just slight singing on the Aileron TE.

So what have I learned from this?
Don't fool around with LiPo's. They are unpredictably things and should never be left to charged on their own.

Also charge them in one of those fireproof bags.

Jets over Volksies

2008-11-24T21:00:00.021+02:00

It has been a loooong six weeks since the ETB PSS fest and the anti-climax of not being able to maiden the Blue Angels F18 Hornet. Eventually I could bear it no longer and decided to return to Tamatieberg for another attempt at getting the model airborne. Unfortunately the F3B team trials was scheduled for this weekend, so the only person I could coerce to join me, without feeling guilty about robbing the team trials of much needed man power, was Norbert.

Weather forecasts on the telly were not very inspirational (60% chance of rain, both days), but after two weeks of solid work I couldn't care less if they predicted a hurricane with it's epicentre smack bang on top of the mountain! In retrospect I would probably have welcomed it.... I have a plane that I feel could very likely handle it and even thrive on it. But now I'm getting ahead of myself.

We arrived at the slope around 10:30am. I was amazed at the transformation in the landscape since our last visit. Everything had that lush Natal Midlands green to it (see the panorama shot above). First model to take to the sky was my trusted Zagi 5C, just to test the air and make sure there weren't any holes in it. As is so often the case on overcast days thermal activity was either totally absent or unnoticable. This meant the northwesterly could do it's magic uninterrupted. After a while it was evident that the wind was not going to let you down a few moments after launching your prized PSS possession.

For the long awaited maidens Norbert was up first with his F5. Apart from the fuselage being so wide as to make holding it difficult for my average sized hands, the launch went perfect and the Tigershark climb out confidently with a little flap deployed. Being the only two occupants on the slope has it's benefits. I stood watching for a while and then dragged the camera closer to shoot some pics while Norbert could enjoy the slope front all to himself. The F5 has quite a turn of speed and even seems to handle slow flight with a bit of flap, if not very scale like, at least quite elegantly. According to Norbert the F5's behaviour was totally predictable.

After about 30 minutes of flying Norbert brought it in for a nice controlled and dignified landing.

I opted for some quick and light action with my Mini Corado for a spell while Norbert put the F5 up for another bout. Gradually conditions improved even more, up to the point where you could fly the proverbial brick. Time for something heavier.

I discovered the flight pack on the F18 needed a top up charge, so in the meantime I put my Toko together for a flight that turned out to be the adrenaline rush of the weekend. This has been the first opportunity since I bought the plane in April, where I could really test out its capabilities. This 1.7kg carbonized adrenaline rocket was built specifically for DS with a bullet proof full carbon wing and it goes like stink. This plane literally brings out the speed freak in you and you can't but fly it like you stole it. The energy retention through turns and out of dives is something to behold. Coming in with a bit of height to start with, I could do loops of 100m+ in diameter without it losing too much speed to carry it over the top. During one specific speed run from behind I came in a bit lower than I expected and where another plane would usually have been buffeted and slowed down a bit by the usual turbulent section at the crest of the slope the Toko punched through it like it wasn't even there.

The 4 servo wing has been set up with flaps coupled to ailerons and makes for some very lively rolls. The ability to mix crow in helps you slow it down enough from Mach 1 for at least a semblance of a controlled landing. I slowed it down a tad too much and a bit of a hard belly landing stripped one of the HS85MG aileron servos (....?!) The first ever metal gear I have been able to damage to this extent. With the servo being epoxied and no spare gear sets on hand I had to sadly accept that I would not be flying this amazing plane again this weekend.

It wasn't long before Norbert decided to get his speed fix for the day and he put the DG600 together to take advantage of the excellent conditions. I had already assembled the F18 Hornet and felt comfortable that I could manage the launch on my own. Just to be sure I walked all the way forward to the spot where we usually launch the big scale models. This gives you enough recovery airspace between your model and terra firma should anything go wrong. Tentatively "bouncing" the plane in my open hand it felt like she just wanted to go..... so I let her.... and off she went. Two clicks of down trim had her flying straight and level and it wasn't long before I built up the confidence to pick up the pace to see what she could do. I found the elevator a wee bit sensitive and switched to dual rates which sorted it out. Rolls were crisp and axial. In the low fly pasts the digital servos in the wings were humming a quite agreeable tune, almost like an small electric motor. Although a bit of an anticlimax in the speed department, after having flown the Toko, the F18 was everything I had hoped to achieve with this re-incarnation of the first one I flew. It turned out the CG was perfectly set up, with a slow recovery from a shallow dive, it has a very "delicate" stall, but only after really hanging back on the elevator, it does beautiful loops and I'm sure it can benefit in some lead treatment to speed it up some.

