I first saw this model at the Scottish Model Airshow 2000, and watched Glen Fletcher fly it in very windy conditions. In Scotland we get wind all the time so it was good to know that the model was capable, so any flying issues would be down to my own skills. I ordered my kit around Christmas, and finished it in time for the Scottish Model Airshow 2001. However, due to the F&M crisis, I had not flown it (nor anything else for that mater).
The Build
As
you may have read elsewhere, this kit goes together in no time at all,
so I'm not going to go into too much detail. You'll find a full set of
instructions on Glen's web site at the top of the page. The only thing
I'll say is to use a square file to remove the radii from the inside of
slots etc. Take a lot of time over the false trailing edge. Don't let
it protrude past the end of the ribs, and the ribs will need a slight
chamfer on them and it is easier to do it before glueing them in place.
There is some minor file work required to allow the wing tongue to fit
in the bulkhead. Nothing much but do it before you cover the model. Do
not let the glass fibre wing bandage come down onto the mating face or
the wing will not sit true.
If you have not cut a canopy before, find someone who has. If you are
in my area, you are welcome to come along and make a template. Same offer
applies to the canopy.
With the Thuder Tiger I did not need to add any weight to get the model
to balance.
On this model, the
covering took longer than the building. I used pro-film for the first
time and found it great to work with. It comes in a 600mm roll and is
a lot smoother than solar film. Its also more expensive but worth the
extra in my view. If you are going for complex patterns, pro-film is a
lot easier to draw on the back of.
For this model, I drew the CAP to scale in Visio, drew in the patterns,
transferred them to a rectangle representing the pro-film, and plotted
it out to make sure I could get all the shapes from the material I had.
If you want the Visio file just let me know.
I have installed a remote glow plug starter plug which makes life a lot easier when starting the model. Unfortunately I took this out on the exhaust side so it will need to get moved at some stage.
The Flight
The first flight was a bit of a disaster.
I had ballanced the model with the cowl and spats on, but decided I
wanted easy access to the enging during the first few flights so removed
the cowl. As a result the model was seriously tail-heavy so it was 1
flight, half a dozen approaches, a landing then back into the car. Be
warned that those extra ounzes DO make a difference, so remember to
add some lead to the nose and re-balance the model. Next time out it
flew beautifully. I set the full rates to Glen's recommendations in
the instructions, and set the partial rates to 55%. By the end of the
third flight I was using full rates on elevator, full ailerons for rolls,
and 55% ailerons for flying around. Both were set to 20% expidential.
Rolls and inverted flight were good with no bad effects. Loops and stall
turns can wait till the next time out.
The TT 91 seems adequate for the job but we'll get a better idea of how it performs when properly run-in.
The next outing was a disaster. I spent the whole day trying to get theengine to run, and eventually tracked the problem to a cut pressure pipe from the exhaust to the tank.
17th March, 2002. 4th outing and I'm starting to get more comfortable with the model, mainly because the engine is giving me a lot of confidence. All flying was done with 20% exp and reduced rates set to 55%. However, the 55% was not enough to keep the model level on an inverted fly past and I was losing height through four consecutive rolls, so I will up the rates to 65% for the next outing. The TT91 is working well with large loops being handled with ease. Roll-on the Easter weekend with the Dundee club.
(Click on the image to bring up a larger version). A pat on the back to the first person spotting the other deliberate error, now fixed.
