What did you do aeroplane wise today?

[Lastwoodsman]

What did you do airplane wise today? 

30" Beaver  Tues July 14 2026

0.875" cross section  nine inch  Motor Installation

    After the last two Flight Reports 29 and 30,  with the 30" Beaver's strongest motor of  0.938" x section,  a few strands of the motor were broken.

    I changed it out vary early this morning,  and getting ready to fly from sunrise at  6:00 AM to 8:00 AM.    That was the plan after yesterdays great flight session #30.

    Here I change it out for the other new,  2nd strongest,  and untried,  0.875" x sect motor.    These are  9"  'tight' motors from the prop hook to rear peg of 10" ,  and for finger winds of 200.

0.0875"  X-section,  nine inch Motor,  Installation

Pic #1    4007    Here is a look down the fuse at the broken strands of the  0.938"  motor.

Pic #2    4008    Here is the big  0.938" X-sect  nine inch motor,  with broken strands after only two flying sessions.

Pic #3    4012    The broken strand 0.938"  is on the bottom,  and the  0.875"  is ready to install.

Pic #4    4013    Here is a view of the four rubber motor 'loop ends',  that wrap around the rear motor peg.

    I was ready to fly it this AM,  but it just turned out too hot for me today,  going up to  93 deg F  ( 34 deg C )  ,    and feeling like  118 deg F  ( 46 deg Celsius ).    So I stayed home and wrote up the Beaver Flight Report #30 of Mon July 13 2026.

     Maybe this motor will fly a little longer, and a little slower,  than the max strength  0.938"  motor.

Lastwoodsman
Richard

[Lastwoodsman]

What did you do airplane wise today? 

30" Beaver   Wed July 15 2026

   When I look outside and I see no wind  .....   I grab the beaver.

     Well,  I smashed in the nose  this morning.     This could be the end for the  30"  Beaver.    She was good Beaver.   She ran her course.   She got a lot of miles on her.

     She may have to retire,  in which case,  I will bear down on my  30"  Gipsy Moth Biplane Build.   

     I will write up this Flight Report #31 in the Beaver Thread.   I did soak the Cowl apart in hot water,   to see what the damage was.

Pic #1     4047     The Beaver hit the leafy edge end of the branch,   and dropped straight down into the ground with the weighted nose first,  and winds left on the prop,  so it must have accelerated downwards more so   -   that was the second nose dive plummet,  after hitting the branches today.

Pic #2     4048     Those maple keys on the ground were knocked out of the tree branch tip.    The other flight that hit the trees knocked off leaves.

Pic #3     4049     The prop blade edge is buried into the front of the cowl side.   The circular white plastic plate,  housing the thrust button,  is completely broken off from the cowl,  along that circle perimeter,   and smashed inwards.

Pic #4     4050     Another view of the damage.

Lastwoodsman
Richard

[Jmk89]

When I get a moment, I'll do a photo shoot so you can see what I mean!

As foreshadowed, here are some photos and a description of the use of the rear motor twist anchor that I have that added to the Plans Gallery has an STL in a ZIP file.

For the sake of clarity, I have shown the operation of the equipment without use of a fuselage so that we can see what is going on.

The motor is made up in the usual way, with the rubber going around the round crossbar.  Make sure that the two prongs are oriented to the rear.

The two prongs are twisted to engage a convenient a winding peg (I used the crossbar from my winding stooge are for illustration purposes).

The situation once the motor has been wound.


Next, the two protruding lugs are put into a slot made in a piece of aluminium channel.


Then the motor end is held with a pin which engages in angled slots at about at an appropriate length. (Make sure that the length is greater than the length of the fuselage from the rear peg to the front so that the front hook is available to you have enough room to hook on the prop !)

[Jmk89]

Rear motor anchor use (cont.)

Then the aluminium holder is inserted into the fuselage with the prongs of the motor anchor aligned so that the faces are horizontal (this means that there is a space for them to go past the rear motor peg.

The next step is to twist the aluminium channel 90° so that the two prong hooks engage on the rear motor peg.


Finally, engage the prop shaft to your front hook (mine is a based on the old Tim Gray hook) and withdraw the aluminium channel. Then seat the nose block.

