Brian Taylor Mk 9 Spitfire 83"

[Mike71]

If I worked on it instead of putting it together to admire it it'd probably be finished by now.

It's big.

[simonh]

It's looking really good Mike 

[andyb]

I agree - in fact, it looks just right.

V. Impressed...

[phild]

Will it fit in your car or can we see a change in wheels in the not too distant future? And yes it looks very good.
I don't think I could pluck up the courage to venture into the sky with something that has taken so muck effort and time to build.
Will you maiden it before finishing the painting or will you hang on until all is finished?

Phil

[Mike71]

Hi Phil,

I've had the wings in my car, and alright they were draped over the front seat but with a bit of care it can be done. Whether the fuselage will fit also is another question! I've just measured it and it is 180cm from the spinner to the rudder, against 210cm for the span. Cars ain't really my thing (as you might have guessed) and I've still got one eye on a share in a Pitts (1:1 scale) so I'd rather spend my cash on that, but maybe it's time to upgrade my wheels.

As you know I enjoy building so I see that as satisfaction on it's own, I don't build these things solely as a way of of getting a 1/5 scale Spit. So whilst I profess that I will be a little nervous on the maiden, if it's unsuccessful so be it, we move on. Magazines are full of guys building projects infinitely more impressive than mine and they all started somewhere. The Spit is a very well proven design, this one designed by one of the best modellers in the business. If you build it square and strong, put the c of g in the right place and make sure the motor works then it should fly. Aeroplanes are machines after all. Famous last words.

I will paint it before the maiden, but the plan is to leave off too much cockpit detail until after the event. If nothing else fuel will make a royal mess of the primer.

Mike

[Swale]

+1

[Mike71]

Cowl finished. Used magnets on the front as well in the end.

[Swale]

sure you aint gonna use a nice black prop?

[TBOY]

I'm falling in love all over again 

[gorber]

This is one I really can't wait to see.  I might even book a day's leave for the maiden!

It is looking superb.

[Russ]

Looks really good Mike... I reckon it will stay on.

What are your plans for cooling airflow for the Laser?

Thinking forward further still, how will you be powering the RX and servos? Heavy duty switch and  NiMH pack, or possibly lithium pack with regulator. I've never built a model of this size/complexity, but feel spec'ing the on board power set-up would be my greatest concern.   

[Mike71]

It's quite hard to get the cowl off, a good sign I hope.

I will open up a suitable sized aperture under the spinner. In the Laser instructions it talks extensively about using baffles to direct air directly onto the cylinder head rather than allow it to pass around and I intent to employ these to keep the size of the hole to a minimum. Exit wise i'll again baffle the exit air to an oversize aperture around the exhaust directly on the bottom of the cowl. All these holes aren't exactly scale but I'm trying to be aware of not over stretching myself on this project, keeping it as simple as practicable in order to avoid "stick in the loft" syndrome.

Electrics wise I plan to use pretty much the same set up as my Larger Extra. That had a 2200 mah 6v pack running 6 servos (2 elevator, 2 aileron, rudder and throttle). I think with the kind of flying I was doing on that I think there was a much larger power drain than on the Spit, which also only has 6 servos (elevator, aileron, rudder, throttle, flap and gear). In the quest for weight I set up the flaps and ailerons on single servos with bellcranks, which also enabled me to seal the wings. I guess you've got to have some faith in the integrity of your control runs in this case, but I worked pretty hard at them. Obviously the gear and flap servos don't drain much, and the rudder won't work nearly as hard than on the Extra. I have no intention of flying this hard. On the Extra 4 or 5  8 min+  hard flights took less than 1000 mah out of the pack. The only other thing I considered was 2 packs with some sort of redundancy but have ditched this on the k.i.s.s. principle.

I fully admit that electrics certainly isn't my strong point so if you've got any ideas let me know.

Had another free afternoon so am tidying up where the fairing meets the cowl, a fairly fiddly and balsa dust intensive job.

Incidentally I laid the retracts on top of the wing and did another weigh in today, with just about everything except the battery and obviously a lot of finishing. Came to 5kg exactly. Hearteningly, a rough look at the c of g  and it didn't look too far off, so my plan of moving the engine forward of the plan position seems to have paid off. So looking reasonably promising for keeping it under 7kgs. I did put the Laser 150 in my Jungmeister (briefly) which was 5.5 kgs and that went very well.

M.

[Swale]

If it were me I would use 2x packs for redundancy 2x 220mah I'd say guess you ain't likely to
Do more than a 3 flights in a day extra Packs are Inexpensive

[Swale]

Any updates? 

[Mike71]

Hi Mark,

I've been away skiing for a bit so not much progress. I have just about finished finishing the bit of the wing fairing where it meets the cowl. What with this and sorting out the cowl I've got a few fiddly jobs out the way and hopefully should be able to get a bit of open field running in doing some fairly easy jobs now. The tailwheel needs attention, as does the main gear, so thats next on my list.

I also want to get down the patch, maybe later on this week.

cheers
Mike