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Hot Topic (More than 10 Replies) Veron Dominette RC conversion (Read 5112 times)
Rob Powell
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Re: Veron Dominette RC conversion
Reply #17 - Jan 9th, 2021 at 5:28am
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No,
I’m afraid I don’t know Cliff

Looked at his YouTube - like the rubber powered Spitfire round the pole !
  
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DAVE Q
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Re: Veron Dominette RC conversion
Reply #16 - Jan 8th, 2021 at 2:00am
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Rob Powell wrote on Jan 7th, 2021 at 3:45pm:
Thanks, Dave

I’m pleased with the way it looks - just like the box lid I remember.

Hope it will fly.

We’re locked down in UK at the moment so first flight likely to be at least a month away.

Best wishes

Rob


Rob, are you familiar with Cliff Harvey over there across the pond? He has a YouTube channel. Tell him, Dave, says HI.
  
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Rob Powell
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Re: Veron Dominette RC conversion
Reply #15 - Jan 8th, 2021 at 12:33am
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Thanks Sky9pilot
I hope I have got rid of the warp (it looks ok to the eye)

I didn’t use steam, but once I had removed the old covering I dampened he left wing by running it under a tap ! (Very briefly) and then weighting it on the board.

Once dry I added the diagonal braces you see in the pictures ( stripped from the original 1/16 tail plane sheet which was fairly hard balsa).

Now covered with Doculam and tissue it appears to be keeping its shape.

Fingers crossed !

Cheers

Rob
  
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Sky9pilot
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Re: Veron Dominette RC conversion
Reply #14 - Jan 7th, 2021 at 7:12pm
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Looks great. 
Have you corrected the warp in the old glider's wing?  We used to use steam from the tea kettle to twist the wing back into shape.  Then pin to the board again for a day or so to hold the proper shape!

The new rc version looks great!  Nice to have the sanding belt you have to assist in sanding.  I don't have that luxury.
  

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Rob Powell
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Re: Veron Dominette RC conversion
Reply #13 - Jan 7th, 2021 at 3:45pm
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Thanks, Dave

I’m pleased with the way it looks - just like the box lid I remember.

Hope it will fly.

We’re locked down in UK at the moment so first flight likely to be at least a month away.

Best wishes

Rob
  
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Re: Veron Dominette RC conversion
Reply #12 - Jan 7th, 2021 at 3:11pm
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Rob, really nice job. Stitched hinges, way cool.
  
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Rob Powell
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Re: Veron Dominette RC conversion
Reply #11 - Jan 7th, 2021 at 6:48am
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Just some touching up to do now and maybe I'll add a Veron logo to the Port wing.....

Oh - I almost forgot - Fus is covered with tissue & dope and there may be a little glass around the nose to try to keep it all together on landing (you may notice that the hole I cut for lead at the front removed quite a bit of material. Also there is some carbon tow from about 2 cm back above the nose, continuously around the bottom to under the wing..

Hope you like it ?
  
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Rob Powell
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Re: Veron Dominette RC conversion
Reply #10 - Jan 7th, 2021 at 6:43am
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Ta Dah !
  

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Rob Powell
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Re: Veron Dominette RC conversion
Reply #9 - Jan 7th, 2021 at 6:43am
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Fed up with the pics yet?
  

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Rob Powell
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Re: Veron Dominette RC conversion
Reply #8 - Jan 7th, 2021 at 6:40am
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And more !

(Sandy, sandy !) Grin
  

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Rob Powell
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Re: Veron Dominette RC conversion
Reply #7 - Jan 7th, 2021 at 6:32am
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More pics:
  

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Rob Powell
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Re: Veron Dominette RC conversion
Reply #6 - Jan 7th, 2021 at 6:31am
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It would appear to have worked !

I can post pictures -  Cheesy

More to follow - 5 at a time and apologies if they are a bit out of order.....
  

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Rob Powell
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Re: Veron Dominette RC conversion
Reply #5 - Jan 7th, 2021 at 6:28am
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Continued....
I ended up with commercial z-bends at the servo end of the pushrods (building error - where I routed out the tail-boom for the push rod tubes their levels came out below the servo arms.... I didn't have room to lower the servos, so commercial Z bends it had to be.

I had some spare carbon tube with id to match the thin carbon push rods and sleeves were made up to fit the commercial clevice (elevator) and ball-joint (rudder) at the tail end.

In hindsight, I would have done something different with the rudder control. The ball-joint I have used is a little too stiff for the thin pushrod and I have a bit of a double centre - but not too much to prevent me flying it - Ill just have to remember to give a nudge of right to centre the surface after a left turn !

