Hornet build

[i3 roberto]

Hey lookig good now you have to let curing,at last for 24 hours ,I use disc sander for polishing the upside ,and , the deeps a little bondo or special propose preparation filler

[kiwidesign79]

Ok got a bit more done. Turned up some axles on the lathe & cut the axle plates. Threading on the this lathe seems to be hit or miss. Or maybe it's just me. Probably the later. Drilled the holes for the axles, just need to cut to lenth & weld.

I had a slight miss calculation on the landing gear hight. When I positioned the spring in place I almost needed a step ladder to get on the seat. So, rethink time. I've made a mount just behind where the planed position was. Hopefully this wont affect the CG to much. It's about 125mm (5") to the rear of the original mount. I'm thinking it might not balance on the main gear as quickly during takeoff. We'll see I guess. I still need to finish building the mounts but it's roughly in place. On the plus side, I've now got somewhere to put a battery.

[kiwidesign79]

Yippy!!! Got landing gear mounted. Put spring in position, measured diagonals, made brackets, clamped in place, drilled & bolted.

Now that the landing gear is mounted back further it puts more weight on the front end & my front wheel spring is to soft, so that the next thing on the list to modify.

I still need to put a few more bolts here & there but the hard parts done.

[i3 roberto]

Hey looks great ¡¡¡ congratulations you doing fine work , I am very happy to see your success you now have the most bauty modern and aerodynamic landing gear

[Heron]

Is it possible to put a 618 on a Hornet?
What are the problems/advantages?
thanks
Heron

[kiwidesign79]

Thank you Roberto, I'm really pleased with the results, I've no doubts it will strong enough. The mounts on the other hand will need some more work.
Heron, I think you'd want to beef it up a bit, but with a few mods anythings is possable. It would knock it out of the UL class though, but something tells me you wouldn't be going for the UL class with a 618

[Heron]

Thanks Kiwi
It is a newbie that has the engine and wants to build around it, he picked the Hornet as a project!
I told him about mods and adjustments, lets see what comes out of it!
Heron

[Resasi]

I had suggested the 503 might be better for him as a newbie training on it, then move up to the 618.

I can see his question though as he already has the engine

It's possible, if he's careful with the mounting, and managing the extra power as a student

[kiwidesign79]

I agree with the mounting & power management, maybe add some torque rods or something. It is a light frame though. Personally I think if I had that kind of HP I would be looking at maybe a different design, or maybe building one of my own. There seems to be enough info on this site to get some pretty good ideas.
Although in saying that, I am struggling to think of a new nose wheel suspention setup. I have a couple ideas but nothing that really appeals me. I need to do some more research on nose wheels to get the brain ticking again.

[kiwidesign79]

Finally finished the axles. I turned out some spacers from 1" aluminum round. 1 spacer for clearance between the wheel & spring. The wheels didn't come with a spacer between the bearings, so that was a must in my opinion to prevent side load on the ball bearings from the nut.

[robo_nipsy]

Kiwi,
Haven't had time to look at your thread for a while...
Nice work!
Good call on the wheel bearing spacer!

What kind of problems were you having on lathe during the threading??
5/8"-18 I'm Guessing?

Keep up the good work!
Denis

[kiwidesign79]

Yes 5/8" 18. The first try was my mistake when I engaged the feed slightly to soon or late. The next one turned out good, the next two were cutting on funny angles, like 90° & 45° insteed of 30° & 30° if that makes sence. I was using the method where you set the cross slide to 29.5°. I was able to selvage those ones though by feeding straight in.

[Resasi]

Jeremy, I would not sweat suspension for your nose wheel too much. As you accelerate up for take off the nose wheel comes up reasonably early and you will then ride on the mains.

On the landings once again the nose wheel shouldn't drop untill you are slowed right down, so even though you plan on a grass strip which is bumpier than tarmac the mains are the main worry. Also don't have too much springiness, a lot of people have been caught out and got into trouble with 'duck waddle' on too soft suspensions. They are Gyros not Caddies.

[kiwidesign79]

Your right Leigh, thanks. This front wheel has really been holding me up. Just a regular nose wheel Non suspention setup would be much simpler.

[kiwidesign79]

Managed to sneak in some time on the gyro while the wife wasn't looking. Almost finished the nose wheel, will post pics soon.

I've decided to redesign the seat. Mostly because it broke off when sat on the side of it. It was my folt for not sanding where the braces were bonded. Where I did sand on the seat bottom & the aluminum mount bonded very well. It let out a big crack when I sat on the side so I knew something let go, I then proceeded with much effort to rip it off completely. To my surprise bits of the carbon fiber remained stuck to the aluminum mount. The braces on the other hand broke off clean as if they were never there. Moral of the story is to always sand both surfaces before bonding. I aways knew that but never realized how much of a difference it made until now!