Eurofighter FPV build

[Zeeflyboy]

Yes, it has a fairly speedy disposition!

Here's what a pitot looks like after it snags at 50mph... think I'll be needing a new one!





and I forgot to share this, here's all my kit bundled up and ready to go to the field. Not bad for a 3m catapult, 2.8m ground station and antenna mast, and a 1.5m jet!

[skyscraper]

and I forgot to share this, here's all my kit bundled up and ready to go to the field. Not bad for a 3m catapult, 2.8m ground station and antenna mast, and a 1.5m jet!

Looks nice and compact.

FWIW I plan to put some golf cart wheels on my launch ramp and make it double as a trolley for getting the gear and the planes to the launch site :)

regards
Andy

[hexo]

Absolutely brilliant plane and it flew very well.  :)

Well done!

[Dantian]

Zeeflyboy even QinetiQ boys are allowed to have fun ya know  :o

Absolutely such a great flight, am soo soo jealous. That think fly's like it has the mass of a big bird too.

Stunning.

Dan

[phibin]

wow!!! :o :o

really impressed... been watching the build and waiting....

that really was a great fpv maiden!!! and an awesome view from the cockpit!

looks like its a bit 'fast and furious' though  ;D
bet it covers 500m quick, and TURN!

really well done mate!

do we have a new contender for the front page airframe????


simon.

[Zeeflyboy]

Thanks! Yeah it's like greased weasel s@&t! Going to take some practice to get it flying nice and smooth...

So, if I remember correctly someone said my euro needed some details, and they were right of course - plain grey sucks. So, I will be adding decals later for an RAF/Zeeflyboy style scheme but for now I decided to try out a bit of weathering. Never done it before but there's always a first time for everything! A military aircraft shouldn't look all clean and perfect after all...

here's my first bit of work on it (only done the right half so far), I think it looks pretty cool! What do you guys think? I need to find a gunmetal silver paint for the exhaust stack...



The keen eyed among you may notice the lack of a nose... that's where the pitot got ripped out on landing and I have cut it back in order to surgically graft on a new schnozzola

[Zeeflyboy]

I've finished the weathering... now I just need to fab some covers for the bays, get some nice gunmetal paint for the rear of the plane and the exhaust nozzles, and print out some decals.

Should I go with scale style decals or something more interesting? Some fancy tail art or a simple squadron badge? let me know your thoughts!

[Zeeflyboy]

So back from holiday and work begins on refitting the euro!

my RVOSD 5 arrived, really nice looking bit of kit I must say... You can see here as well where I have soldered on the wires for the Airspeed unit and then re-covered it again with heat shrink. I'm using the MPXV7002DP kit from diy drones.



As mentioned, the RVOSD is limited to 30v, so my 8S system is too much for it. Here is my wiring harness with current sensor between the two batteries to provide half the voltage to the sensor and RVOSD yet still give correct current readings. I also added the 4S pick up lead for the IMRC vTX, with the positive downstream of the current sensor shunt so as to include it in the mah readings.



And here is the RVOSD installed with double sided foam tape on a grey foam insert that has been shaped to fit a cutout in the fuselage. as you can see this then fits nicely inside the middle of the fuse and sits almost directly over the CG give or take a couple of inches. Hopefully the foam mount will cut vibrations to the unit too...








After my damage to the nose I have also started repairing it, which involved cutting the whole tip off and rebuilding it along with a new pitot... I then stuck the nose back on and am in the process of putting it all back to sexy.... you might also note the presence of a nose wheel!

[Zeeflyboy]

Here's a quick look at the retracts.... need to do a little tweaking on the nose gear door and then glue/paint etc.

I'm hoping to have enough space to cut out the wheel wheel to fit straight struts for the rear, but it may infringe on the ducting. Gear doors would be nice to add for the mains too.

First look - retracts

[FPVSteve]

Very very nice - suspension?

[Zeeflyboy]

yup, quite good suspension in fact... probably a good thing!

Anyone here rocking the RVOSD? I'm having some issues....

[Zeeflyboy]

So, one problem solved regarding the current sensor... anyone got any ideas about these other things?

Why am I a good thousand feet below the sea amongst the giant squid and funny looking jelly things? Why can't I get my AHI to sit level? The unit itself is installed level in the plane!

RVOSD problem setting AHI neutral

[Zeeflyboy]

So, Range video are replacing my RVOSD for me :)

anyway

Thought you guys might like to see my in progress retract modifications

As mentioned, I didn't like the dog leg struts - I thought they looked a bit pants, and the real one has straight struts. So.... I ordered some suspension straight leg struts from hobbyking for a little over $10 (bargain!!)...

So the only real issue was that they take a 5mm pin and the landing gear has a 4mm pin... I chucked the pin into my pillar drill and used a file to step it down to 4mm... I then inserted the 4mm length into the retract and job done!

This mod has a couple of advantages besides cosmetics - this eurofighter can be tricky to rotate on take off, it likes to stay sucked to the ground. These struts are about 0.5cm shorter than the stock ones, and thus give the euro a little more angle of attack during the takeoff roll. They also move the pivot point of the wheels slightly closer to the CG, meaning less force is needed to pitch up the nose during the rotate.... They also have the happy advantage of being able to be pulled straight out of the fuselage while retracted - a big plus for my removable wings!

Here you can see how the straight leg compares to the dog leg - as you can see it does move the wheel a bit further forward which should really help with those rotations! I just cut a little foam here to allow the retract to fully close. Note the thickness of the strut compared to the stock ones - it matches the nose wheel strut much better and looks far more coherent as a result.




And here I am starting work on the gear door mechanism. You can see my 3g servo hiding just inside the hollow space in the fuselage, which then will connect to the door hinge.





And here's a video of the door in operation

Gear door WIP

[hexo]

A great build. You are a master crafter!  :nicethread:

[Zeeflyboy]

thanks  :o

So unfortunately work has been hectic and I have had almost zero time to get anything else done...

Small things however!

I have installed my replacement RVOSD and both the current sensor and AHI seem to be behaving themselves this time... that is good news! Still have to program it all up and do a few wires runs etc. I did however add a shielded cable for RVOSD to vTX as well as cam to RVOSD (the black and grey wires you see above the RVOSD).



I also fitted an Emcotec magnetic switch. Now I Love this thing - basically it means I can hook up my batteries, install the canopy and then when I'm ready to go I just pop out the little flag and the whole system comes live. No sparks, no fuss and peak 120A handling from the switch. Very handy given the need for the RVOSD to be kept still for 30 seconds after powering up and to prevent any issues from connecting the camera or ppm decoder after power up.



And finally I made myself a fibreglass cover for the vTX bay. I have now completely sealed in the vTX so that the bay is isolated from the rest of the interior.. I then cut a hole into the main duct system just at the back and beneath the vTX itself which is suspended so neither the top nor bottom are touching any surface... I then cut two slits in my fibreglass cover.

When the engine spools up, air is drawn through these two slits, over and under the vTX and then out through the exhaust into the duct.... hopefully keeping it all cool.





Other than that, I've done a little more work on the retracts and gear doors... still some work to do on that, mostly wiring. Hopefully not long before it's at least operational again!