Flying Sorcerer free flight model First flights !!!

OVERLORD Mon Sep 14, 2015 6:37 am

During the past weeks, I made this free flight plane powered by a Pee Wee. It’s not a complicated build. The plan can be found on Outerzone:

http://www.outerzone.co.uk/plan_details.asp?ID=6852

and on Kirt’s website that also shows the article out of the magazine:

http://www.airplanesandrockets.com/airplanes/flying-sorcerer-sep-1970-aam.htm

Flying Sorcerer free flight model First flights !!! Imgp6010

Flying Sorcerer free flight model First flights !!! Imgp6012

Flying Sorcerer free flight model First flights !!! Imgp6013

One of the reasons I chose this model was the Coroplast plumber sign that was hanging for too long on our fence. I thought by using that, it would give a modern touch to the model. The original balsa wing is curved in a wing shape. To reproduce this curve is not so straight forward with Coroplast. Therefore, the 1/8" thick Coroplast was just folded to create a similar shape. In way of the bends, 1 side was cut along a channel. I didn’t know that but this material is a lot more heavy than balsa. After glueing the disc to the fuse and fixing the engine, the CG was too far back compared to the drawings. To compensate that, I added a nose wheel sticking out forward. Gliding tests showed that I still had to add 6g of weight.
The disc is glued to the fuse with hot glue. The double tail pieces are glued with CA and are reinforced at the ends and corners with epoxy.

Flying Sorcerer free flight model First flights !!! Imgp5711

Flying Sorcerer free flight model First flights !!! Imgp5712

The wheel has a hole with a diameter of 1/8”. The music wire I used is only 1,5 mm thick. To fill up the space, I used an ink tube of a Bic pen which has both diameters on the in- and outside. The additional weight was made of 2 coins of 10 centimes (pre 2001) drilled to slide over the wheel shaft. I finished with 3 coats of dope. The engine mount was covered with paper. The nose was sprayed blue metallic and all wood parts were covered with a coat of PU varnish for fuel proofing. I added some deco using Oracover.

Flying Sorcerer free flight model First flights !!! Imgp6011

Lieven

rsv1cox Mon Sep 14, 2015 7:03 am

That is just so neat Lieven. The two vertical stabs reenforce the wing along with the fuselage. And the front landing gear is so well thought out. Vertical bracing and spring are perfectly spaced so not to interfere with the prop even with a hard landing and providing balance to boot.

Wonderful!!!!

Bob

navion34 Mon Sep 14, 2015 1:19 pm

Well done Lieven !

Hope this will be a good plane,

OVERLORD Tue Sep 15, 2015 4:05 am

Thanks guys. Yesterday, I found a quite spot in my neighbour's garden to do some more gliding tests:

Flying Sorcerer free flight model First flights !!! Imgp6014

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPcwpTtuMd0

Near the end of each glide, the plane seems to stall. Does it need a little more nose weight?

Lieven

KariFS Tue Sep 15, 2015 5:06 am

That's a neat model Lieven. I like the landing gear, that is made to compensate the additional weight of depron, right?

Hard to tell if it needs more weight or not, as the "traditional" rules may not apply to an airframe of this shape. If your CG is at or a little forward of the spot the plan indicates, the behaviour could be caused by the different shape of your airfoil. You might want to try to add some downward trim to the airfoil, as the original article suggests. Maybe with some temporary trim tabs, like pieces of beer can aluminum, or plastic taped on the back of the wing?

Of course, adding weight to the front is even easier, some soldering tin wire wrapped around the landing gear should do the trick.

Looking forward to the next video Very Happy

1/2A Nut Tue Sep 15, 2015 7:55 am

Trim tabs are a great way to correct cg when you cannot move weight to correct it does add drag though and will decrease the glide ratio. Reflex in the trailing edge that you built in will help extend the glide ratio.

Under acceleration it climbed as air speed was reduced by the drag and pitch of the wing it simply slowed down and recovered during a shallow dive. It is tail heavy under power if tossed level and steady air pressure may be kept in check this is a high lift low aspect wing platform the aggressive under camber wing will cause excessive lift while under the power of the engine therefor you need down thrust in the engine. In order to test true glide if you can stand on a elevated source and only release at glide speed it may show true cg under those conditions. The nature of the wing design in general will require a forward cg to combat the high lift /drag aspect. Small Cox Logo

OVERLORD Tue Sep 15, 2015 11:01 am

Thanks guys, I didn't think of that. I made a tin can trim tab and glued it on the rear. It is gliding a lot better.

