Final flying session before Christmas

So I met up with the usual crowd on the top of Meio with a good 25 mph blowing, the rain held off, and it wasn't too cold.

There was a good mixture of foamies, including my newly rebuilt Wildthing, a PSS Vulcan bomber, and Chris had resurrected his old M60. Phil and Josh were also flying their Impala and Mig 3 correx models, Mark and Chris were also flying various mouldies.

As time went on, so the wind picked up to an estimated 35 - 40 mph and our models were beginning to struggle to penetrate the ever increasing wind, so we decided to call it a day.

Here's a couple of, "ooops" moments for you.


Wayne loses it in the suns glare

This Weekends Flying & Christmas Plans

So this is the last weekend before the big Ho, Ho, Ho, (Christmas), and Saturdays forecast looks like being rain ,rain, rain. Which suits me as I have a family, Christmas get together to attend on Saturday afternoon anyway, after going out to the pub for a few beers with friends this evening, so I wouldn't be flying anyway.

Sunday looks like being quite breezy with rain showers and a south westerly blowing in. So I think I'm just going to grab a couple of foamies, the rebuilt Polecat and Wildthing, and chuck them off Meio for a couple of hours from late morning.

I finish work on Christmas Eve and am not back until the 4th January. During that period I have a window of three days, the 27th, 28th & 29th when I'm free to fly before I have to make a trip up north for the New Year celebrations, but hopefully I should be returning home on the Saturday and so free to fly on the Sunday. So I hope to see some of the familiar faces on the slopes of S. Wales sometime over the period.

So I will take this opportunity to wish you all a very merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous New Year.

Happy flying
Steve

Wildthing Rebuild - The Finale

This evening I've completed as much as I can do, and that was to just add some extra decoration to the fin and to the centre section of the wing.

That's the first time I've used a spaghetti measurer to draw circles on shrink film. 

And here is the almost complete model. 

I'm just awaiting some threaded control rods to arrive in tomorrow's post. I can then connect the elevons to the servos and fix the wing to the fuselage. 

Hopefully the next time I post with the Wildthing, it will be with a video of it being chucked off a big Welsh hill. 

With this rebuild I've tried doing things I haven't done before, and fortunately they all worked very well. 

Some things worked particularly well, sandwiching shrink film covering between two layers of laminate film for instance. Using glass fibre tape will probably become a thing of the past for me. 

But I've also learned that if gf tape is used, to run a hot iron over it, which sticks it down better and gives it a very smooth finish. 

So I can now take what I've learned from this and the Polecat rebuild and use these techniques in my next project in January. 

Catch you soon & happy flying. 

Steve 

Wildthing Rebuild Continued

So this evenings first task was to cover the correx fin.

My plan was to cover it with shrink film, however, I had no idea what the melting point of correx might be. So, I covered it first with glass fibre tape, in the hope that would protect it somewhat. 

The tape went on as usual and then I decided to try the iron on it at 120°c, as I had done on the wing. 

This really does wonders for this tape, really sticking it down well and it makes it very smooth. 

Then it was just a case of adding the heat shrink film on top, again at 120°c, which turned out fine. 

In the crash, I lost one of the elevon control rods but I couldn't find anything suitable in my box of bits, so I attached the one I had then refitted the receiver, battery pack, switch and balance weight.   

I shall have to nip out to my local hobby shop on Saturday to get myself the correct thickness of control rod. Then I can attach the wing to the fuselage and add a couple of little pieces of trim decoration and then the job is a good un! 

PSSA Flying Event at the Bwlch

Hi all

I am pleased to be able to announce that a date has now been set to hold a PSS Fly for Fun meet at the Bwlch over the 21st & 22nd May 2016.

I have spoken with the other flying groups that use the Bwlch and the F3F guys have nothing currently booked for these dates, and the South East Wales Paraglider & Hang Glider Association are keeping those dates clear for us also.

The date is now logged into the BARCS calendar and Phil Cook of the PSSA will announce the dates in due course on the PSSAonline website and elsewhere.

