Go Big Or Go Home

The comment on the Watts Up post about crossing over to the other side? or maybe its me comming out of the closet and I am really a power pilot deep down, ......no chance the GBOGH

real me is still there......Sorry to startle you all with an electric 3d park flyer.

Work has re-commenced on the BIG DG500 and the JART projects

Keep the faith brothers........ and apparently a sister too.(Candice thanks for your comment)

Possibly a fan from where Steve K lives, also an ardent BERG blog viewer.

Shongololo #11 (Hopper) is Born

Shongololo No.11 was born last night.

Rudi, the proud dad, with his new baby "Hopper" At a healthy 1500grams. Very colourful. Orange wings, black underneath, green fuselage and yellow stabiliser.

WATTS UP?

Being very keen to build an electric plane for fun and to learn a little about electric flight I decided to scratch build a light weight 3D fun flyer. Last weekend was rainy and miserable,
this meant spraying and working on the JART project wasnt viable.

I really like building with balsa and this little plane was a breeze to build it is my own design it has a 36 inch wingspan , weighs 500 grams auw ready to fly.

On one of the rc forums some guy asked about 3d airfoils the answer given was roundish in front pointy at the back and sort of symetrical in the middle so this is the airfoil I have used,.......sorry I dont have the plotting co-ordinates . Evan has provided me with this funfly airfoil if you need one. Fully semetrical- high point at 27.5% and 20% thick. Very simple but effective.

Nice to work without epoxy for a change, all wood glue and balsa. The electric side is still a bit of a dark art to me , but there is plenty of information on the net and in the magazines.

I have a brushless 300a motor 1000kv , matching 25amp speed controller and 3 cell li-po battery pack all by the same manufacturer , so everything should match and work. You can pick up a brushless set up like this for about R600.

I will try fly it this comming weekend .

HTL #6 at WHRF

Evan and his new Shongololo nick named “ Nartjie”

Sunday the 7th saw round 6 of the HTL. The weather on Saturday did not look promising with lots of rain and thunder storms, but on Sunday morning after some early morning mist, it cleared and turned out to be another good HTL day.

Lionel was out early to set up the flight line as most of us wanted to go home early to view the ¼ final World cup Rugby match between SA and Fiji. Well done Lionel. Once the computer CD got going the rounds went by systematically, with only the fly off done manually and I for one got home in good time to see the match on TV.

Martie and Derek once again provide a lunch time meal which the pilots had to work in between their rounds as to aid the early finish.

Evan had his brand new Shongololo out and with only a few test flights on the day before opted to fly it in the competition and apart from bad luck and some small setup problems looks like it could be a competitive model in future HTL events.

I had a frequency clash and this rendered my Tsotsi on the ground bar for 1 flight and had to depend on my Ellipse for all the other flights.

All in all a good days flying and to the boot the SA rugby team went througt to semi finals. This time on Sunday night so no problem with ½ a day's flying.

I did not manage to get in to many pictures but something is better than none.
All the results can be found on the RSA F3J blog at http://f3j.blogspot.com/

"Nartjie" ready to take off.

Martie and her Traveling Kitchen.

Derek tasting a sample.

Derek timing while I fly.

The BERG pits.

Two more Shongololol's Maidened

Sholgololo numbers 9 and 10 were maidened on Saturday 6th October.

Trevor with Barbi and Evan with NartjieEvan, moments before the first launch
Fisrt time - Flying free

Trevor with Barbi hat.

Making Knuckles.pdf

Evan has created a file containing a step by step drawing "Making Knuckels.pdf 05-Oct-2007 20:51 21K "and can be found in the BERG vault to download.

This is a supplement to the "Making knuckles for your F3B wings" post earlier this week.

JART race is on

Not wanting to be left behind by Piet Perseverance in the highly charged JART construction

race I am forging ahead with my own JART.
I am happy with the shape so now starts the filling/ sanding cycles to achieve a moldable plug,

The resin I use at this stage is ZAP finishing resin as this sands easily and gives excellent results with water paper , for a finish you can spray on.


I make a mixture like thick syryp of resin/ 20 aerosil/cabasil (thickerner)and 80 microballoons ,it must just be able to flow like toffee , I then screed this onto the plug using different thickness pieces of acetate or mylar (off cuts lying around) the thinner ones you use to scrape across the curved parts, being carefull to only smooth and spread the mix not scrape it off, the end result is a smooth finish with the hollows filled , after some sanding I may spray or fill again until it looks right.
As it turns out a little filling and then to the water paper prior to spraying.

I have skipped the spray filler step completely, as I use a polyester spray filler and any hint of it near the blue foam and you have melt down.

I will water paper 400grit to flattern and then final spray before mould making.

Regards
Mike

Making knuckle joints for your F3B Wings.

