Another great day flying the Fokker. Calm winds, enough cloud to keep us
cool and stop the sun blinding us, BBQ sizzling in the background, and a handful of birds on the sideline to watch the majestic red monster in the
air.

Two flights, first of 12 minutes plus and the second of 16 minutes plus.
The re-sealed tank seems to be performing flawlessly.

Takeoff is simple. Hold a bit of back-stick to keep the tail skid on the ground and apply throttle. In about 15-20 feet, the Big Fed Fokker leaps
into the air and tries to rush up to the clouds. Push in a bit of down elevator to keep the climbout shallow, and hold it straight until she gets some height and speed up.

Richthofen was right -- she is very manoeuvrable. An she *loves* the big, full-flying stab/rudder. In high rates with 1-3/4" throw each way, you
bang that big rudder over and the aircraft *TURNS*. Of course, it will
drop a wing and put it's nose down as well, so you have to be on the
controls!

I really enjoyed flying it today. Wind conditions were near ideal, and it
is a real pleasure to fly. In gusty weather I can imagine it would be
hard to handle, but she really is a lovely model. And really beautiful in
the sky. On a low, slow pass with the Magnum at a low throttle setting
just going chug... chug... chug... it is a conversation stopper. Then open
her up and ease back on the stick and she *ZOOMS* up, like all good tri- planes are supposed to. That engine seems to be an ideal choice, and is currently working well.

Landing can be tricky. The first landing today was such perfect 'greaser' that for a second I wasn't sure the wheels were on the ground. But those three big, flat-bottomed wings can unexpectedly pull lift literally out of thin air. A little gust as you flare -- or an incautious thumb flaring
too much, and it will find lift enough to balloon up several feet, leaving
you with the aircraft a little too high for comfort!

No aerobatics as yet. I doubt the airframe will do too many tricky
manoeuvers too easily. Knife-edge may not be possible, and it would
certainly be blasphemous! Loops, rolls and all the combinations like Immelmann's and Split-S, Cubans, etc. But I'm still struggling with
attitude recognition. It's much better already, but I don't want to deliberately push the aeroplane into unusual attitudes until I am a little more relaxed about recognising what attitude it's actually in. Gimme
another 30 minutes of stick-time forst. (Although I was sorely tempted to loop the machine several times today!)

Gotta check the rudder hinges tomorrow (seeing as how much work it's been doing) and while I'm at it I may as well check all the other surfaces....

:-)


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Re: Fokker
By: Angus McLeod to Digital Man on Thu Dec 01 2005 01:27 am

Another great day flying the Fokker. Calm winds, enough cloud to keep us cool and stop the sun blinding us, BBQ sizzling in the background, and a handful of birds on the sideline to watch the majestic red monster in the air.

Two flights, first of 12 minutes plus and the second of 16 minutes plus.
The re-sealed tank seems to be performing flawlessly.

Good deal. No new pics? :-(

digital man

Snapple "Real Fact" #188:
Antarctica is the driest, coldest, windiest, and highest continent on earth.

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Re: Fokker
By: Digital Man to Angus McLeod on Fri Dec 02 2005 15:33:00

Two flights, first of 12 minutes plus and the second of 16 minutes plus. The re-sealed tank seems to be performing flawlessly.

Good deal. No new pics? :-(

No, sorry. Can't fly and photograph at the same time. Gotta figure a way around that.

I examined the rudder hinges and one was torn halfway through! I must
have seen something -- either in the air or transporting the model -- to
make me decide to check them. If that hinge had gone, there would have
been only one hinge holding the rudder into place, and it wouldn't have
held on it's own. On a normal aircraft it would have been bad enough, but
the Fokker has a fully flying fin, so to lose it would have left me with
*no* vertical stabilizer at all, on a model that is rather
rudder-sensitive!

Removed the rudder and replaced both CA hinges with nylon kinges epoxied
into place with 30-minute epoxy. That should hold up OK -- I'll run it
past the safety officer tomorrow. Hoping for good weather. Fuel is low,
but I should be able to get a flight or two. I'd buy a gallon from Colin
but I hear he smashed up his car and broke his arm. And worst of all, his model was wrecked!




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þ Synchronet þ Made of wood and glue, but mostly glue!

After nearly two months (!) I finally got around to beginning the repairs
on the Big Red Fokker.

I cut away the MonoKote around the break to reveal -- as expected -- that
the fuse in that area was kist a light balsa truss. The plan is to rejoin
the broken stick balsa with CA (super) glue and then reinforce the breaks
with 1/64" ply strips and some gussets.

I had a friend helping and he was a little too gung-ho for my liking.
Whereas I would have clamped the broken pieces alongside a steel
cling-wrapped straight-edge (so the glue-joints dried *straight*), he
would just grab the glue-pot, apply glue to the break and hold it roughly
in place with his hands. The result is that the repair work isn't the prettiest. This will not affect the flight characteristics, but after covering, the finish may be a little 'lumpy'. Oh, well.

Anyway, repairs have begun, so who knows? I might even finish the job
some time this year and get the aircraft back in flight by Christmas! :-)


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Playing: "Where Did You Sleep" by "Texas"
from the "Careful What You Wish For" album
þ Synchronet þ Made of wood and glue, but mostly glue!

Re: Fokker
By: Angus McLeod to Digital Man on Wed Jun 28 2006 09:48 pm

Anyway, repairs have begun, so who knows? I might even finish the job
some time this year and get the aircraft back in flight by Christmas! :-)

That's approximately the rate of repair on my Zagi-400X as well!

digital man

Snapple "Real Fact" #184:
The most used letters in the English language are E, T, A, O, I and N.
Norco, CA WX: 91.0øF, 33% humidity, 0 mph SSE wind, 0.00 inches rain/24hrs

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Re: Fokker
By: Angus McLeod to Digital Man on Wed Jun 28 2006 09:48 pm

After nearly two months (!) I finally got around to beginning the repairs
on the Big Red Fokker.

I cut away the MonoKote around the break to reveal -- as expected -- that the fuse in that area was kist a light balsa truss. The plan is to rejoin the broken stick balsa with CA (super) glue and then reinforce the breaks with 1/64" ply strips and some gussets.

I had a friend helping and he was a little too gung-ho for my liking. Whereas I would have clamped the broken pieces alongside a steel cling-wrapped straight-edge (so the glue-joints dried *straight*), he
would just grab the glue-pot, apply glue to the break and hold it roughly
in place with his hands. The result is that the repair work isn't the prettiest. This will not affect the flight characteristics, but after covering, the finish may be a little 'lumpy'. Oh, well.

Anyway, repairs have begun, so who knows? I might even finish the job
some time this year and get the aircraft back in flight by Christmas! :-)

I once knew a big ugly mother fokker.
acually she was a mother trucker, ah, I love to think about the ex once in a while. then I get over it...


This message has ended, go in peace...

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Re: Fokker
By: Digital Man to Angus McLeod on Wed Jun 28 2006 07:09 pm

Re: Fokker
By: Angus McLeod to Digital Man on Wed Jun 28 2006 09:48 pm

Anyway, repairs have begun, so who knows? I might even finish the job some time this year and get the aircraft back in flight by Christmas! :-

That's approximately the rate of repair on my Zagi-400X as well!

digital man

Snapple "Real Fact" #184:
The most used letters in the English language are E, T, A, O, I and N. Norco, CA WX: 91.0øF, 33% humidity, 0 mph SSE wind, 0.00 inches rain/24hrs

I tryed model planes once, had to give it up thou,
never could find a pilot for the darn thing...

This message has ended, go in peace...

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