SHORT SOLENT MARK IV – 2014 WINTER BUILD

[wollins]

Ok floats have been started. Have decided to go completely with pink foam (as opposed to the first set which is built up balsa/ply) to keep it simpler and I suspect lighter.

First pic is the base ...
Second shows the width increase.
Third shows the piles that will be carved/shaped into two tip floats that will look just like the full size AND be more functional than the version as per the plans.

Colin

[piker]

That looks like a great start!  :-)

[wollins]

Almost there. Just have to make them a bit narrower on the tops.  Then it's on to decide how I'm gonna mount them on the struts.

[wollins]

Ooops! Forgot these pics. Floats complete except for glassing. (will paint after test flight ) Last two pics show that I adjusted the AOA to be more positive as our water taxi tests showed that the AOA of the old floats was too negative (nose down) and thus were submarining a little.

Nothing to do but FLY the darn thing now! 

Colin 

P.S. They're still not as "scale" in terms of shape as the full size (mine are proportionally thicker etc) but I'm going for maximum buoyancy here! lol!

[BJROB]

She looks great.
What a project.
Nice Job.

[wollins]

Thx BJ! Now if I can only get her to fly, we can move on to phase 2! (the best part.  )

Colin

[wollins]

UPDATE:

So Monday will be exactly one year since I started this project and we haven't had our test flight yet ... despite three attempts so far.   At this point with the weather deteriorating in terms of temperature and winds I'm starting to think that it may well not happen this year. There are only so many more weekends to go before flying season ends.

That would be a shame because I have soooo much more to do. (the fun stuff) Not only that but some of the stuff ... like wing to fuse fairings, elevator to fuse fairings etc depend on final settings like wing incidence etc so that there is a smooth seamless merge. That's the kind of stuff that would be adjusted after the first flight. Besides I would feel much more comfortable if I knew that the model actually flies ... BEFORE I do all that work.

Anyways ... keeping fingers crossed that we'll still get that opportunity this season.

Colin 

[piker]

The water isn't frozen yet!  I'm still hoping for one more float fly before the big freeze!

[wollins]

AGAIN, this weekend was a bust ... rough waves, high winds and cold as heck! Quickly running out of time for a test flight this year ... but still keeping fingers crossed cause that would mess up my plans! (BTW, yesterday was the anniversary of starting this project  )

Incidentally, since I'm just waiting to do my test flight, I decided to carry on with my plan to make a "carry on" for my center wing. lol! Saves sooo much space now in the car!

Colin

[BJROB]

AH yes something about the mother of invention 
Good idea

[wollins]

Ok so I'm still waiting for this test flight (this morning again ... gusty winds/choppy waves) and of course in the meantime I saw something that I could tweak to make it more "scale". (as has been the trend though out this whole project!)

Remember when I did the tip floats over cause they were the wrong AOA and were too narrow? (see post on 28th September) Well, I noticed that the "new" floats were the wrong shape in terms of profile. So I decided to make a THIRD version of the tip floats! (hey while I'm waiting I might as well strive for perfection, right?! lol!)  The full size was more "cigar" shaped (for lack of a better description) with a blunter nose.

So ... of course being analretentive I had to at least do my best to replicate that ... else what's point of all this really?    So I removed a piece of the foam in the nose, replaced it with another piece that I could shape to the profile I wanted and then I chopped about 10% of the height of the profile from the bottom.

I like it much better now.

Colin

[wollins]

Comparisons.

Pic #1: Full size close up
Pic #2: Full size profile
Pic #3: My first set of tip floats
Pic #4: My second set with the right AOA
Pic #5: My third and final version with the right AOA and right scale shape and profile
Pic #6: FRONT ON - My third and final version with the right AOA and right scale shape and profile
Pic #7: First version as per the plans vs my final version. (which seems smaller because it's in the background)

Ok ... back to waiting on the weather. Hmmm ... maybe there's something else I can tweak? Ahh yes! The inside struts (longer ones) have a taper at the top and bottom connection points. I'll do that then I'll paint.

Colin

P.S. BTW, three times to get it right seems to be the prevailing trend of this build.    Having said that I don't think I'll ever make a balsa tip float again. This was infinitely easier. (planking is a bi*#h!)

Edit: Pic of tapered inside struts on tip floats added.

[electroflyer]

  The beauty of foam, I like the last version, they capture the full size floats very nicely.
Great job!
Glenn

[wollins]

Ok so I'm pulling the plug on the test flight attempt this year as this weekend doesn't look any better than the last few ... looks worse actually. I can't imagine that it will get any better as we slide closer and closer to winter and I've lots to do in terms of actually finishing the plane.

So ... we're gonna move into what is the favourite part of any build for me ... detailing and making it "look" as good as I can. As the plane stands right now it's really very basic compared to how it will look in the finished state.  I think you guys will be blown away by how different it will look.

   

[piker]

We expect great things 

Yes.  it looks like float flying season is over.  Let's get our float planes ready for a great season of flying next Spring!