DH SEA VIXEN for 40 mm EDFs

From memory, that is too blue. The ones on Hermes were more of a mid/dark grey.
Otherwise it is looking good.

i.pinimg.com/736x/f6/7a/6e/f67a6eac297eb...aft-fighter-jets.jpg

Looking really good Q, impressive build

Eric
It is really not quite that blue, just a trick of the camera in artificial light.
The reason the outer panels are not painted is I have noticed a bit of a problem - one wing has a couple more degrees of incidence than the other! :woohoo:
It looks to be a bit more than I could reasonably twist out so one, or maybe both, of the wings will have to be cut off outboard of the booms and re fixed.
And I thought I had been so careful when I glued it all together.

After much thought the solution I adopted to change the wing incidence involved cutting 40% from the trailing edge just outboard of the boom and simply lifting the trailing edge by 2 mm and gluing it in its new position. This process reduced the incidence by effectively 'twisted' the whole outer wing panel. Painting can now proceed.

In a monocoque (spar-less) wing virtually all the stiffness and strength comes from the first 60 % of its chord so this surgery should nor have weakened it significantly.
Hopefully any residual aerodynamic imbalance will now be within the capabilities of the ailerons for its maiden. After a bit of test flying (assuming it does fly more than once!) a final 'neutral' lift balance will be achieved by locally twisting the wing with a bit of heat applied.

With a bit of "guesstimation" of the required CofG the 2200mAh 2s LiPo ends up here.

A bit further forward than I had imagined.
My intention is to use the "coal hole" as the battery hatch to then slide the battery forward into a 'tunnel' in the nose.
I have found this sort of arrangement not only keeps the LiPo secure but it can all be fabricated using the same 2 mm Depron as the plane, indeed the whole thing becomes part of the load bearing structure.

The weatherman said Saturday would be sunny with very little wind so I rushed to complete the Sea Vixen.
This morning (Saturday) 9:45 am.


I took them simply because I did not have much faith it would ever look the same after the maiden.
And I was right! :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo:
The first 'flight' lasted 2 seconds at most!
Nose crushed.

And this was after it had been coaxed back into shape!
The left hand pinion tank broken off.

It was a schoolboy error. I had 'reversed' the aileron servos but forgot to reverse the 'gyro' when I transferred the Rx from the Petiterina! The result is actually worse than 'normal' control reversal as the Rx just makes things worse all by itself!
However like all Depron monocoques everything else was undamaged so a few minutes on the field adjusting the Tx throws and struggling to see (no glasses!) the tiny aileron dip switch on the Rx it actually flew pretty well despite the bashed in nose and the missing bit of the pinion tank!
As suspected it needed quite a bit of RH trim to counter the remaining wing incidence inequality but as I hoped the stab Rx toned down the rate of this imbalance to give time to adjust the trim.
Video next try!

Ouch!
I saw a few bent Vixen noses, from when the nose-leg collapsed after a rather too positive 'arrival' on the Hermes' deck!
They had a device like a big trolley-jack they used to shove under, and a flight-deck tractor would haul the bits out of the way to make room for the next arrival. :evil:

Bad luck Q, hopefully it will go better next time after the small repair, check and check again is the motto this time. Looks very nice though.

Good hear it has successfully flown and hopefully it's an easy repair to the nose and pods. Look forward to seeing the video of it in action. It looks really good

The maiden crash all repaired and repainted.

I actually cut the nose off and carefully glued the bits back together and then stuck it back on.
A bit of cockpit frame detail added.
I did fly it again late yesterday afternoon as it was still calm(ish) and the weather was set to turn (it has) and I even took the head cam but no joy. One issue with the key fob cam is there is no positive indication that it is actually recording and it wasn't!

That's why I like the Mobius and the Hobbyking Wing-cam - you get a flashing red light to show it is working!

A rather ppr video of this mornings flight in rather blustery conditions.

A white underside against a bright white overcast means nearly 60% of the video had to edited out as the camera just didn't 'see' anything!
The landing was a bit of an 'arrival' as well but the grass is rather long and the wing has no dihedral!

Well done Q, that looks really good in the air with the right 'sit' for a Vixen!

Ditto from me too, well done.