SHORT SOLENT MARK IV – 2014 WINTER BUILD

[wollins]

Thanks guys ... yes I am particularly pleased with the spinners, considering that they are made from easter eggs! However because they are easter eggs they will need to be fortified.  I'll use my old panty hose trick for this.  They also could be a tad narrower and longer (see full size pics attached) but they're close enough. 


Colin

[wollins]

It's been a while since the last update but I've been busy with life .... Anyways got to working on the electronics/wiring install and since I decided to house everything on the wing this time to minimise connections I had to make a "box" to house the stuff.  So I've crammed it all in there and hopefully we won't have any interference issues.

So got to the point where I was gonna try to balance the beast and got two shocks. First my "regular" big plane balancer/stand was not deep enough for the plane to clear at the bottom so I had to modify the stand to accommodate it. Then the BIG shocker ... it needed an EXTRA pound and a half to balance!  SO it ended up being around 19.5lbs AUW. (so far) Whew! A far cry from my original target of 16 to 17lbs.

Anyway all that's left to do (before the test flight) is to set up my radio ... do some prop testing (and maybe prop balancing) and we should be good to go.

Colin   

[sihinch]

That's a BEAST!!! Awesome

[pmackenzie]

You are quickly running out of excuses to fly it 

Where did you get those capacitor banks for the ESCs?

Thanks,

Pat

[wollins]

You are quickly running out of excuses to fly it 

Where did you get those capacitor banks for the ESCs?

Thanks,

Pat

Missed this one Pat ... sorry. Got them from on online source named Aircraft World out of Japan.  They're Castle Creations so can be gotten almost anywhere I imagine.

Colin

[wollins]

Well she was to maiden on Sunday but the lake was too choppy with all that wind etc. Did some ground testing instead. Did not go well ... she just would not get unstuck despite my calculations telling me that we have more than enough power/thrust. You can see by the attached vid that she almost wants to tip over onto her nose. 

I have a suspicion ... there were many reports from flyers of this plane of climbing upon acceleration so I had built in about a quarter of an inch of negative AOA to compensate for this. My suspicion is that the default incidence may rectify my issues ... but then again it could simply be that my grass is just too "sticky". I'm gonna take the following steps:

1. Test it at TEMAC. If the problem persists there then:
2. Re-test it with Teflon dry lube applied to the hull. If the problem continues to persist then:
3. Adjust the AOA to the default (I made it so that I could re-adjust it) and repeat steps 1 and 2.

If all the above fails then increase the power on tap! lol!

Colin

P.S. Not necessary to watch the entire vid as the first one to four minutes is indicative of what it did throughout the vid.

https://youtu.be/rfjsVjp0B_Y
     

[Michael]

My Albatross doesn't move much on grass, but slides easily on the 'runway'.

[wollins]

My Albatross doesn't move much on grass, but slides easily on the 'runway'.

Have you been breaking the "rules" again, Michael?   Didn't even know that was an option!  I seem to recall that when the runway was being laid it was made clear that only wheeled planes were allowed to use it even though Rob and I made pretty good arguments that flying boats should be the exception for obvious reasons. (no chance of prop strikes etc) So good to know that that rule has been relaxed. 

In any event kinda leery about tearing up my hull but if all else fails that's definitely a great suggestion, so thanks!

Colin

[sihinch]

I think that it's fair to say that now we have a bit more experience and learning, that sensible belly landing (i.e. No bungee hooks) is OK for the runway.

I'll get confirmation and consensus from the Board.

[Michael]

My plane is about 1/3 the weight of yours.

I suppose that's important.

[pmackenzie]

Try watering the lawn to make it a bit more "slippery". 
If that works then take some with you to TEMAC, or the early in the morning when there is dew on the ground.

Amor-all on the bottom might also help.

I think once it starts moving and there is some air over the control surfaces it will be very different.

Pat MacKenzie

[wollins]

Same grass ... different plane.

http://temac.ca/smf/index.php/topic,4354.msg35356.html#new

[wollins]

SUCCESS! Went to Temac today and same result. Solent would not taxi on the grass.  Then I added the Teflon dry lube. Voila! She taxied just fine ... what a relief! Now I can focus on getting the test flight done ... on water!   It was a good day. 

The only sad part was that Jack was never able to see this project come to fruition as he had a great part to play in it.  He was the major force behind me getting the flaps on this done ... and it's the main thing that separates THIS Solent from the other RC Solents out there. (as far as I know) May he rest in peace.

Colin 

P.S. The action starts at 25 seconds and goes to about two minutes.  Footage after that is just me taking the plane back to the pits.

https://youtu.be/nW2RwXQ4-Yw

[wollins]

Well another attempt at the test flight was to be made on the weekend but again the lake was a smidge too choppy and there was also quite a bit of a swirly bumpy wind going on. So instead ... we did some water taxi testing and we (Rob P and I) were actually quite pleased with how that went. There was certainly no lack of power and she got up on step very easily and quickly (on account of that power) to the point where we both agreed that she could probably take off in about 25 feet! (and almost did!  )

I have to say it was VERY tempting not to hold back on those occasions when I got her onto step and just let her go all the way.  Anyway I resisted ... so we'll have to try again another time when the weather is better. There's certainly more to consider when deciding when to do a test flight off water as opposed to terra firma.

One thing that my water taxi testing did reveal was that my tip floats were still slightly at the wrong angle of attack ("still" since I had adjusted them) which is one of the causes of them dipping under the water on occasion. That is NOT good because the main cause of ripping off a tip float is when that kind of thing happens. Not to mention the fact that you could drag a wingtip or even worse bog down the tip on taxi or takeoff. You can see in the comparison pics that the full sized floats are angled up more as opposed to mine.

However the fact that the floats I have are not scale in shape as well is probably more of a contributing factor in them dipping under IMO. They are much narrower and have a much more sharply pronounced hull than the full sized ones. (Dunno how I missed that.  ) So ... I'm gonna be making a completely new set of floats, hopefully in time for my next attempt this coming weekend.

I found the taxi runs interesting but unfortunately both of us forgot to take video of them.

Colin

P.S. Big thanks go out to Rob for taking time away from his reno to help me out with this.

[piker]

Yep!  The plane is pretty awesome and looks like it'll perform very well.  But it was wise to not fly in those conditions.  We need to aim for early morning next weekend.