Unipart Fournier RF4

[David Middleton]

After 13 months and over 500 hours it’s ready to fly. Thanks are due to John Veasy and Ian Redshaw for pictures and information on the full size aircraft. Also to Steve Rickett who turned that information into decals.

There are still a couple of things to do, the cowl needs some more work to improve the accuracy and fit (the air intakes have already been extensively modified) and the fin emblem is still with Steve’s sub-contractor.

There was a brisk cross wind at Longhorsley today, and then it rained so no first flight until next weekend.

Some details:-
Scale: Third
Radio: Futaba 12FG
Engine: Zenoah 38
Retract: Fema (from Fighteraces)
Weight: 12.36 Kg (27 lbs 4 ozs)

David Middleton
LMA 776

[Steve Rickett 2333]

Brilliant...Looks great! Glad the graphics are what you wanted....Those fin badges were supposed to be here a week ago...I'll give the chap until next week and I'll sort something else out for you....Subcontractors !

Good luck with the first flights!

Steve

[ian redshaw]

Beautiful model, very nicely done David. Don't be shy, post more pics!!!!!

Ian.

[David Middleton]

Ian – here’s a couple more, not much different just on grass instead of block paving.

The weather forecast for Longhorsley area tomorrow is not very promising so it may be a while before I can get any flying pictures. I don’t think the good Doctor Mitchell will need much persuading to help with that!

David

[David Middleton]

Great first flight this afternoon in less than ideal conditions. Pictures to follow soon, meanwhile I have a date with a glass of 30 year old Glenlivet.

Slainte Mhath
David

[David Middleton]

Photographs taken by Gary Armstrong

[David Middleton]

Sorry about the missing pilot, he should arrive soon.

[ian redshaw]

Very nice, whats it fly like? Gracefully aerobatic? Wheres the bloke? I notice it now has all the decals in place. Top job.

Ian.

[Ken Bones]

Hi,
what is the Kit?plan.
Ken Bones

[David Middleton]

Hi Ian & Ken

It’s only had one flight so far. There was a blustery N/NE crosswind of around 12-15 mph, the model taxied downwind without any difficulty. I don’t much go for taxiing around before a first flight so after turning into wind I gently opened the throttle and as it accelerated straight and true I just kept going. It needed quite a lot of up to get off the ground but this was because a fair bit of up trim was needed. The elevators were a bit on the sensitive side so I didn’t explore the aerobatic performance beyond a loop and a couple of rolls which were OK but I expect will improve as I become more familiar with the model. It seemed to cope with the turbulent air extremely well particularly for a model with a wing loading of about two pounds to the square foot.
The landing was no trouble at all; I elected to come in slightly diagonal to the strip rather than crosswind. It was a touch fast but still stopped comfortably within the strip without using the air or wheel brakes.

Conclusions so far, absolutely delighted with the flying qualities and expect to be able to come close to reproducing the graceful flying style of the full size.

The model was built from the Falcon kit the standard of which I prefer not to go into here beyond saying that despite its shortcomings I mostly enjoyed the build.

David

[John Dean]

Hi David
I was very interested to see that you built from the Falcon kit, I started one about 2 years ago and gave up in a fit of frustration but feel inspired to get back to it this winter having seen your pictures. What retract did you use and how on earth did you fit the tailplane?
John

[David Middleton]

Hi John

The retract is a FEMA unit available from Phil Clark at Fighteraces, details can be found at http://www.fema-modelltechnik.de/Web_en ... _engl.html
It’s a beautifully made unit but requires extensive modification of the centre fuselage box to accommodate the movement of the (sprung) mechanism so depending on how far you’ve got it might not be possible to do.

The answer to the tailplane question is with extreme difficulty! This was probably the most challenging part of a difficult build. The lack of any instructions on fundamental details like this was the main shortcoming of the kit. Fortunately I took some pictures of this area before sheeting. Also the fit of the inner tube to the outer and the outer to the cut-outs in the ribs was rather sloppy on my kit.

David

[John Dean]

Thanks for the pictures David, I'd got part way to something similar before abandoning it - sloppy fit of tubing is an understatement, I was convinced I had the wrong sizes. Trying to work myself up to attacking it again.
John

[David Middleton]

Don’t want to get boring but Gary Armstrong has just sent me some more pictures of the Fournier taken in much better light last Sunday.

David

[David Middleton]

Really must chase AH about the pilot though!

[Gregg Veasey]

It does look very nice in that scheme. I know its a favourite of my dads which is why he had so many pics of it. Glad they helped

Gregg Veasey

[Ross Bathie]

thats a gorgous looking model, it's a shame you had so many dilemas with the kit. I really must get arounf to building a 50% RF 4, maybe after my 40% pawnee and super dimona build.

[David Middleton]

Hi Ross

Although it was a difficult build it was worth the effort. Due to the poor weather this season it's still only had 18 flights but has proven to be a delight to fly. The only problems so far are marginal prop clearance due to the retract I chose having a fairly short leg, some quite strong yaw/pitch/roll coupling in slow and hesitation rolls (some mixing should help this) and I'm still working on how to get the best out of the airbrakes on landing.
Fellow NMAS member Ted Allison has a 50% Fournier nearly ready to fly, if he sees this he might post some comments on the kit.

Regards
David

[Chris Lane]

Interesting thread - what are all the rectangular boxes with something about .jpg and a red X in them? If I click on them I get a message about "doesn't exist anymore"

Chris Lane 2938

[Ross Bathie]

Any new updates on the fourniers? 33% and 50%???