Spacewalker half scale 168" electric

[chris willis]

Mike its ok its his hand

[Andy Boylett]

Andy, is this really in good taste and viable forum content?

Hi Mike......I did break it a flying event .......and I did carry on with the flying until the evening and then went to the hospital !

Cheers, Andy

[Andy Boylett]

Mike its ok its his hand

If it was anything else I might be able to fly still

[Andy Boylett]

Building update: I am still not doing any.

When that pin in my finger (photo posted previously) was removed, it broke the end of my finger off again. Two weeks later I was taken back in to have a Titanium screw fitted inside my finger - although the titanium was an awful lot samller than that stuff Dave is using .

Anyway, some time later I fell again and stubbed that very same finger into a pile of scaffold tubing, which duly snapped the end off (complete with screw) again. I now have a cast on the finger and have given up any hope of finishing this plane this season as it will likely be another 8 weeks now before this cast can come off. I'll continue when I can again .

[Paul Holt]

Bad news Andy. Mind you, in this weather you wouldn't get much flying in either.

[Andy Boylett]

Well Sam and me started building again today! My finger is better and we decided to ignore the other project in our back garden and get on with the Spacewalker. We are intending to bring the model to Elvington, although it won't be able to fly. Here is a photo of our other project, still all under ground...............

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The Spacewalker is half in that garage that is hard to get in to and half in the shed below that is impossible to get into.....
Top right in this picture (with scaffold round it)....

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Top middle in this one (with the scaffold around it)...

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[Andy Boylett]

Sam and myself have now split tasks to get the plane finished for Elvington. Sam is fitting all the servos and linkages and I am doing the cowl, prop, spinner and other bits.
Here's Sam trying to work out how to get 4 servos into there to control the elevators.....

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I have been continuing cowl building. I had previously made a foam blank and glassed it. I then spent the next year sanding it smooth, before removing the blue foam. The foam actually came out quite easilly due to a little tip I was told - completely cover the blue foam in brown wraping tape before glassing. The foam just pulled out in chunks....

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Today I glassed the inside of the cowl to give it the right strength and built in a lite ply piece in one side ready for cutting an access door to get at batteries....

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The inseret was weigthed down to get a good bond....

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And while Sam and me were working in the garage, this was the view outside!!...

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[Andy Boylett]

Cowl nearly done......

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The access door is because we have half the flight batteries stored in a compartment underneath the motor. It also provides good access to the speed controller switches....

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[DAVE JOHNSON]

Hi Andy---looking good---the TV company you arranged has just been in touch with me---they want to come and film some of the large models flying Friday,plus interview a few of the owners---see you there---DAVE

[Andy Boylett]

Excellent. They told me they were aiming to arrive about 10.00am. Will you have the Vulcan I have told them all about? Cheers, Andy

[Andy Boylett]

Latest build pictures...

Sam has completed all the servo installations and the linkages. There are 4 servos here, 2 driving each elevator half. Each pair runs on a different receiver. All the linkaged solid ally clevisess use M3 rod end ball joints and machine.....

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This is how he has done the linkages, with carbon rod and M3 rod end ball joints......

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The rudder linkages have been done with M4 rod end ball joints and M4 threaded rod. This has enabled us to put a small bracket on the rod, with a couple of nuts to hold it in place. This bracket drives the tail-wheel and can be adjusted to anywhere along the length, thus allowing us to vary the tension.......

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[Ted Oram]

Hi Andy.......have been following your build from the beginning....I am puzzled again by your deviation from scale......at this size I thought a tailwheel set up
somewhat similar to the full size would have been preferable to what you have done here........sorry to be critical, but the larger models lend themselves so much better to duplicate the full size practice
rather than simply use ARF setups to make things easy.

Cheers
Ted

[Andy Boylett]

Hi Ted,
You are absolutely right of course. We have not really completed the plane and there is no interior, screens, dummy engines etc. We have been trying to get it in a "rolling" taxiable state because we have Channel 4 TV comming to film us at Elvington. I am doing a self-build house and it is being filmed for a new Channel 4 series next year. They are following my exploits over the year and want to come and see what we do in our spare time. The plane will not be able to fly this year but we are intending to have it ready for early next year. Also, If we have time over the winter we will complete the remaining scale details.
Thank you for your comments.
Regards, Andy

ps. the actual tailwheel we have used at the moment is one of those el-cheapo foam things because we didn't have one of the right size!

[Andy Boylett]

We finally managed to get all the peices across our building site and took the Spacewalker to Elvington. We assembled it at the show and this was the first time all the electronics had been together. Sam spent some time setting everything up and then we managed to do some taxiing tests. Here are our two Spacewalkers together........................

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[Seamus O'Donnell]

Looks great where did you get your half scale pilot?

[Nick Reeves 3055]

did the spacewalker ever fly?? i saw it static at elvington a couple of years ago but not heard of it since