The rest of the day was filled with a lot more airtime on both the jets and only late afternoon did I switch to my Zagi again. Although it was completely overcast the whole day we only had some scattered drops of rain, nothing to force you to stop flying though. A pity that I didn't think of sticking my camera in Norbert's hands to shoot some pictures of my models in flight. Next time I'll remember.... The low cloud at sunset made for some stunning scenery. Day end proceedings included a nice bottle of Nederburg Baronne shared between two friends around a cosy braai fire while the rain that threatened the whole day eventually arrived.

The Sunday turned out clear and sunny and as so often happens then, a lot of thermal activity as a result. So most of the flying was done with our thermal and electric ships. There was also some quiet times that I used to wander around and do some flora photography. There is an amazing variety of wild flowers growing on top of the mountain. Although I did manage to squeeze in some airtime on the Zagi as well. I would wait for a lull in the wind and just as it picked up again, toss out the Zagi to hunt that inevitable thermal that was building up somewhere in front. I managed to hook three of these boomers and climbed the Zagi to speck height each time. Then burned off all the height for some high speed passes, only to start the whole process again. Norbert was flying his well worn flying wing and being his usual adventurous self ended up doing two outlandings. He eventually had to retire the wing due to some structural damage purely from old age and too many landings. We reluctantly retreated to civilization just after 2pm, overall very satisfied with the weekend. We keenly await the next trip in three weeks time.

Allegro Lite Build Part 8 (at long last...)

2008-10-28T23:39:00.006+02:00

It's been a while since the last post, my only excuse is that I have at least started again with the Allegro build. Since the last post on the AL I have acquired another AL shortkit and a Bubbledancer shortkit with booms! Now it's time I seriously start building, I've lost count of all the entries on my "still-to-build-list". Let's see.... there's the two Allegros (one thermal, one electric), the Bubble Dancer, Sailaire, Dynaflite Talon, a ±4m DG800, two Hill Billys, a Slipso 400 and a carbon slope aerie from Craig Baker.... Eish! So many projects so little time.

Back to the Allegro build. I have progressed quite well on the tip panels. Before continuing I first had to read up again on the instructions to make sure I am not forgetting something. The next step was to make the hardwood inserts that go inline with the shearwebs at the dihedral breaks. This prevents the soft balsa from being crushed during launches. Then I sanded in the recesses for the carbon carry through strips so that the carbon spar caps would sit flush and not make unsightly bulges. The carry through strips were epoxied in place at this stage.

Time to get sticky again. After doing another dry mockup of all the components, I made up some "goop" with cabosil thickened epoxy. To keep everything true and straight I am working on a glass top. At first I though it may cause problems not being able to pin anything to a building board but if you take care in aligning the parts correctly and use some masking tape in strategic places it all works out quite well. The cabosil mix is quite sticky which aids in keeping everything aligned. Carefully weighing everything down with small sand bags ensures that nothing moves out of place while drying.

After curing overnight the next step was to carefully sand the edges of the spar slightly round to eliminate sharp edges. This is important as the you now have to wrap the spar with kevlar tow and you don't want the edges cutting the kevlar. The kevlar wraps prevent the sparcaps from delaminating from the shearwebs and buckling. I got the kevlar tow from unraveling kevlar tape that I bought from AMT. The actual wrapping is quite hard on the muscles in your hand. I found the trick was to wind the tow on a dowel which I pinched between my toes! This way I had both hands free to do the winding ;o) The ends are tacked with CA and the wraps then wetted out with epoxy. Any excess is dabbed off with a paper towel. I am really trying to keep weight down on this bird and any careless use of glues, epoxies etc quickly add up to unneccesary weight.

