Author Topic: New projects (Read 4290 times)

david smith · « **on:** February 01, 2011, 12:09:51 PM »

I thought I would share some of my projects for this year. First is a Brodak Tigercat that is pretty much stock except for a couple of carbon rods in the wing and a slider. It has a couple of Novarossi's for power so hopfully it will be pretty quick.

david smith · « **Reply #1 on:** February 01, 2011, 12:18:05 PM »

Second is a Seafire made out of a Great Planes Spitfire. This one I have actually had for a while but I have updated some things. I got a new engine an OS 61 RF with a pump. And after I saw Bill's new slider I figured I would try something like it.

david smith · « **Reply #2 on:** February 01, 2011, 12:22:52 PM »

The slider

wwwarbird · « **Reply #3 on:** February 01, 2011, 07:35:15 PM »

Cool, I like the Tigercat. Thanks for the pics!

ray copeland · « **Reply #4 on:** February 01, 2011, 07:57:59 PM »

Looking good Dave!! Hopefully i will be there when you fire them up!!

john vlna · « **Reply #5 on:** February 02, 2011, 08:31:44 AM »

Dave,

I have both the GP Spitfire and P-51. The p-51 was converted to carrier, and the spitfire to fun scale. The thing to watch out for is that they get nose heavy with a big glow engine up front. I use a ST.46 in the carrier p-51 and had to put in a ton of tail weight. For the Spit I used a ST 34 which is a lot lighter and easier to trim.

Very nice Tigercat, makes me want to build one.

john

Bill Little · « **Reply #6 on:** February 02, 2011, 03:50:43 PM »

Hi David,

Did I meet you at Huntersville?

Thanks
Bill

david smith · « **Reply #7 on:** February 02, 2011, 07:08:53 PM »

John

I found out the balance issue real quick. This plane was actually put together about 3 years ago with a Rossi 40 and with that it was super nose heavy. I cut a hole in the back and started throwing the lead to it, I can't remember how much I had in it but it was quite a bit. I decided to make it a class 2 after I crashed my guardian at Sig in 09 and put my OS 61 fx on it. The first flight it blew the stab and elevator off of it so I decided to kill 2 birds with one stone and I built the stab and rudder out of 1/8 ply and then it only needed .75 oz of tail weight. I still never could get a very good low out of it but I have learned some more about bellcrank placement and slider location so I decided to update it and see what it does.

Bill

You may have met me in huntersville. I run carrier in the fall. This last Oct I had a white guardian profile and a yellow mo 1. I also flew a black white green and blue Sig ultimate in stunt.

wwwarbird · « **Reply #8 on:** February 03, 2011, 12:16:23 AM »

I've thought MANY times about building a Brodak Tigercat for a small sport/stunt model. In your photos here it looks like it's actually got a pretty thick wing. Built stock out of the box, is the bellcrank mounted inside or outside the wing?

john e. holliday · « **Reply #9 on:** February 03, 2011, 08:07:01 AM »

Dave, you have been a busy young man. I see you were smart in putting the Tigercat controls on the exterior. I followed the Brodak plans with Fox .15's for power. Also had the mufflers on them. Had reasonable high speed. But, had to remove the mufflers to get low speed. Last flight JJ flew it and proceeded to destroy the lines doing touch and goes. May build another one and try to make it lighter. How has yours come out weight wise? Hopefully I can get more carrier flying done this year. Also hope to see you too. Tell your Mother the old DOC says hi.

david smith · « **Reply #10 on:** February 03, 2011, 05:15:57 PM »

The wing is thicker than I thought it would be. When I build another one I will make the wing thinner and probably a thinner fuse. I haven't weighed everything together yet but I weighed all the parts before I glued it all together and I think it was just under 3 lbs a little heavier than usual for me but it will still be lighter than my profile guardian. Which before the last contest it weighed in at 3 1/2 lbs. The biggest issue I can see now is going to be balence. As it sits it balances right on the very front of the leading edge. And there aren't any tanks on it yet. I think I will go ahead and make the tail out of 1/8 ply to help it out.

The plans show the bellcrank in the wing. I put it outside for better access and to be able to put a slider closer to the fuse to get more yaw out.

This I think is the end of the white guardian. The inboard wing has been broke off 3 times and the outboard has been broke off once and the tail section has bee broke twice so I think its time to retire it.

