Monster sized Fock-Wulf FW-42

rockyboy

Skill Collector
Mentor
Sad to report that due to a very important family activity whose schedule just came out and conflicts with FliteFest Ohio, my attendance will be curtailed, if I can make it at all. :sick:

I might be able to fly up to help with setup and see people on Wednesday and Thursday, but I need to be back home Friday afternoon so I'll miss the weekend. And with needing to fly up instead of drive, I'm afraid the monster FW-42 project might not be able to make an appearance this year. :cry: I'll see if someone local who is driving might have some space and an interest in hauling her up, but I don't want to use up someone else's room if it gets in the way of their own plans at all. There is a chance I could work out a driving schedule that gets me up and back, however that cuts out more time I could hang with people at the event.

But family comes first, and I realize that I only have a couple more years to enjoy my daughter living at home - and I don't want to miss an event that's a big deal for her. And I'm sure my FliteTest family will understand. Ya'll are good peeps and will get this decision.
 

PsyBorg

Wake up! Time to fly!
Posted my sadness in the other thread already. :cry: I will clean up the video system at some point in the near future and send that out to you so you can put it in as you build and work at your leisure so when it does see the clouds and blue skies it will be complete and you can have the full effect as planned when it launches.
 

rockyboy

Skill Collector
Mentor
Thanks - I'm going to keep pushing to get her done before July. She's one of two active projects in the shop with the Tele done - just the Mini Scout there to distract me still :)
 

wilmracer

I build things that fly (sometimes)
Mentor
Really sorry to hear that. I'm not 100% whether I'll be able to do FFE this year either (but I'm hopeful). We can chat about options next time I see you.
 

rockyboy

Skill Collector
Mentor
Time to rock and roll here! Thanks to Carl for the extra wide hot wire bow, I'm making a wing panel!

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My power supply doesn't want to work on his bow any better than mine now, but a 4s battery at storage charge worked just fine.

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And the second cut turned out better than the first - I should have expected that and done the flat bottom cut first. Oh well - just a little sanding and it's good to go.

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I don't trust the flimsy little bit of foam as a trailing edge on something this big - I expect just picking it up needs more support so I'm using gorilla glue to put a balsa trailing edge in place.
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Now I get to figure out the order of operations for the inside and skin.

Things to do, but not necessarily in this order - appreciate thoughts on this

- Wing to fuselage bolts reinforcements
- Landing gear reinforcements
- Nacelles
- Wiring tubes
- Fan Fold Foam skin on top and bottom
 
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DamoRC

Elite member
Mentor
That wing panel looks great! Nice skills with the hotwire.

Sorry to hear the plane might miss FFE.

DamoRC
 

rockyboy

Skill Collector
Mentor
Thanks everyone!

The wire slowed down just a tiny bit when I hit the gorilla glue - but I think it was impacted more from going through just the rib cross sections to suddenly the full length foam of the spar. The slow speed was pretty constant going through the rib, and then it picked up a little bit when it was back into the ribs again.

I probably could have used a little bit more heat on the cut - but I didn't feel like charging the battery up only to have to run the storage cycle on it. Going to storage on a 5200mah battery takes forever :p
 

willsonman

Builder Extraordinare
Mentor
Wow, it seems as though a LOT of folks are just having conflicts with FF this year. Keep on building... you are doing a fantastic job!
 

foamtest

Toothpick glider kid
Wow, it seems as though a LOT of folks are just having conflicts with FF this year. Keep on building... you are doing a fantastic job!
It's really unfortunate, I will be helping with set up this year and I was really looking forward to seeing this plane fly. Oh well, at least I'll be able to meet the creator of it.
 

PsyBorg

Wake up! Time to fly!
I probably could have used a little bit more heat on the cut - but I didn't feel like charging the battery up only to have to run the storage cycle on it. Going to storage on a 5200mah battery takes forever :p

Its easy to put a battery into storage charge. Take your smoke stopper and drain the battery down faster then the chargers do. Use a battery alarm set to 3.6 -3.8 if yours is adjustable. Then top off back to storage capacity. Its easier to charge to storage then discharge.

The wing cuts look great btw. I take it that is the center piece that stays on the fuse in the pictures? Doesn't look like much sanding is / was needed either.
 

rockyboy

Skill Collector
Mentor
Its easy to put a battery into storage charge. Take your smoke stopper and drain the battery down faster then the chargers do. Use a battery alarm set to 3.6 -3.8 if yours is adjustable. Then top off back to storage capacity. Its easier to charge to storage then discharge.

The wing cuts look great btw. I take it that is the center piece that stays on the fuse in the pictures? Doesn't look like much sanding is / was needed either.

I hadn't thought of the smoke stopper to take it down quickly - great idea! Going down with a charger just takes forever... ugh.

And yep - this is the center panel. Just a tiny bit of sanding on the leading edge and one spot on the outside rib near the back where I got a little jumpy with the wire.

So on the order of operations conundrum, I think I'm going to try this order. And in the act of writing this up, I've discovered at least three items that needed to be moved around from the initial concept in my head, so yeah - this kind of planning is very important for a noob to big foam building.