Not having to wait for the wraps to dry (they weren't going anywhere...) I proceeded to glue in the leading and trailing edges. The root rib is then glued in, gussets added and the tip sheets glued in. I decided to apply a technique I learned when building the Sagitta 900 that ensures perfectly straight, sharp and very robust trailing edges that can take quite a knock before showing hangar rash. The last 5-6 mm of trailing edge is sliced off with an exacto, a spruce strip glued in it's place and carefully sanded to the correct profile to blend in with balsa TE. You end up with superb trailing edges that you simply cannot obtain with balsa. And this is what the tip panels look like at this stage. Sheeting the panels to follow next.

F18 Build - Finale

2008-10-10T14:08:00.008+02:00

Couldn't resist one more post before we hit the mountain tomorrow. As I still had some time left I decided to add the forebody strakes to add to the realism. I finished her last night and was very surprised when I found that I didn't have to add any additional weight to her slim and sexy 1.075kg....;o) Here are some specs:

Weight : 1.075 kg
Wingspan : 1.222 m
Root Chord : 245 mm
Tip Chord : 145 mm
Wing Area : 23.83 dm²
Wing Loading : 45g/dm² (14.25oz/ft²)
Airfoil (wing) : RG15
Airfoil (tail surfaces) : NACA0009

Here she is in all her glory barring some small decal work to be lovingly applied tonight.

Hawk & Hurricane

2008-10-10T08:12:00.003+02:00

It's now t-24 and it looks like I might make it after all!

The weekend got the fuzzes glassed, but the HTL took the whole of Sunday. Monday & Tuesday were spent installing servos & linkages and glueing the tailfeathers. The superfast 30sec epoxy from AMT is a real godsend. :)
Wednesday was scheduled for painting but disaster struck. The red enamel went fine, but the brown Dulux 50ml tester I bought at a premium of R20 caused all the trouble. I expected that thinners thins most paint but not this PVA. Initially it was fine but then it turned into a sticky ball in the cup and ruberised everything inside the spray gun after about 10min, so I spent the rest of the night cleaning tools.

Bought some brown QD enamel on Thursday and repainted it Thursday evening. Finalised the noseweight & linkages, and added some colour along the line. The paint is now by far the most expensive item of the build.

Tonight (Friday) will install radio and noseweight for the Hawk and add some more cosmetics. Had to have a Red Bull on the way to work today, so the wind better blow!

F18 Build - Part 9

2008-10-08T07:55:00.005+02:00

So I've finally finished covering the F18. Man that's a job I really hate, worse than working with fibreglass and epoxy, but the result in the end really is worth the trouble. And this is what it looks like. The Blue Angels will be proud...

Also started cutting the bottom wing decals and finished the one half. I am not 100% happy with the proportions but it will have to do as there is not enough time to nitpick now...

This will probably be the last post before the weekend as the rest is elementary stuff. fitting the control push rods, balancing etc.

See ya all at the ETB PSS Fest.

F18 Build - Part 8

2008-10-07T07:24:00.005+02:00

Time is running out blazingly fast and having lost almost a week due to going away on leave has put me back somewhat. The precious little time remaining will be better spent working on the F18 than blogging away and not finishing in time.....

I have progressed in the meantime, having :

a.) glassed the wings (with "live" peel ply hinges), the fuselage and tailfeathers,
b.) "plumbed" the servos into the wing and fuselage
c.) covered the wing, the fins and half the fuselage.

Major steps still to follow are to finish covering all the bits and pieces, fit all the tailfeathers, make all the control pushrods, plumb in the battery pack way up in the nose of the fuselage, cut and apply all the decals, balance it and set up the programming on the radio.

Here are a couple of pics just to keep you coming back.....

Hawk & Hurricane

2008-09-29T09:10:00.006+02:00

Just to show some progress. Got the basics done now. Next step to glass the fuselages.
I cut the fuzz into 3 and then removed the inside of the middle layer. Makes the control rod & servo easy to install, but the edges distorted a bit. I don't want to do the same with the Hawk, but I don't have a good idea yet.

The fins are made of 4mm isoboard veneered both sides. I'm not sure its lighter than Correx but its a lot stiffer.

