Speedmaster

First flight - The Wild Card Project is Successful!

2010-06-22T02:22:00.000-07:00

After 2,5 years of hard work (1240 hours) the Norwegian Wild Card has finally flown. The testflight was done from a short bunge at the top of the slope Spåkens which is a 3 hour drive from Tromsø. Wind and weather was not cooperating at all and I ended up flying in heavy rain without any wind. Therefore the testflight was very short (1.45min) Here follows a quick summary of the flight:

After waiting for a while we had a short stop in the rain and the bungee was brought out. I assembled the Wild Card and checked everything. I discovered that I had forgotten to bring tape to hold the wings and canopy on, but found a small piece of masking tape stuck to one of my wing bags, and used that to hold the canopy on. Due to the slope being a bit rocky, I decided not to handlaunch the model before attaching it to the bungee. I put in a bit of up trim and streched the bungee, knowing that this would be my only chance to get a test flight before going to Greenland. (Almost 2 month UAV campaign)

The release was done with a clean wing and after picking up some speed, the plane rotated and went almost vertical. The launch was straight and I managed to get an altitude of about 40-50m. Imidiately after releasing the tow line I removed the up trim, as none was needed. The angle between the wing and tailplane seemed correct. During the flight I circled both left and right and the rudder response seemed to be good. Especially the rudder worked well. (Not bad for a V-tail..) The model seemed to be very stable and showed no tendency to flick at low speed. Before landing I found myself in sink, trying to get to the landing area and flew the "pattern" low and slow with a nose high attitude, thinking that it should spin any moment, but it didn`t. The landing was uneventful and about two meters from myself. Elevator compensation was spot on. ( Thats a first for me.)

Considering that the wing was covered with water droplets, it performed great. Now I need some decent air to test the high speed characteristics, as this is after all a F3F model...

The flight was video taped, but I still need to figure out how to get the recording from the DV tape to my computer..

After the flight, my girlfriend and I celebrated with barbeque and Champagne.

I would also like to say thanks to all of you that have helped me getting this plane in the air. There is a lot of people that has helped, but I would especially like to say thank you to the following persons:

Annette Kåsa: My girlfriend who has had to endure countless hours of building, problemsolving and moneyspending during this project. She also helped me out during mould building.

Francois Lorrain: He helped me with the wing CAD and aerodynamics. He has also been a great motivator and friend that has helped to keep going when I`ve been stuck.

Bodo Landeck: He did the CAM and CNC milling of the wing positives, and spent countless hours on getting it all just the way I wanted it to be.
Dirk Pflug: Designer of the NWC airfoil set, which is especially designed for this airplane.
Espen Torp: V-tail positives and sharing a lot of great knowledge.

Paul Andre Johansen: My brother, who has helped me financially.

And many of the members on the forum RcGroups who has kept me motivated, you know who you are!

Now: Furter test flighting!

Wild Card prototype nr 1 is ready!

2010-06-15T13:57:00.000-07:00

The first Wild Card fuselage was pulled out of the mould today. This was the last part needed to complete the first Wild Card prototype. Finish is better than I had hoped for, with just some minor bubbles around the join line. The next fuselage will be made with vacuum. The weight of this fuselage is 260g and it has got the stiffest tailboom I ever have tried to flex on a F3F model.. Total weight for the complete, but empty Wild Card is 1526g. I`m very happy with that! Now I just need to get the servos mounted, and hopefully the maiden will be this weekend. When I first put all the parts together it was an amazing rush which made all the hard work worth it. Looking forward to maiden flight now...

As Bodo Landeck once said: Some dreams should come true!

Some small parts, project almost complete!

2010-06-15T00:35:00.000-07:00

I`ve made a canopy and tailcone/lid. Extremely happy with how these turned out!

The first fuselage is also in the mould, curing. -This was made without vacuum and without the shearweb in the boom. This was done to save time as I`m soon leaving for a 46 day UAV field campaign on Greenland (Summit) and I would like to test the Wild Card before leaving. I`m not expecting perfect finish on this part, as the fuselagemould is really not designed for wet-seaming of the halves. We will see when I open the mould later today. The layup is as follows:

- 2k paint.
- Thickened epoxy in edges
- 12k carbon rowing around wing connection
- A complete layer of 49g/dm2 fibreglass
- A complete layer of 110g/dm2 fibreglass @ 45 degrees
- Dobler from nose to right behind the wing 110g/dm2 @ 45 degrees
- Kevlar rowing around canopy opening.
- Dobler in nose to right behind canopy opening 105g/dm2 kevlar
- Four lenghts of UMS carbon rowing per side in the tailboom.
- Two complete layers of 100g/dm2 Uni HM carbon from rear canopy to tail.
- One layer of 160g/dm2 carbon @ 45 degrees from rear canopy to right behind the wing.
- Dobbler in nose 110g/dm2 glass @ 90 degrees.
- One complete layer of 110g/dm2 fibreglass @ 90 degrees for joining.