Bill Little · « **Reply #11 on:** February 03, 2011, 07:18:39 PM »

Hi David,

I thought so. I met you at one of the meets after all the Carrier flying was over and you were there "cleaning up".

Hope to see you in the Spring, and quite possibly I WILL have a Carrier plane! (I now have all the equipment, Robert's 3 line, old stuff! and a Dumas Crusader)

Who was flying the 3 line autogyro in October, do you know?

Bill Little

david smith · « **Reply #12 on:** February 03, 2011, 08:29:01 PM »

The autogyro was me. Dan Banjock was going to try to do loops around me with his bi slob but it was just too windy. I'm not planning on being there in the spring but Everett Shoemaker will be running carrier and right now I think there will be a couple others flying as well.

Bill Little · « **Reply #13 on:** February 03, 2011, 08:46:12 PM »

Quote from: david smith on February 03, 2011, 08:29:01 PM

The autogyro was me. Dan Banjock was going to try to do loops around me with his bi slob but it was just too windy. I'm not planning on being there in the spring but Everett Shoemaker will be running carrier and right now I think there will be a couple others flying as well.

OK, David. I was up there with Dan, too. I had the big knee brace on. I have been going to Huntersville since the site opened basically. I'm just far enough away (100 hard miles of driving) to not make frequent visits.

I have know Dan for many years now, and it is true: If anyone is going to have fun, it's Danny!

Bill

wwwarbird · « **Reply #14 on:** February 03, 2011, 10:30:02 PM »

Quote from: david smith on February 03, 2011, 05:15:57 PM

This I think is the end of the white guardian. The inboard wing has been broke off 3 times and the outboard has been broke off once and the tail section has bee broke twice so I think its time to retire it.

Give it to Garf, he can build another Fronkensteen!

david smith · « **Reply #15 on:** February 15, 2011, 05:01:40 PM »

I need some help. I need a drawing or just an explanation will work of where to run the tubing for a chicken hopper tank. I am kind of stuck on the tigercat until I get tanks made. Thanks for the help.

David

john vlna · « **Reply #16 on:** February 15, 2011, 07:14:40 PM »

Dave,
Here is Bill Calkin's design
John V
P.S. It works very well

david smith · « **Reply #17 on:** February 16, 2011, 12:11:58 AM »

Thanks John that helps a bunch.

Bill Little · « **Reply #18 on:** February 16, 2011, 07:48:52 AM »

We used to make chicken hoppers that fit on the same side of the fuselage. Cut a chunk out of the big Perfect wedge tank and cut the back (side that would go against the fuselage) off a small Perfect wedge tank. Removed the fuel feed from the big one and used the feed from the small one that is "piggy backed" onto the large one. Bill's tank probably gives more fuel capacity.

Big Bear

Mike Anderson · « **Reply #19 on:** February 16, 2011, 08:51:57 AM »

The reason for putting the main tank on the inboard side is because there isn't room for it between the engine and the leading edge on many designs. Looks like on the T-Cat, there is almost no room at all unless the tank were mounted very low, beneath the wing. A side benefit is that if you use flexible tubing to join the tanks, you can shim the hopper tank in and out to fine tune the high speed mixture. This works better if the hopper tank is kept small.

The drawing of Bill Calkins' tank design shows the vent to the main tank going to the upper/inboard corner. It is important that that tank vent not be too low or the engine can actually starve before you get off the deck.

wwwarbird · « **Reply #20 on:** February 27, 2011, 08:54:32 PM »

Any progress on the Tigercat?

This post finally put me over the edge by getting a good look at the design. I had considered the Tigercat kit countless times. My kit arrived from Sam's Stuff by FedEx yesterday.

david smith · « **Reply #21 on:** March 02, 2011, 04:46:33 PM »

I haven't had much time to work on any airplane stuff lately. But I have the tanks started and really all that is left is the hook and slider release then I can start the paint process. I'm hoping that work will slow down next week so I can get back to building.

David

wwwarbird · « **Reply #22 on:** March 11, 2011, 08:51:58 PM »

I just posted this here in the Open Forum...

http://stunthanger.com/smf/index.php?topic=20864.0

david smith · « **Reply #23 on:** April 15, 2011, 08:43:12 PM »

Finally I have an update. It is painted. Hopefully I can get it together and test it on Sunday. I will post another pic of it assembled tomorrow morning.

wwwarbird · « **Reply #24 on:** April 15, 2011, 10:26:50 PM »

Aaaaah! Fire Bomber scheme!!!??? That's what I was thinking of doing with mine.

david smith · « **Reply #25 on:** April 15, 2011, 10:56:09 PM »

Not a fire bomber, I'm going off of a suggestion Mike Anderson gave me for a Guardian there were some Hellcats that were painted orange. Mine is probably a little brighter but its orange so it will work.

