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Seagull Models Sparrow Hawk Part one The following article has been written to provide people new to the hobby of RC model building and flying how to set about building an almost ready to fly model or for those who just want to see how I do things.
Over the last few months I have been looking for a plane that could replace my old Astro Hog. The Astro Hog has been a good faithful model over the years seeing me and others through our introduction into radio RC flying and finally to the big day when we’ve achieved our A certification. As you can imagine to reach this stage the poor old Astro Hog has seen its fair share of crashes and been repaired to many times to mention. So I have decided to retire her to the loft for prosperities sake.
So the search began to find a replacement that would have that vintage look whilst still providing me with an aircraft with those forgiving qualities that my old faithful had done over the last few years. After trawling the many model websites out there and reading an article in the RCM&E I decided on the Sparrow Hawk supplied by Seagull Models.
So what’s in the box ?
On opening the box you are presented with a well packaged kit from fuselage right down to pilot and all the required fittings to complete the kit. The quality of the wings Fuselage is excellent as are the fin, rudder, stabiliser and elevators with these parts all being fully built up and covered with profilm to a high standard. The cowl is made of fibreglass and provides plenty of room for that nice big 4 stroke that is going to power her.
So what’s going to power this new acquisition? On the box it recommends a 160 but reading the article in the RCM&E the model was flown with a 120 providing plenty of power. With this in mind it was time to pay a visit to Just Engines website. Having just purchased a 2.4G module for my radio this required for an under cover operation, because if the good lady indoors finds out what I’m up to there will be trouble. So we have to wait until she is out, make the purchase and have it delivered to work. Job done no one the wiser.
So here it is an ASP 120. Plenty enough power me thinks. As this engine is going to be placed inverted I decided that it would be a good idea to fit an onboard glow to ensure we don’t have any engine problems at lower revs when landing. This was also purchased from Just engines at a cost of £38.00 a small price to pay for peace of mind.
And here it is, doesn’t look much for the money but I have fitted one to my Thunder Tiger 75 and have had no problems with dead sticking at lower revs .
So how does it work? This unit has an internal computer that determines the idle setting on the radio. When the engine is running at idle the battery power to the glow plug is at 100% as the throttle is moved up the power is reduced and once over ¼ throttle the unit shuts off, when the throttle is reduced the glow comes back on again.
Now to start putting everything together. The kit comes with reasonable assembly instructions but I like to start with the wings. The first job is to fit the servos. This is simple enough as the holes have already been cut to take a standard servo, the only problem I encountered here was the openings were a fraction to small so I had to take a modelling knife and enlarge them slightly
Job done.
Next Job on the list is to set in the hinges. The instructions say to use super glue, I’m allergic to this and I prefer to use epoxy. First I epoxy the hinges into the wing and wait for them to cure 5mins how brave is that? Then I epoxy in the ailerons. Yes 5mins again. You might have guessed I’m inpatient
Here’s a picture of the ailerons just prior to being fitted to the wing, notice I have attached the control horn to the aileron prior to fixing, I find trying to fit them after fitting to the wing that I usually end up damaging the wing.
Next I have moved onto the tail section of the aircraft starting with fixing the hinges to the stabiliser and elevator and then moving onto the fin and rudder again using 5min epoxy. See following pics
Once these had all set the next stage is to join the stabilisers to the fin section. Time to put away the 5min epoxy and get out the 30min stuff (just going to have to be patient I suppose). The two stabiliser halves are fitted to the fin with a length of aluminium tube and to lengths of piano wire locators. See pic below
The tube and locaters are glued to place using epoxy and left to cure. Time for a cuppa
Right back to it. The next stage required more 30min epoxy this is placed on one side of the tube and locating pins and on the root end of the stabiliser. The stabiliser is then pushed onto the tube until it meets with the fin, any epoxy that has pushed out from the joint is cleaned up with mentholated spirit and the assembly propped on end and allowed to cure
Stabiliser cured and ready to received other side. The same procedure as the first is used
The completed tail section ready to be fitted to the main fuselage.
Whilst waiting for the
tail section to cure with the remainder of the epoxy I had left (mixed up to
much as usual )I thought I would put it to good use and fitted the
undercarriage supports to both the wing halves
That all for now folks tune in very soon to see work started on the engine installation
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