2016 is the 30th anniversary of the PSSA and there will be many flying meetings over the year around the country, and following the success 2 years ago of the Jet Provost mass build project, this year there will also be a mass build project of the A4 Skyhawk, culminating in a special mass build meet at the Orme in September.

So whether you are into PSS models or not, everyone is welcome to come along and watch or even fly whatever you have, provided you have BMFA insurance.

We look forward to seeing you there.

Happy flying.

Steve

Wildthing Rebuild Continued

So I've added the decoration to the wings and I was going to leave it at that. However, the covering will take some abuse during landings on rough terrain so I've decided to cover the wing and fuselage in 42 micron laminate film.

This is very thin and very light. I added a strip to the underside of the Polecat fuselage and you really can't see that it's there. But it will add some protection and help to stiffen the wing also. 

So this is the top side before the lam film goes on. 

And the underside. 

This weekends flying

Christmas is looming fast now and I have Christmas things to do on Saturday, but I will be flying on Sunday. 

At the moment it's looking like light, south easterly winds will be the order of the day, so I guess the slope of choice will be Back of Wrecker st the Bwlch. Hopefully up there we'll get double figure wind speeds. 

Paul from slopesoaringsussex is visiting this weekend and will be joining us on the slopes. I see he's bringing the weather with him again, lol. 

So I hope to see some of the usual faces on Sunday. 

Happy flying. 

Steve 

Wildthing Rebuild continued

This evening I have been covering the wings. But first I had to do a soldering job.

In the crash, the servo connectors going into the receiver were broken, so I found a couple of old servo extension leads, cut the wires and spliced them onto the existing servo leads. 

This proved to be more difficult than I anticipated as my soldering iron decided it didn't want to work properly. I think the thermostat has gone. So I'll be down to Maplins on Saturday to buy a new one. 

So back to the covering. 

The underside was done in Hobby King iron on shrink film, which I already had, and the top was done in Easycover shrink film. 

The HK film seems thicker and able to take higher temperatures. The yellow Easycover went on fine but you could see the GF tape underneath through it.

But this is a cheap foamie model and I wasn't about to use something expensive, such as Oracover on it. This'll do for my purposes. 

So now I just have the fin to recover, fit the electrics and connect the elevons to the servos and add a little wing decoration and I'm all done. So it should be ready to fly next weekend. 

Wildthing Rebuild continued .......

So I haven't been lazy the last few evenings, I have been doing some work on the Thing.

I began using cocktail sticks pushed into the foam in the fuselage where the break in the fuselage was, to help reinforce the join and glued it together using UHU POR. 

Once joined, it wasn't a perfect fit so some rubbing down with sandpaper was done before I applied a patch of glass fibre cloth over the break point and gave it five coats of Poly C. 

This was then rubbed down until smooth before covering in 75 micron laminate film.

Then finally I covered the whole thing in iron on shrink film. 

I will probably add a layer of the very thin 42 micron laminate film, just along the bottom to protect the black film on landings. 

PSSA Events Calendar 2016

Hi all

For those of you interested in the PSS side to our hobby, the PSSA have firmed up the following dates to add to your calendars with some more dates to follow, including a date at the Bwlch.

Orme event 1 (APRIL 16/17th)

Orme event 2 (JUNE 11/12th)

Lleyn MAC event (August 13/14th)

Orme event 3 A-4 Skyhawk Mass Build Event (10^th/11^th September)

Orme event 4 (October 8/9th)

And just to remind you, 2016 is the 30th anniversary of the PSSA, so there could be some non flying events taking place also. Watch this space for details.

Mill Mill, Shoreham by Sea

Hi all

Paul Hampshire of Slopesoaringsussex and myself had a blast this morning flying our EPP60 racers at Mill Hill, Shoreham by Sea. Wind speed in the region of 35 - 40 mph and there was only one other guy there, flying a SAS Wildthing, which was being blown backwards mostly. 

Anyway, we had a couple of hours racing back and forth across the slope. 

Unfortunately my hat cam video footage isn't usable as I had to wear my ski goggles and consequently my hat was tilted to far upwards, so all the action was in the very bottom of the frame. But the footage shown below taken on our smart phones gives you an idea of the flying conditions.