Complex? - Yes
Overkill? - Maybe...
Heavy? - Most probably!

Will know in a few hours..

All moulds are ready!

2010-06-10T04:54:00.000-07:00

After some minor hickups, all the moulds for the Wild Card are now ready. As soon as I can find some time off work, I will make the first fuselage. The moulds are being waxed for the moment.

Kjell.

Major update! :D

2010-04-28T09:56:00.000-07:00

Haven`t had time writing much on the blog since I`ve been way to busy working on the project the last three weeks. The plan was to have two Wild Cards ready for Viking Race 2010. After three weeks of 14 hour days and at the same time preparing for a UAV campaign on Greenland this summer, I have to say that this is not going to happen... The positive thing is that all the Wild Card moulds will be ready before I leave for France. As I still have a Dingo to get ready and testfly before VKR (I have one week) I don`t have time to write much about the work that has been done, but here is a quick list of the work so far:

- New V-tail with 2k paint. Weight: 36g per side, STIFF!, and no fisheyes.
-New bigger shearweb 35mm.-12mm. Vertical balsa with fiberglass@45 degrees.
-New wing almost ready for joining. (160g carbon skins and UHM spar)
-New UHM joiner
-Bigger ballastubes
-Canopy mould.
-One side of the fuselage mould.
-Shearweb for tailboom
-Joiner pockets.

Updates to follow after VKR2010

Maiden is getting closer... :)

Finally progress... :D

2010-04-09T03:54:00.000-07:00

After spending some time in "burn out mode" the project is finally back on track again. During the last few days I`ve done alot of work, and I`m getting closer to making the fuselage mould. I`ve received a fresh air supplied respirator mask (HobbyAir 2), so now I can paint with 2k. urethanes without fear. I`ve also bought a new paint gun, a Porter-Cable PSH2. This gun is very close to the SATA mini Jet, but alot cheaper. I`ve also got a new vacuum pump, a Thomas Kolben Pumpe that I picked up from Ebay.

The parting board for the fuselage is also almost ready. I managed to damage the surface finish on the fuselage postive when I filled the void between the positive and the partingboard with Bondo, as I manged to pull off a chip of paint. This has been repared and the positive will receive another surface coat tonight.

I`ve also mounted some inlays for the servo hatches in the wing moulds. The moulds are ready waxed and I`m ready to start making another wing next weekend. This wing will have a 160g/dm2 carbon skin and an UHM spar. Hopefully I will have a NWC ready for Viking Race 2010.

Project documentation starts December 2008.....

A major setback.... :(

2010-03-02T03:19:00.000-08:00

Arrrghh!

I hate paint!! :( -The troubles that have been haunting me the most on this project have all had to do with paint... The good part is that the fuselage positive is finally painted... But it has been a long journey to get there, as the fuselage filler cracked 3 times due to excesive sanding of the underlaying fiberglass surface. (sanding into the wood.)

After having alot of troubles with Vorgelat, I switched to Standofleet 2k. paint. This product create a marvelous finsih! The only problem is that the hardener contains isocyanates which a standard respirator does not provide enough protection against. I`m saving up for a Hobbyair 2 fullface respirator with external air supply. Until I can afford one, this project is a bit on hold. If anyone of you should want to see this project flying in Vikingrace 2010, please feel free to support me. (my email is f3x(a)hotmail.com Sometimes I wish the team that has helped me with this project lived closer to me, as I could also have needed some help during building, and support to keep my motivation up...

Kjell Sture Johansen

The work continues....

2010-02-03T05:04:00.000-08:00

The wing to fuselage connection is finished and hopefully straight in all axes, and with the correct incidence... Now it`s just several evenings of sanding and filling, before final paint can be applied.

I`ve also made the centering pins for the wings and cut the hingelines. The hingeline was done with a long steelruler taped to the wingpanel, and cut using a Dremel with a cut off disk by freehand. Hinges and cutline turned out great! I also discovered another of those prototype OPS!!... The spar forward of the aileron was a bit too far back towards the aileron hingeline. I didn`t take enough headroom for the carbon sock being more compressed towards the tip... This leads to just a small amount of room for the gapseal, about 3mm. Probably cost me 2% in drag, or a bit decreased aileron throw. No biggie..

Documentation starts December 2008.....

Progress on the fuselage...

2010-01-26T03:46:00.000-08:00

The fuselage to wing and tail fit is the part of the build I`ve feared the most. Thanks to Austrailian Sniper F3B team, I`ve got some great input on how to get it right. From now on it is full throttle on the build. The plan is to flight test in the end of March.

I also had to do a little bench flying... :p The wrong colored tail is due to the mounting pins being to long (excessive) for the red and white "light" tail.

The first complete wingset.

2010-01-03T08:48:00.000-08:00

Hi,

I just realized that I have forgot to post a picture of the complete first Wild Card wingset. The wingset came out quite nice, altough the paint is somewhat flawed. Weights are 530g and 527g.