Fig 1

Having seen Evan making and helping him to make the knuckle joints on his Shongololo prompted me to capture this on camera and document it for future reference to all our club members and other viewers on the BERG Blog that might want to do the same.

The first thing that you must do is to make sure that your hinging on you ailerons and or flaps are already done and working freely and correctly.

Make sure that there will be a cavity in the wing were the knuckle can hide in when completed. Now take 25mm wide colored Sellotape (available from Waltons in SA. (The glue side is white.)) and tape on to the top (opposite side of hinge) of the aileron/flap 10 mm overhanging. See Fig 1 and Fig 2 ( I suppose other tapes could be used, but Evan suggests that this Sellotape from Waltons is the best for the job, as it is quite stiff and the glue is not affected by the resin)

Now fold the flap/aileron so that the aileron/flap is just about underneath the wing and just about level. See Fig 2. below.

Fig 2

Fig 3

Make a very runny past of epoxy resin and micro balloons (Tomato Sauce consistency) and add pigment (if required) coloring to match your wing color. Poor this mix into a piggy-bag (plastic coin bag) and cut the corner off. Now squeeze the mixture on to the junction of tape and aileron/flap and continue to the full length of the wing. See Fig 3. above. The mix must be able to flow across the tape and wing skin junction, so it must not be thick.

Fig 4

Now get your helper to fold the wing over on the hinge while keeping the aileron/flap as close to level as possible, use an old credit card and from underneath guide the Sellotape into the cavity. You will end up with the wing in an upside down position.
See Fig 4.

Fig 5

Fig 6 Carefully jig the flap/aileron with masking tape and rig it up on blankets as seen in fig 5 and let dry over night. See Fig 6.

The angle between the wing and control surface must be enough to cause the tape to form a curve into which the mixture can flow.

Once dry you can remove the tape and admire your handy work. If you have used the coloured Selotape as described above you will find that there is no glue residue and the knuckle will be nice and smooth. Requiring only a light sanding along the front edge to get it nice and straight.

Evan has created a file containing a step by step drawing "Making Knuckels.pdf 05-Oct-2007 20:51 21K "and can be found in the BERG vault to download.

Summer Weather returns – BERG field on Sunday

Sunday morning started out overcast but with little wind.
I knew that sooner or later the sun would burn of the early morning clouds and that we were going to be in for a good thermal day.

Fellow club members must have had the same idea as we had a good turn out.
Peter and Tim Joffe as well as Mike May all turned up with new gliders that had to have their maiden flights.

Herman had his converted free-flight to RC glider and Evan was playing instructor.
It was nice to see Mike and his two son’s back on the flying field again.
Young Russell and Blake were virtually all over running after their models and I am convinced that one of these days we will see them towing F3J gliders at Berg.

Mike had Stiletto No 2. out and with the CG checked out up she went on the winch for a flawless maiden flight.

Here are some pictures on the day.

Stiletto No 2 soaring High

Young Russell - Upcoming F3J tow man ?

Herman Free flight interrupted by RC signals

Instructor Evan and Herman

Peter Joffe

Tim Joffe.

2nd Shongololo(#10) ready to fly

With just 2 and a half weeks to go to the F3B League round Zero, Shongololo #10 is now complete and ready for it's maiden flight.

It's already tasted a dork landing with it's nose poked into some wet soil so nose weight can be added. 180 grams of leads poured in got the weight as far forward as possible with and all up flying weight of 2190 grams. In the background you can see Rudi's plane. Wings joined and the first layers of the fuselage done!

Some nice little plastic cover fitted over the flap and aileron horns finishes off the wing nicely. A friend is making these on a card of 8.

He also makes some neat plastic covers with a bubble for covering the servo holes on the underside of the wing amongst all sorts of other vac-formed components. Scale pilots, Canopy's, Cowls etc.

You can contact Kobus Dirker directly on cell 082 886 4828 or email kobusd@worldonline.co.za if you are interested in getting some vac-formed stuff

WILD COAST SOARING

Some photos taken during a vacation break to the Wild coast ,being a keen angler my family and I headed off to Mazeppa bay for the school break to do some fishing, but in case the wind blew I took along two rc gliders a Zaggi and Hillbilly. Just as well......




Well the wind pumped ,at one stage gale force ,so strong I could not open my vehicle door without a struggle.
When I could fly the lift was surprising for the size of the hills I was flying off.
This is the first time I have flown like this at sea level and would imagine the dense air and uninterrupted flow off the ocean has a lot to do with the lift.


Zaggi up against the storm clouds




No chance of a big walk of shame here, more like a big swim of shame if you out-landed.




Funny face time ,at the Cats pass this valley 20 kms inland, only produced marginal lift conditions ,but certainly entertained the locals who came out in large numbers to watch the aeroplane.