De Havilland Hornet Build

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Ed Kettler
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Re: De Havilland Hornet Build

Post by Ed Kettler »

Thanks for the comments. The twins are as robust as the singles, and with this power setup are very competitive. This first version is for flight test and systems verification, and may not have some of the survivability features for the nacelles that are needed for full combat.
Ed Kettler
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Re: De Havilland Hornet Build

Post by Ed Kettler »

Scott brought by some more pieces last night, so progress on the fuselage continued. Last night I glued on the transition fuselage section to the protruding fuselage rods, and this morning I glued on the nose cone. The nose cone is profile cut from the top and sides, so it must be carved and sanded to fit.

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The middle, light blue section is hollow to allow the battery to be moved forward as we do flight testing. It has 2" of the 1/8" fiberglass rods to reinforce the area.

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The corners will have to be rounded off and a smooth flow achieved.

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A few minutes of work with the big red utility knife and we have something that is starting to look like a nose section.

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About 7-8 minutes of sanding and we have a pretty nice looking nose, that unfortunately also resembles something else :oops: :oops:

The whole effort to carve and sand the nose was less than 15 minutes. The gaps have been filled and will be sanded later. The next step on the fuselage will be cutting open the cockpit area for the battery hatch, then installing elevator servo. I should be picking up the nacelles from Scott tonight, so there is a chance that she will be flying over the weekend.
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Re: De Havilland Hornet Build

Post by Ed Kettler »

The nacelles have been cut and now just require a little sanding to get them ready to go. It now looks like a plane! I have to do the install work on the firewalls, rout out space for the ESCs and then figure out what I am going to do for the cowl (probably pop bottles). At this point, the plane will be 90% done with 90% left to do :) ... all the time consuming installation and covering.

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The ruler next to the nacelle gives you some idea of the size of the plane.
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Re: De Havilland Hornet Build

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Work continued on the wing tonight. I installed the aileron servos, trimmed the power wires, routed out the pockets for the ESC and wiring in the nacelles, and cut out the motor mounts.

The motor mounts are pretty straight forward, basically a square of 1/4" ply with four holes just a smidge under 1/4" diameter. 1.5" long 1/4" dowels are then hammered into the holes for a friction fit. A 1/2" hole in the center clears the wheel collar retainer for the motor shaft. A second layer of 1/4" ply then goes over the top to give enough wood for the mounting screws to "bite" (probably overkill). The dowels and the back of the plate are glued into the foam with PU.
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I used PU to secure the nacelles to the underside of the wing. To make sure that it was aligned to the wing properly, I made reference marks on the nacelle and aligned to the seam in the wing. I used 3" deck screws to act as a clamp to retain alignment as I attached the other nacelle (they will be removed later). The gap between the nacelle and the wing occurs on the outboard side only, and will be filled with scrap foam later.
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I used some glow fuel cans to apply pressure to ensure a tight bond between the nacelle and the bottom of the wing. Who says glow and electric can't cooperate? :D
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Re: De Havilland Hornet Build

Post by o1moregil »

Image I'm watch'n
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Ed Kettler
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Re: De Havilland Hornet Build

Post by Ed Kettler »

The last of the fabrication is complete with the shaping of the cowls. I need to sand the nacelles to smoothly transition to the cowls, then the wing will be ready for installation of the electrics and covering. The fuselage is covered, canopy is on, battery hatch cut and now needs the elevator servo, horizontal stab and elevator installed. I plan to get all this done tonight so I can prep and paint it tomorrow and test fly on Sunday afternoon. It is starting to look "Awesome" :D
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Re: De Havilland Hornet Build

Post by Ed Kettler »

Friday night I got almost all of the covering done, so this morning I got started on installing the motors, verifying motor direction, debugging a faulty servo (loose extension), installing the control surfaces (CA hinges), scuffing the tape, cleaned it with denatured alcohol, primed it and and painted it with Tamiya rattle cans in Dark Green and Ocean Grey over PRU Blue. Will probably go with a lighter grey next time, as there isn't a lot of contrast. After painting, controls were hooked up, control surfaces centered, dual rates checked. What's left to do? Let the paint harden overnight, then put the decals on in the morning, maiden in the afternoon. :D Current schedule is 15:00 at Richardson.