This project will get back on track as soon as I`m back from my vacation the 12 of January. Then all my free time will be devoted to get the fuselage positive ready for moulding. More postings to follow as soon as I`m back in Tromsø.

New tailplane ready for cleanup..

2009-10-19T11:53:00.000-07:00

Hi,

I`m still busy with my master thesis, but have managed to make a new tailplane that matches the wing color scheme. This new tailplane is made with the following layup from outside to inside:

-Vorgelat, still with fisheyes... :(
-2x 25g fiberglass @45 degrees
-1,2mm. Herex
-38g carbon"disser"

It has got 3 UMS spars, and carbon sock in the rudder. Total weight for each half as you see them on the picture is 33g. I`m happy with that!

This will be the last parts I make with Vorgelat, from now on its 2k. paint.....

More updates on the project will be added soon..

2009-09-20T05:56:00.000-07:00

Hi,

Sorry for being slow at updating on this project. I just haven`t found the time. I`m working on my master thesis in Aviation law. I`m writing about the use of UAV`s in regulated airspace. This will probably take up most of my time until the 15. of December. If everything goes well, I`ll hold a Master degree in Aviation and corporate law by Christmas. :)

So, whats happening with the NWC then?

I`ve finished the second wing half. It turned out quite good with a weight of 527g. I think a 3g. difference between the two wing halves is great for a first effort. I`ve also made a new joiner that weighs only 81g. A "disser" v-tail is also under constroction, and should be finished by the end of next week. Pics to come. I`m also slowly working on the fuselage positive, when I`m tired of writing on the thesis..

The first NWC wing half is born!!!

2009-08-05T13:46:00.000-07:00

A happy family with their new born.... :P

The first winghalf released cleanly from the mould, after som very creative persuation to get the wing joiner out of its pocket. Some joining bog had entered the pocket and locked the joiner. Spent 1.5 hours to get it out..No damage done thankfully... The finish is good, and even more shiney than I tought it would be.. My chisel accident left a minor mark in the skin, but it is small, and the mould is ok. The wing came out quite light at 530g after trimming... I think it is possible to get this layup bellow 500g and get it even stiffer with some minor modifications.. -I think it is also possible to build a wing with 160g carbon to a weight of 550g. I have bought 5m for my next wingset, but I`m already thinking of 80g spread tow... (But, I`m out of money to spend on composites right now..)

So, what have I learned from this prototype wing? :

-Use 2k. paint instead of Vorgelat.
-Be carefull with the chisel...
-Make sure that the bog can`t enter the joiner box.
- Use more carbon in the spar at the tips, the center is stiff, but the tip a bit flexy
-The 38g "disser" is hard to work with, but gives an excellent torsion stiffness.
-Measure the balsa for the spar better, to avoid having to use to much glue when joining.

First winghalf joined..... :P

2009-08-03T14:12:00.000-07:00

Too much???

I joined the first winghalf tonight. So now we have to wait 2-3 days before I open the mould. I`m very excited to see how the finish and stiffness is... I`m also a bit nerve wrecked, as I managed to cut through the top skin when I made the slot for the sparcap. The chisel hooked on a lump of epoxy that had seeped through a tiny hole in the Herex.. Hope I didn`t damage the mould... We will see...

You can write down your guess on the weight of the finished wing panel on the rcgroups thread located here

I need to mould the topskin for the other panel, but have to wait with it until I can get hold of more foam rollers.. All the shops here in Tromsø seems to be out of them. I guess we don`t need to wonder where John Rasmussen is spending his holiday any more... (Joke, John is a part of the excellent Spline team...)

Now I`m going to get some sleep... (like that will ever happen.... :D )

Inner layer and sparcap in place.

2009-07-26T11:34:00.000-07:00

Spent the afternoon adding the sparcap and inner layer. The sparcap is UHM carbon and the inner layer is 38g carbon "disser" -The sparcap is dimensioned for a 3,2m Europhia 2 F3B, so it should be strong enough for my 2,7m F3F model. Now I only need to repeat the prosess 3 times more, before I can assembly the wing... Hopefully it will be sorta light and STIFF! (and nice, with fisheyes and all... ;)

(Sorry for the blurred picture of the finished skin, my camera ran out of power, and I only had the cell phone to make the picture..)

First wing skin is curing under vakuum.

2009-07-25T11:32:00.000-07:00

Made the first wing skin this morning... The layup is 25g fiberglass/108g @45degrees/Herex. -I almost forgot the "abreissgewebe" for the hinges. -Tomorrow I will make the cutouts for the spar and hingelines, and add the sparcaps and inner layer.

The moulds are painted....

