Nexa Twin Otter Rebuild

Today I had an email reply to my enquiry for spare parts two weeks ago back from VQ Models in Vietnam. Yes they could supply me with new motor mounts (15$) and the cowls (43$). Problem was the carriage - 93$. :ohmy: Just as well Motion RC had a set of cowls in stock and I made an extra effort to put right the motor mounts.

Looking back to 2017 on RC Groups talking about VQ and VMAR models, there was great favour for the sticky back covering when making your own livery. It peels off easily without leaving residue like MonoKote. Control surfaces would have to be primed and painted though unless your willing to rehinge everything. In hind sight - a great thing that is) maybe I should have done that too, strip off and recover. Oh well, next time.....:lol: I really fancied a FlyBe Otter.

Friday saw the ESCs turn up. Fitted them straight away on the motor mounts and now I can make up the power leads, soldering XT60s each end. Took a bit of fiddling to get them through the wings, having to pull out the flap servo to help the pull-thro. Quick fit of the wings to check I have enough cable to reach the Lipos and is it easy enough to do when on site? Yes!

Saturday, with a break in the wet weather got the Twin Otter outside , fit the wings and make adjustments to the lower nacelle covers to allow for the wing stays. While it is assembled time to put some props on and check the 4Max 3547 700kv motor's power. Using a 3/4 charged 4 cell lipo with 11 x 10 props I got 350 watts @ 24 amps Um? I found a spare 12 x 8 and tried that. 440 watts @ 28 amps. That's better. 4Max motors are rated 28 amp continuous, 35 burst. 12 x 8 looks out of place on the Otter so I will fit 3 blade 11 x 7 or 11 x 8 as fitted on my H9 Twin Otter.

Port wing is done but the human wood eater also had a go at the starboard nacelle covers. :huh: 10 mm short! I am thinking a plastic bottle cut up for some bits glue and paint. There will be a slight ridge but so what!

Virtually come to a standstill. Waiting on 2.2 mm self tapping screws, Lipos from Motion RC in transit. However, I had a go at fixing the issue with the starboard nacelle that had been hacked too short. I tried some strips of clear plastic from a juice bottle but not really up to the job. Then I had a eureka moment. Somewhere put away in a safe place should be some 0.5m PETG clear plastic bought for vacuum forming. Eventually found it and cut two strips at 15mm wide to lay on the inside of the top and bottom nacelle covers. I used UHU-POR to stick them on, 1, stays fairly flexible. 2. Sticks well most to most things. 3. If I cock up I can use a scalpel to slice the strips off again. As it happens all went well. Sprayed the top nacelle with gloss paint. Bottom half I ironed on a bit of Golden Yellow covering for now. Starboard wing is nearly finished other than repainting the red wing tips.

On the fuselage I have been adding a couple of extra items, a GPS module, height, ground speed, position and a micro Sbus receiver (about the size of 10p piece) as a slave RX.

Recovering a Twin Otter. If things go wrong there is always someone who can help. They may want paying though...

Got a fair bit done just before our holiday and the new lipos (bought specially for CG) arrived from Motion RC on the morning of out flight, so just in time. 2 x 3600 35C 4 cells. 650gms. This week I reduced the height of the landing gear, which was far too high for a
Twin Otter. Ask me why and I will explain. I do have few little jobs to do but very minor but niggle me. :lol: When I went to Canada a few years back to see my sister but was unable to spend much time at the harbour where I was amazed at the number of float planes Harbour Air had (3 mins into video). :whistle: I found this video below that says it all. At 7 mins watch the steep landing and reverse thrust.

I'm assuming thats Vancouver - I recognise Stanley park in the background and Whisper mountain to the north. We visited in 1979 and i remember being fascinated by the mass seaplane activity but nowhere near as busy then. Our fabulous trip thru the rockies was never surpassed