V5 Skywalker ....... again :)

[Coyote]

Yes folks, i`ve got myself another Skywalker, this time the V5

Ill first start by looking at whats in the box, changes made, then continue the build thread using past experiance to hopefully make the best one yet :)

I`ve learnt a few things with the previous two, firstly to stay away from the sea, and more engineering notes and ways to improve this airframe. Its by no means perfect, but there is plenty you can do to improve it.

I was quite excited to see the new V5, but as you will see below, there are good points which pleased me, but a few Faux Pas which has given me great concerns

First : Whats in the box

Stickers !



Ill get stickers out the way first, just stickers, nothing more, a few extras compared to the previous versions. A few sailors off the north east cost will be more use to seeing these on the plane than myself at this point :)

Now the fuse



Pretty much the same as previous moulds, the improvement here which is welcomed is the fatter tail, the previous tails have a lot of flex, this gave tail waggle under power and a potential weak point



This is the thicker section, much better, but the vertical stab is no more stronger than original, so either a carbon rod ( preffered ) or re-inforced tape will be needed to improve the structual strength still.

The Canopy



The canopy has ben totally remade, the original was a great design shape wise for a gopro and flight cameras, but lacked strength. After a few lets say premature landings the strength was gone, the screw didnt line up with the blind nut and became a pain. Now a full canopy is provided giving more strength and flexibility for equipment placement. The inside is hollow, but the walls thick enough to raise nose structural strength right up. Very happy with this change. A handy slot has been moulded in to accomedate a keyfob cam i presume

The wings

And here`s where the happy feeling has gone :(

Im not happy with these at all



First glance from this picture, all looks well, but taking a closer look :



If you flew this with ailerons like that, it would be a very short flight, pretty appauling imo. Reinforced tape / hinges is going to be a must here, you would or should normally on previous models, but the hinge was no where near as sorry as this V5`s is :(

Next up is another BIG point of concern. The Skywalker has had a mixed past, its known to be one of the best FPV platforms going, but has an achillies heel, its wings. Ive had two now, both V3`s and never had a problem, but ive always taped my wings from day one, other owners have had wings fold on them resulting in a written off plane. The reason ? A weak point where the main spars end and the smaller spar from the dyherdial join.



In their infinite wisdom, but using logic that ive completely missed, they have decided to do absolutly nothing with the weak point at the joint, make the spars one spar instead of two, effectivly halfing its strength and durability, making the spar covers that were never a problem permenant ??????

Err ......... wtf ?

So they have made wings that have a problem, have the same problem, but now added another problem on top ? I can not fathom what their thinking was with this, which part of the forums did they look at in taking on members suggestions ?

Anyway, suffice to say i will be doing a fair bit of work on the wings to this one, theres no way ill fly it like this, its just asking for trouble. So ill be fitting ply to the dyhedrial joints to strengthen, ill be lso laminating the wings, a first i think on a walker but should improve the flex no end :)

Wing and Tail Spars



Same spar for the wing, just one instead of two, madness but there you go. The tail spar remains the same too.

The Horizontal Stab



The same as previous versions, a carbon strip to give strength, but doesnt really do a great job. I will be laminating this too as with the wings but may revert to my previous model and spar the tips to the tail, it radically changed the strength with flying and in transit to and from the field, the tail section can easily be damaged

The bag of bits



I was pleasantly suprised, that for the first time, the two glue tubes were still in tact after transit, normally i have to spend a while ungluing everything after they went pop in the plane on the way over

Got wood ?



The wood was undamaged, the pieces include motor mount, horizontal stab base for blind nut, base plate for horizontal stab, base for canopy screw and base for blind nut for canopy screw.

The canopy screw i wont be using, after a few lessons, firstly its a pain when the modles not bashed, even more of a pain after it has been, so ill be going for an internal elastic band instead for quick lipo changes instead.

Bits n Bobs

 

The two carbon rods for the wing elastic will be used, the servo rods will be hammered, squashed and burnt to make sure they never get near a model ever. These will be replaced with far superior M2 threaded bar and metal clevis`s

Other screws and fixing are provided with the servo horns, the servo horns ill ship free of charge to someone i dont like to ensure their plane falls from the sky much to their dissapointment. These horns are terrible, break easily, and look to be the first cause of my first lost Skywalker a while back. File under "bin"

So that sums up what in the box, now to add my own replacement parts, modify the wings and horizontal stab, then start building her with Fpv kit coming soon :)

[papa_lazerous]

Welcome to the V5 club :)  I have a V5 also (partially built as I havent had the time to finish it off)  And am wishing for the sake of the wings I went for the V4.

I see from the pics that the metal sleeve in the wing for the spar is missing on your plane also.  I opted to source some larger CF rod for the spar as the rod that came with it was a sloppy fit in the wings.  I believe from memory it came with an Ø8mm CF spar and I bought some Ø10mm to beef it up.  I have also got a stash of CF ribbon to add along the length to stiffen the wing and was toying with adding tape but have heard so much about it deteriorating in the sun that I havent decided yet.  The real biggy I am wanting to do is to cut a channel for a second spar!  I dont think it would be hard to make a little hot wire cutting tool, that could effectively be shaped to the form of the slot needed and have it attached to some thin ply so you have it as a depth guage so the slot is constant, then simply glue a second spar in place and then on the section of foam thats been removed by the hot wire method simply cut an arc on the bottom to give clearance for the new spar, then add liberal amounts of your favourite glue and bobs yours mothers brother a version 5 wing with 2 spars...  I hope I made sense there lol

have you made any choices about what gear you are fitting to it? 

