rcKeith

Electric Flight Database

Thu, 08 Sep 2011 21:16:20 GMT

Electric Flight Database

This is RCME's database of setups submitted by modelflyers know to give good results

Another good sources is http://www.4-max.co.uk/recommended-setups.htm which have recommended setups for popular models as well Tony Nijhuis Models http://www.4-max.co.uk/tn-designs.htm I have two of Tony's and they are very good.

4-Max also have some very good information on their site have a look at http://www.4-max.co.uk/usefulinfo.htm especially How to work out the power train for your direct drive Lipo and Brushless Powered aircraft

You can also download it directly click here

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Focke Wulf 190A

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 23:07:49 GMT

Focke Wulf 190A

This is my Focke-Wulf 190A . This is an Aerotech kit who are no longer in business.
Wingspan is 50" and I've fitted a SC 52 four stroke engine.

Maiden flight was good. I was worried about the weight as I had to put a lot of lead up front to get the C of G correct.

I couldn't find any suitable decals so I made my own using waterslide printed on my inkjet printer.

Model is covered in brown paper and PVA painted in B & Q match emulusion, then sprayed with acryllic varnish to seal.

Update - I was correct in worrying about the weight. The model was very twitching on take off but once flying reasonably fast it was OK. The engine cut on me and it dropped like a stone. Although it was repairable I decided it was never going to be good flyer weighing in at nearly 7lbs. So I scrapped her. My Xmas present 2009 is a Koyosho FW190 ARTF. This weight in at 4-5 lbs so it should be much better.

This is the Koyosho FW190A which files very well and has flaps and retracts. Using the same engine as the ill fated FW190 above. Picture take with my new Nikon D3000 DSLR. Pilot has gone for a cup of tea!

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Extra 300

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 15:26:51 GMT

Depron Extra 300 electric park flyer

This is my Extra 300 built from 6 mm depron. The plan is from RCPowers which is a free plan.

Power is a TowePro 2409 1000KV brushless turing a 10x3.8 slow fly prop. Battery is a 1300mAH 3 cell lipo with a 18Amp speed controller. All from wwww.giantcod.co.uk.

Madien flight was complete success with bags of power, even managed a bit of prop hanging.

Colour scheme inspired by my wife who once had a dress like this bougth for her by her mother and had to wear it!! Poor girl anyway it did the trick and I married not long after.

Video in the RC videos sections. Verrrry Nice

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{youtube}gyJX4SZWyyk{/youtube}

Avro Lancaster

Sat, 18 Jul 2009 14:13:11 GMT

Avro Lancaster Bomber

This is the Priory Models Radio Controlled Lancaster with 4 x400 electric brushed motors and 72" wingspan. Here’s the phone number 01642 483505, they’re not on the web.

Priory Models are not not the only option if you want to build a Lancaster. Green Air Designs http://www.greenairdesigns.com/ make a depron kit or the Tony Nijhuis kit http://www.tonynijhuisdesigns.co.uk/Lancaster72.htm kit. There is also a Ripmax kit for a very large Lanc if you have the money £800+ http://www2.ripmax.net/item.asp?itemid=A-ASM011&Category=010 all good.

I’m also going to try and set up an cnc foam kit myself later this year (2011)

The Priory kit is about £80 and on the whole is not bad. However the fit of some parts could be better. For quality I'd give it 7 out of 10.

Covered in brown parcel paper and PVA glue and then painted with acrylic Tamyia and B&Q emulsion paints.

The motors were 400 brushed 6.0 Volt and batteries were 10 cell NiMnh pack of around 2000mAH capcity. Flight time was around 5-7 minutes, doesn't sound long but its not the sort of plane you chuck around. Its very easy to fly and launch. This is the latest video

{youtube}jSJ5vPnHtno{/youtube}

First flight was a complete success, third flight was as no so good. Here's the crash {youtube}gyv3s8Qtqt0{/youtube}

A faulty receiver was the culprit, partly my own fault but that's a long story. I now fly it on 2.4GHz Spektrum

On the 20th Sept 2009 the Lanc crashed very heavily. I was gutted but I think it was caused by an overheating speed controller. I thinks this link explains what i believe happened. http://www.ezonemag.com/pages/faq/a506.shtml

Prior to this I'd always used a separate receiver battery and had no issues. I decided to dispense with this as I was very confident on 2.4Ghz.

The speed controller heat shrink has partially melted so I fairly certain this was the cause of loss of signal.