F18 Build - Part 7

2008-09-25T22:45:00.003+02:00

I scratched my head trying to decide how to "elegantly" accommodate the servo wiring in the wings, keeping possible servo repairs in mind. Sniffing around in my scrap bin I found the remains of my CMPro ASW28 wing joiners and immediately knew this was what I wanted. The servo plug fits nicely inside the tube so servo replacement/repair will be easily accomplished without massive deconstructive surgery. First step was to mark out where the tubes would go.Now I have been slowly but surely getting tired of all this manual sanding so out came my trusty Einhell (Dremel look alike). Fitted to this was a DIY router base, the idea coming from, I think, Gert Nieuwoudt.
The working end of the setup.
With the right bit inserted and a sturdy guide it made for a perfectly routered slot for the fibreglass tubes. As the tubes aren't there for structural strength, a couple of dabs of foam safe CA keeps the tubes in place.
All that remained was to add a balsa cap to finish things off.

Servos for F18

2008-09-25T22:24:00.006+02:00

In my quest for some decently priced servos for the F18 Project I came across these little beauties. They are HD DS929MG ball-bearing metal gear digital servos weighing in at 12.5 gram from Heli Direct, supplied by Sandy Sutherland from XHeli @ R188 a piece + postage. Not bad compared to the close on R300 most hobby shops want for the plastic geared HS85. Unfortunately he only had three in stock, so I opted for two for the ailerons.

I'll probably end up with standard servos for the elevator as space is no problem inside the fuselage. Here they are shown sandwiched between a HS85MG and a HS55. It is the same width and thickness of the HS55 and only about 2mm higher. The 2.2kg.cm torque should be ample for the application. Time will tell if they withstand the Volksies Test....

Hunting Provost 1/5th Project

2008-09-25T16:40:00.002+02:00

Block shaped, carbon tows added

Hunting Provost 1/5th Project

2008-09-25T16:38:00.002+02:00

Block shaped

Hunting Provost 1/5th Project

2008-09-25T16:26:00.005+02:00

Basic block with grid drawn

Norbert's F5A

2008-09-25T13:26:00.004+02:00

Norbert's F5A is coming along nicely . . . He has hollowed out a large percentage of foam (mostly at the rear) which has saved in excess of 200 grams

Cessna A37 Dragonfly

2008-09-25T08:36:00.005+02:00

Hello All,

Some progress pics on the Dragonfly project . . .

Fuselage shaped, spared (60k carbon towes) and ready for glassing

Wings cut - SD7037 to carry the estimated 3.5 kg all up weight.

Pre assembled, and ready for the next steps . . .

F18 Build - Part 6

2008-09-23T07:21:00.007+02:00

Reports on the progress of the various projects are looking good. Paul has made some inroads on his flying "canoe" and Herman has also progressed on his Provost. Tomorrow being a holiday will probably see most of us behind the workbench instead of behind the transmitter on the field.

Time to "slice and dice" the wing. Always use a sharp exacto blade for this otherwise you get chunks torn out of the foam.

Next use a sanding block to lightly sand the bonding surface. Once again plain old wood glue was used to stick on the balsa leading edges.

After shaping the leading edges I added some wing tip blocks.

Then while the glue was drying I marked out where I want the ailerons. The stock was actually 45mm wide, not the 35mm I mentioned earlier. "Look Right" engineering determined the control surface should be 35mm wide. I will cut these free when once I've glassed the wing.

...and this is what the tips look like after shaping.

Hurricane P2

2008-09-22T10:04:00.004+02:00

The weather has been 'unsuitable' for flying so there has been some progress.....
Mainly the workshop is becoming more chaotic, but the wings are now done. No spars but they came out really nice and plenty strong enough.
Originally the intention was to just have a weekend special - rough & ready, but now its looking so nice I'm considering glassing the fuzz.

In the mean time a Hawk has also spawned - mainly because I built 2 left hand Hurricane wings.

