A blog to share knowledge on all things flying, learning from nature and appreciation of the world around us. Using Radio Control to produce scale and practical aircraft.
After many attempts with soldering irons I finally just used a plumbers torch to attach the brass tube to the bracket. I first protected the plane with tin foil, as best I could, generously tinned the parts and then gave them a quick blast. This reduced the chances of a cold joint which I believe has been the problem. I then used JB weld to add another layer around the parts. Hopefully thats it!
Thursday, September 19, 2013
Last meeting of the year at the Boyce Park field with the gateway flyers. Managed to get the Typhoon on the field and taxied up and down with a few turns. Then...... the tail wheel failed again.
There seemed to be plenty of power (did not get up above 1/3rd throttle) and the Typhoon picked up speed very quickly.
Managed to take the Typhoon to Boyce Park to work out the engine problems. (Only reaching around 6300 rpm when it should be 8000-9000rpm).
Turns out it was a simple fix. The needle valve was just set way to rich. Once it was adjusted down one whole turn the engine was producing around 8800 rpm no problem at all. (Thanks Jeff for your experience and help).
Managed to get the tail wheel re-soldered to. Looks like it will be a much stronger connection. Next step, final balancing (again) and its ready for the maiden!
Looks like I am going to need a bigger car. Thanks Sandy for the minivan!
After installing a larger diameter fuel line and a slightly smaller propeller, a second engine test was performed. Max revs reached was about 7900rpm.
As expected the O.S. engine started no problem, and held a good idle. Max revs however, were harder to achieve. I am hoping that as the engine and fuel pump break-in, the revs will climb, allowing it to reach maximum power.
After taxing for a couple of runs, the tail wheel broke off and will require soldering. In constructing the tail wheel, I had epoxied a brass tube to a brass plate, while the plans called for soldering it. I should have followed the plans, as the soldered joint would have been much stronger and probably would not have failed.
Once the tail wheel has been repaired the Typhoon is ready for flight. The engine is transitioning nicely between low revs and high and the idle is reliable and low, giving me confidence that there will be little chance of an engine stall on the maiden.
I realized when performing the engine tests that when the cowl is installed over the engine and fuel tank, it would be difficult to tell if the fuel tank was full.
The easiest method is to pump in the fuel and wait for it to overflow out of the vent line. However, in an effort to reduce the amount of mess on the underside of fuselage I decided to purchase a fuel level indicator from RAM.
The product is advertised to be installed with the sensor at the bottom of the tank and therefor the lamp would turn on when the fuel level is getting low. The lamp would be placed in a visible location on the plane and therefor indicate the need for a swift landing before running out of fuel.
In my case the sensor leads where placed in the top of the tank to indicate when the fuel level reaches full.
As a result the lamp is on when the tank is empty and turns off when the tank is full. I decided to not tie in the power to the battery controlling all the flight systems to minimize the chances of an electrical failure and battery drain. As the sensor is only needed during tank filling the external battery connection makes sense.
The indicator lamp is visible through the front scale air intake in order to preserve the scale appearance.