The only real trick is to remember that the diagonal measurement of your channel must be less than 10 smallest dimension of your nose hole. Otherwise, even if you can get the aluminium channel into the fuselage, you won't be able to twist it. DAMHIK!!

I hope that all makes sense.

By the way, I have drawn a revised version of the anchor with the outside lugs extended to 10 mm each side. You don't need the whole 10 mm, but it may be useful sometimes to have longer lugs and cut them to size to suit your particular installation.

I propose to put this description of usage plus both STL's of the hook into a new zipped folder and put it up on the Plans Gallery and when I do, could George please remove the existing material and replace it with the new folder?

[Jmk89]

The revised upload has been submitted, George and I got the message that says that it is just waiting for you to verify it.

[dputt7]

I think I speak for a lot of members in thanking you for all the work you do strengthening the recourses of our site.

[ramses]

Finished the Supermarine Spitfire F Mk.24 for the tissue covering:





I will finish her as the Supermarine Spitfire F Mk.24, VN318/E, No.80 Squadron, Royal Hong Kong Auxiliary Air Force, Kai Tak, Hong Kong, 1955





I am going to use VMC aluminium colored tissue for this Spit

Cheers, Ramses

[TheLurker]

Gorgeous.

Ramses> I am going to use VMC aluminium colored tissue for this Spit..

Good luck with that, seriously.  It's currently 3-1 in favour of the tissue in my attempts to use the VMC Al. tissue. I've not been able to get it to shrink to a properly taut state, especially over compound curves.

[Lastwoodsman]

Rear Motor Twist Anchor Tutorial   Mon July 20 2026

Hi Jeremy.   Good tutorial.   Would you please put this 'description of usage'  Tutorial,   Reply #197  and Reply #198 above,   into the  "Techniques"  category,  under General Forum,  under Forum,  so that we can all more easily find it,  rather than in  "What did you do airplane wise today",  where all is lost in time,  and impossible to locate .... ?

Thanks

Lastwoodsman
Richard

[billdennis747]

I spent the afternoon working up templates for glazing the Max Holste. I hadn't been looking forward to it but it went easily. Six separate pieces including two sides each for the front and back. I didn't fancy one piece because I'm not very good at this.
Another week should see it done.
Bill

[Jmk89]

Rear Motor Twist Anchor Tutorial  Mon July 20 2026

Hi Jeremy.  Good tutorial.  Would you please put this 'description of usage'  Tutorial,  Reply #197  and Reply #198 above,  into the  "Techniques"  category,  under General Forum,  under Forum,  so that we can all more easily find it,  rather than in  "What did you do airplane wise today",  where all is lost in time,  and impossible to locate .... ?

Thanks

Lastwoodsman
Richard

I'll see what I can do

[billdennis747]

Looking at that Spitfire side view, if the engine is parallel to the datum, how did they arrange downthrust? I assume there was no packing behind the spinner!

[dputt7]

Don't really know but there is a gearbox off the front of the crank so maybe it was added there

[billdennis747]

Hello Dave,
Just for a laugh I asked google AI. And guess what - it knew within two seconds! How does it do that? No wonder Ai sucks up all the electricity.
Anyway, the drawings are wrong because the Griffon is mounted with 2 degrees down. Unless the exhausts are fitted at 2 degrees up.

[ramses]

Looking at that Spitfire side view, if the engine is parallel to the datum, how did they arrange downthrust? I assume there was no packing behind the spinner!

Griffon powered Spitfires: Stronger main longerons were needed to cope with the weight of the Griffon and it required a bigger radiator and oil cooler, although it kept the asymmetric under-wing radiator layout of the single stage Merlin marks. The new engine had a lower thrust-line than the Merlin and was set with 2 degrees of downthrust. The lower thrust line and larger capacity of the new engine meant that the contours of the engine cowling were completely changed, with more prominent blisters over the cylinder heads, plus a third tear-drop shaped blister on the upper forward cowling to clear the magneto, and a deeper curve down to the spinner, which was much longer than previous types. The lower cowling lost its "pigeon-chested" appearance, with a shallower curve up to the spinner [source wiki].


Merlin powered Spitfire Mk.I and Griffon powered Spitfire Mk.XIV

Cheers, Ramses