F18 Build - Part 5

2008-09-19T07:33:00.015+02:00

I decided to add the aileron stock before doing the bottom spar tonight. The only decent aileron stock I could lay my hands on was 8x35mm stock from Mad Models. Probably a bit wide but I will be cutting the ailerons about 25-27mm wide leaving a sub trailing edge of 5-8mm. After measuring it off the wing, a sharp exacto blade takes care of the rest.

The aileron stock was too thick by about 2mm. Nothing a bit of creative shaping can't solve.

So out comes the hand planer. The masking tape is there so I don't accidently start ripping chunks out the foam. One slip and you have to start some unsightly patch work.

After removing the bulk of the excess balsa with the planer, the finer shaping is done with a big sanding block to ensure true flat surfaces. A quick eyeball on the end result and I'm happy.

I used polyurethane wood glue to stick the balsa to the foam. Masking tape held everything in place and while that was drying I could enjoy my dinner.

Looking good so far. The bottom carbon spars and balsa cap came next and I won't bore our blog readers with more pictures of that. Unfortunately I will now be going away for the weekend and will only be able to continue work on the project Monday evening, when I intend stripping off the foam leading edge and replacing it with a balse one, so expect an update by Tuesday.

Cheers, and enjoy the weekend!

PSSFEST - Hurricane build P1

2008-09-18T10:36:00.007+02:00

The PSS fest is causing quite stir, so I also want to make something to take along. Not as spectacular as some of the projects we've seen and that I know about, but then again it might encourage another to do the same.

The plans are printed from the '3-view' site www.fortunecity.com/marina/manatee/272 which Paul posted. Mike has since posted www.richard.ferriere.free.fr/ which is easier to browse and seems to have better quality 3 views.

The foam from ISOBOARD is 600 wide so I scaled the 3 view to print with a 600 wingspan. The fuselage was cut out and traced onto the 80 thick board. I used Herman's Black & Decker 'mouse' to sand the fuzz and it went quick and easy with minimal mess (ouside) I've since got my own for my birthday :)

For the wings I wanted to use Alcolin Extreme Urethane & veneer but this product has been discontinued due to limited shelf life and low sales. Their tech dept recommended Alcolin Waterproof which seems to be very similar although not as strong and doesn't dry as hard. Expensive but quick & convenient. The section is S7037 (my favorite)

Clock for those MOBs

2008-09-18T09:43:00.005+02:00

For those MOBs (Midnight Oil Burners) out there I have added the nifty looking clock on the right. My wrist watch stopped working at 10:10pm last night while I was layng up the spars in the F18 and when I eventually noticed something was wrong it was past midnight already.....! Paul, I need a replacement watch!!! Time surely flies when you're having fun. The trick is getting into bed without waking the better half.

The clock will help old Prepatation Piet to know when to go to bed as I see he has fallen into the habit of blogging at 3:30 am! Somebody will have to feed him some Red Bulls at the upcoming PSS Fest to keep him awake ;o)

F18 Build - Part 4

2008-09-17T19:03:00.004+02:00

I did not have a huge amount of time tonight but managed to lay up the top spars into the wing. I decided to use 12K tows for this as it is less "ropey" than the 60K tows I have and it is easier to get the epoxy to properly penetrate the carbon strands without making one moer-of-a-mess ;o)

First step is to decide how many tows to use. As I have always used spruce spars in the past in all my slope models I had no clue as to how many is enough. I just cut some small pieces and stacked them together until I got to about what I thought "looked" strong enough. Based on the "long-term" Allegro build I am also busy with, which used 4 layers of uni-directional carbon to get to the prescribed 0.7mm thickness I opted for six of the 12K tows. In hindsight If I had enought time I would have opted to use the same technique to make pre-pregnated strips (as described here) from UD carbon and just epoxy them in afterwards.

The depth of the groove was just right as the 1.5mm balsa cap I put on top stood just proud of the wing top surface.

The last bit of epoxy mix was thickened to a syruppy consistence slurry with microballoons and used as a filler to close up the tiny gaps. A maxed-out useless credit card took care of the excess epoxy to prevent too much sanding afterwards. To prevent the wing "negatives" sticking to this beautiful piece of handiwork I cut two narrow strips of Mylar which I put over the spars.

And the last task of the evening before I get some much needed sleep was to weigh the whole setup down. This is where those old UPS sealed lead-acid batteries come in very handy. Tomorrow evening I do the bottom spars.

