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NCFM Moth build


Jerry Lunt

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with the wife out today , I managed a few hours to myself and built my ballast tube , it can hold 10 slugs of brass rod at 1" in length and plugged with a piece of dowel , the idea being that this dowel is fixed to the piece that fills the hole in the wing , there is also a thin piece of sponge in the tube so that the dowel is held in with a little sideways pressure, Im hoping that this will be enough to keep everything in place ..the ballast and tube weigh just over 9 oz 

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also I'm copying Mikes idea of cutting the fuselage in half along the wing centre line so its getting glued together , as you can probably tell from the photos , the living room has been commandeered for this purpose as its warmer than the garage ....

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dave    

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Meanwhile 

I did manage one choc as Liz doesn't like the soft centres. 

Bluto is now having a rebuild. Wing was in lots of crumbled bits, but is almost ready for covering now. 

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a little more progress yesterday , servo boxes made and installed (thanks mike for the idea ) ' the wingtips roughly cut out , the slot cut and the fin potted , fuselage started to be shaped , one thing I did find that the balsa supplied for the fin is not large enough to be cut out with the grain angle as shown on the template, I'm pleased that i didn't manage to glue the access to the ballast tube up , so everything can be inserted and removed quite easily  

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Looking good Dave. 

The gulp has a fin that is a section cut from epp. It does require some stiffeners adding or the covering will shrink it out of shape. 

But once stiffened and covered I much prefer the look of the thicker fin. Since having my first gulp probably around 7 years ago I have adopted this design for my other foam builds. 

I have built a couple of reapers and a few jw wings all with thicker sectioned fins. Usually just by sticking some old scrap core material onto the balsa or correx standard fin then running it all on the belt sander. It does add some tail end weight but to my eyes well worth it. 

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I ran a dry carbon tow all around the 

outer edge and then flooded it with cyano also slashed what could be considered a rudder size piece off the back then stuck it back in place with a piece of flat carbon in the slash  of the cut line . 

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today's tinkerings .....

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fuselage sliced ready for the electronics 

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switch with charge and bind plugs 

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servo covers 

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couldn't resist a mock up 

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dave 

 

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My progress has been slowed by the houseful over Christmas and an addled brain due to lack of sleep and a possible dose of flu  :huh:  and no, not the man variety  :rolleyes:

I did not like the idea of cutting the fuselage in half but slowly concluded that fitting the wing through the cutout was going to be a pain.  So I made a cut at the rear of the wing like yours, Dave.  Just lifting the back end is sufficient to get the wing in place.  Now I don't like the idea of having the servo wire encased inside the wing/fus joint, so I'm going to keep the wiring more accessible. 

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But I'm also struggling on rx/battery fitment.  Following Mike's suggestion to use AA instead of AAA, I now suspect my battery + rx may be too heavy and make correct CoG difficult to achieve.  On top of that is the instructed method of closing the radio bay, won't allow me enough room to get this battery in/out.  I'm thinking I will need a hatch in the top to get the Rx in/out and for getting to the F/S switch for binding.  Also the little antenna needs to be as clear as possible from the screening of the battery.

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(Austin - pity the image adjustment does not provide for rotation when my camera specifies the orientation of the picture  :wacko:   Can you do that pls?)

So, I'm going to struggle adjusting the CoG position which cannot be done until the covering is applied and the battery is incarcerated in the fus.

Any ideas welcomed.

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Hi jerry

If you leave the battery, receiver and wires just tucked into that hole you will certainly have a fuselage that is highly likely to get broken if you start racing with others. 

My advice is to encase everything tightly and use batteries and receiver cases as structural parts. 

I covered all of the gulp with a wooden block in the nose which I then cut the covering and removed. The space then had a nice  tight fitting chunk of brass that I cut to balance the model before refilling any remaining space and patch covering. Receiver sits under a small block of foam with straws to guide light from activity led and access to the bind button. 

If battery removal is needed I will cut the fuselage apart  

 

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6 minutes ago, isoaritfirst said:

Hi jerry

If you leave the battery, receiver and wires just tucked into that hole you will certainly have a fuselage that is highly likely to get broken if you start racing with others. That's not going to happen, though I'm still likely to prang it

My advice is to encase everything tightly and use batteries and receiver cases as structural parts. mmmm  battery maybe but the Rx case is cardboard, or something similar.  But I agree, it all needs to be tight.

I covered all of the gulp with a wooden block in the nose which I then cut the covering and removed. The space then had a nice  tight fitting chunk of brass that I cut to balance the model before refilling any remaining space and patch covering. Receiver sits under a small block of foam with straws to guide light from activity led and access to the bind button. 

If battery removal is needed I will cut the fuselage apart  I can go along with that and likely same for Rx but I think the servos should be removable without cutting the fus apart,,,,,,

 

.......  at the moment, I'm looking to wire the Rx servo feeds to some sockets just in front of the wing with the servo wires exiting the wings each side nearby, so the servos can be un-plugged without disturbing the Rx.  Then only need to cut the wing covering to extract the servos.

I like the brass idea but I may already be nose heavy with this battery pack.

Fit the Rx in the wing?  Possibly but 1 servo wire must be through that wing/fus glued together joint  :huh:

I'm also aware of trying not to weaken the fus any more.

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you should be ok with that battery jerry , I'm sure its the same size as the one I am using , mine balances just a little forward of the 11/2" as per instructions , but has not got any covering or the elevons yet , I think it should not be to far off once everything is finished 

 

dave  

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Next job will be to switch my jw60 and reaper extreme over to 2.4. 

Both models have only been test flow since a rebuild on the jw and initial build on the reaper which was built purely for Ds. It has lots of mods flies on rails and is as strong as f

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Bit of progress yesterday but another hiatus for family gathering today 65 mile up the road ......... as long as we don't get blown off   :huh:

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43 minutes ago, isoaritfirst said:

Next job will be to switch my jw60 and reaper extreme over to 2.4. 

Both models have only been test flow since a rebuild on the jw and initial build on the reaper which was built purely for Ds. It has lots of mods flies on rails and is as strong as f

leaved it on 35      its the new long range 2.4 ....:rolleyes:

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