Visitors from Belgium and a real flyer

The cross wind from the South made flying a little difficult and with the speed at around 12mph it was really beyond the limit for me, but I did manage to fly the Pico-Jet and both trainers, but I left the Yak on the ground.

Jack and Josie B from Gent in Belgium were here this weekend on a visit. They used to come to the Top Gun events which the Sedgemoor Club hosted many years ago. Its great to see them again. Jack flew a large scale Extra 300 with a 3W engine running on Avgas (used in full size aircraft) which gave a remarkably slow and smooth tick-over and good top end power. Its also equiped with a smoke system using lamp oil (not much smell). It produces an excellent smoke trail even in todays windy conditions.

Jackies Extra

Another unexpected visitor to the airfield was this beautiful owl brought here today by Paul and his wife.

The eyes are amazingly clear as crystal

And of course there's always a poser

Dull day and a new jet

Strange weather today, 90% cloud and very warm and humid, winds light and from the South East. Positively tropical. The pits were full and crews were overspilling the pits area at both ends, and despite the wind direction we were deployed on the South side pits.

I arrived shortly after 09:00hrs and started the days flying with the Ember as there was no wind. Whilst in electric mode the Picojet was next. Two new digital, metal gear servos were fitted this week and their reaction to stick movement is very fast. I still need to add lead to the nose as its very twitchy on the elevator. I hate doing this but I can't lighten the tail any more. I'm also a bit worried about over heating the lipo battery so I use full power frugally. The heat in the air was creating thermals and a short five second burst of power would take the Picojet vertically to near out of sight. Stopping the motor and gliding seemed to last for ages before much height was lost.

Late in the afternoon I decided to give the Yak an airing, but as I prepared to fuel it up it started to rain; just a few big spots, so I took that as a warning and packed up all my gear. Turned out it wasn't enough to damp the dust - typical.

The Bobcat

A New Jet on the Blog

Jetcat P60

The connection at the top of the engine is a PTC heater where fuel is ignited as it enters the combustion chamber on start up. This eliminates the need for gas and the associated equipment.

Ballistic

First flight today was with the Picojet, and its fast, really fast at 22,000 RPM it positively honks along. From gliding into wind I can point the nose upwards, open the throttle, and it accelerates vertically and within seconds its almost out of sight. I had a serious problem on a later flight, the elevator was responding abnormally. Up elevator would force a left turn, so would left aileron. Right aileron would force a right turn but it would also lose height rapidly. Eventually it crash landed in the grass and without damage, luckily. The cause? Starboard servo failed in the centered position. Reason undetermined.

Quite a good turnout for a Saturday:-

I was last to leave!

Also flew both Sunbeams, I took the Yak54 but I didn't fly it because the wind was directly across the runway from the South and it was up to maximum strength where flying is concerned.

Its been a funny old day

Arrived at the airfield at around 08:40hrs. and set up on the South side of the runway. The weather was cloudy, but brightening up, and a light air moving from the North East. Time to fly the Ember but not long after it got airborne the wind became a bit stronger, so it was time to land and put it away. The direction settled South Easterly which meant changing the pits to the North side of the runway. That done, Picojet next, and I had a new motor arrive for it yesterday, an in runner this time, and its a bit longer and heavier than the out runner fitted previously, so I thought there may be an issue with the centre of gravity. A balance test showed it should be OK but only a flight test would prove it. I tested the speed of the out runner motor before I removed it and the result was 18,000 RPM on a 5.25" x 4.75" APC propeller. This new motor tested out at 22,000 RPM on the same prop. Imagine what it does when it "unwinds" in the air. Right, lets get it airborne, and what a difference. Its now positively ballistic, but tail heavy making it twitchy on the elevator. I glued some lead into the nose (something I hate doing) to improve centre of gravity position, and a flight test proved it was better, but more weight was required in the nose. But what I'm going to do is move the motor forward as far as it will go so hopefully, no more lead needed. Will keep you posted.

