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Post by Pij on Oct 11, 2008 15:42:20 GMT 10
5 weeks ago I bought a used Southern Sailplanes Ricochet from eBay. It has the Thermal wing. It took all this time for the seller to get his act together, but I eventually took delivery yesterday.
There is wing damage that the seller had worked on, but today I visited the local glider guru, who convinced me I should 'glass the repaired part. He even gave me some glass and resin, and tips on how to proceed. This'll be the first time I've worked with fibreglass.
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Post by jirvin4505 on Oct 11, 2008 16:14:53 GMT 10
5 weeks ago I bought a used Southern Sailplanes Ricochet from eBay. It has the Thermal wing. ..snip.... He even gave me some glass and resin, and tips on how to proceed. This'll be the first time I've worked with fibreglass. Remember the thermal ricochet well A good gentle model. To I see a hint of the dark slippery slide into composite work..... Sticky fingers and all that cheers Jeff
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Post by thevon on Oct 11, 2008 18:26:58 GMT 10
I've got a Ricochet Slope. Ding has one gathering dust too. Great plane, I love flying it and dont' know why I don't fly it more often. Does the best loops of any plane.
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Post by Pij on Oct 11, 2008 22:40:05 GMT 10
Ah Jeff, don't you always see the beginnings of the dark slippery slide? That'll never happen to me - except... Jeff, what would it take to make a carbon/glass wing for one of these things?
Andrew, I remembered you had one of these things, but I didn't know which wing you used. This setup is Rudder-Elev-spoilers, but I'm already thinking about other wings and other flight environments.
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Post by jirvin4505 on Oct 11, 2008 23:01:11 GMT 10
Ah Jeff, don't you always see the beginnings of the dark slippery slide? That'll never happen to me - except... Jeff, what would it take to make a carbon/glass wing for one of these things? ..snip....... >what would it take??? ...the hunger to build nice shiny wings ;D Seriously it takes the desire to learn a craft. Just as you have chosen epp to learn a skills base for. just as portfox has a developed set of balsa skills .... composites are just another set of skills. Fortunately these days ther is a lot of information available. Have you seen the bagging videos of phil barnes? Ricochet type wings were simply made as a rib and subrib as a spar carry through and then sufficient layers of glass as a skin. These days we have carbon to enhance the experience. I have a set of locally made glass and carbon wings in the museum (hanger) that were made in the early 90's. They weren't even vac bagged rather the glass was pressed on wet and during the same operation carbon was laid into a channel to become a spar. The fuz that went with the wings was a similar shape to the ricochet. The mrssa club did a grouip build of 10 gliders _the club glider - that used a similar construction. cheers Jeff
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Post by Pij on Oct 11, 2008 23:20:24 GMT 10
Ricochet type wings were simply made as a rib and subrib as a spar carry through and then sufficient layers of glass as a skin. ... They weren't even vac bagged rather the glass was pressed on wet and during the same operation carbon was laid into a channel to become a spar. cheers Jeff These seem to be the key bits for me to think about. Does this mean, begin as though you were making a traditional built-up wing, but with consideration to the carbon spar and joiner system, then use glass to cover it?
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Post by jirvin4505 on Oct 11, 2008 23:27:16 GMT 10
Ricochet type wings were simply made as a rib and subrib as a spar carry through and then sufficient layers of glass as a skin. ... They weren't even vac bagged rather the glass was pressed on wet and during the same operation carbon was laid into a channel to become a spar. cheers Jeff These seem to be the key bits for me to think about. Does this mean, begin as though you were making a traditional built-up wing, but with consideration to the carbon spar and joiner system, then use glass to cover it? The compisite wings were foam core with glass skins. The original ricochets were foam core with balsa skins - still a very viable choice. In fact the original ricochets used the wing tube as a sub spar - guessing this is where your wings are damaged at the end of the ali tube. They had no other formal spar, relying simply on the balsa sheeting for strength. cheers Jeff ps we will have to find you a copy of the bagging video to watch.
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Post by skyzking on Oct 12, 2008 9:09:49 GMT 10
Uni holidays coming up soon, i have a big list of TO DO's that i want to get done in these holidays. Amongst them is also building a Ricochet for DS with special airfoil and clipped wings (probably 2m). It will be full composite
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Post by thevon on Oct 12, 2008 11:12:10 GMT 10
Abdullah, how could you make a DS Rico? The way the 2 piece wing joins to the fuse would be hard to flex-proof, I think. Also, it has a full stabilizer which seems to be a no-no for DS (except light air). I think the Rico is a beautiful acro sloper, but for higher speeds I reckon even a cheap off the shelf moldie would be more suited.
Digressing slightly, did you see that King of the Hill (Joe Zepeda) got a slightly modified Destiny to over 250mph a coupla days ago!
