Avro Vulcan build

No worries David, its only a toy and no one died!

Who's David?

Oh!!!

Sorry meant Paul! Bloody autocorrect!!

A bit of bling arrived today from Bangood. Need to modify the bogie to bring the wheels closer and also to allow more tilt angle so that it tilts more on retraction.

Well nearly finished the Vulcan this weekend. Fitted out all the radio gear, i'm using Jeti. Installed the 10 channel Jeti Assist receiver. This is a gyro assisted receiver with an on/off function. Very complicated to set up. There are some great tutorial Youtube videos by Harry Curzon on setting up Jeti radio. He has seven 10 minute videos on just the Assist receiver set up!

Modified the bogies I got from Bangood. They were way to long but the idea was sound. So I machined up some new bogies slightly shorter and moved the pivot point forward by a few millimetres. This helped them hang properly so they looked scale. They don't tuck away completely into the wheel wells. I will put some foam in there so that the foam pushes the front wheels down lifting the back wheels up into the well.

Put some 3S batteries in to test the systems. Works fine. Nose gear steering has yet to be connected so keeps jamming.







So after all this success I fitted the new flight batteries to which I had soldered on new connectors. First battery ok, flight systems live. Second battery connected smoke eveywhere!!

Muppet here had got the + and - round the wrong way on the plug! Everything got hot in a split second but I managed to disconnect. How did that happen?? Well between first and second battery soldering up I had lunch. Came back without thinking just soldered it up. Not my finest hour!! Damage was two 60A ESC's, two retracts (nose and a main) and one servo. Expensive, stupid mistake but could have been worse a 4S 5000mAh battery has a lot of energy! Managed to fix the nose gear retract. Ordered new main retract pcb and fitted two new 60A ESC's. Sorry, I didn't have time to video the smoke!! I was pulling it apart so no time to grab the camera!!

Oh dear!
Is the battery ok?
I would think the instantaneous current was way over the max C . Even if only for a couple of seconds such an overload can take the edge of a battery's performance.

In the 'U/C down' video you would be in for an 'interesting' landing unless the nose wheel castors readily.

Sorted out all the electrical issues. Did some taxi trials last week. The CG was too far forward and nose leg too high giving to much angle of attack. So spent a little time this week sorting out those issues. Had to re-make the battery tray and machined 15mm off the nose leg.

So with no further excuses its was the maiden today. A good stiff breeze straight down the runway. One of the guys I fly with also built a Vulcan at the same time as me. So we tested both today. He tested his first and had no issues other than not enough elevator throw. His elevators were as per the plan.

Then it was my turn. We checked my CG against his and I was very slightly more nose heavy, so safe. Interestingly my CG was as per plan. My elevator throws were more than his, but more scale with a larger chord. A good long straight run and she lifted off very nicely, retracts up. Slight left roll and little nose down. I did not start with any reflex on the control surfaces so was expecting a little nose down. Set the trims and she was hands off. Very pleased.

A few things to sort out. Add reflex to the elevators and ailerons. Too much play in the undercarriage bogies so it wandered during the takeoff roll, nothing that cant be sorted with a little machining. Move the CG back about 15mm.

Oh my they look nice! Congratulations Ralph, absolutely cracking job.

Ralph
Superb!
Presumably you have to be aware of a prop strike given how easily a delta can achieve a very high but still stable angle of attack.

Ho dear a superb build like that and its a vulcan with a PROP ON IT:(

Yes Q very flat take off and landing, that's the draw back of pusher props. Oh! and horrible high pitched noise from the prop / trailing edge interaction. I shall practice high alpha approaches then drop the nose quickly. I was watching videos of XH558 taking off and landing and they were quite flat.

Yes BB props on a jet!! Goes against all normal practices!! But then again I do get 10 minute flights. With EDF's I'd be lucky to get 3 or 4 minutes. No sooner is it up then its down again, as the actress said to the bishop!!

Superb Ralph! I actually think the props are quite unobtrusive and probably all but invisible in the air,
bloody well done mate!!