Front of us is pretty straight forward, other than it is about 1/16 wider than the kit to contain battery and receiver.... Much bodging was involved along with cyano-ing scrap bits of balsa in funny places around the pre-prepared hatches to build up the front profile. all finally sanded back to profile - a mix of belt sanding and hand sanding.

The shape has, I think stayed fairly true to the original....

Covering is tissue and dope (a little castor oil added to the dope to plasticise it) over Doculam, although the top of the tail-plane, fin, rudder and elevators are tissue, only.

Paint is Rustoleum and logos are printed onto transfer paper, lacquered, over with the exception of the chequers which I go impatient over and printed on paper and stuck to the wing with dope, with doculam ironed over (not the greatest finish !)

Pictures, hopefully following.

The flight report will have to wait until UK lockdown is passed !

As I said, I expect it to be quite quick in the air and I doubt the rudder will be terribly effective - we'll have to see.

This won't be a principle glider, rather an exercise in nostalgia... if it doesn't fly well and it survives, then it might just get hung on the wall to look pretty !

I have 7 or 8 other gliders to fly made out of glass and CF to take care of the need to fly - this one can just sit pretty on the slope kidding any casual onlookers that it might fly !! Roll Eyes

Cheers

Rob
  

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Rob Powell
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Re: Veron Dominette RC conversion
Reply #4 - Jan 7th, 2021 at 4:40am
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OK - I built an original Dominette from a Veron Kit in c. 1994 for my nephew to chuck around in the garden,
I didn't put too much effort into it at the time and it must have had about 10 hand launched flights before being stored out of sight and forgotten about. I found it again when I cleared my parents house and it has been sitting in the loft for another 10 years or so and finally curiosity got the better of me:

Imagine the scene - holes in the unpainted tissue, pretty awful warp in the wing (especially the left hand one)

So do I chuck it out or repair it?

Well I tend to fly bigger and more serious rc gliders these days, mostly on the South Downs in the UK and I started to wonder if I could get some rc in the Dominette.....

They say pictures are worth a thousand words, so this will turn into a picture story in a minute (Im hoping my previous inability to load pictures to this website will have been cured by me sending pics from my phone to my Mac and then accessing them.... fingers crossed)

Salient points / points to note:

Original plane had 1/16 sheet tail surfaces - I have ended up laminating the rc version from 1/16 sheet with a 1/64 profile ply centre, sanded down to c.3/32 overall - I knew this was going to make the tail heavy, but I included the ply to:
1 be able to get a thin and straight edge to the tail set (ding-proof, too)
2 have something solid in the middle to stop the planned sewn hinges pulling through

R/C is included in 2 hatches on the left side of the pod - 1 hatch under the wing houses the servos (rescued from an old depron indoor powered plane)  and the front holds a 4 cell 300mAh NiMh battery (Dreamflight Alula battery) and a Chinese special 4ch DMSS (JR) receiver.

The plane was reconstructed in stages starting with the wing as I wanted to be sure I could get the warp out of it - Old tissue off  (cut out around structure, torn off where possible and sanded back a little) some additional structure was added - hard balsa top spar, 1/16 spar webs for the centre 6 rib bays and some carbon TOW added under the bottom spar to make it R/C and Rob-landing proof........ (you can feel the weight being added !)

OK - Fuselage - tail set was unceremoniously hacked off and the respective gluing areas sanded back. rear spar of tailplane was laminated with the 1/64 ply strip in the centre to take the sewn hinges the rest fabricated to match the original profile (in hindsight I could have reduced the chord as the f/f stability shouldn't be so essential now....At least, this way it keeps the original silhouette accurate....

Elevators are from sheet joined with scrap wire and sanded to section.

Pushrods are approx 0.8mm carbon running in tube.
« Last Edit: Jan 7th, 2021 at 7:04am by Rob Powell »  
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Rob Powell
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Re: Veron Dominette RC conversion
Reply #3 - Jan 7th, 2021 at 4:20am
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OK - Its been a long time coming and in the meantime and over Christmas, I have now finished (ish) the Dominette and.......

It's heavy ! (245g to be exact) or just over 8 1/2 Oz in 'Old money'  Shocked

I reckon this is going to give a wing loading of around 27g / dm2

Its going to be fast !

Well its flight qualities really weren't the reason for building this. its more to do with seeing if it would and to pretty it up as an exercise in nostalgia....... bear with me (photos at the end, hopefully)
« Last Edit: Jan 7th, 2021 at 6:59am by Rob Powell »  
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