Nexa Twin Otter Rebuild

As usual like DIY one job overlaps another which means that while working on one task you must be aware that it might well have an unwanted effect on another further down the line. Anyway, the motors have been fitted to the firewalls with 10mm stand-offs and their position checked with the new cowls.

Two holes (I assume for the ESC leads) have been filled with skinning balsa. These holes were totally unnecessary as VQ had made provision for the leads behind the motors and would be covered by the lower nacelle half. The damaged wing tip was "repaired" with balsa but not very well finished so have sanded and filled grain/holes with light weight filler. The plastic tip will have to stay as is. At least it is on the underside. The ailerons were hinged with CA/Mylar but one aileron was not fitted very properly either so I have cut the ailerons off and re-hinging with Kavan flat pin hinges.

While waiting on the filler to dry I thought I would check again the tail assembly as I will be gluing this in shortly or so I thought! The Guy had tried to make it detachable probably for transport. The fin appears to locate okay but the stabiliser is not square. I have tried to uncure the CA and scalpel the joint but to no avail, I cannot get the stab back out. Now I am thinking on making my own tail bits. Pondered over the problem along with a cup of coffee. Just a thought - I wonder if. On to Motion RC and lo and behold they have a tail assembly complete in stock and quite cheap. So to avoid more balsa copying, cutting and shaping I will have one please. Click click - done. Although it won't be here much before 9th September. Still plenty more tasks to do in the meantime.

Yesterday, Sunday I installed the servos for rudder, elevator and steering. The steering push rod fouled and created resistance so had to hack some more material away but it works just fine now. The control rods are a little too long but won't shorten them until I get the tail assembly fitted. The control rods ends have had their original clevises changed to ball links for smoother operation. The servos area bit of an overkill at HiVolt 13kg torque but that was all I had in my stock bin.

Wheels? Yes I appreciate models like this are designed to roll across rough grass but the front wheel is too big. The Otter stand tilt up rather than level. In fact the model sits high compared to the full size. Scale wise you would need a 10 ft ladder to access the cargo doors unlike the real one which would be shoulder height. Nit picking.:lol: Anyway the nose leg now has a smaller wheel similar to some Otter versions. It also sits just level.

Speaking of level I set the aircraft level to bubble and temporarily installed the old tail assembly to check whether the stabiliser is level too. With a bit of jiggling it does.

With nothing to do on Monday except for some household chores and the project held up due to the wing covering and other small parts are stuck in the strike affected mail. I had a practice go at sorting the old tail assembly. I removed about 5mm of the sticky back covering on the surfaces by the joints in preparation for gluing. With the stab slightly wobbly now but still effectively glued, I held the fin to stab with clamps and a set square. Back filled the worse side of the joint with medium CA. I cut some quarter triangle balsa and made up some fillets. Covered them in Cub yellow Oracover. With the tail still clamped I glued these fillets plus two more for the underside with Medium CA. After a coffee I removed the clamps and we now have a stabiliser that is square to the fin. Hooray!

Tuesday and the post lady arrives with the covering from Macgregors but no 2mm rods, kavan hinges and Epoxy from RC World. Grrr. Earlier, whilst the wing is not covered I added some captured nuts where the wing stays attach to the wing rather than the maker's idea of a self tapper. Opening the covering rolls it appears that Cub Yellow is only one shade down from Cadmium Yellow. Still too bright for the Twotter. Um! What to do? Just get on with it and bite the bullet. Video phone rings! It's Matt wandering around a model shop. We compare the yellows. It may be that Golden Yellow is the nearest to the printed covering on the Twotter. Hope so cos' I have got Matt to bring two rolls back for me.

Meanwhile project can no further till wings are finished. Weather and wind speeds do not look too promising either for Cashmoor, Wednesday is a no go as RBH beckons, Thursday not sure and Friday we have got the grandsons all day and possible heavy rain is forecast at the weekend and onwards. I need some indoor jobs/projects.

With a big thanks to Matt who saw my recent post about colours and just so happened to be in Worthing at a well known model shop. Using video it was decided that Golden Yellow is the nearest. So, today, Wednesday I unwrapped the roll and it's so close and considering the model has been hanging around a bit so colour would have changed a little. The covering is Easycoat, not my favourite due to the fact that pigment is also the adhesive but at £10 a roll cheaper than Oracover it's got to be a bargain and a colour match. Oracover is three layers the pigment in the centre layer.

Wing are now covered and the aileron HV servos are installed. Ailerons are still waiting on hinges somewhere in the post. If they don't turn up tomorrow I will install the flap servos and repaint the wing tips if no household tasks appear- again.

Not much achieved today due to lack of bits. However, I managed to preset the ailerons and flap servos and the flaps are set up using two channels. The latter due to the fact the servos are facing the same way so had to reverse one channel. I have created two versions on the Horus.

Version 1: uses Sbus and a 15 channel Hub. Two channels for Ailerons, two channels for Throttles, Two for Flaps (as per above) one channel for steering and two channel for switching beacons/lights. Spare channels for any more gadgetry.

Version 2: Standard basic set up for 8 ch RX. Ail, Elv,Thr, Rud, Flap, Flap, Steer. Channel 8 is power in.