The crash was very heavy and very little survived, but I have a second less damaged Lancaster form my good friend Shaun, so I shall rebuild her. This time I going to install brushless motors and run a separate receiver battery.

Dec 2009 - Ordered a new fuselage from Priory and this has arrived. Motors are going to be the 400 replacement that BRC Hobbies do as a combo deal. Due to other commitments its going to be well into next year before she files again.

Here's some photo's of the build and the Lanc at my flying club. Rotherham & District Model Flying Club

{AG}lanc{/AG}

Brushless conversion

Here's the start of the wing repair and conversion to brushless motors. I've manged to get a 400 replacement combo deal from BRC hobbies which included speed controller motor and a 8x4 prop. The motor is a Towerpro 2408-21T rated at 1750Kv and the speed controller is 15Amps. I plan to use 4000mAH Lipo. On the 8x4 props the BRC say it will give 145 Watts on 3S Lipo so I should have ample power with 4 of them. On brushed motors I think it was pulling about 250 Watts for all four which worked out about 60-70 watts per pound.

Some photos of the nacelle being converted to mount brushless motors. I will also put a hole in the rear and one in the front part on the nacelle to allow air through for cooling

{AG}lanc/brushless{/AG}

Radio Controlled Vickers Super VC10

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 07:27:01 GMT

Radio Controlled Vickers Super VC-10

Why build a Radio controlled VC-10 ?

A number of reasons. I suppose the main one is because when I was 14 years old I flew from Lusaka in Zambia to London Heathrow and on route I managed to get up into the flight deck, that was May 1970. A memory I'll always cherish. I also flew on a East African Airways VC-10 from Mauritius to Dar-es-Salaam in 1968.

The picture below is the actual VC-10 I flew back to the UK on. Sadly she's been scrapped

In my humble opinion the VC-10 is one of the best looking airliners ever built, so graceful, just looks right. All credit must go to the RAF for keeping these aircraft flying. I believe 2013 is the retirement date.

As I'm a Radio Controlled flyer I thought I should build one. Easy I thought just find a plan and build it. Well at the time when I started there weren't any. Spent hours searching on the net and realised I had to do my own. Did find some 3 view drawings which I tried to scan into a AutoCAD but not very successfully. In the end I found some 3 views in eps format which converted to DXF format but still needed quite a lot of work. After about a year on the plans, on and off I decided to make a start. The plans weren't complete but I needed to build to figure stuff out.

Learning AutoCAD has also been great fun. I'm no expert but now I can use it for what I need. I used a very good book as teaching tool which I highly recommend. http://www.sybex.com/WileyCDA/SybexTitle/AutoCAD-2007-and-AutoCAD-LT-2007-No-Experience-Required.productCd-0470008776.html

Construction of the RC Super VC-10

Fuselage

The plane is constructed from foam using Depron, XPS and white foam. Depron and XPS are mainly used for insulation. Depron comes in various thickness and the two used are 3mm and 6mm. XPS comes in 1.2m’ x 0.6 x 52mm sheets. I get XPS from B and Q www.diy.com in the UK. Although there website doesn’t show it. The white foam is the just polystyrene also form B and Q.

The plans were a challenge as at the time as there weren’t any so I had to learn AutoCAD and do them myself. Since then the renowned modeller Chris Golds has produced a VC-10 of his own which plans are available form Quiet Flight International. His is a more traditional build. My VC-10 is 1/30th scale wingspan is 58” (1.4m) length 68”.

I’ve used a slotted spine technique with 1/4 formers. To ensure it was straight I built a jig from mdf and then glued the top formers in. As there where so many former to make I made a template out of 1/4” ply and stuck the depron on with double side tape. I then used a router with a bearing guide to do the outside and a hole cutter for the holes on the inside. I blunted off all the teeth on the hole cutter so it didn’t rip and ran it very fast on my drill press.

{AG}vc10/fuse{/AG}

Engines

This took some figuring out and I scraped the first attempt because they looked just like tubes. The 2nd attempt was done in 3 sections allowing me to taper the front and back. Still not 100% happy but I think they are good enough. Fans are 55mm EDF with 4100Kv out-runner motors.