2009-07-24T15:22:00.000-07:00

I painted the wingmoulds Wednesday evening.... On thing is for sure: -This is the last time ever I use Vorgelat!!!! -I made a complete mess out of the paint job! First of all I got alot of fisheyes on the parts that was painted with white Vorgelat. The red and black did not seem to suffer from this somehow... I also got some problems with the masking film I used, as the acetone used for thining attacked it and made it almost impossible to remove from the mould in one piece. In the end I managed to remove it all, with some spilling of black Vorgelat where it was supposed to be white. When I was ready for the final coat, my AX filter ran out and I experienced break through of acetone and styrene vapours. Not good.. To top it all I got problems with the air connector on my paint gun and ended up with a good 10min. of inhaling of vapours and started to feel a bit unwell...

-The next day I felt a bit hung over from the exposure, but I`m ok now...

The finish of my first wing will not be as great as I hoped, but I have done some touch up on the fisheyes.

From now on there will only be 2k. paint for me.. -I liked the ability to paint the moulds, and then wait months before layup with the Vorgelat, but its not worth killing myself in doing.

Layup of the first wing skin will start tomorrow...

Almost ready for the first wing... :)

2009-07-20T00:40:00.000-07:00

My respirator arrived today, and I`m almost finished with the waxing of the mould surfaces. The masking for painting is ready, and if the weather permits, the moulds will be painted with vorgelat on Wednesday.

The first wing will be a glass wing with "carbon disser" on the inside. -I have also cutted the UMS uni carbon for the wing spars. I can say one thing for sure, the wing spars is one expensive part of our aiframes, yikes!

The wingmoulds are finished! :D :D :D

2009-07-14T13:15:00.000-07:00

Sorry for not updating much lately... I `ve been traveling with my UAV summer jobb, and also been to a week of F3F competition in the beautiful Lofoten area. I will post some pictures on RcGroups when I can find the time for it. It would have been great if we could get some foreign competitors visiting next year.. :)

But at the same time I`ve managed to finish the two top wingmoulds with the help of my magnificent girlfriend. I could not have done this without you! Thanks Annette! (She spent 16hours laminating the moulds with me, and I did not hear her complain once!!)

-The moulds came out really nice, and with even better finish than the bottom moulds, thanks to a tip I got from the Spline guys about stiring the F200 gelcoat the night before layup.

Now I`m just waiting for the AX filters and matching respirator to arrive, so that I can start to paint the moulds with Vorgelat. -To all you guys using Vorgelat, and thining with acetone: Regular A/A2 filters does nothing against the acetone vapors, as acetone have a boiling point bellow 65 degrees celsius. Please use AX filters, as they are rated for solvents with a boiling point bellow 65 degrees.

I`m so excited about starting to build the first wing. That is the job that excites me the most when making moulded gliders.. Pulling the first wing from a new mould is like being eight years on christmas eve again.. :P

And btw, thanks to all of you that has sent me emails supporting my project, it makes it easier to keep going.

Project documentation starts at December 2008!!!!

Some small parts...

2009-06-15T12:26:00.000-07:00

I`ve made some small parts for the first NWC. One 15mm. ballast tube for the wings, and the joiner pockets. I have also started on the shear webs. These will be made from vertical grain balsa laminated in vacuum with 105g/dm fiberglass at 45 degrees. I probably should have used carbon, but I`m out of it for the moment. The balsa is weighted and oriented with the heaviest pieces close to the wing root side, to keep weight out of the tips.

The bottom moulds are cleaned up and are receiving wax at the momement. I`m happy with their quality, but the gelcoat has got some slight discolorations that may come from me not stiring the can before mixing. I`m not sure of this, as there has been some reports about bad batches with this particular gelcoat... Anyway the finish on the moulds turned out more than good enough for making planes for myself, and probably for production too. Altough not up to Jaro Mullers standard. (Not many can build to his standard..)

In two weeks I`ll make the top moulds, and hope they turn out just perfect. I`m going to use the same gelcoat, as I didn`t manage to get hold of the Ebalta OH 33 I was going to try in such a short timeframe. Tomorrow I`m going to finish the plates for the shear webs and make the fuselage ballast tube.

The bottom moulds are released!!! :D :D :D

2009-06-07T06:56:00.000-07:00

The bottom moulds released just perfect and they came out very good. -Now they just need a slight cleaning up and some very fine polishing, before they are ready for production. Also, the positives are unscratched and ready to make another mouldset, if needed. Next up is the top moulds. They will be made in about a month or so. And yes, I am very happy, but mostly relived. The moulds are very stiff, and weigh 6kg. each.

Steelframe and torsion wall mounted.

2009-06-06T04:19:00.000-07:00

Just a few pics of the backside reinforcement of the moulds... -Tomorrow is the big day. I`m excited, and having trouble sleeping...

The bottom wingmoulds lay up is done! :D

2009-06-05T04:38:00.000-07:00

Putting on a layer of mould gelcoat.
F200 for the mould surface, and F260 for the edges.
My cusin, Kenneth. He is now a well educated composite worker. ;)
First layers, plus coupling layer laid down.
411g Carbon makes expensive, but light moulds...
The last layer is in, time is 00.30
What a mess!