Enjoy and happy flying.

Steve

Woohoo!

So with a little time on my hands this morning, I headed up to Meio Common, just north of Cardiff to give the Polecat a thrashing. 

The wind was 30 - 35 mph, good lift but a little turbulent at times. 

I haven't got any ballast slugs for the Polecat yet but it still penetrated and flew very well. So it should go ok when I hit the slopes of W Sussex tomorrow. 

W Sussex Flying Weekend

Well today I'm heading off to visit friends in Crawley, W Sussex and to do some flying with the boys at slopesoaringsussex. 

The weather looks to be dry for Saturday but Sunday may be wet, but the wind forecast looks very lively with 50 mph possible on the slopes. 

Hopefully I shall return with some good video and pictures. 

Wildthing Rebuild Continued ..........

There wasn't a great deal I could do this evening, but I have learned something new.

I closely inspected the wing and the GF tape was quite well wrinkled and there were lots of little dents and dings in the foam. This wasn't going to make covering with shrink film particularly easy or attractive to look at. This may only be a foamie model, but I am taking pride in rebuilding it and what it will look like. There's nothing better than receiving compliments from fellow modellers over the quality of a build.

I began by removing the elevons and the packing tape I'd covered them with.

I then turned my attention to the wing and wondered what effect adding heat would make, running a covering iron over the GF tape? I had used the iron on the Polecat and saw that the heat helped to remove creases in the foam.

I tried various temperatures beginning at 100*c but found that 120*c seemed ideal.

As I slowly ran the iron over the tape, I could see the wrinkles in the tape coming out and the tape seemed to become very shiny, as if the adhesive was being activated and sticking it down better to the foam.

By the time I'd gone over the the entire wing, I was very happy with the result and reattached the elevons.

That was all for this evening and I hope to continue tomorrow.

Before

After

Wildthing Rebuild

So now the rebuild on the Polecat is finished, it's time to move on and rebuild my trusty Wildthing. The Thing was the second slope glider I purchased after only flying slope for the first time 2 months previously. The maiden was on the Wrecker slope at the Bwlch back in June 2012, I think. What a slope to maiden a model on, especially when you're a newbie at flying gliders.

So I began by stripping the packing and GF tape covering from the fuselage so that I could see the true extent of the damage, and yes, the fuse had broken into two pieces.

The piece on the right had also split for about half its length, so I've glued that back together.

I've ordered some UHU POR to join the two halves together as it is naturally elastic in nature once it has set. So once that has arrived I will use wooden cocktail sticks pushed into both halves of the foam to re-enforce the join before gluing them together.

So as I couldn't do anything else to the fuse, I stripped the vinyl covering off the wing but left on the GF tape. My plan is to cover the wing in Easycover, a cheap iron on film, then cover this with 42 micron, (really thin) laminate film. This will provide stiffness and protection for the covering but with minimal weight increase.

So this evenings job is to remove the elevons from the wing and strip the black packing tape from them. The GF tape hinging is showing signs of degradation so I want to renew this.

I have some black HK iron on film which I will apply to the underside of the wing once I have re-attached the elevons, then I just have to wait until I've taken delivery of the yellow Easycover before I can continue.

Stuff

Hi all.

I know some of the guys at Slope Soaring Sussex managed to get a little flying in on Saturday, however in S Wales it was a totally different kettle of fish, with no flying taking place, (by me anyway). The weather all weekend was atrocious with gales and heavy rain.

Anyway, some of you will remember I trashed my beloved Wildthing whilst trying to teach Michelle to fly it. I did contemplate buying a new one as they aren't that expensive. However, after having seen Waynes new Mk3 flying, I have been put off buying one.

For me the wing just isn't as good as the old Mk2 wing, which seems more stable and able to fly in lighter lift than the Mk3. There is some video I shot somewhere on this blog where we were flying at Fochriw in changeable conditions. One minute we'd have a good breeze with thermals coming through. Then the wind would die as a thermal passed over and we were left flying in dead air. My Wildthing carried on cruising slowly along the slope whilst Waynes plummeted out of the sky like a brick. If anyone from Soar Ahead Sailplanes is reading this, please revert back to the Mk2 wing.