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Post by Pij on Oct 12, 2008 17:50:00 GMT 10
The idea of a fast full-composite wing sounds like fun. I'm pretty happy with how the fibreglassing turned out. I started late Saturday, just to get the sheeting attached on one side, to let me pull against that part after it dried overnight. Finished this afternoon, having done bits during the day, largely during "safety car" periods at Bathurst. The photo is of the finished job, though not dried or sanded. It shows where the break was, how the previous owner had worked on it, and I've indicated the area of the fibreglassing. The leading edge repair on the underside is more rectangular. Both the LE and TE repairs wrap around to the underside. I'm not sure whether the break is at the end of the aluminium tube. Possibly. It's sort of 2/3 of the way along the wing. Playing in the resin with a freezer-bag over my hand was kind of fun. I suppose I learned a few things, too.
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Post by portfox on Oct 13, 2008 12:43:09 GMT 10
Pij Had a rico, dam fine plane, i think it was the ultimate one with all the "full house" setup, the only thing i didnt like about it is that is had too much dyhedral and liked to cart wheel on landing in cross wind. I have its bigger brother at home the Eclipse, i'm half tempted to get rid of the current balsa sheeted wings and bag me a new set. Ralph still owns southern sailplanes here www.southernsailplanes.com.auand you can get wing kits for the rico's, but I think you could cut them far cheaper. Steve
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Post by Pij on Oct 13, 2008 19:04:18 GMT 10
Thanks Steve. Yes, it's the availablilty of parts and wing kits that made me think Southern Sailplanes was a good purchase. Styrene cores and balsa sheeting sounds like a good way to make a few variations on the theme. But for now, I'm just looking forward to the sailplane experience.
I covered the repaired section today. Did a pretty awful job, but it'll do for now. I'm sure there's going to be more re-coverings in the future.
There was no launch hook attached, so I'm not sure how the guy was flying this glider. So I need a hook, then a launching system. I was going to go Bungee, but Dale (local) thought winching would be far more controllable. I don't think I can afford a winch setup. I'm sure he'll launch it for me on his winch if I ask him, after I join his club of course. That's not too expensive as I already have my MAAA fees paid for my other club.
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Post by Pij on Nov 2, 2008 15:41:34 GMT 10
Got the Ricochet finished and balanced yesterday. Set the CG at 85mm from LE, while the instructions said 90mm. I wanted it a little ahead while I'm getting to know the Rico, for test chucks today (Sunday). I had to remove a fair bit of the bundle of lead the previous owner had used in the nose. Due to the fibreglassing, I had to tape a bit of flat lead to the opposite wing for L-R balance, too. Today, we went to the Goodwood flying field. Flew a buddy-cord flight on my Electrafun with cut-down wing, with my youngest son. It was a bit windy, and not the best wing for learning on, and the Corona Rx may have been a bit glitchy, but he still had a good fun lesson. Then the oldest son flew his Electrafun - his flew beautifully as usual. I left my Minimag in the box toady, and next assembled the Ricochet for test chucks. I used the Tx memory slot from my Sapac Phoenix to set up the Rico. The Phoenix will be a while before rising from its ashes this time so the memory was available for the Rico. The test chucks were good, no surprises after I remembered I had to remove a big down-elevator trim setting from the Phoenix. Once the Tx was re-trimmed for zero elevator, and I corrected a tendency to turn right, the Ricochet went well. It behaved like a slightly nose-heavy glider that needs a better launch - exactly what it is, no surprises. I might move the CG back a bit before it flies next, or I might not. Maybe it was the wingspan, so much larger than anything else I've flown, but this was the first time I've noticed a side-slipping crabwise type flying (except at the slope) when the wind is not directly head-on. Of course, hand-chucks leave it with a very low airspeed, so perhaps when its flying properly I won't notice this again. There was nobody else at the field today, so no guru advice, and no coaxing towards a winch-launch either. But I deliberately haven't yet installed the tow-hook, anyway. I'm finding the prospect of bungeeing or winching to be frightening. Any advice on how to get past the first power launches safely? Anyway, I'm very happy with today's testing.
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Post by portfox on Nov 3, 2008 8:59:27 GMT 10
Pij She looks good, nice blue! I was out at toowoomba and got chatting with a gent from bundy. I cant remember his name though. All I can remember is that he fly's gliders and works for Coke a Cola.
Steve
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Post by Pij on Nov 3, 2008 17:06:27 GMT 10
That'd be the "guru" I was referring to, Dale. He gave me the fibreglass and the confidence to tackle the repair. I was hoping he'd be there for the maiden chucks, and I certainly won't be bungeeing or winching until Dale gives me the thumbs-up and advice. So far I don't have a launch system, anyway.
Somebody here might be able to help me with this: I first set up the spoilers to the landing-gear switch on the transmitter, then I thought I might want proportional control, so shifted them to the throttle slider, with zero throttle closing the spoilers. At the last moment before launching, I reversed the throttle setup, so full throttle closed the spoilers. Can somebody please tell me if there's a "normal" setup, or a best setup?
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