GWS F15 ready for take off

Hi all, a quick post today, still suffering from the joys of christmas, however I had a call today from a fellow jet jockey Seamus, the word is, this man has over 100 models in his workshop, no one ready knows? could be Irelands own 'area 51' ?????, anyway this friend and all round good guy, ask me to post a couple of photos of my new GWS f15, now ready for the big test flight! your wish is my command Seamus, happy landings all.

Christmas greetings to all jet fans

It's Christmasss!!!, Merry christmas to all jet fans around the world. I love this time of year, food, drink, more drink and best of all presents. It's christmas eve here and I have every thing ready for the big day, or should I say! my wonderful wife ( she who must be obeyed), has all organised, just need to pop the turkey in the oven and thats it, finish. So what's under the tree I hear you ask?, well technically it's in the work shop, but the boss got me a new jet kit for Xmas, the new GWS F15 with twin ducted fans, WOW! thankyou Roisin a fantastic little jet, just the right project for over Xmas. I will post more photos later. Well things have been a little rushed recently therefore not much to report on the hawk build, however I have now completed the jet pipe installation, so next we can start to install the Jetcat 120se and the rest of the electrics and air tanks, by the way sorry for the lack of photos, problems with my canon, however I should have some for you in the next post. I have included a few photos of the new gws f15 and also a pic of my Ripmax f16, which I hope to fly over Xmas at my local club, I will let you know how it flys later. Well that's about it for now, hope you all have a wonderful Xmas and a peaceful new year, also please feel free to add your own greetings to my blog for all jet fans around the world.

Hawk wires and pipes

Hi all, back to the hawk build and 'boy is it looking good!!'. We have completed the wings, tail feathers, fin and all the wiring and plumbing for the wheels and brakes. Note I use 'we' in the text, yes all this great work has only been possible, with the help of a fellow jet pilot 'BIG DAVE', i.e. 6ft ??????? tall, lets just say! he shows up on Belfast International Airport radar, when standing on the langford runway.

No major problems encounted except the control horn channels in the wings and even the rudder were cut out at the wrong angle, which put stress on the servos i.e. buzz! buzz!, however I used ball links on the rudder connection and wings which helped to reduce the pressure on the servo arms when in use. Dave made up all the wiring extentions, 'a lot of wire was used so buy in bulk'. The wire used was the heavy gauge type with a twist from SM Services, also we used heat wrap over the various connections, better to be safe than sorry.

All the piping used was Rom air with metal T joints, ' top tip' use different colours of tubing, it makes life easier when it comes to connecting every thing up.

Well that's about it for now on the hawk, however check out the photo of Chris and Adam holding up the f15, this model was constructed from a picture in a book about ten years ago for ducted fan by Ian the jetman, all foam and wood no plastic here. A jetcat P80 is going to be installed, should be interesting, I will keep you all updated on this project, also, remember I showed you a few pictures of another project 'the Concorde', well we are going to try a test flight of this monster shortly to see if the model will fly, two cars a motorcycle and a very long rope will be used 'watch this space' the fun is about to begin.

F3P a first for Northern Ireland

Hi fellow jet jockeys, here again with another post, and before you ask, yes I have been working on the Hawk, yes the wings are done and yes, I will post a few photos on the next post. I just wanted to tell you all about a first for our little area of the globe and I think maybe a first in the U.K., 'what can it be?', well last night I went to the Northern Ireland Indoor flying championships under the F3p rules .

Pilots, 22 in all, from all over Northern and Southern Ireland and I believe also Scotland, flew two rounds of a pre planned schedule in two classes, Basic and F3P-C, with another round of flight to music.

The quality of flying was of a very high standard in both classes, and with 51 flights completed, the judges had a very hard task in deciding who to award the top honours to. The final results were as follows:

F3p-C

1) Matthew Poots
2) Robert Graham
3) Richard Boyd

Basic

1) Alistair Henry
2) Sean Scullion

3) Adrian Boyd

AM

1) Matthew Poots
2) Robert Graham
3) Simon McNeill

The event had an impressive line up of sponsors including: Flight tech, Freestyle RC, Motors and Rotors, Philips, Mid Ulster Models and Express Fly. There was also a brilliant demo by David Nolan and his father Liam, with the new MA 450 machine ( a world's first), and also a 3D demo flight in the dark with night gear on, wow!! I could hardy watch, this guy is sooooo!! damn good.

For a complete report on the event go to www.banbridgeaeromodellingclub.org.uk/tiki-index.php
Well that's about it for now, happy landings.

Jet pilots

Hi all, well I'm back, blogging again, twice in one week, a new record I hear you say, well I just had to show you all the two brave young pilots ( Wolfman and Gil) who will be sitting in the cockpit of the hawk, when ever the wheels leave the runway on her maiden flight. I have been looking for two 1/6 scale pilots for months on the web and also while on my recent visit to Florida, yes I could have got them over the web and one in a local model shop, however at a price of £65 each and over the web from another country, once you pay for the p&p, import tax, vat etc, it works out not much better. I searched the web the other night in the U.K and HELLO!! on page seven of google, found a company called the 'Modellers Loft', with a fantastic range of model figures and as luck would have it, they stocked a range of 1/6 pilots from Dragon models, perfect in every detail. A quick call the next day and a very helpful member of the modellers loft staff had the two figures wrapped and posted and at a price of £60 for both +p&p, great service and a very quick delivery thankyou modellers loft I will be calling again with you, check out their wedsite http://www.modellersloft.co.uk/.

