UK, # 1-2001 (Jan)
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RC MODEL WORLD ( JANUARY 2001 ) |
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RC MODEL
WORLD [PAGE 1] |
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| Assembly The airframe is fully built up using a combination of ply and balsa. All of the balsa accessible suggests hard balsa is used throughout the construction. The airframe comes complete and in its current version, is covered in PC10 Solartex on the top surfaces and fuselage with Antique Solartex used on the underside. The 6.25 inch wheels appear to be made from laminated ply covered in PC10 tex with solid rubber tyres. The wheels came in at a substantial 1.5 pounds! The flying surfaces on this aircraft are large, hence I elected to use higher power servos to drive the rear end controls, each elevator is some 82 sq. inches! The rudder and steerable tail skid also share a single servo -so metal gears were used. Each wing strut sits in a wonderfully made mounting. This is a fully stressed and rigged wing system, the struts are there merely to keep the wings apart. The flying wires keep the wing positively stressed, holding the struts in their mounting tubes so it is essential therefore to correctly set up the flying wires. As the airframe has been pre-assembled at the factory the flying/drag wires have therefore been set up for you and I found very little adjustment was needed. The tail surfaces and wings all fitted onto the fuselage easily so attaching the many flying wires was a simple job. With the wings and tail fitted, you just look at the model in awe -it's beautiful! | |
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Snags That said, I hit two more problems. Having set up the elevators, I was fiddling around, when I noticed that the elevators 'looked wrong'. Examination led me to the external elevator horn (the one connected to the joystick), which was loose on its spindle. This resulted in one of the elevators remaining neutral, whilst the other had a significant amount of up. I did not find this until after I had unbolted the top wing section and removed the cowling to gain access to the servos and bell cranks. |
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The slave elevator horns are held in position by a collet style Allen
screw, one of which was not 100% secure. The elevator was neutralised
and the grub screw was fully tightened, with a little super glue added
to both sides as extra security. While reattaching the top wing centre
section the Allen screws would not tighten, due to the captive wing
nuts in the centre section rotating. These are part held in hard
balsa, but the balsa had given up under the strain. I then had to
remove some Solartex to gain access to the captive nuts. Using some
pliers to hold the nuts, the ceRtre section was then fixed into place
without further issue. I then had to fix the Solartex covering.
This now brings me to: |
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Mod 5 -Servo connectors Having assembled all of the airframe, there is no solution apparent to connect the aileron servos to the Y-lead. To overcome this, I ran one leg of the Y-lead down each undercarriage leg into the lower wing centre section. I then created a hatch to provide access to each lead. The servo leads now plug together easily and are out of sight within the lower wing centre section.
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| Creativeness -Cockpit and crew Additional cost options include instrument panel, pilots s~at, pilot and gunner, I elected for the cheaper route. My cousin, Dale Tattam, provided me with a nice colour drawing of an F2B instrument panel. This was quickly scanned into my computer, touched up to remove some unwanted bits, resized to 1:5 scale, then printed. A wash of white glue saw a fine instrument panel affixed to the firewall. The pilots seat was made from a 69 pence wicker posy basket from the local garden centre. This was left to soak in water for 24 hours. A few tweaks and twists formed a rather good seat. This was held in shape by a brick and some bands for a further 24 hours while it dried out. The pilot and gunner are from AH Designs (Alan and Sandra Howells Tel: 01492 512765). I love talking to these people, I always end up with a grin on my face! You describe the aircraft/era, and they in return describe the pilot/gunner jodhpurs, mitten hands (pilot), fingered hands (gunner), goggles, flying helmets etc. etc. They look so good, yet weigh so very little. | |
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'Excellent customer service' |
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The final set up and check The control surfaces were set as per the instructions with 200 on the elevator and ailerons with 300 for the rudder. I then checked the Centre of Gravity. Ouch!! A quick look indicated that the C of G was well adrift, with the aircraft being very tail heavy (heavy/hard balsa!). I tried laying a couple of pairs of pliers on the front -little change -I then tried 3 pounds of lead -nearly right. I hate dead weight, so the Laser 120 came out, this was cycled with a Laser 150 from my Fokker Drl Triplane. It still took 3 pounds of lead up front to obtain the recommended safe C of G at 5 inches behind leading edge (top wing). The Laser 150 adding a greater power safety margin for our small strip and the necessary umpf. |
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AND AGAIN... |
The instruction booklet indicates a weight of 16 pounds, which I
assumed to be the 'all up' weight, although this is not clear.
However, with my Laser 150 plus the lead the F2B weighed in at a very
healthy 21 pounds! With just under 3,000 square inches of lift area,
the wing loading remains fairly low at approximately 1 pound per
square foot. OK. It's all together, it looks fantastic, so it's off to
the flying field.
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RC MODEL
WORLD [PAGE 1] |
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RC MODEL WORLD ( JANUARY 2001 ) |
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