Later a Club Committee member arrived (who shall remain anonymous) and insisted, despite the wind direction, that I change to the South side as it is the Club rules (its not, I double checked),and he refused to fly from the North side. So this means taking off and landing down/cross wind. Anything for a quiet life, so I moved all my gear back to the South side. Paul M and Jim E arrived later and they both asked "Shouldn't we be over the other side?". I had one flight from this side but landing was a bit awkward as the pits were in danger of being in the way, so I didn't fly again until he'd gone and then we all moved to the North side. One for the AGM in December me thinks.

Jims OS Gemini 240 powered Firecracker

I haven't seen this aircraft fly for years, in fact I can't remember the last time I saw it fly, and I still haven't seen it fly. Jim put it together, fuelled it up pumped up the retracts, and prepared to fly and it started to rain. We had enough to seriously wet the aircraft, but barely enough to dampen the dust on the runway. So Jim defuelled and dismantled and packed it up into his car. then the Sun came out and it turned out nice again. Sh!t happens.

Also in the picture is Pauls Ducted Fan F15 Eagle and Fournier powered glider.

31st May 2009

I should have done this on the day, that's why I've dated the heading.

A really superb day weather wise although the wind was a bit strong at 8 - 10mph. I took the Yak 54, Sunbeam 1, and the Ember (tempting fate) and flew them all, but the Ember was a very short flight, just up and down again during a quiet spell. That was enough, it was still too windy. I wanted to take the Picojet, unfortunately one of the magnets had displaced itself and It was difficult to get it back in place. Also the bearing had come out of the rear cover so I had to glue it back in again. I think that's poor design. I don't think I'll buy another out runner motor.

A minor accident occurred today, a Club member had landed an electric biplane safely and parked it in the pits. No problem so far, and then picked up his electric glider, and after changing models on the transmitter proceeded to launch the glider having not done the full pre-flight checks. Once the glider was launched, he then switched on the motor, which also switched on the motor on the biplane he'd been flying earlier! It moved forward and hit him in the legs, and whilst looking down to see what had happened, the glider nosedived onto the tarmac. Fortunately there was no injury caused but the glider didn't get away with it so lightly. What he didn't do was disconnect the battery in the biplane before launching the glider, both aircraft being on the same frequency. We live and learn... or do we?

I took some photos of Malcolms Magnatilla to record the how he fitted his four stroke engine. This will be useful information for when I build my Legionaire. The aircraft has a very short nose and its a bit of a tight squeeze getting it in there.

Malcolm says the OS 70fs is way overpowered

Firewall cut away to accommodate carburettor

All pictures shown with rather nice aluminium cowl removed.

That's all for now folks.

Its all about change

Well, in case you were wondering, I didn't get to fly the Ember when I was on holiday, the wind was far too strong even early morning and late evening every day. The strongest wind for flying it in is a light air movement, and we had more than that. (understatement).

Today...

A 180 degree turnaround in the wind direction today meant changing to the other side of the runway - twice. When I arrived we were on the South side. The wind soon increased in speed and the direction settled in the South East. All change, pick it all up and move to the North side. By the afternoon the wind changed and steadily moved to a Westerly direction. At around 15:30hrs the wind dropped to zero mph for about 10 minutes and I managed to get a flight in with the Ember. (Designed for indoor flying). Then it quickly built up speed from the North West to about 15 mph. Then it was time to go home. But I did fly all the aircraft I took up there today, and brought them home safely. Others weren't so lucky. Clive brought along his Harmony,a nice twin engined job which had an engine synchronising unit on board which used sensors one on each engine to monitor rpm.

Clive Halls twin engined aircraft met its demise on the tarmac - what a shame, nice plane.

Ian arrived later in the afternoon and flew this beautiful example of an F15 Eagle. Powered by a single Jetcat gas turbine it has bifurcated jet tubes to simulate twin engines. Also there is retractable under carriage with synchronused doors, wheel brakes, air brakes, flaps, and a canopy that opens using compressed air.

A fine example. This photo shows the wash-out on the wing tips.

A side view

I nearly forgot, I flew the Pico Jet today as well. First time since...must be last year.

