The 104 from Skymaster had a design change that came out after this air frame was manufactured. There was some concern that if the linkage or servo were to fail on the leading edge flap it would cause a situation that would be unflyable and I have heard of one incidence of this occurring. So Skymaster sent out the engineering fix to all those air frames that were already sold. You can see in the picture to the right that the leading edge flap drops down and is held there by the linkage to the servo. What Skymaster came out with was a phenolic plate with the opening in it for a steel pin that was mounted in the fuse. You can see the picture of the pin that needs to be installed inside the fuse and a picture of it installed and sticking out of the fuse where the wing attaches.

This needs to be done now before the fuse gets more complicated and access becomes severely restricted.
 

Back at the CF-104

I cannot believe that it has been a year since the last post. I am kind of like the guy who goes to the store for a liter of milk and does not come back for a year!!
Anyway I am not determined to get the rigging done on this bad boy so here we go.
There are 4 main systems in this plane.

1. Electrical including the power distribution panel and servos as well as the lighting, receivers and telemetry. Also included in this would be the turbine ECU.
2. Hydraulic system which is primarily for the main gear as they are quite complicated and need the pressure that a hydraulic system provides over a pneumatic one.
3. Pneumatic system which is used to operate the nose gear and gear doors as well as chute deployment and speed brakes
4. Fuel system.   

        

                                                                             
  There are 3 main pieces the the plane not including the wings. All the wiring and the pneumatics need to be routed to just behind the pilots seat.  This part of the canopy system I have made easily removeable so access is no problem.                     

I will lay out wire harness and power distribution panel which by the way is the PowerBox Royal SRS on the bench to get an idea of what I am up against and to make sure my wire harness is long enough.

More pictures to come.

Back to the CF-104 Soon

I am finishing up on the A-10 in the next couple of weeks and look forward to getting back to the CF-104 703. Lots of rigging to do.
Here it is just arriving back in YYJ

Wing Pylons for bomb drops

One of the fun things to do with a scale plane is to drop bombs (not real ones if the FAA or Transport Canada are listening).  These are somewhat disposable as they do not last too long but it is great fun to put a bulls eye on the runway and see who can come the closest. There has even been the odd wager made on this to add to the excitement. Anyway these  pylons are simple and have a very small servo in them that releases the bomb (hopefully) when the switch on the transmitter is thrown. I am just getting them ready for paint and mounting to the wing center section. More pictures later.

Here is a short video of this Corsair at last years air show. Note on the landing at the end my tail wheel steering cable had broken and the tail wheel was hard over. Why is it that when your flight is videoed something always happens. LOL :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzGYUleTixA

Engine cooling

One of the problems that was encountered last summer was the motor was running too hot. Experience with these motors by other owners was that a baffle would help. I was hoping not to have to do this but have decided to proceed as the motors is too valuable to risk and a dead stick on a 55 lb plane not for the faint of heart if you know what I mean. It is in aluminum right now but to save weight I will cut it out of 1/8 inch light ply with a layer of light fiberglass on either side.

Big Corsair maintenace time.

Sorry for not being on the blog lately but with Christmas etc. things get in the way. I have however been in the shop. With the A-10 out of the way for now I am focusing on the yearly maintenance of the F4U Corsair. The plane got 3 hours of flight time on it last summer and some little issues came to light. Total time on the plane is now about 6 or 7 hours so I consider that pretty good. The hardest working part of the plane is the 250cc Moki Radial motor and as with all of these types of motors being full scale or as this one is they require attention . The valves need to be reset and all the bolts re torqued. Exhaust tightened and push rods and tappets oiled. I find the work to maintain this little beauty a labour of love other than the odd skinned knuckle.

A-10 Wet start damage.

Last summer I had an unfortunate wet start that caused and engine nacelle fire and did considerable damage in just a few seconds. It started me thinking about some kind of heat protection for the paper thin fiberglass nacelles. I looked at various materials that are intended for this purpose but weight was an issue as the nacelles are way back of the c of g.

 As you can see by this picture the damage was significant.
This damage as mentioned took only about 8 seconds. The fire was quickly ( not quickly enough) put out with the CO-2 extinguisher but
with no barrier between the glass and the flame it was too late.

 I first decided to paint the interior of the nacelle with a high heat tolerant paint (header paint) to seal the fiberglass so the heat reflective sheet would bond better to the surface.

The "Reflect a gold " sticky back sheet comes in either 12 x 12 or 12 x 24 inch sheets and is very flexible .
  Capable of handling continual temperatures up to 850°F
   Adhesive protected by a release liner rated up to 325°F

 This is intended to give momentary protection to the fiberglass but it would not be affective if the fire was not extinguished right away.

The weight gain was less than an ounce per nacelle as compared to about 8 oz each for the heavier insulating material.

 



It is easy to measure and cut the sheets and with a little patience the install is quickly accomplished.

These heat insulating products can be found on the Duralite Flight Systems web site
www.duraliteflightsystems.com under accessories heat reflective products.