I have also been working on the wings this week with installation of the servos, cutting out the servo covers, made heavy wire cables and installed the control rods, still along to go, but a couple of hours more should finish the wings. well thats it for now, talk to you later.

Jet wings

Hi all, sorry for the lack of updates to the blogg, the last post was from the USA, since then it has been busy,busy,busy at work, however, now things are back to normal, so hopefully I can get back to building the Hawk. While over in florida, I went to a few model shops in the Orlando area. The best model outlet with the largest stock was Florida Central Hobbies, just 10 min from international Drive on Kirkman Drive. The shop is packed with items for planes, boats and cars, with prices well below what we pay in the U.K. however for the real bargains, buy the local products i.e. Great planes, Robart Air and other U.S. products, for example, I was looking for a new Li Po charger from Great Planes, price here £120, I picked it up for £45, also I needed quick release connectors from Robart Air for the wings of the Hawk, price here £10 for a pack of two, I got these for £2.50, it pays to look for the bargains. Bob and sharon run the shop, very helpful and nice to talk to, so if you are in the area on your next holiday to Orlando, call in and grab a bargain.
So what about the jet?, well I started on the wings, by adding the control horns, simple job, next I added the wing servos JR 3301, a slim servo is required due to the limited space at the wing tips. For the flaps ,I used a standard JR digi servo, a 5.5kg model, should be o.k. One thing I did notice, is that the servos mounts in the wings, with the servos in place, do not line up with the control horns, now I know I can bend the control rods to over come this problem, but later I will be adding the underwing control rod covers, which must run at a slight angle to the wing surface, well they will not fit, I will have to check with the 'jet man' Mr Robb to see what can be done to over come this. Well thats it for now happy landings.

Florida jets

Hi all, well not much to report at the moment, why I here you cry!, well folks I am in Florida for three weeks on hols. This is a great spot to party, lots and lots to do if you have lots and lots of money, any way I am going to visit a few models shop over here, so I will let you know how that goes, so its goodbye for now or as we say in Florida, " have a nice day " happy landings from the good old USA.

Hi all, well what a weekend, Saturday was the best day we have had in months, the water at our local lake was like a mirror, just perfect for flying off. The flyin attracted a large crowd of pilots even this late in the season, many models were on show small, large and big big big! models, thanks to every one for making it a great day. What about the Hawk, I hear you say?, well not much work done this weekend, however I hope to get a little done this week, a fellow jet jockey is making up a set of cables for the servos, thanks Dave. Well thats about it for now, not much happening at present in the work shop, happy landings.

Elevators part 2

Hi all, well back to building the hawk. In the last post I was trying to install the elevators, well this has be completed, see photos. The first step was to install the two 25kg servos onto a small ply plate already glued into the tail section, the two servos are first attached to two metal backets, which are then screwed to a set of wooden blocks. Next the two completed units are glued in place onto the ply plate, however excess is limited as I have mentioned before, therefore to overcome this problem, I made another plate, glued the servos in place, added additional ply strips to support the servo blocks and glued the finished unit into the tail with 2 ton epoxy. Next the holes in the horns had to be drilled out to fit the metal control rods, be careful when doing this!, the hole for the bolt must be a good fit, an over sized hole could cause flutter in the elevator. The next step is to drill out the four holes in the horns and add M3 nuts and bolts, easy to get at and provides a solid fit when installing the control horns.

The only mistake I made at this point was that the rods were slighty off line, however a little re-ajustment of one servo block will solve this problem.

The next job, add the wing and tail servos, however thats for the next post, heading off this weekend to another float plane event, I will post a few pics of this for you all next posting, also have a look at the hawk pic with the all the cups, this is the work shop's new coffee machine cup dispenser, thanks guys. O.K. thats it for now, happy landings.

hawk elevators

Hi all, sorry about the long delay between posts, very busy at work at the moment, however you will be glad to here that I have managed to get things moving on the hawk, little things may I add, arrived at the jet man's work shop, i.e. my good friend Ian, and forgot to bring most of the items I needed to install the elevators, 'Lucky my head is screwed on'.

To install the two elevators is a simple process, place the plastic washers onto the elevator rods and push into the holes pre-drilled. Next add the control hornes, a metal block with two screws preinstalled for holding the control horns on. Sounds simple to do, but it was not, remember I had concerns about these fittings when I first looked at them, well first, only a person with a small hand can get at the fittings when installed, next you have to secure the two control horns onto the elevators rods by tightening the self tappers, problem here is that you can not get proper access to the horns to do this. I have decided to use another method, used on the other hawks, replace the 4 self tappers with nuts and bolts (M3) should work, you can tighten these quickly and insure a more secure fitting of the parts, (if the elevator goes it's curtains, better to be safe than sorry, I say), so with the next post, I will show the fittings installed and with luck the servos in place.

I have included with todays post a few photos of Ian's workshop, a modellers paradise, and 'yes that is a B17 in the background' also the jet boys, i.e Ian, Peter, Chris and Stanley(the worlds greatest saftely officer), just had to share with you all, their latest box of modelling goodies.

Well thats it for now, off to a model auction tonight to see if I can pick up a few bargains, happy landings.