I'll post more later...

Home again

Been away for a break on TQ, thoroughly enjoyable but the weather has been awful so I've not been able to do any flying at all. We were on the River Severn last Sunday and ahead of us at Upton-on-Severn was a glider, two, in fact, so there must be a club site nearby. That Sunday was the best day of our holiday weather wise, but I was unable to find the time or place to do any flying. The weather today is still pretty appauling so lets hope next weekend is better. No pics today, however I've got a new camera so I'm dying to try it out at the airfield.

Another great flying day

The fly for fun went really well. No-one knows where they came in the competition, but everyone enjoyed themselves. All I can say is I think I came second in the climb and glide event with 4 minutes and 52 seconds of glide from a 30 second climb. Not bad in my book! The events were Pylon Racing, Climb and Glide, Touch and Go in a minute, Spot Landing, and Loops in 30 seconds. Thanks go to Mike Clark and Niel Hincks for organising and running the event.

Another highlight of the day was this Piper Cub built by John Wright and flown by Paul Mancini. The pictures say it all...

Well thats it from me for the next three weeks as I'm doing this instead. However I may just slip in a post or two as much to Lins disgust I'm taking the Ember. Cheers for now!

Fly for fun today...

...and the weather forecast is good. This is a club day where we fly as individuals in competition events such as Spot Landing, Climb and Glide and Pylon Racing etc. I'll be flying my Sunbeam trainer with the Super Tigre 40, and the other Sunbeam (Irvine 25 powered) will stand by in reserve. The Yak would be useless for this as its a bit of an animal.

I'll blog again later today if I can find the time as we're doing this for the next fortnight. If not then I'll write it up when I'm doing this.

Fantastic day

Definitely the best day so far this year. Wall to wall sunshine and WARM! The pits were nearly full all day, that's amazing for a Monday. Jim who was there yesterday said there wasn't as many people.

Good for a Monday

I've been flying the Yak 54 today and doing some engine tuning. The engine runs fine on the ground but when it gets airborne it misfires even at full throttle. I've changed the plug for a cooler type and it has improved a little but the biggest improvement came from a change of propeller. A 15" x 8" Master Airscrew for a 15" x 8" APC. It hasn't cured it but it has improved.

One other little thing, I've acquired an indoor R/C aircraft. It comes complete with everything you need to fly now - even the batteries. On the aircraft there is a very small circuit board with two servos, a receiver and a speed controller mounted on it. The transmitter has trims on all four channels, is switchable mode one or mode two (throttle right or throttle left) and is on the new 2.4Ghz frequency. As there was no wind first thing this morning, and I gave it its first outdoor flights. Its not easy to fly as its a bit twitchy and needs some expertise.

The 16.5" wingspan Ember

I'll finish todays blog now, I'm going to try the Ember in the garden before it gets dark. Until next time...

To the South West Model Engineering Show

Went to the Shepton Mallet Showground to see the SWME Show. A little disapointing really, not much flying going on and then only one aircraft airborne at once with long silent breaks in between. In the halls were a lot of working tanks and militaria complete with owners in camoflague, war gaming enthusiasts and a few interesting Stirling Engine projects, even a radial version. Another interesting project was a nine cylinder rotary, yes rotary engine, an amazing scale working model of a Rolls Royce original. Puts my attempt to shame.

A snapshot of the local Pitney Club stand

I must say I did enjoy the day, but would I go next year?...

Todays forecast is good

I've charged up all three aircraft overnight and I'm getting ready to go flying. I have to go today as I have to work Easter Sunday and Monday. But the forecast is good, so I'm happy. And this means when I get home I'll need to cut the grass for the first time this year. I don't like to cut it too early because it makes it grow much faster and another cut is soon required, but now I have to bite the bullet and get it done.

I tied up the tail feathers on the Ultimate this week so thats a bit further ahead. Theres a lot of work still to be done on the engine, its nowhere near finished.

Ultimate tail feathers

It was a bit breezy up to around 8 mph from the North West and very chilly but the sun shone all day.

