Dear Diary

[wookman]

Hi Mike.

First time flying rudder ele model for several years. Very relaxing after flying mostly F3f stuff for years. 

[wookman]

Just found this on Google street view. Morgans at Whitesheet. Not sure who the "broken" Pike belongs to.

[wookman]

And this one on the Bowl taken from the hump.

[Phil.Taylor]

Vladimir Elf - beach "slope" soaring fun this morning - Seaton, Devon

Phil.

[oipigface]

Bit of a red letter day today. Some months ago, I set out to master a CAD system (Fusion 360). This afternoon, I finished the main design work on some wingtips for a 4m soarer. This plane will have a fuselage sold in the 80s (?) as part of a design called Rubicon. I’ve moulded a tailplane for it using much the same design as the original. The wing will consist of a 2m centre section (AG40-41) with spoilers, and the two 1m wingtips whose exteriors I finished today. These are possibly the most complex wingtips ever, with three sections (AG41-43), 1.5 degrees of washout over the outboard 350mm. I did it like this as a challenge, but I wasn’t expecting it to be quite as much of a challenge as it turned out. I had to make minor mods to trailing edge of the AG43 to reduce the degree of under camber, which was causing problems with the lofting on the underside.

it’s been a bit of a struggle, but I succeeded in the end!

I’ll post some pictures when I’ve done the internal structure (which I am sure will be easier!??)

[Phil.Taylor]

BMFA classifieds strike again - this Pilatus B4 jumped into the car on the way back from the Mynd last weekend - along with a Baudis Salto 2.5m

Pilatus B4 first flights from Whitesheet today - 25-30mph wind into the SW bowl - its a lovely old thing, flies really well - 1:4.5 scale, 3.3m span - by MHM Modellbau - 1980s/90s vintage - Ritz airfoil & blade wing joiners like the original Alpina.

Phil.

[oipigface]

On 24/06/2023 at 19:24, oipigface said:

Bit of a red letter day today. Some months ago, I set out to master a CAD system (Fusion 360). 

I’ll post some pictures when I’ve done the internal structure (which I am sure will be easier!??)

Another red letter day. It turned out that the internal structure for the Rubicon wingtips that I was boasting about in June was far harder to complete than I had expected. But 6 months later it’s done and I’ve sent files off to Cliff Evans of Laser Cut Sailplanes to be cut for me. Here’s the design: planform is based on the Perlan experimental high-altitude soarer ( ‘cause I like the look of it); Drela sections plus completely unnecessary washout; direct drive ailerons; tips and servo retention blocks are to be printed (by Mark). I did all of this to make it more of a challenge to my Fusion 360 skills. Drawing omits cap strips and D-box sheeting. Next job is to draw it again, properly, as a wing for a 2m soarer called provisionally Ruby Tuesday.
 

As a kind of trial run, I recently sent Cliff files for the tail boom of my projected BAC VIII 1/4-scale waterglider. The result was not quite perfect because I’m inexperienced with the whole process, but here are my parts, which are usable if not exactly what was intended! At the top of the picture are some templates for cutting foam wings: two for the BAC VIII, and one for a water tug called Dampley. This will be a Greenfield Ampley on floats with two little EDF’s mounted on the wing to provide steering on water.

 

Tail boom design complete with skin:

 

… and a concept drawing of Dampley. It will eventually have a tailplane and a rudder:

 

 

 

[wookman]

3 hours ago, oipigface said:

a water tug called Dampley

Like it!

[Phil.Taylor]

This one is for John T - re-maiden of his old planes this afternoon - Needle 124 & Rotmilan electric - off my favourite Devon slope in a nice 8mph sea breeze on a sunny warm day. The Rotmilan is very likeable - soars well, fast, turns hard, no bad habits. The Needle 124 is "interesting" - not so happy soaring, fast, turns hard, eerily quiet at speed.

Phil.

[wookman]

Good to see you back at it Phil. 

[Les]

7 hours ago, wookman said:

Good to see you back at it Phil. 

Yes second that

Hope to see you soon

[heli_bee]

My Needle 115 is also very quiet at speed.

 

[Phil.Taylor]

A good session with John Treble on Musbury this afternoon - 20mph dead on the slope - big thermals for soaring & speed runs - some sunshine too.

I've given his old Needle 124 a new colour scheme - the "Team Treble" yellow wiggle had to go - now has a sort of silver pointy-needle-ish scheme - nicely different to have the stripes along the wing instead of across - the silver catches the sun nicely. The big old Alpina 4001 came out to play too - excellent soaring to tiny spec height - fun aerobatics on the way down - its definitely a "classic" plane. John was having fun with his "Batwing" built-up wing thing - light weight but flew well in the stiff breeze.

Phil.

[Phil.Taylor]

Needle & Alpina videos now up on the F3F & slope videos threads

[oipigface]

Quite a weekend! After the rain cleared on Saturday I actually went flying. Took my Raptor out to Musbury, where I met Phil Taylor. He brought along a venerable Freestyler and an unflown Baudis Banana! The Banana went very well, and put quite a big smile on his face. Conditions were not quite perfect, with the wind slightly off at 25 - 30mph, but it was sunny and warmish so we had a good time.

The rest of the three days, I spent actually producing something with my new CNC router. OK, so it was only a pair of flap pushrods, but nonetheless it was a big step on what has been an unnecessarily difficult progression. I bought the Stepcraft M-700 to replace my old X-Carve because i) it’s bigger; ii) I expected it to be better. Unfortunately, it has been very difficult to buy and to get going. Now it is in place, it is not without some residual problems, but they are not sufficient to stop production, and these epoxyglass pushrods were produced without major setbacks:

So 2 years figuring out Fusion 360, almost 8 months since I ordered it, I suppose I ought to be asking if all the grief was worth it. I certainly don’t regret the struggle with Fusion 360. I can’t say that I have mastered it fully, but the initial drawing of the parts and toolpaths for this took no longer than half an hour. It had to be modified because it was inconsistent with limitations of the machine. My old machine would have just taken anything you sent it and cut it out as best it could. This meant wasted time and materials. My main problem with these pushrods was trying to cut out square internal corners with a cylindrical cutter. Fusion’s excellent toolpath software warned me about it before I got to setting up the material. It’s not so excellent at detecting all the cuts that need to be made. I spent some time searching the internet to find out why it wouldn’t drill 2mm holes. The reason turned out to be something to do with ramping angles - a topic on which I think I would have been quite happy to remain ignorant. All these issues are black boxes for X-Carve’s Easel software users.

I need more time with the Stepcraft to be sure that it really has been worth the effort. What I still don’t understand is why the firm’s quality control is so awful across all aspects of its operations. 

 

[wookman]

Vol de Pente ou Menez Hom.