Phil.Taylor Posted June 10, 2015 Share Posted June 10, 2015 (edited) Finally made a start on the Swift - which I bought back in 2013 as a Xmas present to myself. Slow builder? - the hardest bit is getting started - needed a confluence of time, motivation, and mess-up-able space. Now making steady progress on it in the evenings, until the build gets stalled again.Build thread here to keep my motivation up - feel free to chip in & comment, heckle, whateverIts a Modellstudio Swift S1 - 2.88m span - which I bought from Topmodel.fr in France (no longer listed - can probably buy it direct from Modellsudio - other European vendors list it too) - price was very reasonable - £350ishhttp://www.modellstudio.cz/index.php?&desktop_back=eshop&action_back=&id_back=&desktop=eshop&action=zbozi_detail&id=605Glass fuselage, profilmed foam veneer wings with glass reinforcement & solid 12mm steel joiner. Paul Jubb has the sister ship - 3m Fox, which stars in the Moel Famau video - nice size & I was impressed at how it flew, so I bought this Swift. Its billed as an ARF - which of course isn't - the fus is nicely moulded but only a single layer of glass - might be OK for flat field aerotow, but for slope abuse needed some additional glass/carbon - big messy job, which is why the build didn't get started. Edited June 10, 2015 by Phil.Taylor 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil.Taylor Posted June 10, 2015 Author Share Posted June 10, 2015 Evening 1 - wrap up the fus in masking tape - rough up the insides - big messy epoxy & carbon job - nice hefty 70mm wide carbon - dining table in rented flat converted to workshop mode. Using Gurit SP106 epoxy - bought from a yacht chandler in Shaftesbury Avenue - along from London theatreland (yep, really!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil.Taylor Posted June 10, 2015 Author Share Posted June 10, 2015 Evening 2 - get the servo tray to fit nicely - which turned out to be a hefty messy fiddly time consuming job - its 5mm thick hard plywood - and a tight squeeze to get it into the cockpit opening. Plan the gear install Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Burgess Posted June 10, 2015 Share Posted June 10, 2015 So Phil, no 2.4 friendly nose then? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil.Taylor Posted June 10, 2015 Author Share Posted June 10, 2015 Evening 3 - Servo tray cut-outs - without proper workshop facilities - crazy dusty hard work with a drill & files - neat though - definitely a drink after this lot Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil.Taylor Posted June 10, 2015 Author Share Posted June 10, 2015 Evening 4 - epoxy in the servo tray & additional carbon to keep it in place. Well pleased so far - really solid, should take some serious slope landings - getting heavy on the front, but that's no bad thing - less noseweight needed. Now it really does seem more of an ARF - with the usual gear install, wiring, linkages etc to do. Weekend off - back home to the usual DIY - window painting - the sort of reason I don't get builds & repairs started, or get any decent flying in !More next week?Phil. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil.Taylor Posted June 10, 2015 Author Share Posted June 10, 2015 So Phil, no 2.4 friendly nose then?Good point there - except...I'm still on 35mhz ! aerial down the rest of the glass fus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gromit Posted June 11, 2015 Share Posted June 11, 2015 (edited) Phil, great to see your Swift is finally under way, I look forward to following its build . Stu. Edited June 11, 2015 by Gromit Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Burgess Posted June 11, 2015 Share Posted June 11, 2015 Good point there - except...I'm still on 35mhz ! aerial down the rest of the glass fusAhhh.... that explains it...... steam radio! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jef Ott Posted June 12, 2015 Share Posted June 12, 2015 Watching with interest. Nice to see a sensibly-sized-for-the-average-Joe scalie build. Keep up the good work Phil. Jef Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil.Taylor Posted June 16, 2015 Author Share Posted June 16, 2015 (edited) Bit more progress this evening - switch & servos fitted, they look a bit lost in that wide fus - Futaba S3010s - faster & more torque than most standards. Linkages will go towards the fus sides, leaving space down the fus centreline for ballast provision - auw will probably come out about 3.5kg - another 1.5kg of ballast should do nicely !Switch took 2x attempts - first was a so-called heavy duty item, jammed up when fitted, poor casing design, tried a few things but ended up binning it. Now has one of my favourite JR branded switches - which was supposed to be for another build.Tomorrow - hopefully on to tailplane fitting Edited June 16, 2015 by Phil.Taylor Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil.Taylor Posted June 17, 2015 Author Share Posted June 17, 2015 (edited) On to the tailplane fitting. Not been looking forward to this, lots of scope for messing up - but its all turned out fine.Tailplane mounting bolt/nut moulded in - nice idea - but the epoxy was into the nut, with lots also behind it. Careful work with a drill, files, and a visit to the local DIY store for an M4 steel bolt to clear the threads. Nice to see carbon reinforcement at the base of the fin.No mounting hole in the Tailplane - mark it up, drill, file to get it exactly right, Tailplane seems pretty solid - has glass under the veneer in the centre section.Epoxied the dowel incidence pin into the tail, this locates into a brass tube in the fin, embedded in a balsa block & epoxy. Fiddly to do, but simple, neat & strong.Well pleased with that lot - and its all nice & square, and the tail incidence is right - time for a beer ! Edited June 17, 2015 by Phil.Taylor 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy_B Posted June 18, 2015 Share Posted June 18, 2015 Hi Phil..........how are you going to connect the elevator to the servo. I ask because with the rudder attached I'm not sure you can get to the screw for the elevator attachement and taking the rudder off all the time is a PITA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil.Taylor Posted June 18, 2015 Author Share Posted June 18, 2015 Hi Phil..........how are you going to connect the elevator to the servo. I ask because with the rudder attached I'm not sure you can get to the screw for the elevator attachement and