F18 Build - Part 3

2008-09-17T00:27:00.002+02:00

Time to get some work done on the wings. I made a small t-piece sanding bar from some 8mm wide spruce stock (just the right width for the 12K carbon tows I want to use as spars) to which I glued some 80 grit sandpaper.

Using a straight edge the sanding bar makes light work of the task and in less than 30 minutes I had some perfect grooves, top and bottom, ready to accept the carbon tows.

Before I start epoxying the spars in I wanted to join the wings so the spars can be continuous across the join. Seeing as the joing will draw it's strength from the carbon spars, glass wing skin, trailing and leading edge balsa stock the join can be done with plain old Alcolin cold glue. From previous experience I have found if you use epoxy for this join, you battle to cut through this join when routing your aileron servo wires.

While the wing join was setting some more shaping of the fuselage followed. It is getting to the point where I am almost happy with the result.

The top aft section is going to have to wait until I've made the root templates for the fins. I need to "picture" how the fins are going to blend in with the fuselage.

Adding some detail to the intakes.

Gert Nieuwoudt's PSS Mig 7

2008-09-16T19:44:00.004+02:00

One of the models that will be at the ETB PSS Fest is this Mig 7 made from Correx being built by Gert. I have seen one of these fly at Volksies before and it didn't do bad at all. For those that are interested I have a 1Mb zip file that contains the plans and instructions or you can find it here. Some alternatives also made from correx are available here. Most of the models are powered aircraft but can easily be converted to slopies, especially the Corospit and Corostang.

F18 Build - Part 2

2008-09-16T07:17:00.004+02:00

And this is where you start kicking up a snow storm....! Shaping/sanding the polystyrene indoors is a sure way of getting on the wrong side of the "law" at home so I do mine outside. 80 grit paper takes care of everything that does not look like F18 and a finer grit gets it nice and smooth. Here the nose has been sanded to its basic shape and the canopy marked out.

Some more shaping and it is starting to look more and more like a Hornet by the minute.

To do the full size plane justice I am trying to get most of the contours as close as possible to the "real thing" that I can with this technique.

The result I am looking for is to have it slightly better than just stand-off scale. The only area where I am cheating a bit is on the wing. Here I've played a bit with the scale and aspect ratio to, hopefully, get a model that is a bit more versatile and does not need a galeforce wind to fly. I can never resist the urge to do a mockup prop to get an early idea what the end result is going to be.

ETB PSS Fest - F18 Project Part 1

2008-09-15T23:18:00.013+02:00

It's been AGES since I posted on the blog and this opportunity is as good as any resume posting. With the upcoming ETB PSS Fest in October I had to decide on a project to put together. To me the choice was easy, I have always wanted another F18 Hornet. Here's what the previous one looked like that I got from Paul.

With the help of Paul we quickly bashed out all the foamy bits. The fuse is from 20dv foam and the wings from 24dv. Somewhere in there is an F18 hiding away.....

Ahh! There it is.... With the templates already having been made with the previous model it saved me a lot of time behind the drawing board and behind the workbench. Now someone must just invent a foam cutter that can do all the compound curves as well ;o) Mind you, I saw some awesome CNC machines at last week's Electra Mining Show at Nasrec that could pretty well do the trick. Pity about the price tags on these marvels of technology :o(

Allegro Lite Build Part 7

2007-10-23T22:00:00.000+02:00

I've added another two layers of 160g glass to the fuselage tonight and while that is curing I started with a dry run of the two tip panels components. Quite intensive labour having to very delicately sand the correct angles to the cross grain shearwebs so they butt up to the ribs at the correct sweep. Everything seems to fit nicely according to the plan.

Below is a closeup of the carry through strips I made previously. Next I'll probably get sticky doing the actual building of the tip panels.

Allegro Lite Build Part 6

2007-10-22T22:45:00.000+02:00

Those folks on the MGASA group would know that I've been working on the second fuselage that I want to use for the electric version I intend building. It's been quite a learning process as I've never done moulding before.

Below are the moulds on loan from Eugene. It is not the standard AL fuselage but what I like about is the space compared to the original. It has an extended nose so I should get away with less noseweight in the end.

