CL-415 winter project.

[gmcnic]

Glorious.
You should be so proud, Colin!

I am glad you did not put music to this one and drown out the discussion.
It is great learning for all of us.

I really look forward to seeing it "live".
Congratulations!

[Michael]

A great video of a great maiden flight!

[Oscar]

Congratulations on your maiden flight.   

[wollins]

Thanks guys!  I'm now feverishly working to get her all dolled up and ready for Kingston. 

Colin

[wollins]

For those who haven't yet seen her in person, I've added the black in the nose and made connecting my gazillion wires easier by doing two things.

First ... I used a couple of MPX connectors for the twelve individual wires of my lights. 

Second ... I made connecting everything a one handed affair by affixing the female receiver side connectors onto the airframe.  This means I can now hold the wing with one hand and easily plug all its connectors into their corresponding female connectors. (affixed to the frame) Notice I've also made my motor wires connectable in this way. (see each motor's ESC wires affixed to each side of the airframe)

Now this still means that I have to plug in twelve individual connections, but at least I can now do it all with one hand.   

Am continuing on finishing touches.

Colin

[piker]

Yes!  Looking better and better every day.

Too bad you didn't get it in the air at the Kingston float fly.  We should have stayed a bit longer and enjoyed a flight.

That's O.K.  We'll be float flying again in less than two weeks!

[wollins]

Well, I had to do some surgery on the wing cause I burnt up one of my motors doing some ground testing at TEMAC last weekend.  Anyways everything happens for the best because the motors I was using were too small to begin with and at a limit of 500watts each I was taxing them something fierce.  Turns out that even straining them to their limit (hence the "burning") she wasn't even able to taxi on the grass. Since I intend to fly her primarily off grass that just wouldn't do! 

In any event, the problem is that the plane was somewhat built around the original smaller motors so now with my larger motors (which are significantly longer and heavier) I had a dilemma. After much head scratching and consulting with Rob, (who was kind enough to drop by to see the issue first hand) I decided to shift the firewalls back since these motors would have made my CG difficult to achieve because I was nose heavy to begin with.  Not only that but being over an inch longer the new distance between the leading edge of the wing and the props didn't look very scale. (in the full size about 35% of the nacelle's length is forward of the LE ... see pic. Mine was about 45%) Besides, they actually couldn't fit within the spacing between my cowls and my firewalls anyways.

Anyways, long story short I've had to cut my original firewalls out of their respective nacelles and shift them back about an inch or so. Scary to cut into a beautifully finished plane (if I may say so myself) but hey it had to be done.

The other concern I now have is that the firewalls are not going to be as strong as the originals because of the "reglue". Oh well, hopefully they'll hold up because with my new power of 174 watts per pound methinks I'll now be able to get off the grass without much trouble. 

On an aside, it was ironic that even though I had consulted with Rob constantly throughout this project he only saw it really close up in detail on this visit.
 
Colin

[sihinch]

Nice surgery. Not really a nose job, but with 2 new implants......

[Papa]

If you can use some 1/4" triangle stock around the edges of the firewall that will give extra glue surface and strengthen the glue joint a great deal.


Jack.

[piker]

Good suggestion, Jack.

Good observation, Simon 

Great work, Colin.  Will it be ready for tomorrow's float fly?  The answer is "YES"...

[wollins]

Unfortunately the answer is no. I have Mya's and Jenna's "family birthday party" on Sunday and my wife's birthday is today but we're gonna celebrate it tomorrow as she subtly reminded me that the Kingston funfly was on our anniversary. Needless to say all modifications came to an abrupt halt. 

Colin

[wollins]

Well this turned out to be a real PITA of a project. I thought I was done with "construction" on this plane!  Sort of thought it would have been a relatively simple affair ... just move the firewalls back and increase the spacing between the cowls and firewalls (by increasing the nacelle/cowl attachment points) to compensate for the longer motors.

Well, not so simple. 

Because of the curvature in the nacelles moving the firewalls back resulted in a different sized nacelle perimeter to mate with the cowls. (or so I thought ... but read on!) There was somewhat of a large gap (about .75 of a cm) now between the cowling and the nacelle if the motors were to line up properly with the cowl's prop opening. 

I briefly considered building up the tops of the nacelles to meet the cowls but then decided to shift the motors (and subsequent thrust lines) down the .75cm instead.  That way when the cowls sit flush with the top of the nacelles (as they should) the motors will line up with the prop openings of the cowlings.

Keep in mind that all this was after the firewalls had already been moved back and reglued into their new positions so the nacelles were once again sealed. So I had to cut open the bottom of one nacelle and do the PITA work (working within a two inch square hole) of adding new T nuts into the new positions.  As I was finally finished doing this, something told me to check the other nacelle.

Turns out one of the nacelles was "higher" than the other by that .75cm! Of course THAT was NOT the nacelle that I based all my measurements on! In other words, that nacelle lined up perfectly with its cowl but of course since I assumed that their "curves" were both exactly equal, I had ALREADY cut into the "lower" one and added the T nuts etc etc. CRAP!!! 

Anyways, the good news is that I discovered this before I had cut into the "good" nacelle.  Long story short, got the situation fixed by adding some balsa on the top of the "lower" nacelle to bring it in line with the other and thereby evening up the cowl spacing which was the cause of all the work in the first place.

Another piece of good news is that I didn't have to change the thrust lines after all since I was a little concerned that the adjustment might affect the flight characteristics in some adverse way. (even though I was assured not by good authority.  )

So, in the end I had cut into the nacelle unnecessarily, wasted a few hours and acquired a few more grey hairs ... but all's well that ends well. 

Colin

Pics to come later.

[piker]

Excellent!  Does this mean you'll be flying it at Bramalea?  I will probably take my CL-215.

[sihinch]

Wow, the devil really is in the details!

[wollins]

Wow, the devil really is in the details!

Only for the analretentive!  Most would consider much of what I do to models a waste of time and completely unnecessary. lol! 

Colin