My wing seems to be structurally sound, it's only the fuselage which took a battering, so this evening I'm going to strip the covering off it and see if I can epoxy it back together and strengthen the break areas with some light glass fibre. If that option doesn't appear feasible, I shall buy some depron sheet and use the original fuselage as a template for fabricating a new one.

Watch this space for updates.

This Friday I'm heading to Crawley for the weekend. Michelle has friends there and it's a really good excuse for me to tag along and go flying with Paul Hampshire and the other guys at Slope Soaring Sussex. So I have four models prepped and ready to go, I just need some luck with the weather. Anything between 15 - 25 mph winds with clear skies would be perfect. Hopefully I shall come back with some pictures and video to share.

Until next time, happy flying.
Steve

Winter arrives at the Bwlch

Hi all

Well there isn't a lot to say about Sunday's flying. We were on the VR98 slope at the Bwlch and most of the snow had disappeared from the previous day, the wind had eased off considerably and the temperature was a lot milder.

Phil had brought along a 2m, rudder/elevator thermal soarer with him and he gave that a chuck. Wayne was struggling to get his Wildthing in the air, but I did manage to have a couple of flights with the Polecat, although unfortunately it never got captured on video.

And talking of video, here it is. Enjoy.

Maiden flight of the rebuilt Polecat

Flipping eck it was cold standing in the snow on the VR98 slope at the Bwlch. And I was the only one brave or foolish enough to go flying today.

It was 0°c and the first snow of the season when I chucked the newly rebuilt Polecat off the slope. It immediately dived, bounced off the snow then headed off into the blue sky. A few clicks of up elevator and two clicks of left aileron and she was flying like a good un. 

Landing is usually tricky on the VR98 with the road being only a few metres behind you, and it took me three attempts to get her down as she was coming in so quickly, but get her down safely I did and I look forward to giving her another flight tomorrow. 

The VR98

Safely down. 

Happy flying

Steve 

Weekends Flying 21-22 November

Hi guys

Well there is a definite change in the weather for this weekend over the past couple of weeks, which have been stormy to say the least.

So Saturday is looking like the windiest day with a N-NNW at 28 mph but calming down a bit as the afternoon progresses. However, the kick in the teeth is the temperature which at Cardiff airport will be about 6*C, add to that the altitude at the Bwlch say, and the wind chill factor, and that amounts to a bloody cold day!

Sunday we are looking at similar temperatures but the wind is forecast to be mostly from the north but about 17 mph.

Both days are looking great to re-maiden my rebuilt Polecat anyway.

I was thinking of heading up to Hirwaun Common as we have northerly winds. The lift is superb there and every bit as good as the Bwlch, in my opinion, but Hirwaun has a first class landing zone, unlike the VR98, which can be a bit hairy with the road so close to the flying area. But with the temperatures being so low, the VR98 may be the better option as we can warm up in our cars when body parts begin to freeze.

What I may do is fly the Bwlch on Saturday and Hirwaun on Sunday. We'll see.

Happy flying
Steve

Polecat Rebuild Continued ............

So the project has been coming along nicely!

Tuesday evening I glued the wing into the fuselage and left it 24 hours to set properly.

Last night I attached the elevons to the wing and covered them.

I decided to try using laminate film as my hinging material and cut four pieces of 75 micron film, approximately 3" long x 1" wide for each wing, and used part of the mylar hinge method to attach these. So I stuck two pins, evenly spaced, through the centre of each tab of lam and ironed this onto the elevon, the pins butting up to the beveled edge of the elevon. I then mated up the elevon to the wing and temporarily secured it with masking tape, with the pins now also touching the trailing edge of the wing, thereby creating a small, even gap between the wing and the elevon, and then with full downward deflection of the elevon, I ironed the lam film to the top of the wing.

Next I had to do the underside of the wing, and for this I used the almost tissue thick 42 micron laminate film. This was cut into strips the length of each wing and about 1½" wide. The elevon was then raised and bent over until its top surface was touching the top surface of the wing and I ironed on the lam to the beveled elevon edge and the wing trailing edge at the same time and the excess was ironed onto the underside of the wing and the elevon. Once this was done, another similar strip of lam was cut and ironed onto the top of the wing and elevon. This seems to have made a hinge which is strong, clear, will not degrade or become brittle ....... hopefully.