Last night the layup for the two bottom wing halves was done. I was lucky enough to get help from my cusin, who is an aircraft mecanic and a ROV-pilot. He got his hands wet in epoxy for the first time, but did a great job! Thanks alot Kenneth!

The layup of the two halves took us 17 hours! -My back is a bit painfull today. Guess I have found some new muscles..

The layup is as follows:

-2 layers of mould epoxy.
-Coupling layer.
-1 layer of 110g fiberglass.
-1 layer of 280g fiberglass.
-1 layer of 390g fiberglass.
-1 layer of 580g fiberglass.
-1 layer of 411g carbon @ 45 degrees.
-1 layer of 390g fiberglass.
-1 layer of 280g fiberglass.

-3,6kg epoxy and 2kg mould resin was used for the two halves.

The following was learned:

-Laying down all those layers was a pain!
-The 390g fiberglass was hard to wet out, beacause of being thightly wowen.
-The 580g fiberglass was just a mess, fraying, and epoxy sucking!
-The 411g carbon was beautiful working with, I recommend it!!!

Today I will mount a 30x30mm. steeltubing lengthwise on the backside of each mouldhlave, and a crossing wall in the middle of the mouldhalve to make it even more rigid.

The mouldhalves will be opened on Sunday. I`m keeping my fingers crossed!!! :)

....PROJECT DOCUMENTATION STARTS ON DECEMBER 2008.

Not much updates lately...

2009-05-21T05:35:00.000-07:00

There has not been a lot of updates lately.... This is mostly because of the fact that I`m having my final exams at law-school. -The other reason is that the positives are with my parents, and they live 600km. south of Tromsø. -After my exams I`m going to start working with UAVs again. Looking forward to that, but this means that there will also be less time for the project. The good thing is that I have one week of holiday comming up at the start of July. Then I will go back and start making the wing moulds. I`m going to try to make some tail sets in the mean time.

For now, here is a pic of me and my girlfriend doing some polishing, trying to get that Slovak finish... I`m also flying alot of DLG for the moment, too bad I`m the only one here who has discovered this part of our great sport. The picture is taken by my girlfriend with her Nikon D40 and a 50-200mm. F:3,5-4,5VR lens.

First bottom positive polished to shine.

2009-04-23T11:22:00.000-07:00

The positive was wet sanded to 2500 grit. Then I spent several hours polishing with the coarse 3M polishing paste. After some time, my arms didn`t want to polish anymore, and started to hurt like H****! -Then my magnificent girlfriend stepped in and finished the job for me! :D Thanks alot Annette!

Now I have three more to go before next wedensday. Hope my arms last that long... -Tonight I probably be sitting up and admireing the finish, instead of sleeping....

The positives are finish painted... :)

2009-04-20T12:01:00.000-07:00

Just collected the positives at the car painter. They have been sitting there over the weekend to harden, after I finished painting them on friday. The finish is already really good, except for a few small spots were some dust is stuck. But that is easy corrected. Now they are going to be left untouched for a couple of days more before I start carefully to wet sand them with 1200 to 2500 grit. After that they will be polished to perfection with two different 3M perfect-it III polishing pastes . Then I`ll start waxing with PAT921. After that I have to go back to Tromsø to have my last exams ever at law school!!! I finish this christmas! YEEEHA!!!! -When I can find time to do the moulds, I`m not sure. It depends on how much UAV activity there will be this summer. As some of you know, I`m a part time UAV test-pilot at Norut (Link)

I`ve also attached a picture of one of my DLG wings which I pulled from the bag today. Their weight was 135g. for both panels including paint. I`m happy with that! This is with 58g/dm2 glass skins with 49g/dm2 doblers on the flaperons. I`m looking forward to flying some DLG competitions this summer.

......PROJECT DOCUMENTATION STARTS AT DECEMBER 2008.

Finally an update again.

2009-04-15T12:57:00.000-07:00

There has been done alot of work since last update... And I`ll never complain about the cost of a mouldie again...

The steelframes for the moulds are ready thanks to Andreas`s great welding skills.. :) -Then my father drove 600km. to pick up me and the wing postives in Tromsø. We drove the 600km back to Lofoten the next day. Yikes!

The first week was spendt sandig of the light marks from the mill. I used 400 to 800 grade sandpaper on a big block. The sanding is just slight, and it doesent hurt the airfoil accuracy, as you will add about the same in paint later. I also had alot of trouble to find a place to paint the positives, and was almost thinking of just painting them outside.. -Then a friend of my father tiped me about a retired car painter who had a small professional paint shop next to his home. His name is Kjell Moe ,and he offered to help out. -Last night we primed the positives, and I have wet sanded the positives with 800 and 1200 grit sandpaper today. We will paint the positives with a special 2k. PU paint on friday.

I have also made my first carbon joiner. Its in UMS with depron cores, and is super stiff at a weight of 120g, which I hope will go down to 80g with experience. But I`m happy with it, as alot of production joiners weigh the same.