{AG}vc10/engines{/AG}

Tail

I wasn’t sure how to do this at first but eventually it came to me. There is a 3mm carbon spar running up the tail section for strength and rigidity. I used a Dremel with the mill attachment which makes a very good job of putting a 3mm channel. Saw this at SDParkflyers YouTube channel. Tail part we all cut with a hot wire cutter using the feather cut system A good article here on cutting foam cores http://www.amtcomposites.co.za/pdf/mamt-course-docs/Cutting-Foam-Cores.pdf

Each tail plane has a servo which is connected to separate channels in the receiver and then mixed. This is so the both work in the same direction without have to rotate one 180 degrees

{AG}vc10/tail{/AG}

Wings

These were constructed in 3 parts with the tips in balsa. The main parts are white foam with an aluminium 6mm tubular spar with balsa trailing and leading edges. This was then covered in brown parcel paper with PVA glue mixed 50/50 with water. Need to cover bottom first and then the top straight after otherwise the wing will warp. Using templates and the cutting the cores using the feather cut method I was able to build in 2 degrees of washout and 3 degrees of dihedral. Wings are joined with 5 min epoxy and then a fibreglass/pva bandage.

{AG}vc10/wings{/AG}

Covering

The outer skin is 3mm depron which does bend and has a grain! Its to do with the manufacturing process as the sheets are formed. I wasted quite a few pieces before I found this out. Depron will bend and the best technique I found was to use parcel tape on the outside of the bend and then bend around a former. I use a old cardboard tube that some plans came in about 5” diameter. I then used a heat gun to help hold the shape but used sparingly.

{AG}vc10/cover{/AG}

Centre of Gravity

As any RC flyers knows CofG is critical to successful flying. After much research and advice from Alasdair Sutherland and Chris Golds I built a 1/4 scale chuck glider to test my calculations. With the wing being very swept back the CofG is a long way on the root chord, 77% of root chord.

{AG}vc10/cg{/AG}

Looking like a VC-10

Tails is now attached and wings are now mounted

{AG}vc10/joined{/AG}

Electrics

The motors are 4100kv brushless out runners with a speed controller (ESC) for each motor. The ESC are 30 amp Hobbywing units from www.giantcod.co.uk . Batteries are 2 x 3000mAH 3s Lipo’s . I’ve paired the inners motor to one battery and the outer to the other, this is so if I have a failure on one half I don’t have all the thrust on one side. With the engines being close to the fuselage this may not be a big issues but better safe than sorry. The small red wire on all the speed controllers have been disconnected, this is to stop the the ESC’s from confusing the receiver as the BEC cut off won’t be identical on all ESC’s

The receiver is Spektrum 2.4Ghz 6200 and will be powered by by a separate battery.

Almost there

Not far off now, fuse finally covered and hatches cut out to allow access to receiver and and batteries.

{AG}vc10/almost{/AG}

It Flies

Well after 3 years she finally flew on the 30th Jan 2011 and we got some video. Still in primer but soon to be painted as G-ARVB the VC-10 pictured above.

Still quite a bit of finishing off to do but I didn’t want to spend to much time on here before I knew she could fly. All went very well club chairman did the honours and once trimmed out I had a few circuits. She flies very nice and look really good in the air.

Finishing off

VC-10 is being finished in BOAC colours as G-ARVB which was the VC-10 I got up on the flight deck whwn I was 14 years old.
Not quite done yet and still needs some work and a gloss finish.

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VC-10 Finished

Here she is painted up and ready for her second flight as soon as weather permits . Batteries will be 4000mAH for the second flight and launch will be by a bungee.

{AG}vc10/finished{/AG}

Bungee Launch Testing

VC-10 is going to launched by bungee but before committing her to the launcher I’ve built I wanted to test it and confirm where the bungee hooks should go. Used my depron MIG-29 from a RC powers plan for testing. I made the bungee hook so that I could quite easily reposition it. As you can see from the video it works and I’ve realised I need to reposition the hook on the VC-10, its too far forward. Hopefully weather permitting the launch will be very soon.

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Which Brushless motor to use

Fri, 16 Sep 2011 22:43:16 GMT

Which Brushless motor to use

This article is one of the best I've seen. Althought most of the information can be found on the web in various places this one put it all together in a vvery easy to understand way. Well done 4-Max

VC10 Info and Links

Sat, 18 Dec 2010 00:01:52 GMT

The site in the link is dedicated to the VC10 and some of the people on the forum have been very helpful www.vc10.net

Some nice 3 view drawings at http://www.elodieroux.com/EditionsElodieRouxBonus_Drawings.html which can be purchased in eps format

Some pictures I took of the VC10 at RAF Leuchars Sept 2010 {phocagallery view=category|categoryid=13|limitstart=0|limitcount=0}

Green Air Designs have done a VC10 as well. In prototype section of their forum, some very impressive pics on their website have a look http://www.greenairdesigns.com/lab/index.php?option=com_agora&task=topic&id=6&Itemid=112

Check this video out on YouTube - VC10's and a Vulcan doesn't get much better than that

Chris Golds the renowned RC modeller has been very supportive and helpful as well as Alasdair Sutherland who’s book on Aeronautics for Modellers has been a real help which you can get form Traplet at http://shop.traplet.com/product.aspx?c=15 I’ve emailed both and both have replied and given great advice.

