The Sea Fury was designed and built from March to June 2018 for the 2018 C/L World Championships in Landres, France. The model that I was intending to fly at the world champs was badly damaged in February 2018 as a result of a wake turbulent incident while practicing in calm conditions. So the Sea Fury project hurriedly came into being.
The leading & trailing edge wing jig blocks are held in position with aluminium angles and weighed down with steel bars. The main spar jig blocks are held down with rubber bands.
Wing panels are nearly complete. Leading & trailing edges need to be sanded to shape and then wing tips added.The tailplane is sheeted foam core construction and has a sharp L.E. as per Paul Walker’s recommendation. The controls are adjustable but I have generally found 1:1 flap to elevator ratio works best.
The nose of the fuselage is quite rigid due to the lite ply formers configured to provide a ‘braced box’ from the front of the wing to the motor mount former. The fuselage top and bottom shells were wet moulded around a white styrofoam mould. To save time, I used the same mould for the top and bottom. The 10” bubble canopy was obtained from Park Flyer Plastics. The wide fuselage and top loading battery hatch allow easy access to the electric system components. The motor mount former is composite balsa/ply construction based on Paul Walker’s design and is light and rigid. The motor is installed from the front.
Fuselage and wings are jigged up and the phenolic wing joiners are epoxied to the fuselage sides.
The underside of the fuselage after installation of the plywood mounting plate for the removeable tailplane. Cross bracing, removeable tail wheel mount and pushrod have also been installed.
Tailplane is sheeted foam core. Balsa block inserts glued in. Trailing edge sheeting is wet moulded to semi-circular profile.
The solid surfaces on the model were covered in lightweight ModelSpan tissue and the open bays covered with AeroSpan polyester tissue (similar to PolySpan) and butyrate dope. The paint is all single pack automotive acrylic lacquer, including the clear top coat.
The plywood nose formers and the balsa/ply composite motor mount former being epoxy glued into position.
The top and bottom moulded shells have been glued onto the fuselage. The tailplane mounting plate is being glued in place after checking the tail alignment.
The rear wing joiner is glued in position between the tailing edge doubler and the vertical grain shear webbing.
The center of the fuselage showing the phenolic joiners and phenolic bellcrank glued in place. Flap pushrod is also installed.
During assembly of the wing panels, a ‘mock-up’ of the centre fuselage section is used to position the joiners into the wing panels and also position the first rib. The phenolic joiners are not glued to the mock-up piece.
Pushrod ends are made from 2.4mm mild steel and glued into the carbon fibre tubes with JB Weld. The adjustable DuBro 4-40 nylon clevis has a removeable 1.6mm pin for connecting to the tail horn.
The phenolic wing joiners being test fitted to the main wing spars. The M4 connection bolts are loaded in double shear to ensure maximum strength and durability. The spars are made from 2.5mm balsa with partial span 0.4mm ply doublers each side.
The removable tail wheel bracket pieces prior to epoxy gluing together. The inner piece is 1.6mm ply and the 2 outer pieces are 0.8mm ply.
Final model weight was 63.5oz with Axi 2826/12 760kV motor, 5S 2700 35C Zippy Compact battery and Brian Eather’s 13.25” x 6” electric 2B prop. The model is flown on 0.018” x 63’ – 64’ lines (eyelet to eyelet) at a lap time of around 5.30 – 5.40 seconds.
