G’day from the Goldfields!
Hope you didn’t put on to many extra kilos over the festive season and you have managed to stay sane during some of the hot spells we have had. I have been a bit lax of late with the windsock articles, but really you haven't missed much by not getting a November article, as generally the weather has been poor. Very hot and windy and as a result the attendance numbers and activity at the club has been restricted. One of the few high points was a visit by Martin Webershock organised and backed by Greg Volk. We were exposed to some of the latest in electric glider technology. The standard of Martins equipment and methodology is without doubt equivalent to Formula One car technology. As most of us in Kalgoorlie use billy cart standard technology and have equivalent budget constraints we could only look on and drool, however I think we were all inspired by Martin’s enthusiasm and lateral thinking. Thank you Greg for your efforts to get Martin to the Goldfields.
Little has been happening in the way of new aircraft of late due to the uninspiring weather. We are all waiting to see how Peter Oxenham’s Bolly hovering Cobra performs having seen a few articles in the Mags of late. Hovering seems to be the flavour of the month lately and most of our club members are becoming quite proficient at it.
Having mentioned the Mags have you noticed lately how so much space is being used for "construction" articles for ARF aircraft? As they all go together pretty much the same way this really peeves me. A short column on any significant differences from the norm, areas to improve, areas to watch, would be helpful. The articles are really not much more than reprints, less spelling mistakes, of the assembly manuals.
As for spelling mistakes, if any of you are considering purchasing the Seagull PC9 then you should be aware that the claim on the box that it can be assembled in one hour is a typo. "Hour" should read "Day" and perhaps a little longer. Generally the PC9 has been a reasonable experience as far as ARF models go. A lot of effort has gone into the twenty page manual, however there still are significant areas of confusion. As the PC9 is aimed at the intermediate to advanced flyer the manual is really only useful for backup and is probably overkill. It does set a high standard to which other companies could aspire and contains a lot of usefull tips that relate to all ARF models. The Aircraft is a good flier with a healthy .46 up front. Landings are particularly enjoyable. It looks OK in the air and on the ground. Seagull have done a reasonable job of reproducing the Roulette markings and have done an exceptional job with the covering. The covering material used is OK however it needs constant reshrinking to maintain tension, especially in the hot weather. A word of warning about the covering. Avoid reshrinking near the joint of the red and white material on the wings, as it tends to pull away.
The only major change I made to the aircraft was to lower the center line of the engine by 10mm to get the cowl to fit a little better. This was a good move and the motor could possibly go even lower for a better fit. I did also notice that it would be possible, with a little loss of some exhaust pipe detail to mount the motor at forty five degrees from the vertical using two of the original holes in the firewall. This would make the motor more accessible for starting and would still retain it within the outline of the aircraft reasonably well. I personably have not had any problems with the inverted motor or the cowl and I feel the few hours spent getting it to fit well was well spent.
By the time this article reaches you the Caribou that I have been constructing will have hopefully been finished and flown. The manufacture of the fibreglass cowls was an experience that I will not be in a hurry to repeat. The end result was satisfying, however the process of making them was painfully tedious to say the least. It may only take an hour to lay up a cowl, however it takes days to make up a satisfactory plug and then manufacture a mould from that plug, using an itchy, messy, possibly harmful material. I won’t go into any detail of the process, as we would be here for ages. Neither will I regale you with the horror story about the problems I have had with the .25 GMS motors during the running in period. As I write I am still waiting for one of the Engines to be replaced under warranty. If you are determined to know the details drop me a line or email and I will fill you in (as the Bishop said to the Nun.)
At time of writing I am just waiting for the wind to drop so I can spray on the final coat of paint. Getting the near enough to right colour has been an epic story. I decided the only way to arrive at a close match was to use Humbrol paints. I purchased a number of different army greens and dipped a paddle pop into each. I then got a number of my nine year old sons friends who happened to be here at the time to match the colour closest to a series of colour photos of the original aircraft No 173 that I have chosen. As all of them chose two of the eight colours I decided that a mix of those two colours would work. Wrong!
The end result was way too light even though they had chosen a light and dark colour. I then went back to my choice and sprayed some on a piece of cardboard. This looked close enough but where to get sufficient tins of the colour to do the job as I had already cleaned out both shops in Kalgoorlie of this colour? Luckily a flying visit to Esperance turned up a number tins, hopefully enough to do the job. If you are looking for Humbrol satin green 195 in the eastern half of WA you just aint gunna find any as I have it all.
With the Caribou, Peters Hovering Cobra, Trevor Parnells electric Sig wonder conversion and possibly a few others waiting in the wings, hopefully I will have more to report next month.
Best wishes, Tim Bailye.
0890913714.
kalnet.au/gam