Make your own decals

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 22:07:42 GMT

Make your own decals

When I purchased my FW190 at a model show I neglected to check if there were any decals in the kit.

For several reasons I didn't start the kit until 2008, a couple of years after I bought it. Since then AeroTech had gone bust so I couldn't get any from them.

I searched around and I couldn't find any that suited or were at a reasonable price so after a bit of searching on the net I decided to make my own.

I decided to use waterslide decals that I could print on my inkjet printer. Once printed and dry you spray them with acrylic varnish and leave to dry for a least a day.

The decal paper I used comes from Crafty computers http://www.craftycomputerpaper.co.uk/

I found a good websites http://www.rc-network.de/magazin/artikel_04/art_04-0040/art_04-0040-01.html#1 that had various air forces and insignia, one of which I used. But I still couldn't get the sizing I needed even messing around various graphics programs. I then had a light bulb moment!

At work I use a program for Network Diagrams called Visio. This is now a Microsoft product but uses vectors and not pixels. You'll know if you zoom in on a picture taken with a digital camera it starts to loose its definition and begins to go pixilated.

Visio does it by numbers so when you stretch a line or shape it doesn't do that. I was able to draw all the crosses and numbers and letters I need. The only problem I had was the number and letters didn't look right. The font was the problem. I tried all the fonts installed on my PC but none of them looked right. After some more searching on the internet I found a Luftwaffe font and installed it. http://hans.presto.tripod.com/fonts/stencil5.html This did the trick. I then was able to run quite a few test prints on normal paper to check the sizing and once I was happy with it I could then use the waterslide paper from crafty computers.

You need to set you printer to the best resolution when you’re ready to print off your decals. Once printed leave them to dry, the ink will be wet for a while. I left mine for a whole day but I think a couple of hours should be OK. Once dry then spray with acrylic varnish. Crafty computers supply a full set of instructions and can supply the varnish as well. I left the sheets of decals to dry for a couple of days and then proceeded to fit them.

It just like the old Airfix kits but be very careful because when the decals are wet they are very delicate. I sprayed the areas where the decals were going with water first, this allows you to slide them a bit but don't pull to hard or else they’ll tear. I then used a paper towel and an old credit card to expel the excess water but do this very carefully. I left them to dry for good couple of days I then sprayed the decals with some more acrylic varnish on the plane to seal around the edges.

My FW190 is a nitro plane so I hope the decals will not lift. Only time will tell.

RC Video's

Mon, 11 May 2009 20:44:40 GMT

rcKeith Video's of builds and flying

VC10 Maiden fight 30th Jan 2011

{youtube}7kR-nZucRVI{/youtube}

VC10 EDF engine tests

{youtube}JkhuZp5Y3yY{/youtube}

My E-DO Phantom F4, very fast and looks great, shame about the crap landing

{youtube}vGVQhvfJSZU{/youtube}

This is my Green Air Designs Avro Vulcan. Video is not that good but its hard to find RC planes in the sky with a LCD viewer on my Sanyo Xacti camera.

{youtube}1-kCCA9xxT0{/youtube}

Here’s a slide show of the progress on my VC10 build {youtube}uLM0CLE5Lp0{/youtube}

This is my Tony Nijhuis BAE Radio Controlled Hawk , which I recently decided to try using a dolly for take off. It's works really great and is made up of two old undercarriges. Its also a lot safer to start as well.
Last half of the video is mostly sky, my camera man had trouble following it. Not easy with LCD screens in sunshine. Any way he got the take off which is what i wanted to show.