Flying Sorcerer free flight model First flights !!! Imgp6110

pkrankow Tue Sep 15, 2015 11:57 am

I would say try launching higher, like off a step ladder or something and see if the stall is from shedding extra velocity.

Phil

OVERLORD Wed Sep 16, 2015 12:30 am

Phil, the field where I tried the plane is sloped and I was standing at the high side. The temporary trim tab mad a great difference. Yesterday afternoon, I removed it and cut 2 parallel slots to make an elevator at the trailing edge. I only had to bend that about 1mm down to have the best results. I have to redo my landing gear though. Due to the shocks, the joint of the 2 wires came loose and they now can slide. The époxy does not stick very well on the surface of the music wire. I will solder those wires together.

Flying Sorcerer free flight model First flights !!! Imgp6111

Flying Sorcerer free flight model First flights !!! Imgp6112

getback Wed Sep 16, 2015 8:32 am

That's one wild looking plane Lieven , glad your getting it straightened out before fling . I have a small combat plane I put a wheel on to balance the cg , all it wanted to do was flip and flip and flip lol!

Eric

OVERLORD Thu Sep 17, 2015 2:56 pm

Thanks Eric, I still had to add 2 coins of 3g to the wheel shaft to get the balance right. I had to find a way to fix the tab so it remains in place. I inserted 2 pins, 1 on each side of the tab:

Flying Sorcerer free flight model First flights !!! Imgp6113

Today, we had no wind at all outside so I wanted to give it a try. I fixed the propeller the other way around and had the engine run on the rich side. After a bit of testing, I found out that with 1 ml of fuel in the tank, the engine ran for 25 to 30 seconds. Before each launch, I counted to 20 to get short runs in the beginning. The reversed prop and rich engine didn't work. There wasn't enough trust to pull the plane.

During these first flights, Kim took place in the cockpit. Thanks to him, I could repair my Pee Wee engine with a broken backplate that was first destined for a Guillow's P40 . He send me new backplates and some more spares which I appreciated very much. At port, there was still a vacant seat for Roddie who helped me out with a custom made part for this giant P40 spinner, in fact too big for the Pee Wee.

Flying Sorcerer free flight model First flights !!! Imgp6114

Flying Sorcerer free flight model First flights !!! Imgp6115

After putting the prop back normally and leaning out the engine, flights were successful. I think I did about 10 flights or so in the field across the road. The plane circles to the left very well and climbs nicely. When the engine stops, it continues circling down in the same direction. The plane did not get damaged at all except for a bend landing gear that could easily be straightened again.

Flying Sorcerer free flight model First flights !!! Imgp3710

Flying Sorcerer free flight model First flights !!! Starti10

Flying Sorcerer free flight model First flights !!! Launch10

Flying Sorcerer free flight model First flights !!! Launch11

Flying Sorcerer free flight model First flights !!! Flying13

Flying Sorcerer free flight model First flights !!! Flying11

Flying Sorcerer free flight model First flights !!! Flying12

Flying Sorcerer free flight model First flights !!! Landin10

Lieven

getback Thu Sep 17, 2015 3:42 pm

COOL !!! 1940 still pictures ! Wowo it looked like it flew well 10 flights is really good with just a trek of the landing gear . Good fun Lieven Beer Cheers

. Eric

Marleysky Thu Sep 17, 2015 4:12 pm

I just love your selection of and pictures of the pilots!! Too cool! Looks like you have a nice flyer , good going! Flying

OVERLORD Fri Sep 18, 2015 4:21 am

Thanks for your comments. I had some time to put this little video together. Also, listen to the background music because it's not just music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6C-quO4agRM&feature=youtu.be

It's better to Watch this video on full screen.

Lieven

larrys4227 Fri Sep 18, 2015 5:18 am

Awesome job Lieven! Flying great, and love how it came back to you a couple times ... like a boomerang!!

navion34 Fri Sep 18, 2015 8:35 am

Well done, awesome !

As I can see, the weather is still good in your area. Don't disturb the cows ;-)

VUgearhead Fri Sep 18, 2015 8:51 am

Great, great job, Lieven, on both the build and the video.

Most deserving of a greenie, but for some reason, I don't see where I can give you one!

Consider it given tho! Bravo!

Dan

getback Fri Sep 18, 2015 10:38 am

Dan hit the + sign to the right under Quote , Like this .....

VUgearhead Fri Sep 18, 2015 12:54 pm

That's just it, get. There is no plus there for me to hit. Maybe it's a chrome thing.