At the same time, I`ve bagged 2 disser DLG wings for this season, as I`m a bit hooked on the DLG thing also.... Damn hobby! :D

Today I`m very happy!

2009-04-01T05:57:00.000-07:00

Today UPS dropped a large and heavy package from Germany at my front door. - As you might have guessed it contained the wing positives from Bodo. On the outside the package looked like it had passed a war zone on its way up here. But Bodo`s clever use of a Epp crate (Maybe you should patent those?) saved my positives, and they arrived in perfect condition. Bodo has done a great job with the milling, and the surface finish was even better than I had expected. So there is not much sanding to do before I can apply the paint layer. Another cool thing was that my handmade joiner fitted perfectly!!! (That must be quite a bit of luck...)

Today a friend from work, Andreas, is going to weld the steelframes for the positives. Tak & Metall here in Tromsø was very kind to give me a really nice deal on the steel, and the also helped me get it cutted to right lengths for welding. Thanks alot, I really appreciate the help guys!

How the finished NWC is going to look like...

2009-03-29T14:02:00.000-07:00

Above is the 3-plan view of the NWC, and it is the result of my lack of drawing skills.... But it will give you an idea of what the finished plane is going to look like.

Right now I`m spending alot of time making work flow charts and packing lists to have everything ready to travel to my parents in Lofoten as soon as I receive the positives from Bodo. The plan is to spend a month there to make the wing moulds. The days are going really slow and waiting for the postives is not fun at all, but they are in Oslo now, and moving slooowly up north...

I would also use the oportunity to say thanks to Francois Lorrain, Bodo Landeck and Dirk Pflug for helping out! These guys has spendt alot of hours to help me get the plane design just the way I want it. They have also done all they can to keep my costs as low as possible. Without them, this project would`nt have happened. Thanks alot guys!

Project documentation starts at december 2008.....

First joiner, and some work done on the tail end.

2009-03-29T12:52:00.001-07:00

Made a test joiner in fiberglass. The good thing is that the mould worked well... The bad thing is that I need to get alot better on making joiners. It had alot of air inclusions, but can probably be used to make joiner pockets... -I`ll have another go on a fiberglass one, before wasting carbon... :/

I have also started on the rough shaping of the tailplane mount. Making room for the "pull for up" linkages turned out to be difficult, because of my earlier error of making the space between the tailplane halves a bit too narrow, but it is possible, and the result will be a less bulky tail mount. I also got inspired by our Danish friends (www.spline.dk) to make the tailplane edges follow the curvature of the fuselage to prevent air spilling over the elevator edges. This also proved to be a bit of a challenge. But that is why we like this hobby, right?

The first two wing positives are ready!

2009-03-20T03:59:00.000-07:00

Here are som pictures of the ready milled positives for left wing bottom, and right wing top. Looks like Bodo has done some really nice work! And this is going to be one sexy wing, thanks to Francois excellent CAD work. - The next two halves are being milled right now. The material is Ebaboard.

Right now the wing positives are being milled in Germany.

2009-03-19T07:39:00.000-07:00

After alot of emailing back and forth with Bodo Landeck and Francois Lorrain, the files for the milling of the wing positives now are ready, and the first wing bottom and top are being milled.
After milling, the positives will be attached to steelframes made from 40x40mm square tubing. We still need to figure out how to ship them to Norway. One thing is fore sure, its not going to be cheap :( -The pictures show the postives during milling with 5 hours more to go before they are finished.

Project documentation starts at December 2008...

Tailplane fitting.

2009-02-25T04:20:00.000-08:00

Just finished gluing the tailplane seating in place. Spent 9 hours over 2 days to make the jigs for 2 glue joints that took me 10min!!! -Did a small mistake with the carbon plate that holds the two steel joiner rods in the correct place. The result was a night with little sleep and a lot of thinking... :( -In the end the tailplane mount got 3mm. slimmer. This should not matter as long as I can fit the linkages inside. The angles in all 5 axes was checked with a digital inclinometer. The V-angle between the halves is 103 degrees. Now I have to make the tail mount area pretty again... To quote my German friends: "spachteln und schleifen... und spachteln und schleifen..."

Project documentation starts at December 2008...

Detail drawing of wing center.

2009-02-23T02:32:00.000-08:00

Just a 3d-drawing of the wing center section with ballast tube and joiners fitted.

Some pics of the finished joiner mould and fuselage positive.

2009-02-19T13:28:00.000-08:00

The joiner mould is ready for wax, just waiting for EMC Vega to deliver it... -It came out ok, the finish could have been better, but hey, it`s just the joiner... Also a picture of the fuselage positive with tailplane held on with some tape. Next up is tailplane mounting. I will make a jig for this to make sure it`s going to be absolutely straight.

Btw. The 2k. paint problem is solved. But I need to do some testing before useing it as surface coat on my positives.

Joiner mould.

