paul_h300

I started this project in March 2020 during the first Covid lockdown in the UK. Progress went pretty quickly until I decided to revamp the garden and build myself a new workshop.
I struggled with the motivation to get it finished after that. I did luckily get to the Newark Air Museum in 2019 to have a look at their Swift which is the colour scheme it is going to be painted in.

It is a modified version of Chris Gold's EDF 48'" span model. I have made the outer wing sections removal (easier to fit in the car) and moved the U/C outboards to the scale position, altered the tailplane mounting as I didn't think there would be enough strength in the design with the added weight and speed of a turbine and added split flaps as per the original aircraft.

It was originally powered by a Jet Cat P60, but the model came out heavier than I planned and the wing loading was pretty highly.
I have had two flights with it so far, first flight was quite tricky as it was nose heavy, second flight was better with the CG moved aft to the plan position (somehow messed up with the CG for the first flight)
I decided to reduce the weight by changing the turbine. I have recently received a Xicoy X60 which is currently been fitted. It should reduce the weight by 700g!

Retracts are Eflite 120's with oleos and scale size wheels, servo’s are all Spektrum HV and radio wise it will be flown on my FRSky X20S, TDR18 and TDMX and 2 x 2s lipo batteries.

I also made a removable centreline tank which holds the 1L fuel tank, with a second tank mounted in front of the turbine which holds another 500ml. I should get 6 minutes with some reserves. I do have an RDT from Lior at Zavionix which will relay turbine telemetry and also fuel level. This will be handy for allowing me to land at the lowest landing weight.

I have printed the paint masks for the insignia and I have got the aircraft in primer ready for the final colour scheme.
It will be painted once the new turbine mounts are installed.

E.N.T.

My Feedback: (1)

lovely work. Keep going. Waiting to see it flying.
Hector

paul_h300

The engine mounts are in and the X60 lines up perfectly with the tail pipe 👍🏻

I also got the underside painted in PR Blue and the nose leg reassembled after I stripped it to paint it silver.
Hopefully next week will provide some weather so I can continue with the paint work.

paul_h300

Finally got it painted. I did produce some paint masks but sadly my transfer tape was too sticky and wouldn’t release the mask 😭

I also didn’t have anymore material for the paint masks so I had to print Vinyl decals. The airframe really needs a clear coat but that can wait till we get to the warmer weather next year.
I am also not happy with the ‘N’ on the fin. I will be changing to for one that is the correct size.

So for now I will re install all the equipment and I will fly it as is.

hikenfish

My Feedback: (1)

Beautiful craftmanship, Thank you for sharing. Being almost 70 years old, it reminds me of the days that is mostly all we had to build with. I was lucky to be mentored by a gentleman that was a wood worker that made furniture and harpsicords, and his talents carried over into his aircraft.

paul_h300

Thanks Hickenfish. My father is 80 and he tells
me about the solid wooden kits they used to build as kids aswell as the early free flight stuff.

I purchased a Brian Taylor Mosquito from a chap who was a woodworking teacher and I haven’t seen planking like it. The quality was unbelievable. Sadly he wasn’t an RC pilot so her never flew it.

I finished up the Swift today and apart from balancing, control surface movement setup and a ground run, hopefully I will get that all sorted on Thursday.

I am pleased with how it turned out, but if I was doing it again then I would take more time with the fuzz planking as it is a bit ‘50p ish’ in places.

Hopefully we will get some cool frosty days here in November so I can get down to the field and give it a test flight.








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paul_h300

I finally got to fly the Swift with the reduced weight and the X60. It lasted 2 minutes 15 seconds before it rolled over and hit the ground.

The wreckage was in an area that was hard to reach with thick undergrowth up to 10’ high in places.

A couple of helpful club mates did a drone search of the area and turned up nothing due to the thickness of the undergrowth.

I called it a day and went home without my model :-(

The next afternoon, a friend, my dad and myself got suited up and went for a hike into the undergrowth.
Due to boggy ground we couldn’t access the crash area easily. We had to walk half a mile through brambles, nettles and reeds until we came to the area where the model went it.

It was eventually found very well hidden under some thick reds.

Surprisingly the model survived pretty well.

The engine is going off for a check, but I am hoping it doesn’t need too much work.

it is now stripped and ready for the bin :-(

Boomerang1

Radio problem, new set up problems, dumb thumbs problem or something more sinister like engine electronics interfering?

Sorry to see it end up like this.

paul_h300

There was quite a lot of changes between this flight and the last.

I changed the CG slightly aft, moved a fuel tank aft, new engine and a two new 2.4ghz/900Mhz RX with a redundant 2.4ghz/900Mhz rx. It also ran twin RX batteries.

I ranged checked with and without the engine running and all was good, I checked the failsafe. I didn’t get any warnings from the telemetry to say any of the signals were critically low or getting close in flight.

I did throttle the turbine back to idle as it went nose down (I should have killed it but it all happened pretty quick) and the last telemetry received on the TX showed the engine running at idle which I commanded and not shut down. So that confirms I had control and it wasn’t a failsafe event.

After getting the wreckage and giving everything a check over, the batteries were all at 8V+ so that’s rules out a battery issue.
Fuel was still in the engine lines with no bubbles and the air trap was full and bubble free.
All the servos worked, but what I did find was the left hand aileron control horn was pulled out of the aileron. I can’t tell if it was from crash damage or if this failed in flight, but if it did fail in flight then it could have caused the roll over and from the height it was I had no chance to recover it.

I forgot to turn on data logging in the TX so I can’t check anything. A bit annoyed with myself but it is the first model I have lost in 10 years so I can’t be too upset. It’s just annoying spending so long on a model and then it dunks in on the first flight with paint on it.

the plus side, if the engine is ok then it means it can find a home in my Meteor F8 :-)

paul_h300

A still picture I managed to get from the video.

It has ignited my passion to build a 1/6 scale version to go with my Hunter/Vampire/Meteor stable.