{youtube}my_BPUEB_8g{/youtube}

My Depron Extra 300 from a free plan at RCPowers.com

{youtube}gyJX4SZWyyk{/youtube}

This is my Tony Nijhuis BAE Radio Controlled Hawk as featured in RCME details on his website http://www.tonynijhuisdesigns.co.uk/WestfieldHawk.htm

Her she is {youtube}IChQesNSnUs{/youtube}

This is my RC Lancaster the second one show a crash which was traced to equipment failure. It now flies on 2.4Ghz Spektrum with several flights logged. {youtube}jSJ5vPnHtno{/youtube}

Here's the crash {youtube}gyv3s8Qtqt0{/youtube}

Mig29

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 23:57:48 GMT

Mig29 from www.rcpowers.com

This is my Mig 29 Fulcrum built from a RCPowers plan. http://www.rcpowers.com This so far is the best depron plane I've built really impressed my clubs mates. Dave at RCPowers has the got the motor and prop selection absolutely perfect. I'm flying with 1300Mah 3s lipo's from Giant Cod www.giantcod.co.uk and these are the best lipo's in my opinion on the market I've thrown away my others as they are so inferior.

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RC Links Info

Mon, 24 May 2010 21:55:56 GMT

Database of Radio Controlled links.

I put it together because I'd see one on the Internet or in a magazine and then some time later would forget where I'd seen it.

Most of the links are UK based but if you can recommend a site I'll add it.

You can search by Product type. So if you're looking for Lipo batteries select Electric. If you're looking for a supplier just enter the first few letters and all the match will be listed or you can just browse the whole database.

I update it when I find a useful link . I also remove any where the site is down or I’ve had bad service, there has been one or two.

CNC Hot wire Foam cutter

Tue, 17 Aug 2010 22:35:24 GMT

CNC Hot wire Foam cutter

This article is going to document my attempt at building a hot wire CNC (Computer Numerical Control) foam cutter.

Why build one? a few reasons

In my build of the VC10 I’ve had to make many templates for various parts. The first few aren't so bad but after a while it gets a bit tedious. A CNC cutter would eliminate this
I recently visited Mike Black of Green Air Designs to see his VC10 and had a very pleasant time. Mike showed me his laser cutter working and showed me his other machines. This has inspired me to build a hot wire CNC
It’s really quite feasible to do and a quick search on the net show many DIY CNC machines, most tend to be routers
I’m always been fascinated by CNC but never thought it would be possible and I really got very interested in it now.

After a lot of surfing and some real good advice off some CNC forums ( http://www.mycncuk.com/ and http://www.cnczone.com/) I decided on building this design from http://www.drayconstruction.com/foamstuffs/

	I purchased the plan and have nearly everything to build it. MDF came from an office clearout
	Stepper motors and electronics I purchased from Ebay

I’ve decided to use threaded rod for the lead screws, because I believe the accuracy required in foam cutting is not critical. These came from http://www.screwfix.com/prods/98942/Fixings/Injection-Fixing/BZP-Threaded-Rod-M12-Pack-of-5

Power supply is going to be 2 ATX PSU wired in series to give 24V a nice article here on how to do this http://www.procooling.com/index.php?func=articles&disp=52&pg=1

Vulcan B2 Bomber

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 22:15:52 GMT

Vulcan B2 Bomber

This is the build of Green Air Designs www.greenairdesigns.com Vulcan B2 36" wingspan with two brushless pusher motors.

Its going to be finished as the Vulcan that bombed the runway at Port Stanley in the Falklands - XM607 Which is on display at the RAF base Waddington in Lincolnshire. Highly recommended the book Vulcan 607 http://www.amazon.co.uk/Vulcan-607-Rowland-White/dp/0593053915. The operation was know as Black Buck and wouldn't have been possible without the Handley Page Victor tankers, about a dozen were required. XM607 was actually the backup as XM598 had a problem with a window seal had had to turn back.

The raid at the time was the longest bombing raid ever - 8,000 miles.

The model is made from Depron . If you click on the first image a slide show will start.

Vulcan is now finished and shows 175 Watts on the watts meter with a weight of 20 oz with battery it has 140Watt per pound so should be quite a lively performer. Battey will be a 1300mAH 3s lipo.

{youtube}1-kCCA9xxT0{/youtube}

Thanks for looking

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P51D Mustang

Wed, 31 Aug 2011 19:25:00 GMT

P51D Mustang

This is a Cambrian Mustang which is I don't think is available anymore

I built this a several years ago and it was my first proper build. it turned out much better than I expected. The first flight was very good, I got one of our clubs more experienced pilots to take it up.

Second flight a complete write off. I tried to take off in poor conditions and stalled it on take off with the usual result. I hadn’t too much experience then and these days I would have know better.

Anyway I enjoyed building it and now on my 3rd Mustang which is a little depron job I picked up at the Nationals (UK biggest Model Aircraft show)

Below are some pictures of the build.

{AG}mustang{/AG}