2009-02-10T01:35:00.001-08:00

Here one can clearly see the 3mm plexi plate mounted under the joiner postive, this is used as a positive for the compression tab.

Just finished one half of the joiner mould. Th mould is made with a Poraver back filling. First time I`ve done the fiberglass layers on top of the Poraver in one go, just after adding the Poraver. I don`t recommend this.... It was really messy..
The layup is:

- 2 layers mould gelcoat F200.
- A coupling layer of epoxy, milled glassfiber and cotton flock.
-1 layer 110g glass.
-1 layer 163g glass.
-3 layers 280g glass.
-2 cm.Poraver.
-3 layers 280g glass.
-1 layer 163g glass.

In a couple of days I will remove the parting board, and clean up this part making it ready for moulding the other half in the same way as the first one.

-The mould is made with a compression tab, just like most professional joiner moulds are made. (I.E not split down the middle of the joiner.) -This demands that the side walls of the joiner is completely straight, with no undercuts. If not, the joiner would be extremly hard to remove from the mould. We will see...

Just a small update about the progress so far...

2009-02-02T04:49:00.000-08:00

I`ve just gave a go for Bodo Landeck to order the materials for the wing positives , and start milling as soon as he can find time for it. The positives will be milled in a material called Ebaboard 60. The positives will be backed by a steel frame made from 30x30mm. square steel tubing. This is to prevent them from warping...

My intention at first was to use a material called Neucron 1001. This is a directly polishable material, that would have saved alot of work. The reason for not chosing this material is that the boards are only 1200mm. long and needs to be glued together to make a long enough board for the positives. This will create a join line in the surface that will show on the finished mould. I`ve had bad luck in the past trying to polish away imperfections in a mould... The Neucron is also very heavy and expensive. Beeing a student, cost is an issue.

The Ebaboard 60 needs to be painted with 2k acrylic paint and polished before moulding. This is a problem, because 2k. acrylic is illegal in Norway and really hard to get by. If anyone of you know how to get hold of some, please drop me a line at: f3x-at-hotmail.com -On the other side, the ebaboard is cheaper and alot lighter... -As soon as Bodo starts to mill and send me some pictures, I will post them here.

The positive for the fuselage.

2009-01-13T12:18:00.000-08:00

The 2 last days have been spent working on the positive for the fuselage mould. The positive is made from three pieces of 10mm. balsa glued together. The center piece is hollowed out and a 10mm. carbon rod is glued in with glass rowing and cotton flock as filler. The three pieces are then weighted down on a flat surface that is checked for squareness. when the balsa block is dry, a lot of carving and sanding is done and the shape is checked with a lot of templates. Then the positive get a coating of fiberglass and epoxy. For the basic shaping of of the positive excluding tail and wing mounts, it took me a whole 7 hours. Then another hour to coat with epoxy.

Here you can see the finished result. The super fat tail mount area is not prepared at all and will look a lot better when it get some TLC. The triangular shape of the tailboom is clearly visible. The triangular shape has the wide part on top. This is reverse of the Freestyler 3 . The main reason is looks and the way the tail is going to be mounted with "pull for up".

So far happy with the result.
Comparing to my Furio 3 (2 piece v-tail) the front of the fuse is about 3mm lower in height. Its also 10mm ore narrow and a tadd more squaresided. The max thickness is 30mm. Can`t get much thinner than this if there is going to be room for servos inside.
The 10mm. carbon rod inside the positive.

Been working on the joiner positive and made the drawing for the fuselage.

2009-01-11T04:46:00.001-08:00

The joiner positive is almost finished. It`s been a real test of my hand working skills. I`ve used a digital caliper and a micrometer to make sure that it is accurate to 0.1mm all over. Very time consuming.. -The dihederal was made with an analogue inclinometer to 5 degrees. This was later tested to 5.2 degrees with a digital inclinometer. 0.1 degree extra per side should not matter. The positive is made by covering a very accurate balsa core with glass fiber plate.

-I`ve also finished the drawing for the fuselage positive, It will be very minimalist with a few innovations. Worth mentioning is a new easier way of loading ballast and a triangular tailboom with the wide part on the topside to resist compression when pulling up in the turn. The plane will also feature "pull for up" -The next days will be spent making a lot of templates and laminating the balsa for the positive. There will be a 10mm carbon rod in the center to prevent the positive from warping.

2009-01-06T12:28:00.000-08:00

Just some 3D drawings of the NWC wing. The CAD work is done by Francois Lorrain. The planform is based on my own design and the airfoil is a Dirk Pflug airfoil made especially for this project. Thanks guys!! -The wing positive is soon going to be milled in Germany in a directly polishable material. Then follows a lot of polishing, and then the final mould building.

First V-tail out of the moulds.

2009-01-03T05:19:00.000-08:00

Been sick with the flu this Christmas, and haven`t done all the building I wanted to do, but here is the first v-tail... The weight for the halves is 37 and 38g. A bit heavy I think. I want to get down to around 30g per halve. -On the positive side, the tailplanes are really stiff and strong.