I have to say that I was impressed with this method of hinging, and if after a few months of flying it is still secure and showing no signs of any issues, then I'll use this on all my future foamie model projects.

It also got me thinking about the way I build foam wing type models, and I think my next model, (that Santa is going to bring me), will follow the following build procedure.

• sand the foam to make it as smooth as possible
• spackle the entire fuselage and wing with light weight filler to fill in the voids
• sand back again to create a smooth surface
• cover with 75 micron laminate film
• cover with my choice of iron on film
• cover again with 42 micron laminate film which will increase strength and protect the iron on film covering but without adding too much extra weight.

This should create a really strong and rigid model.

I then covered the elevons with the iron on film to finish the evenings work.

All I have left to do now is to create a little more space in the battery and receiver compartments to accept those items as currently there isn't enough space for those and the corresponding wires. I have to fit new elevon control horns and connect them to the servo arms, and add some orientation bands of iron on film to the underside of the wings, then Bobs your uncle, it's finished.

I can't wait to chuck it off a hill this weekend now.

Polecat Rebuild Continued ..............

So last night I continued work covering the wing. There isn't really a great deal to say about this as I didn't encounter any problems.

I was pleased with the finish though, when I consider how badly creased the foam was in places, particularly at the tips, it has turned out well.

The next jobs are to cover and attach the elevons to the wing, connect the elevons to the servo arms, glue the wing in place and fit the battery, receiver and switch. Hopefully I should be able to get this done before this Sunday and then just pray that the weather plays ball so I can chuck it off a big hill.

Polecat Rebuild continued ................

Friday evening was spent covering the fuselage with iron on film. I used the Hobby King stuff which I have used before and not had any issues with. I believe some users have said that the colour fades but I haven't been using it long enough yet for this to happen, so we shall see if this is true. But it is an awful lot cheaper than other brands and is supplied in 5 metre rolls.

The weather at home was awful on Saturday so I stayed in during the afternoon and covered the elevons with laminate film, which really stiffened them up, then began to cover the wing with the HK film. I did get one side done and I hope to continue this evening.

I can see a problem looming which I am going to have to find a solution for. I'm planning on using glass fibre cross weave tape to hinge the elevons, and I want to tape those on before I cover the wing. The wing slides through the slot in the fuselage, but it can only do this with the elevons removed.

I guess this means that I will have to apply the film to the top of the wing, but not stick it down fully until I have slotted it through the wing, attach the elevons, then iron down the film on the trailing edge. I think!

Here is a photo of the fuselage, an some wine :o)

Weekends flying ........ or not!

Well looking at this weekends weather forecast, it doesn't look likely that there will be much flying going on.

Sunday looks like being the better day and it may be a case of just riding out the showers, but to be honest, I don't think I'm going to bother.

I'm going to spend a few hours on Saturday working on the Polecat. I also need to fit my old Flying Wings Hawk with a RX and battery pack as I'm going to resurrect that as my Wildthing is still in pieces and I have to work out whether it's worth repairing or not. I know my girlfriend is buying me something from the NCFM stable of models for Christmas so a Wildthing rebuild may not happen.

And talking of my girlfriend. She has been learning to fly using the Phoenix flight simulator, so you guys better look out next year as she could be there on the slopes flying my Hawk.

On Sunday morning I'm running the Cardiff 10k MoRun, in support of men's health then going into town to do some Christmas shopping, so no flying for me.

Saturday sees the first round of the F3F winter league which may happen at Southerndown. So if anyone fancies a go, you don't need an F3F model, anything will do as long as it is safe and not a lead sled or DS rocket.

That's all for now folks. Happy flying.

Steve

Polecat rebuild continued ............

So at the beginning of this thread I had plans to glass the entire fuselage, but then the more I thought about it, the more I had doubts about this.