And this is the end result. The layup is a 45g outer layer, some carbon tow and then a 160g inner layer. The parts (untrimmed) weigh 52g up to this point. The fuselage looks and feels a little on the flimsy side so I'd probably lay up another layer of 160g on the inside. Painting will add another couple of grams in the end.

Allegro Lite Build Part 5

2007-10-16T23:09:00.000+02:00

I eventually got some building time again in this stupid schedule everybody calls the "Rat Race".

This little contraption is a jig I made to manufacture the bent carbon carry through strips. The carbon cap strips being ±0,7mm thick does not bend at an acute enough angle, therefore the need for the jig. And this is what came from this little excercise.
Cut into strips this is where they fit in the spar system of the wingtips. Note the piece of hardwood added to the balsa cross grain shearweb that will prevent any tendency for crushing in this area.

Allegro Lite Build Part 4

2007-09-18T22:29:00.001+02:00

The fuse I got was very light and a little flimsy. To make sure I don't crack it on the first dork landing I decided to reinforce it with some carbon, especially around the wing seat. Some 12K carbon tow was laid underneath with some 200gsm carbon cloth laid on top.

Allegro Lite Build Part 3

2007-09-15T06:03:00.000+02:00

The Allegro requires a fair amount of pre-pregged carbon strips, none of which come with the short kit. I decided to make my own. The commercially available strips taper in thickness towards the tip panels which I didn't bother doing.

The uni-directional carbon material comes from AMT. The roll I got is 300mm wide. I cut this into four 75mm wide strips. Next you need to find a flat surface to work on. I scrounged two pieces of 40 mm thick bullet proof glass from a revamped bank that work perfect for this. Next step is to wax up a strip of mylar. Then cut the carbon material to slightly wider than you require. Mix up some epoxy and pour it on the carbon. I then used a hard roller to make ensure the carbon is fully saturated. Then lay on the next layer of carbon and repeat the rolling process. I had to lay four strips of carbon to get the desired thickness of ±0.7mm.
Once you're happy that the carbon has been fully impregnated by epoxy take some paper towel and blot up the excess epoxy by rolling with the hard roller again. This takes care of any unneccessary weight.
Only thing remaining is to lay another strip of waxed mylar on top and to place the other glass plate on top to ensure your strips come out perfectly flat. With the glass plates weighing easily 10kg each there is no need for extra weight on top of this "sandwich".
And the finished product...... Voila! Cutting the carbon into smaller strips is the next challenge.

Allegro Lite Build Part 2

2007-09-12T07:15:00.000+02:00

I started out with marking out the hatch opening on the fuse and cutting it out. The fuse came with a seperate hatch cover which fits nice and flush with the fuse. I'll probably end up securing it with a spring loaded carbon rod which you epoxy to the hatch cover ala Xperience Pro style.

Allegro Lite Build Part 1

2007-09-11T17:44:00.000+02:00

I bought this "short kit" ages ago and only recently got the itch to actually build it. I bought the kit from Eugene du Plessis who used to fly at VMG with Gert Nieuwoudt. The rib kit and boom come from Laser Art and the fuse is Eugene's own design.

I am quite a slow builder but I'll try and keep the blog updated with my progress. The Allegro is quite an intensive build. The Allegro (AL for short) is basically the 2m baby brother of the 3m Bubble Dancer, both planes designed by Mark Drela of the Supra fame. Look at the Charles Rivers site for more info.

For starters I am going to build the pure thermal plane but plan on building a second "E"-version fuselage specifically for F5J.

My newest acquisition

2007-07-28T18:20:00.000+02:00

I eventually decided to splash out and buy myself an Xperience Pro fro Nan Models. Once I've stopped fondling it I'll try and put it together to see what it flies like before the team trials in September. The build quality is absolutely superb!

2007-01-24T22:55:00.000+02:00

This bird's eye view of our "South" field is courtesy of Google Earth. I believe the owner, Charles, has accepted an offer on the ground to be developed so we may end up on our old field of a few years ago as the current "North" field will soon be planted with lusern again. I'm sure Paul will keep us posted....