Takeoff weight will be 5.25 pounds. The battery is in the forwardmost position and the CG is right at the calculated 25% MAC. This is a test plane, so it is not fully armored up, and the production plane needs to have a weight review to see if we can strip out some weight.

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Ed Kettler
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Re: De Havilland Hornet Build

Post by Ed Kettler »

PS: This is such a big plane I had to go back to the LHS to get more paint! :shock: :lol:
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Dane McGee
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Re: De Havilland Hornet Build

Post by Dane McGee »

Outstanding job Ed.
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Which_way_is_up
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Re: De Havilland Hornet Build

Post by Which_way_is_up »

Looking GOOD! I've got my fingers crossed for the maiden flight! :D :D :D
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Re: De Havilland Hornet Build

Post by Lee Liddle »

Looks great ED!!!! Sorry I missed your call last night. Should fly awesome!! Can`t make it to Bratonia, but I`ll anxiously await your maiden report. Good luck!!
TEXAS ROCKS COMBAT HARD!!!

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Re: De Havilland Hornet Build

Post by Ed Kettler »

She's all dressed up and ready to party!

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On the dispersal pad at RAF Kettler

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Ed Kettler
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Re: De Havilland Hornet Build

Post by Which_way_is_up »

Really looking sweeeeeet now with the markings!

I've really got my fingers crossed with that long fuse.
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Re: De Havilland Hornet Build

Post by Lee Liddle »

purtiest combat plane I ever saw!! Go Ed!!
TEXAS ROCKS COMBAT HARD!!!

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Ed Kettler
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Re: De Havilland Hornet Build

Post by Ed Kettler »

I got out to the Richardson field this afternoon to help with the pylon race, but by the time I got there they had wimped out and canceled due to 15mph gusty winds (combat pilots are made of sterner stuff!). Scott came out around 3:30 and we got the plane ready to launch. The maiden flight was "eventful", as shown inthe following pictures, and totally my fault as the builder. The battery was pretty securely wedged in place (so I thought :cry: ) so I didn't put any velcro to hold the battery in place. Well, the combination of the launch and climb caused the battery to move back underneath the canopy/battery hatch, and when I pushed out of the climb, it ejected itself and the canopy from the plane, leaving a powerless, uncontrolled airframe to its own devices. I had given my Nikon to a visitor to document the event, and he did an excellent job!
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At this point the pucker factor was getting pretty high ...

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Pushing out of the climb, whew, got her under control. Not! Right after this the canopy and battery departed the plane! :oops:

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Not sure how or why it got inverted, but the Me-110 entered a similar state after David Ebers did the tail-ectomy at LSN.

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It hit on the left nacelle and wing tip, causing the nacelle to fail and the balsa wing tongue to break

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"Leftenant Kettler!!! Destructive testing is supposed to occur much later in the test cycle!!!!"

Despite the horrific looking crash, the damage was minimal and repairable. The plane was taken to RAF Manston (forward repair base, AKA Scott's house) for emergency repairs.The fuselage was cracked at the aft end of the battery hatch cutout, which was glued and reinforced with a balsa doubler. The nacelle was re-attached with 5-Minute epoxy, a new ply tongue was added to the wing, the tip was heated and straightened, and then we went back out. On further pre-flight checking, we had to glue in the engine mounts and re-glue the tail. If you look at the following pictures, you can see that the repair later failed and the motor is drooping. Will fix it tomight.

The re-maiden was blessedly "uneventful". With the battery now firmly in place, Scott relaunched the plane and I was able to maintain positive control and thankfully all the critical bits stayed firmly attached. :D

I still had to apply a lot of nose down trim to maintain level flight, but only two clicks of right trim were required and it flew hands off after that. I basically renamed the Me-110's settings in my radio, so I could evaluate the flight differences. Despite being about 8 ounces heavier, the Hornet would likely outclimb the Me-110, turn inside Dane's Mustangs, rolls about 30deg/sec faster than the Me-110 and tracks well. I was only seeing about 17,500 RPM, so when the motors break in it will be an even stronger performer.

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Safely back on the ground and a happy designer/pilot. A little TLC and she will be back looking snappy on the ramp.

Thanks to Scott for cutting the mound of foam that makes up this plane, and Will Henson for laser cutting the tails. Look for this to be out as kit in the near future.

Ed
Ed Kettler
RCCA 533/AMA 3739
Ft Worth, TX
Former target tug for the best RC Combat Pilots in the World!
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