taking the rudder off all the time is a PITAYou've hit on the great unknown there - whether the tail can be easily removed for transport - and it really does need to come off for transport. The tail bolt is easily accessible by deflecting the rudder - that's not the problem. The problem is the elevator linkage - going to be a carbon rod ending in a clevis - will go through a hole cut in the rear slopy bit of the fus, under the elevator. Fine when its all connected, but disconnected the linkage will fall back into the fus. The hard bit will be to persuade the linkage to come out for fixing to the elevator horn - probably by turning the whole thing upside down. We'll see - any suggestions welcomed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy_B Posted June 18, 2015 Share Posted June 18, 2015 Well Funny you should ask as I saw a great solution while away . Carbon pushrod with an M3 bolt through ball link on the end .make sure you put at least one support for the pushrod near the tail . Elevator has a 3mm steel pin to act as the elevator horn (you could tap it with a thread to screw into one of those brass inserts in the elevator) when you want to connect you push the pin through the ball link and jobs done . So simply and so effective and no need to remove the rudder . the ball link cant drop as you have supported it , the only slight downside is making sure the ball link hole lines up . Hope this helps , its what I will be doing on mine as with closed loop rudder removal is a pain Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil.Taylor Posted June 18, 2015 Author Share Posted June 18, 2015 (edited) Thanks Andy ! - will have a good think about that - could save a whole lot of bother slopeside. Sounds a bit like the Fletcher tail - where the elevator horn is a pin, which fits into something attached to the tail bellrank/link, at the top of the fin - to fit tail = line up the pin, bolt tail on, done !Andy - that pushrod - not only needs to be supported - it ideally needs to be running in a sleeve/bearing near the tail - if it can slop up & down that will change the elevator deflection cos the "horn" length will be different! An important part of the mechanism (Fletcher too) is that the elevator pin/horn slides within the hole of the ball in the ball joint - translates linear pushrod motion into rotary elevator motion - slight downside is for large deflections theres a built-in reverse expo effect as the "horn" becomes longer - probably not worth worrying about, but could easily be compensated on the Tx.Phil. Edited June 18, 2015 by Phil.Taylor Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woodstock Posted June 18, 2015 Share Posted June 18, 2015 You've hit on the great unknown there - whether the tail can be easily removed for transport - and it really does need to come off for transport. The tail bolt is easily accessible by deflecting the rudder - that's not the problem. The problem is the elevator linkage - going to be a carbon rod ending in a clevis - will go through a hole cut in the rear slopy bit of the fus, under the elevator. Fine when its all connected, but disconnected the linkage will fall back into the fus. The hard bit will be to persuade the linkage to come out for fixing to the elevator horn - probably by turning the whole thing upside down. We'll see - any suggestions welcomed. On my 2.5 m X-models Swift the same issue arose. I decided to fit both ends of the elevator pushrod with quick-release Sullivan ball joint ends. I remove the entire pushrod when disassembling the model (I keep it inside the fuse in a fleece sleeve for storage). I push a piece of rubber tubing onto the front end of the rod so that I can manipulate the rod inside the fuse and push it out the back for easy connection to the ball on the elevator horn whilst the elevator is still separate from the model. After then bolting the elevator down I finally connect the front end of the rod to the servo arm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy_B Posted June 18, 2015 Share Posted June 18, 2015 Thanks Andy ! - will have a good think about that - could save a whole lot of bother slopeside. Sounds a bit like the Fletcher tail - where the elevator horn is a pin, which fits into something attached to the tail bellrank/link, at the top of the fin - to fit tail = line up the pin, bolt tail on, done !Andy - that pushrod - not only needs to be supported - it ideally needs to be running in a sleeve/bearing near the tail - if it can slop up & down that will change the elevator deflection cos the "horn" length will be different! An important part of the mechanism (Fletcher too) is that the elevator pin/horn slides within the hole of the ball in the ball joint - translates linear pushrod motion into rotary elevator motion - slight downside is for large deflections theres a built-in reverse expo effect as the "horn" becomes longer - probably not worth worrying about, but could easily be compensated on the Tx.Phil.My intention Phil is to combine a full depth fin post with a guide for the pushrod to run in Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil.Taylor Posted June 18, 2015 Author Share Posted June 18, 2015 On my 2.5 m X-models Swift the same issue arose. I decided to fit both ends of the elevator pushrod with quick-release Sullivan ball joint ends. I remove the entire pushrod when disassembling the model (I keep it inside the fuse in a fleece sleeve for storage). I push a piece of rubber tubing onto the front end of the rod so that I can manipulate the rod inside the fuse and push it out the back for easy connection to the ball on the elevator horn whilst the elevator is still separate from the model. After then bolting the elevator down I finally connect the front end of the rod to the servo arm. Thanks Chris - interesting approach - goes further than what I had thought of, which was making the linkage so at full rearwards servo travel (radio off) the clevis can be "parked" outside the fus above the sloping end of the fus, then taped on to keep it there - I haven't worked out the geometry yet though.Phil. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woodstock Posted June 18, 2015 Share Posted June 18, 2015 My intention Phil is to combine a full depth fin post with a guide for the pushrod to run in I bet you Werner has ceramic/ gold bearings lifted from the Space Shuttle project.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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