Piper Tripacer to Pacer refurb

now now ang on and all will be revealed

More progress on the Pacer recently and pics taken today, (had to stop all work to do some maintenance on my Zero, had a flap servo burn out and the one flapped landing wasn,t my best effort!!)

so pics

first two are the finished elevator bellcrank assy, this consists of... 4x 60mm cap screw pivot bolt and a 4mm washer then a brass sleeve (4mm bore .5mm wall thickness gives a 5mm o/d) as a bearing, and onto this goes in order from top to bottom, 5mm wheel collet, first bellcrank, 5mm wheel collet, second bellcrank then a 4mm washer and finally a nut, then this goes through the support bracket finally locked off with another 4mm washer and nyloc nut the bolt is the cut to length, (OCD engineer in me wont let me have bits of bolt sticking out :'' ...sorry) actually just seen pics and the bolt aint in there but the two bellcranks are assembled onto the brass bush and held in place with the wheel collets with the grubscrews "lightly" nipped up to keep it all in place,







second one just shows them at 45 degrees for clarity

next two, these show the whole assy fitted into the fus, the keener eyed amongst you will notice that its location has moved from the mid point of the fus to the top tight under the front of the fin, this is due to being unable to get sensible "straight" pushrods from crank to elevator.




you will also note the upper/lower mount that supports the other end of the pivot bolt, this is fastend to the pivot with washers and lock nuts as stated but is not actually glued to uprights, its made to fit snugly around three sides of the upright so it wont move for/aft or left right, once i,m happy that it all works it will be finally secured in place with two small brackets and screws, (in anticipation of future maintenance requirements :af)



Hi quorneng just to explain why i did it this way, as you can see now it keeps the two pushrods in the same plane ie one hanging down and one sticking up into the space (carefully calculated) between bellcranks, this keeps the two pushrods identical in length and shape keeping the geometry the same for each and makes setting servo travels easier,

last ones are of the final assy





you can see the second pivot support bracket fitted around the upright clearly in this pic.





well Bu**er me it all works

chris

Well i was going to get it all bolted together today for its "lets see what it looks like naked photo" but my alarm woke me to 4 inches of snow and a call from school saying we is shut....woo hoo... workshop time... but the airframe repairs/mods are finished and covering is imminent so as soon as poss i will assemble it and take the pics and hopefully the next few posts will see things going back on and in to it, on final thing to do i have just realised is to mark out the rear mounting point for its floats that will eventually be fitted so that will be measured and holes and brackets made for its eventual fitting

chris

Chris, is the nyloc bit that the bolt is not coming through gonna be ok? or have you been busy with the thread lock

when its finally ready to fix in permanently, the upper support aint fixed in yet, it will get a shiny new bolt thats a tad longer so all will be fine mate

chris

see, we engineers spot that sort of thing, nice to see Chris has it in hand

just to say i aint forgotten this one but i am all out on another project as some of you will know, but i have tinkered fettled the operable cabin door and refitted it, sanded the entire fus externally ready to cover, built new landing light box in wing and give them a quick once over with the sanding block, made template for a new window for the door, drilled and reamed the new scale wheels i have had, so will soon be covering i hope, will have a tinker with the closed loop soon so i can finally secure the bell crank mount,

chris

after a bit of a prompt from Alan,
i have not forgotten this model but the DH2 is a time pit at present as i need it for the coming show season, (as its booked into some very prestigious events this year i need to get me finger out)
so a brief update re Pacer, it has progressed slowly with a few mins here and there to the servo fitting and covering stage, all wood joints checks and cleaned and re-glued where needed, all covering removed and airframe sanded, new wheels arrived and only awaiting the inspiration to build the landing light unit for the port wing, its housing is built into wing i just need the electrical bits, i am hoping to get this ready for second half of season, as it will be a multi function model ie a glider tug (i have a glider waiting that will probably be the subject of the next build log!! a 1/3 scale Grunau baby) i also have a set of floats for it, and as a precaution it is being registered on the over 20 kg scheme in its float plane version, i am desperately shedding weight from its original 18kgs but it will be close, so it is also undergoing inspections pre covering.

chris

chris

well just to bring this topic to the fore again a quick update is due no doubt
after being "given" a deadline and a challenge to get it finished (May day !!) i have started work on it again,( its therapy after the loss of the DH2, if nothing else), so servo plates made and installed for elevators and rudder tray for RX and batteries made but not installed yet, closed loop wires attached to elevator bellcranks and will be doing rudder later, its going to be a stretch to get it done to fly, no paint or interior is suspect!! but will give it a go, needs exhaust and tank after servos, then wiring for landing lights and all servo,s before throwing some covering on it, so best get me digit out instead of playing on computers.

chris

YO, Ceejay, wers them thar floats coming from then???? Nice to see this old girl back on the board,

Hi Alan
the floats are from BUSA i have a kit and a spare set of plans,

Mr klipklop
Unfortunately after 18 months of rebuild and testing the DH suffered yet another problem on about its 8th flight, it was to have been a weekend of final testing and certification, its over 20kgms, ready for its strip down and repaint for the new show season, short story, on its landing circuit,back line, there was a loud bang which subsequently turned out to be one of the rudder cables coming detached and going through and destroying the prop, but when the bang was heard the prop situation was unknown as engine was still running, i immediately called landing and turned into an approach, but i think now due to the loss of thrust the model immediately stalled and spun, i managed to recover the spin but at an altitude that was insufficient to gain flying speed thus when i tried to pull out it spun again and landed nose first quite hard, it is now in storage until i can decide what to do or even get the enthusiasm up for another long rebuild, it needs a new fuselage, and 4 new wing panels, as anything made from wood is broken, 22 kgms of model stopped within 12 inches, the length of the front of fus but all the metal bits took 16 inches to stop,

so i dont know how much to post at present as i am working on other models which leaves little time for typing,(and i an conscious that my threads tend to be tediously long as i dont do ARTF,s very often and even then they seem to take me 5 times longer than anyone else, cant stop "modifying things" and i fear folk may fall asleep or get boredlong before the end, even me!! apart from Pacer, i am 90 percent through 3 gliders refurbs, a ASK 18, a Pic 20 and a Slingsby Vega, with 3 more waiting a !/3 scale grunau Baby, and a 1/3 scale Penrose pegasus vintage, and at the very end a SG 38 primary trainer, most of which will probably be for sale at some future point to fund a certain models restoration,

hmm not a very short answer after all
chris

please post your builds.
i find them fascinating to read and a great source of information.

Well Chris, Tony ,being a quicker typist than I ever will be, got here first, however I feel that Modelchat would be much poorer if your building posts didn't appear on the forum.

They are certainly NOT boring by any means, but I do feel that maybe you get lack of response from members because you are in an area that most of us will never achieve , but saying that, this doesnt detract from the interest side of things. I am in a situation where I CANT build , but I do read every post you put on the forum, and i am sure I am not alone in this .

If I may point out one thing, your post count stands at 425, yet your thank you count stands at 801. In my book that shows huge interest in what you are doing .

Keep them coming please.

Garry

Your not kidding, For a compare, look at build threads anywhere, on the LMA for instance, look at how many have commented, then look at the thread watchers count, Many look, and are in awe of your work, I am, and I am rowing the same boat you are, keep posting, it's very very much apreciated