I'm so pleased I went today as Gwyn from Cornwall arrived. Last saw him in early August last year. He's here with his caravan 'till Tuesday when he travels to Spain. Its great to see him again.

Gwyn in happy chappie mode

What a day!

Sunny at home, but as I got closer to the Somerset levels the fog was getting thicker, and at WZ it was too thick to fly in. I unloaded the car and parked up and as I was assembling the aircraft the fog was burnt off leaving bright sunshine which lasted all day. Winds were very light and variable to start with but increased later with a Southerly direction.
I'm beginning to enjoy flying the Yak as my confidence in the radio is being restored. I tried some knife edge flying today and discovered the aircraft does it very well, unlike me, and the new canopy stayed intact too, another bonus.
Flew both the trainers, and a former club member visited, haven't seen Martyn for 10 years and he hasn't flown for that time either, so he had to have a go, and he did very well. I didn't have to prise the transmitter from him once. Mind you, when it ran out of fuel he couldn't thrust it back to me fast enough.
Jim flew his Hotspot jet, always impressive, see the video, and he'd been flying an electric "jet" with a rear mounted motor which propels this thing along really fast. the motor turns at 45,000rpm and sounds like a Formula One style V10 engine. Unfortunately something went "pop" and all power was lost. Turns out the motor shaft snapped clean off, losing the prop.

Its early morning...

...and the birds have just started to sing. Earls up and off to a car boot sale (best of luck) and I'm left to feed the cat. Then I'm off flying all day. After all its my only day off this week. The new canopy for the Yak arrived this week and I fitted it last night. Its a better fit than the original and I glued it down with Pinflair silicone glue (from Lins paper crafting) as well as the screws provided. The glue will give it some stability and resistance to vibration. Also I fitted a volt watch monitor in the cockpit.

New canopy and Voltwatch

I've had my fix for the week.

For a Saturday there was a whole load of pilots here today. The weather certainly brought everyone out. There was a chilly wind from the North West at around 1 mph in the early morning, but it gradually increased in speed toward the late afternoon to around 10 mph.

Geoff enjoying a flight with his Mustang

I've made a temporary modification to cover the holes in the wing of the Sunbeam. It flies a lot better now, but I'll have to make a more permanant effort and use Solarfilm instead of Sellotape.

Wing slots temporarily covered.

Ron brought along this nice little delta. All balsa construction with tissue and dope finish - no paint!

Nice delta.

Now I can go to work tomorrow refreshed as having been flying today. Trouble is, two hours and its as if I've not had a week end at all.

Flying today...

...Just for a change. I say that as I've been a bit busy with other things lately. Nothing connected with flying or engineering, but a holiday aboard TQ, and since then, I've been decorating. Finished that for now and I'm moving my modeling workshop into that room. Its a bit smaller but I think less junk will be dumped in there as there's no room for it.

In the process of moving in.

The weather brought out a few more pilots than usual today. Wall to wall sunshine and a (cold) light breeze 6 - 8 mph from the North-West. Flew the Yak and the Sunbeam, and Malcolm asked me to fly his Flair Magnatilla, a maiden flight. Powered by an OS52fs four stroke engine it had plenty of oomph! Required some trim adjustments, and an increase in aileron and elevator movement, and some more down thrust on the engine to stop the "ballooning". All this knowledge is good information for me when I start building my Flair Legionaire for my Ketro KT54fs.

Sorry there's no pictures of todays flying, I forgot the camera.

Flying today after...

...a weekend decorating our bedroom. Eventually it's going to be my modeling workshop and the current workshop is going to be the bedroom. It'll be nice to have a clean start, but at the moment our house is a tip. So I painted the final under coat this morning, and while I was waiting for it to dry properly, I went flying. Took both trainers and the Yak, and actually flew the Yak - twice. It was quite a good day, although cold and windy, around 8 - 10 miles an hour from the North-West, almost on the comfort limit.

I did a proper radio range check on the Yak today and found it had a range in excess of 70 metres. Far more than twice that recommended.
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Conrods and a spinner nut.