[Coyote]

Good idea there, im toying wether to drill out a second spar myself, it would be much much better, but the laminating will probably solve my doubts.

Gear wise i have received my WDR 650 OSD camera. I was more than happy with theWDR 600 so went for the 650 to get the most detailed resolution i could. Its a bit different to the 600, ill document it below.

Ill be using RVOSD eventually, but EZOSD is going in until its bought.

Immersion 5.8ghz vtx for transmission

459 UHF is also gracing it as usuall.

GoPro eventually

[papa_lazerous]

I thougth about drilling for a spar but then realised that it could end in tears as it wold be hard work to drill the holes exactly in line and in the right place etc, and any great deviation from where there are intended to be would ruin a wing.  hence the idea of cutting out a slot with hot wire as you cen have both wings joined at the time and mark a line across the span and follow it all the way knowing everyting is going to work.

I am hankering for a gopro2 but the price isnt where I want it to be right now, so I'll wait a while.

[BlueFlyer]

I'm still waiting for the HD1s to come down in price. that promise hasn't happened yet.

back to the skywalker though. It will be interesting to see how the laminated wings work out, bound to add plenty of tortional and bending resistance.

[skyscraper]

I have also got a stash of CF ribbon to add along the length to stiffen the wing and was toying with adding tape but have heard so much about it deteriorating in the sun that I havent decided yet. 

Epoxy resin is well known to deteriorate in the sun due to ultraviolet light.

The solution is simple.. Cover it with paint to protect it from the uv. Acrylic seems to work ok on styrofoam.

regards
Andy

[papa_lazerous]

Epoxy on EPO  :o  Its UHU Por, Gorilla glue and CA all the way.  I know Epoxy can work on EPO but its not the best glue to use and it doesnt chemically bond to the foam.  I know people paint their models but I am thinking of the weight it adds

I have also got a stash of CF ribbon to add along the length to stiffen the wing and was toying with adding tape but have heard so much about it deteriorating in the sun that I havent decided yet. 

Epoxy resin is well known to deteriorate in the sun due to ultraviolet light.

The solution is simple.. Cover it with paint to protect it from the uv. Acrylic seems to work ok on styrofoam.

regards
Andy

[Coyote]

Ill let you know how the laminated wings go, doing them right now, 30 min wait, then ill be ironing the laminate over the 3m90 and scrim

Fingers crossed :)

[papa_lazerous]

I hope your taking plenty of pictures???

[skyscraper]

Epoxy on EPO  :o  Its UHU Por, Gorilla glue and CA all the way. 

Carbon tape is usually designed to be wet out with epoxy. CA might ok but would give no working time. and you would need to break the binder to get good.  Not sure the other two would work too well with carbon, though admittedly I never tried them

Best way to use carbon with EPO seems to be to use extrusions.

regrads
Andy

[Coyote]

Right, lets get started on those wings.

I decided to go for lamination, not uncommon on wings, but not common on Skywalkers, hopefully it will increase the strength a lot more than stock and be a bit more crash resistant :)

First off i meshed the wing, running from root to tip, i covered the lot and overlapped each piece. For this i used standard plastering Scrim found in all good DIY stores. I was happy to find the sticky on this roll was pretty good :)



Then using 3m90, i filled the mesh untill its level with the top of the tape, using a credit card to smooth it over and get the best coverage. This is where i found i`d not have enough 3m90. One whole can will only cover half i wanted it too, so another on order

Next i layed the laminate, dull side down over the wing and cut it to length, let the 3m90 go off for 20 mins first if your in a heated house, 30 mins + if your in a freezing cold garage



Next i began tacking the edges down of the laminate, using an iron on silk setting gav enough heat to do the edges fine. Once i had that done i started from the middle to the outside shrinking the laminate down



The laminate stopped shrinking after a while so i stepped up the heat and went back over again, its slowely getting there now :)



I finally got up to wool setting on the iron, but it was a little high so dont do that if your thinking about it :) Luckily i tried a test piece first at that temp and it blew the foam up real bad so you have been warned.

Anyhoo, after a few more minutes of going over and over, eventually it started to straighten out nicely, not perfect by any means but im happy with the result

[skyscraper]

I like the look of this technique. Apparently EPO can be hot wire cut, and so it looks like the technique would lend itself quite easily to DIY projects. Should be fast and clean to do.

Where did you source the laminating film?

And BTW does anyone know where you can get EPO sheets, ideally in 50 mm and 100 mm thicknesses, in the UK?

Finally wonder how much weight is added by the spray, tape and laminating film, e.g per square metre of surface?

regards
Andy

[Coyote]

The company i got mine from is based near Darlington called Mr PK-Surfing :) Maybe he could help you out there with soucing it

Ill weight the wings when they are done and then get someone else to weigh their stock wings

[mark1975]

looking good Ian wings looking much nicer. and the whole plane looks beefed up..

[Coyote]

I now retract my previous statement of the wings not being as strong as i thought after lamination. Now ive excercised some patiance and actually left the glue to go off.............. daaaayyyymmmm !!!!! They are now strong as hell, no flex at all, think this was a real good move now, very impressed

Still needs a second spar though imo for sure