This is an EPP model which doesn't fly slowly, (think M60 racer), and it doesn't land slowly either, so it's likely to have some fairly hefty landings. I thought it best to retain the bouncibility of the EPP, so I changed my mind and went with a laminate film covering. So that was last nights job, covering the fuselage with 75 micron film.

It's a job I do enjoy doing and I seem to be getting better at it as this is the third model I've covered in lam. I've managed to get a nice smooth finish with few wrinkles or air bubbles. The most fiddly bit is always the pointy bit at the front, and it's just a case of making lots of little snips with scissors, folding over and sticking down, but it does take a bit of practice to make a half decent job of this bit.

Of course the better job you make of this at this stage gives you better results when you go to cover with your choice of iron on film later.

So now with the fuselage completely covered, I did a test fit of the wing and that was fine, so this evening I'm going to cover the fuselage in shrink film whilst watching Children In Need and enjoy a well deserved beer.

To be continued .............

Polecat rebuild continued ................

So the final piece was epoxied back into place and once the glue was dry I rubbed it down with medium glass paper. There wasn't a great deal of foam to foam contact area so this was going to be a weak area, so I added a piece of glass cloth over the top just to strengthen it up a little.

I then set about sanding over the entire fuselage before spreading light weight filler, or "spackle" as our American friends would call it, over its entire length, just to fill in the foam void holes and create a smooth surface for the laminate film to adhere to.

So now this is done and I'm ready to laminate. However, I thought I had some laminate film in my materials box but there wasn't enough, so I ended up having to order some more. Hopefully this will arrive by Friday so I can get on with it over the weekend.

More Polecat stuff

Last night I finished off sanding down the filler on the wing and that is now ready for covering.

So I made a start on the fuselage by using the heat gun on it to loosen the iron on film and the laminate film underneath so that I could strip it back to the bare foam.

Once the covering was off, I used the heat gun on the bare foam around the nose which was a bit creased and dented, and the heat brought it back to a better shape.

I laid out the bits and put them together in a dry fit before mixing up some 30 minute epoxy and began gluing it back together.

By the end of the evening I was left with only one last piece to glue back, a piece about 70mm long which fits above the wing, so I've left that for another evening. However, before packing up completely, I drizzled some Gorilla Glue into some of the gaps where I had to rejoin pieces and small holes in the foam, to use as a filler.

So the next job is to rub it down and fill where necessary before I apply the glass cloth.

To be continued ...........

Polecat Rebuild Continued .......

So I have decided not to glass the wing and to just tidy up the wing as it stands.

So last night I used a heat gun on the laminated foam and most of the smaller creases came out and the larger ones weren't quite so pronounced. So I began filling in all the creases with light weight filler and sanded back.

I don't think I'm going to begin covering the wing until I have completed the repairs on the fuselage and then perform a dry fit.

To be continued ............

Polecat rebuild

This was the Ron Broughton Polecat that I got from Phil.

This was the Polecat after I lost the plot after flying on Meio earlier on in the year. 

So now the rebuild begins and I have  stripped the covering from the wing and underneath is laminate film, what some would call, "new stuff". 

So the lam has to come off and then I have to get those creases out as much as possible using the boiling water method. Then using light weight filler to fill in what's left before I recover with glass fibre. 

I need to get some advice because I haven't covered anything before with glass although I do know the technique. But what I want to know is, after rubbing down to a smooth finish, will I be able to cover with iron on film or does it have to be painted? Or even better, is it possible to add colour to the Poly C water based polyurethane, which is what I shall be using instead of epoxy resin. 

If you know the answer to any of these questions, please let me know. 

I shall update this build as I go on but it certainly won't be a quick job, well, I'm

a busy boy you know. 

** So I've been thinking about this since I wrote this post and as the lam is quite good with no bubbles and fixed securely to the foam, I think I'm just going to stick with the lam and not glass the wing. So I will remove the lam from the wing tip so I can remove and fill the creases, and recover the tips with lam before covering in iron on film.

The fuselage is a different matter. As it has split in two across the wing seat, I think I will glass it to give it additional strength in this area, as it now, it will always be a weak spot.

Follow this build in the Polecat Rebuild Tab.