Far too cold and windy to go flying today, so more on the KT120fst.

Getting there with the conrods, just the small end bushes to make and fit. After press fitting they'll need to be faced to length and reamered to size.

Another little project I made for my mate Geoff - a spinner nut tapped 1/4" UNF.

Conrods

The fixture I made earlier for machining the conrods is very successful.

Just the thickness and central section left to machine. To give you an idea of the actual size, the bores are 28.5mm between centres. Next is to turn up the phosphor bronze bearings and press fit them into the bores. I'll warm up the aluminium first to ensure a tight fit. Then I'll finish bore the holes to 6mm dia. to suit the crankshaft and the other end to 5mm dia. to fit the gudgeon pin.

A last minute decision

The weather forecast for today was really poor, and it turned out to be pretty good, so I took the decision, bit the bullet, grasped the nettle, and went flying. The wind was from the South at around 6mph and later increased to 10mph. Its what I consider the limit for comfortable flying. Later still it decreased to almost zero, and stayed like that for most of the day.

I took both trainers, ended up flying only one of them, but thats OK by me, though I wished I'd brought the Yak.

Crowded...

It was worth going today, as Ian turned up and flew his Excelsior and F15. Spectacular.

Ians Excelsior




Ians F15 - Sorry about the quality, it was recorded on a mobile phone.

This Also flew this afternoon, powered by twin Irvine 30s.

There'll be no flying this weekend. Have you seen the weather forecast?

High winds and horizontal rain, sleet and hail. Just as well, I can get on with my engineering project. Today I've made a fixture to hold various sizes of conrod and I've set it up on the rotary table to machine one of the conrods for the KT120fst.

For the conrod I'm currently making, a 6mm dowell is required to locate one end on the centre line. For the other end a dowell with a 10mm diameter is used to locate in the slot of the fixture and a 7mm diameter to locate in the big end of the conrod. So now I can machine various sizes of small end/big end/hole centre combinations.

Fixture for machining conrods

The process begins

...And I've made a start on machining a conrod.

...And I've finished the crankshaft...

Alignment and concentricity end to end is a lot better than expected.

More next time.

Its Sunday and guess what?...

...Its blowing a hooley. This is the first day for weeks where the weather has been too rough to fly in, and today is my only day off work. Oh well, its to the machine shop today. First job was to weld some extension tabs to the baffle plate on the inside of our multi fuel stove. It would occasionally fall down onto the hot coals and I'd have to let the fire go out before I could refit it. Hopefully this will stop this from happening.

Our multi fuel stove - repaired.

I've not done much to the engine over the last few weeks as I've been doing other things (Christmas etc.) however today I've had a go at the rear end of the crankshaft, and formed the shape of the counter weight. I still have to drill and tap the clearance hole and M3 thread for the grub screw, then this part will be finished.

First step is to set up for drilling 3mm holes to form the corner radii

Sorry, they're a bit out of focus - trying too hard to get the detail in.

This unusual clamping method was the best way I could devise to hold the part firmly enough to machine into the 3mm holes.

Using the unusual clamping method to mill the 109 degree angle set up using slip gauges.

Sorry about the focus.

Back from the Christmas holidays.

Trust you all had a great Christmas, and here's wishing you a Happy New Year. Check out my other blog to see what Lin and I were doing.

Yesterday I was in the machine shop and I fitted the present Lin gave me for Christmas to the Milling machine. I then proceded to set up for milling the other counter balance weight as I did on the front part of the crank shaft. I've only done the setting, I've not cut metal yet as there were some dimensions I needed which were omitted from the drawing.

Those dimensions have now been added to the drawing, but today I'm going flying. More later...

OK its now later, and a great afternoons flying. There was no-one there, and the weather was very dull and the temperature was 1.5C, but the wind was non existant, well maybe a slight air coming from the SW. I took the two Sunbeam Trainers and flew both. One distinctively flies better than the other and I can only put it down to the slots in one of the wings. They don't work. I've been meaning to cover them up for ages but I've not got round to it yet.