The other pictures are of a Sea Wolf that I decided to put back together and update for my brother to fly this year.

wwwarbird · « **Reply #26 on:** April 15, 2011, 11:02:24 PM »

Okay, I'll let it slide this time David.

I think the orange Hellcats were some kind of drones.

david smith · « **Reply #27 on:** April 16, 2011, 10:47:29 PM »

Finally it is done enough to test. Actually I need to run the engines first. All it needs is decals. Final weight is high at 3 lb 13.5 oz.

wwwarbird · « **Reply #28 on:** April 16, 2011, 11:01:32 PM »

WHOAH, that's heavy. I know it's a twin but where did all the other weight come from?

david smith · « **Reply #29 on:** April 16, 2011, 11:23:19 PM »

It weighed 19oz before paint and I gained 8.5 oz with the finish and there are parts that are suppose to be balsa and I made them out of ply to help with the balance. These engines are almost twice as heavy as normal 15s plus bigger tanks. I was worried after paint just by holding it that it was going to be too heavy but it is under 4 lbs so I'm happy. One other possibility is that I'm not the best builder so there are probably things in the build that could be done to help.

david smith · « **Reply #30 on:** April 16, 2011, 11:26:48 PM »

I just did some figuring and there is 34 oz in hardware on it.

wwwarbird · « **Reply #31 on:** April 16, 2011, 11:34:58 PM »

Holy cow.

Whenever I get going on mine I'll be doing it as a sport/stunt model with a pair of LA.15's and tongue mufflers. No throttles or other extra gizmos. It will be interesting to see how the weight comes out.

Balsa Butcher · « **Reply #32 on:** April 17, 2011, 06:41:48 PM »

I see you borrowed the red nose wheel from Bob's Fury. Man, that thing gets around!

bill bischoff · « **Reply #33 on:** April 17, 2011, 08:18:17 PM »

Pete, if you like I could send you some red wheels of your very own...

Bill

Alex Givan · « **Reply #34 on:** April 18, 2011, 07:20:52 PM »

DUDE!!!!! That is a great looking Tiger Cat, the Orange looks really good. That's a mean looking setup from nose to tail.

david smith · « **Reply #35 on:** April 19, 2011, 12:19:49 AM »

Well lines are made and engines have been run. I think I'm ready to test. I need to get at least a couple of flights before Polk City. I think it will be able to get off the deck these engines sound sweet and seem to pull it pretty good. I did have to cut about a one inch square hole in the top of the outboard wing to fix some throttle linkage problems but everything seems to be working good now. I will try to get some pics in flight and maybe even a video of it. Thursday is looking like some good test weather.

Mike Anderson · « **Reply #36 on:** April 19, 2011, 10:48:08 AM »

Speaking of Polk City - if anyone may be interested there is a flyer in the "Events" section:
(Polk City is just outside of Des Moines, for the out-of-towners who may be wondering)

Announcement:
http://stunthanger.com/smf/index.php?topic=20990.0

Flyer:
http://stunthanger.com/smf/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=20990.0;attach=79650

Note that the dates (May 7-8) at the top of the flyer are correct - the daily event schedule still
shows the May 1st and May 2nd dates from last year's flyer (just consider it a "typo").

We will have CL1-2 combined (% of record)
   Profile
   .15 profile
   NCS Sport (% of record combined)
   This is basically Sportsman, Skyray and Nostalgia combined - % of
   "record" (last year's best top-20 score for the event)
   You may enter both a Class 1 and a Class 2 in 1-2 combined
   You may enter any combination of 'other' in NCS Sport that you have time to get a flight with -

We have Carrier scheduled for Saturday the 7th, but in the past we have put the events off until Sunday (by unanimous vote of the entrants) due crappy weather on Saturday and an improved outlook for Sunday. In other words, we would welcome your attendance and will do whatever the flyers wish to do to ensure that we get in a lot of flights.

Oh, yeah, we will also judge and mail in flights for Joe's Postal contest if anyone has a desire to start getting flights in for that.