JPvelo Fri Sep 18, 2015 3:14 pm

That looks like loads of fun, I may need to build my own!
Jim

Marleysky Fri Sep 18, 2015 3:23 pm

VUgearhead wrote:That's just it, get. There is no plus there for me to hit. Maybe it's a chrome thing.

There is that old saying from my Hot Rodder days....."if it don't move, chrome it". Must still be true in MS?

Lieven, that is absolutely wonderful. Has got to make you feel good to have a toss it I the air airplane, that flys nice and returns to you. Thanks for the video! I give you both greenies!!

I'm taking a wild guess here....but is the music by the co-pilot?

batjac Sat Sep 19, 2015 12:21 am

Lieven,

Awesome flight. I've watched the video three times now. I love how on the the third flight it came right back to you on landing. The video makes me want to go ahead and make one out of balsa. But, I don't have a big enough field anywhere near me to fly free flight. Sad

Glad it worked out so great.

The Impressed Mark

OVERLORD Sat Sep 19, 2015 1:07 am

Thanks for the replies, I'm glad you liked it. I was just lucky to have a day without wind. Although there were some light showers. In the video, you can see the big heavy clouds in the sky.

When I counted the different video shots, I have 11 in total, but I made sure to fill up fuel for short flights in the beginning because I didn't know how it would behave in the air. Next time, I'll kep the same fuel quantity but I will reduce the countdown. The model is a good climber and I noticed that by changing the position of the nose wheel to the left or to the right, the turning circle can be modified.

I built th model with materils I had at home without having to go to the model shop. For the fuse I used 5mm thick balsa and not 1/4" and for the fins the wood I used was a bit thicker: 3mm.

I am Lucky to have the fiels across the road. It is cut every month or so to feed cattle. Some of the grass will now be seasoned with a bit of castor!!

The music is indeed composed and played by Roddie on his keyboards. I got some other compositions of him. He's a very talented man. I hope he doesn't mind I used his music on the video.

I sent a few pics to Kirt Blattenberger he can put on his site if he wants to. I think he's got a wonderful website where at each visit you'll find something interesting to read:

http://www.airplanesandrockets.com/

He's got a list of drawings and plans of different model airplanes but not all are scanned and online. If you wnt a plan that is in the list without being scanned you can shoot him a mail and he will scan the drawing and article.

Lieven

batjac Sat Sep 19, 2015 1:47 am

OVERLORD wrote:I am Lucky to have the fiels across the road. It is cut every month or so to feed cattle. Some of the grass will now be seasoned with a bit of castor!!

Lieven

Cows taking castor oil?!? Damn!

The REALLY Tall Boots Wearing Mark

OVERLORD Sat Sep 19, 2015 11:20 am

A good one Mark.

I informed Kirt Blattenberger of the build and he adapted his web page:

http://www.airplanesandrockets.com/airplanes/flying-sorcerer-sep-1970-aam.htm

I also asked if he could add CEF to the links on his site.

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Flying Sorcerer free flight model First flights !!!

Flying Sorcerer free flight model First flights !!!

Re: Flying Sorcerer free flight model First flights !!!

Re: Flying Sorcerer free flight model First flights !!!

Re: Flying Sorcerer free flight model First flights !!!

Re: Flying Sorcerer free flight model First flights !!!

Re: Flying Sorcerer free flight model First flights !!!

Re: Flying Sorcerer free flight model First flights !!!

Re: Flying Sorcerer free flight model First flights !!!

Re: Flying Sorcerer free flight model First flights !!!

Re: Flying Sorcerer free flight model First flights !!!

Re: Flying Sorcerer free flight model First flights !!!

Re: Flying Sorcerer free flight model First flights !!!

Re: Flying Sorcerer free flight model First flights !!!

Re: Flying Sorcerer free flight model First flights !!!

Re: Flying Sorcerer free flight model First flights !!!

Re: Flying Sorcerer free flight model First flights !!!

Awesome video!

Re: Flying Sorcerer free flight model First flights !!!

no plus for greenie

Re: Flying Sorcerer free flight model First flights !!!

Re: Flying Sorcerer free flight model First flights !!!

Re: Flying Sorcerer free flight model First flights !!!

Re: Flying Sorcerer free flight model First flights !!!

Re: Flying Sorcerer free flight model First flights !!!

Re: Flying Sorcerer free flight model First flights !!!

Re: Flying Sorcerer free flight model First flights !!!