Tony Nijhuis Vampire Build

[Peter Budd]

Simon, I only ever use rudder on tail draggers on take off or landing or for aerobatics, oh and on my D7. I fixed the rudders on my F15 and for me if I won't use them in flight and it has a trike under carriage, I won't need them on take off or landing since the front wheel will do the steering, so fixed them on the vampire.

David, I think I get the idea from your photo. On the plan it shows the wing and stab parallel, ie zero incidence. I don't know how sensitive it is if it is slightly out, but I know that my puppeteer from many years ago climbed like a love sick angel being 2 degrees out. I don't want this doing the same. I will fix the wing first, then the booms and will adjust the incidence of the stab by gluing it in the fins and then rotating the 2 fins in their grooves in the booms. Unless there is a better way? BTW do the booms simply glue to the wing sheeting?.. doesn't seem very strong. Would it be better to glass the wing first then glue the booms to the glass finish. Which way round did you do it?

Cheers Pete

[David Brown]

Hi Simon, I have looked through my mass of pic's but did not take one of the rudder linkage, only where the servo's mount, I have done a rough sketch of how we did it but the tif file will not upload so if you send me you e-mail address by PM I will send it by mail. The pics show the other detail of servo position.
Hi Peter, you are correct in assuming the incidence is zero in the pictures on the main wing at the join point and on the tail, like you suggested we set the tail incidence by sliding the fins in their slots after setting the booms level. I think the incidence is more critical on a jet so I went to a lot of trouble to get it as accurate as I could. The pics confirmed that I glassed the center section before gluing on the booms which has proved adequate to date. I have checked the tail plane on my Vamp and it has a little up elevator trimmed in but I believe this will go when I remove some more nose weight as I think it is still a tad nose heavy. I have added some pics of the new scale wheels with brakes that I have made & fitted ready for its next outing.

Dave

[Peter Budd]

Thanks David, I have now stopped all building as I am waiting for servos from servo shop. These need mounting in the wings and stab before I can sheet and progress any further.
I am using retracts from Tony. They are not the ones from Unitract as they don't make them any more and the bodies are bigger than the ones on the plan so now they are causing a few problems. Large amounts need removing from the wing ribs to make them fit and the nose wheel doesn't retract when mounted on bearers as the steering lugs fold below the bearers. These need mounting higher (lower if inverted) on blocks to raise above the main bearers and consequently more needs taking out the front former. The mains are shorter than on the plan and the nose longer!!!!! So I am not doing any more to these until the wings, boom and tail are fitted so I can see whether it sits ok or not. They also don't have brakes but Tony advised me to fit some rubber tubing to the axle and tighten the axle nut to produce enough friction to slow it down after landing. I guess with the huge wing area it will land slower than my F15 so this should suffice.
Cheers Pete

[David Brown]

Hi Pete, I knew Tony had changed his retract supplier, I could not supply him for the cost at the time he changed, plus I did not do the 1/6 scale units then. Like you I fitted my own larger units (1/5 scale) and had to do the same with the bearers. My legs measure 165 mm from the underside of the wing to the axle on the mains and 120 mm from the fuzz lower surface to the axle on the nose. For the nose I use a semi scale leg from one of my suppliers which allows me to drill & tap for steering arms lower down the leg to allow the leg to retract plus the retract angle is reduced (about 80 degrees if my memory serves me right) to help with the problem. If your nose unit is a 90 degree then you could put a spacer in the piston to stop it short, after all it should hold its position and as long as the leg is away I see no prob's. Attached are some pics of the solid wire steering we use to stop the risk of the wires hanging up on the wheel. At the end of the day you get what you pay for, I suppose Tony has to source std units to fit where as ours are designed for the aircraft. We now do the 1/6 scale units that fit directly into the plan location without mods and as electric.
As I fly mine mainly off grass I have my wheels as free as possible to get good airspeed on take off, I still land a bit fast as I have not fully trimmed out my elevator on full flap so I land without flap (I need more down trim), having friction on the wheels would not suit me so hence the brakes.
Keep up the good work
Dave

[Peter Budd]

Cheers David. I am going to mount the unit on another bearer to lift it away from the main bearer. It seems the easier option for me. I'll get there in the end. Thanks for the advice. I'm sure I'll be back for more.
Pete

[David Brown]

having set up the flaps & elevator mix to stop it ballooning on full flap the landings are far slower and smoother than without flap. Unfortunately the Vamp got damaged around the start of the year during take off (pilot error, lifted off too soon) so I have had to do some repairs. Along with the repairs I decided to try my Wren 100 in her to give more power for take off on grass, well today I tested her out and all I can say is wow. The speed is incredible and I spent most of the flights on half or less throttle, the repairs have made no difference to her handling. If I was flying off tarmac all the time I would stick to the Wren 70 for power. To top off the day John maidened his TN Vamp and apart from some over sensitive controls on the ailerons and a few clicks of up elevator she flew just like mine, John is using a super sport for power and has just over 2 lb of ballast as with mine although his is 1 lb lighter. Just the final paint job to do now to finish them off for the season ahead.

Dave

[David Brown]

Flew the Vamp off grass this weekend, its a lot better with the 100 in it for take offs. I had one mis-hap when the canopy hatch flew off in flight, to my amazement the aircraft went nose heavy, not tail heavy as I would of expected with the canopy being in front of the c of g. I continued to fly it then landed with very little trouble, it turned out I had not located the latch correctly, just a new canopy to fit to the hatch as of course it landed on its back splitting it in two.

Dave