Next up is the positives for the wing joiner. It will measure 340 x 35 x 13mm. Pictures will be posted soon.

A small update on the NWC-project...

2008-12-23T08:00:00.000-08:00

Christmas time is building time! ;)

-The tailplane moulds has been made, and the top skins of the tailplanes is curing under vacuum. Tonight I`m going to make the bottom skins, and in a couple of days the halves will be joined and hopefully a nice light and strong tail will come out of the moulds. The layup is 58g glass at 45 degrees, 0,6mm balsa and 25g glass. There is also some local reinforcements with 61g kevlar in the roots and a patch of 93g carbon in the rudder. The sparcaps are UHM rowings. The paint is Vorgelat.
One of the positives still attached to a mould halve.

Nice shine, but still not polished. The white stuff is dust...
The positives just removed, the moulds needs some cleaning up.

This blog will from now on be used to document the NWC-project

2008-12-22T08:35:00.000-08:00

I`ve put this blog back to life to dokument the building prosses of the prototype NWC glider. NWC stands for "Norwegian Wild Card"

The NWC-project is my attempt to make a Norwegian F3F slope racing glider. The project is the fruit of a long lasting dream of mine. The dream is coming true with the help of Francois Lorrain, Dirk Pflug and Bodo Landeck. -Thanks for helping me out guys!

The vitals are:

Wingspan: 2700 mm.
Length: 1380mm
Airfoil: DP Special.
Wingarea: 50,3dm2
Tailfoil: HD801
Weight: 1600-1900g

Trip to Lofoten.

2006-10-17T15:36:00.000-07:00

I just needed a break from my studies and work and went home to my parents for a few days of recreation. Me and my girlfriend spendt 5 days and drove over 400km around the Lofoten area, just taking pictures and having a great time. The first day we had real nice weather and the four next was heavy rain.... Thanks to my parents for taking such good care of us.

Spaakenes F3F.

2006-09-24T16:04:00.000-07:00

On the 15. of September we had a F3F competition on a small slope called Spaakenes. The slope is located 200km. from Tromsoe. The competition had 6 entrants and we managed 5 rounds in really crappy conditions with rain and crosswind between 3 and 12m/s in the same round. The average wind was around 3-4m/s. The wind was of with up to 45 degrees most of the time. To top it all we somhow did`nt get hold of a buzzer system and the turn signal had to be done manually, not exactly precise. Overall I ended up at 3. place. The only thing I was happy with was that I got contest fastest time. A not-so-fast 57. something.

School start opening concert in Tromsø

2006-08-20T10:43:00.000-07:00

Every year there is an opening consert at the Universty of Tromsø to welcome the new students. This years consert was very good and the following bands was playing: Minor Majority, Ska Patrol and The Fernets.

Norwegian Championship F3F

2006-08-19T14:28:00.000-07:00

The winners: 1. Jo Grini, 2. Rolf Børge Retterdal, 3. Jack Farstad

Geir Njå and Rolf Børge Retterdal doing some headscratching in the evening.

Egil Roland with his Crossfire, and me with my Viking.

The Norwegian Championship in the FAI Glider class F3F has come and gone. We only managed 4 rounds in very bad conditions. Norwegian Champ this year was Jo Grini. (The f3j guy) I was not to happy with my own results, but ended up 8th. overall and think it is ok, considering the conditions.

Arvika Airshow

2006-08-17T02:30:00.000-07:00

The 4-6 of August I visited the Arvika Airshow in Sweden. Lots of nice models in all sizes and categorys. We had very nice weather with 28 degrees + every day. Most impressive was an aerobatic display performed to the Ac/Dc tune "Thunderstruck" by a swedish pilot. I think that I will think of this disply every time I hear the tune again.

Update

2006-08-16T12:11:00.000-07:00

No updates for a while, been travelling again and haven`t had much time for any updates.

Just saying goodbye to my old camera.

2006-07-17T14:47:00.000-07:00

Took some nice pictures with my Fuji S5500 the other day. Now I`m selling it to my dad, and want to post some pictures I took last week as a goodbye to a nice camera. Hope my dad will enjoy it as much as me. ...A Nikon D50 is on order.

Some pictures from Lofotuka 2006

2006-07-15T15:25:00.000-07:00

Lofotuka is a yearly meeting for rc-glider pilots from all over Norway. This year we had alot of bad weather. But we managed 2 competitions and had alot of fun. May my X21 rest in pieces....

2006-06-24T06:57:00.000-07:00

Some pictures from Bardufoss Airshow 2006.

Speedmaster

2006-06-24T06:56:00.000-07:00

Speedmaster

Was visiting Bardufoss Airshow yesterday. Had a really nice day with alot of fun. Got to meet some friends I haven`t seen for years.

Finally I`ve got my own blog...

2006-06-13T04:50:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone.

This blog will mostly be about rc airplane models, especially gliders.