Model Airplanes
Well, Since I haven't posted anything in a while, here's some needless model airplane rambling. Hidden behind a cut tag so it's easy to ignore.
I've been on something of a building-finishing frenzy here of late. Sorta started by a problem I was having with a model I was building for a Yahoo group challenge. The building part went OK. It was the flying part that went screwy. Basicly, the plane didn't want to fly. After a bunch of headscratching and advice from the other participants, I finally figured out the problem. The covering at the front of the wing had given me a lot of trouble and actually sagged between the ribs. It was bad enough to disrupt the airflow at normal gliding speed with the result that the plane would dive to the ground.. I stripped off the old covering and tried again. Same sagging problem. I stripped the covering again, but this time I added an extra, light spar in the sagging area. Hey, presto, it flew. Too late to do me any good in the challenge, (I finished a well deserved dead last in both appearance and flight times.) but at least I figured out what was wrong.
Sorting that out got me revved up, so to speak, and now I've got a bunch of stuff being built, repaired or finished, but not flown. Here's the list in no particular order.
North Pacific Sky Flyer: Received damage in a 'hangar incident'. Repaired that and glued on the tailfeathers so I could lose the goofy original mounting setup.
Javelin 1: This is the model I built from an original kit for the challenge. In addition to the wing change, I'm redoing the tail mounting setup and I've lost the nose block, so I have to make another one.
Javelin 2: This is a scratchbuilt one. The wing had the same problem as #1 and got the same solution. I had originally built an as designed fuselage for it, but decided to change to a stick built fuselage instead. The partially completed first one will be used for #3.
Javelin 3: Yes, I've got 3 of these things going at once (with possible future plans for an enlarged version). I'm using the tailfeathers from my first Javelin that I built 15+ years ago. I'm having to recover the elevator due to warping. I still need to build another wing. I'll be building the new one with the extra spar from the start and I'm going to use the method of covering I first tried out on the Firefly mentioned below. It makes the covering go on much better for me and seems adequately strong. I'll be finishing up and using the fuselage that I started for #2. I'm also going to try out what I hope is an improved landing gear setup. The stock design tends to break off on the first flight for most people.
Firefly: Well along on this one. I tried a different method of covering the wing and joining the 2 halves. Worked out better and I plan to use the same approach when I can.
FA Moth 1: I'm making a balsa propeller (airscrew) for this one I built a while back. It came out nose heavy even though I built it the short nose variant. Hopefully the balsa prop will be lighter and allow the removal of some of the balancing clay from the tail.
FA Moth 2: Making good progress. Wing and tail frameworks are nearly finished. Made progress on the fuselage today.
Phantom Flash: Finished this one. Ready for flight tests.
Polly #2: The first came out too heavy due to use of too heavy a grade of balsa and poor wing placement. Number 2 I took more care with and glide tests are promising.
Comet Cloud Buster: Finshed and glide tests show a plane that should fly decently.
Assorted Sleek Streeks: Moving along as the mood strikes me.
Future project: A simple P-30 class model I designed myself (that's not saying much here) that's going to be my at work lunchtime project for the next little while.
Figured out how to use my old graphics program to make simple drawings for my planes easier than the 2 CAD programs I've tried. I swear CAD programs were not written with simple drafting type drawing in mind.
Related gripe: Why can't Canon make printer software that prints stuff at the actual size without having to fiddle with settings and make umpteen test prints to get it right?
ETA: The Super Freek: I need to bend up a new prop assembly and a landing gear.
I've been on something of a building-finishing frenzy here of late. Sorta started by a problem I was having with a model I was building for a Yahoo group challenge. The building part went OK. It was the flying part that went screwy. Basicly, the plane didn't want to fly. After a bunch of headscratching and advice from the other participants, I finally figured out the problem. The covering at the front of the wing had given me a lot of trouble and actually sagged between the ribs. It was bad enough to disrupt the airflow at normal gliding speed with the result that the plane would dive to the ground.. I stripped off the old covering and tried again. Same sagging problem. I stripped the covering again, but this time I added an extra, light spar in the sagging area. Hey, presto, it flew. Too late to do me any good in the challenge, (I finished a well deserved dead last in both appearance and flight times.) but at least I figured out what was wrong.
Sorting that out got me revved up, so to speak, and now I've got a bunch of stuff being built, repaired or finished, but not flown. Here's the list in no particular order.
North Pacific Sky Flyer: Received damage in a 'hangar incident'. Repaired that and glued on the tailfeathers so I could lose the goofy original mounting setup.
Javelin 1: This is the model I built from an original kit for the challenge. In addition to the wing change, I'm redoing the tail mounting setup and I've lost the nose block, so I have to make another one.
Javelin 2: This is a scratchbuilt one. The wing had the same problem as #1 and got the same solution. I had originally built an as designed fuselage for it, but decided to change to a stick built fuselage instead. The partially completed first one will be used for #3.
Javelin 3: Yes, I've got 3 of these things going at once (with possible future plans for an enlarged version). I'm using the tailfeathers from my first Javelin that I built 15+ years ago. I'm having to recover the elevator due to warping. I still need to build another wing. I'll be building the new one with the extra spar from the start and I'm going to use the method of covering I first tried out on the Firefly mentioned below. It makes the covering go on much better for me and seems adequately strong. I'll be finishing up and using the fuselage that I started for #2. I'm also going to try out what I hope is an improved landing gear setup. The stock design tends to break off on the first flight for most people.
Firefly: Well along on this one. I tried a different method of covering the wing and joining the 2 halves. Worked out better and I plan to use the same approach when I can.
FA Moth 1: I'm making a balsa propeller (airscrew) for this one I built a while back. It came out nose heavy even though I built it the short nose variant. Hopefully the balsa prop will be lighter and allow the removal of some of the balancing clay from the tail.
FA Moth 2: Making good progress. Wing and tail frameworks are nearly finished. Made progress on the fuselage today.
Phantom Flash: Finished this one. Ready for flight tests.
Polly #2: The first came out too heavy due to use of too heavy a grade of balsa and poor wing placement. Number 2 I took more care with and glide tests are promising.
Comet Cloud Buster: Finshed and glide tests show a plane that should fly decently.
Assorted Sleek Streeks: Moving along as the mood strikes me.
Future project: A simple P-30 class model I designed myself (that's not saying much here) that's going to be my at work lunchtime project for the next little while.
Figured out how to use my old graphics program to make simple drawings for my planes easier than the 2 CAD programs I've tried. I swear CAD programs were not written with simple drafting type drawing in mind.
Related gripe: Why can't Canon make printer software that prints stuff at the actual size without having to fiddle with settings and make umpteen test prints to get it right?
ETA: The Super Freek: I need to bend up a new prop assembly and a landing gear.