What Did You Do Airplane Wise Today?

[FreeFlightModeller]

Yes David, the Fulmar is a 'licensed' Bluebottle development of the Mike Nassise plan ... as is the P40 that I have been building.
They have been 'thereabouts' for a good while now .... hope to have them 'there' before too long!

[Jack Plane]

Been building a Chris Foss Middle Phase 2 slope soarer, the flat-wing aileron version 

At 61" span and kit wood no thinner than 1/8th, it is proving to be a useful - temporary - respite from working with Peanut scale balsa! 

[danmellor]

Very nice! I haven't flown R/C for years, but I have a 75% Lazy Bee nearly ready for covering. Hope I can still do it!

Cheers,

Dan.

[FreeFlightModeller]

Been a big fan of the Chris Foss soarer range since the seventies.
Still got my phase 6 from the 80s

Look forward to further progress

[Jack Plane]

Dan, that'll compete with your Carte Postale for ridiculously reversed aspect ratio!  Looks dead easy to... land  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVimVuJ1NoE

Russ, I bought the Middle Phase kit at least four years ago as a RE only trainer, but then started slope soaring with a foam Libelle with ailerons, which is fun but really too lightly loaded for usual conditions (and being an ARTF foamie gives me no pleasure in the model itself).  So I purchased the optional aileron wings set for the MP direct from Chris Foss, and then still did nothing!  Until now.  Will post the odd progress pic as I go along.  

[dieterperiperi]

After I saw MKelly’s Navion on this thread and vowing to build one, please see the attached of my efforts so far.

The plan had all the parts on anseperate PDF so all I had tomdo was print them and glue-em on to sheet and cut

13grams so far and going to add the landing gear on this one. Great result with Ezedope water and rubbing alcohol mix for shrinking and coating. Seems to give a much better finish than just water and Ezedope

[OZPAF]

Very nice covering on the wings DP. Did you shrink with the rubbing alcohol before using the Eze dope?
John

[MKelly]

Your Navion is looking great DP!  Two lessons learned from my build - may want to reinforce the stringers immediately above the TE of the wing (I put my thumb through the side there during a launch yesterday) and recommend clearancing the second former and upper keel in the cowl area so the motor doesn't bind there.

This is a great-flying model - had two flights over 1 minute duration on its second day flying.

Cheers,

Mike

[FLYACE1946]

Navion looks very nice against those clouds in the sky. WOW.  Just  a great day outside.  Why I like south Texas.

[dieterperiperi]

Thanks you all.
Mike- I had your bones pics post bookmarked on my phone and studied it very closely in some areas of the build as the plan didnt make sense to me. Very helpfull indeed. Your flight look great!

John- I mixed rubbing alc, water and eze all together 50-25-25% roughly. Still lots of learning to do with this shrinking coating game. Like ezedope as its quite waterproof. Eliminates sagging in damp.

Y

[DavidJP]

 Very nice and I congratulate you on the weight considering the amount of timber in the fuselage. 

[p40qmilj]

 ;Ddreamed about going downstairs and getting back to work.  i got out of hospital yesterday and will be taking it easy for a week. yes the operation was successful.

jim

[FreeFlightModeller]

Get well soon Jim! 

[OZPAF]

Take it easy Jim, although you can still plan if you can't build. Those grand kids of yours need more exposure to your model flying.

John

[DavidJP]

Got my magnetic building board up and running.  Picture below.

As mentioned somewhere above the metal sheet is 2mm thick 2ft by 1ft.  I mounted it on a piece of 3/8th MDF which makes it slightly easier to pick up. It is slightly heavy and thereby won't slide about easily. 

That was all straightforward and I took a guess on the magnets, not being fully aware of the size and amount of "pull" required.  However beginners luck and all that because I settled for two sizes - the square ones are 19x19x5mm with a pull of 0.46kg.  I think they will do for most jobs.  The rectangular ones are 25x10x6mm and have a pull of 0.8kg.  Noticeably stronger.  Th balsa is medium hard 1/8th square and you can see they hold the bend well although in practice I would rarely bend a piece  "dry"  like that, it would be steamed or soaked etc.

Playing with it for a short while I can see the appeal, much quicker than pins, no holes or indentations  and the magnets can be slid about if you want to alter the position.  I am a bit "messy" and tend to drop glue and dope etc. on the board I may be using because I am careless - cleaning such things off this board should be a pice of cake.

Cost wise I cannot complain.  The mild steel sheet cost three pounds including cutting and the magnets (from first 4magnets) were about ten pounds. I bought the two packs and they total 40 in all.  Probably more than I need but I hate not having enough.  Anyway not a costly asset I suggest. 

I would consider that anything much bigger than 2x1 for the "board" (and anything thicker then 2mm) might be a bit heavy to move about.

Now to build something. 

[billdennis747]

Spent time in Mallorca flying a chuck glider with grandson. What is it with five year olds that they don´t understand balancing the turn with a banked launch? Mallorca has many attributes but is totally hopeless for FF. You can´t go 20 yards in any direction without striking a tree, wall or goat. And locals seem bemused by a grown man poking at a tree with a long stick.

[Crabby]

Good am David, Good to see you with a magnet building board. The Mag board solved a lot of problems for me. One thing I wonder is why more guys haven't tried the 1/2" magnetic strip. It is cheap and comes in rolls. It can also hold a nice curve for times when nice curved longerons are needed. Give it a try oh, one side has release paper and is adhesive as well. It is magnetic enough to hold yet not so strong, you can fairly easily pick it off the board. Enough. Anyway I have my magnet board standing up so I can work standing without stressing my neck and shoulders.

[DavidJP]

Gosh Crabby you are n’t half bossy - just as I thought I could now relax I have got to scour the County for ******* magnetic strip,  there seems to be no peace!

And Bill now seems to have the hump with trees walls and luckless goats!  I am not surprised the locals were bumused at him poking trees with a long stick.  Does he not know that it has certain connotations consequent on events in Spanish history and the Moors?

[Howie911]

The mental Rolodex kicked in and I remembered I had this site.  Might be of benefit to those contemplating magnetic building.

http://www.airfieldmodels.com/information_source/how_to_articles_for_model_builders/tools/magnetic_building_board/index.htm

Cheers and boomers!

[MKelly]

Finished covering the Megow Skyrocket's nacelles and gave them two coats of nitrate dope.

[OZPAF]

That's a wild looking little beast Mike. Very nice.

John

[billdennis747]

Got home after three weeks, keen to stick some bits together. I was rummaging at a bookcase, on top of which were extra books and a new model on top of that. They slid off. Now, that fraud Galileo would have us believe that objects fall at the same rate, and so the model should have landed on the books. Not so. But at least I now have some bits to stick together - about 40 I estimate.

[Pete Fardell]

To be fair to Galileo, he demonstrated his theory with two pieces of fruit didn't he? (Rather than something which flies and something that doesn't.)... But if your new model has a faster sink rate than a pile of books, are you sure it's worth repairing?

[billdennis747]

I always thought it was cannon balls. Anyway, here it is. Quite lucky, really, and could have been a lot worse. I was impressively restrained.

[Pete Fardell]

Ah- not covered or put together yet. The sink rate is excusable then!
(Also, what is it?)