- Glue plywood cross supports under the bottom of the ribs for the gear location and fuselage mount.
- Glue wood supports (dowels probably) directly connecting the plywood sheeting to the spar tube
- Apply fan-fold foam on the bottom around the plywood sheeting.
- Add some foam cross bracing and side cheeks to further spread the load from the plywood across the ribs
- install wiring tubes
- Create plywood bracing for fuselage side of wing mount, and install locating dowels & t-nuts between wing and fuselage mounting plates. Set aside, and glue mount bracket into fuselage later. Just build it now while it's easy to get everything to line up.
- Install plywood supports at top of wing over fuselage w/ direct wood bracing to the bottom plate around screw locations.
- Figure out landing gear mounting reinforcements if any?
- Apply top fan-fold foam sheeting.
- Use cutoffs from initial hot-wire work to create nacelles to wing curve, and build nacelles out of foam with a plywood firewall and one plywood former (replicating what J Morgan used with success on his Buffalo Brewster - awesome thread over here https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/thumbgallery.php?t=2975568&do=threadgallery ) The wood spar connections from the firewall go a little bit past wood former. The Brewster suffered a couple breaks in the workshop before this was done to strengthen the area.
- Glue on nacelles. With such a long glue joint I don't think I will need any additional longitudinal reinforcements or attachments to the wing. Hope this statement doesn't come back to bite me :unsure:

Appreciate any feedback or questions. If something doesn't make sense to any of you, I might not have thought it all the way through myself.
 

PsyBorg

Wake up! Time to fly!
Its kind of remedial but it gets my idea across if you want to use the suspension I sent you. Its even color coded. Sorry but I can not draw better then a 5th grader..

Suspension.jpg
 

rockyboy

Skill Collector
Mentor
Don't knock those 5th graders man! Back then I made a garbage can robot with working hoist, bucket loader, and two channel track steering with drawings like this! :D

I'm trying to wrap my head around ground clearance for the props with these parts, and if there is a way to get the advantages of the shocks without an exposed connecting beam underneath the fuselage. Maybe with dual landing gear frames aligned parallel to the fuselage like that awesome huge Russian bomber we saw there last year? I'm trying to remember more about what it looked like, but no luck finding the pictures...
 

PsyBorg

Wake up! Time to fly!
If these are set correctly you should have close to 6 inches of ground clearance once wheels are on with ~ 4 inches of travel that can be exponentially damped between the oil in the shocks and the springs. As far as an external brace this can all be done inside the fuselage. I was only thinking if there was a super hard belly flop style landing where the chances to push the assembly free would be higher. You were worried over weight vs landings which is where we got into this whole shocks conversation to begin with.

Anyway these are just my ideas. I am not there to see what you are doing nor am I in your head. Just adding a general outside looking in thought process. You could go with something like Ben used on the XB 70 and use multi wheel trucks. then incorporate the shocks into that some how.
 

rockyboy

Skill Collector
Mentor
If these are set correctly you should have close to 6 inches of ground clearance once wheels are on with ~ 4 inches of travel that can be exponentially damped between the oil in the shocks and the springs. As far as an external brace this can all be done inside the fuselage. I was only thinking if there was a super hard belly flop style landing where the chances to push the assembly free would be higher. You were worried over weight vs landings which is where we got into this whole shocks conversation to begin with.

Anyway these are just my ideas. I am not there to see what you are doing nor am I in your head. Just adding a general outside looking in thought process. You could go with something like Ben used on the XB 70 and use multi wheel trucks. then incorporate the shocks into that some how.

I appreciate the help and ideas - I'll need to figure out how high up the motor mounts are in the nacelles to see if that's enough clearance for props in the 12" range. Don't want a bounce on landing to turn this into a lawn mower :p
 

PsyBorg

Wake up! Time to fly!
Yeah 12 inch props are not cheap I am sure. On the other hand if you grind em on landing just right you can custom form them and make blunt nose props for more torque. o_O

I thought the fuse was over 8 inches tall from rear to cockpit. Wouldn't that put the props higher then the bottom of the fuse making it near impossible for a ground strike unless there is a tip over? Maybe I am not picturing the scale of the motors mounted in the nacelles accurately in my head.
 

rockyboy

Skill Collector
Mentor
Yeah 12 inch props are not cheap I am sure. On the other hand if you grind em on landing just right you can custom form them and make blunt nose props for more torque. o_O

I thought the fuse was over 8 inches tall from rear to cockpit. Wouldn't that put the props higher then the bottom of the fuse making it near impossible for a ground strike unless there is a tip over? Maybe I am not picturing the scale of the motors mounted in the nacelles accurately in my head.

The nacelles are hung down under the wing from the top of the fuselage, with the motors aligned almost at the half way point on the fuselage. By the scale of this drawing, I should probably be thinking 16" props for the right look too. And I hadn't even started to get worried about the side tipping on landing or rocking on take off yet... *sigh*

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