Foxy Baby**

[terry white]

Hi lads and lasses, (did I ever tell you I like foxes?)

I thought you might like to see my latest fox to come out of the workshop before its maiden flight.

The kit was from the Graupner stable before they decided to end most of their model supplies.
I was very fortunate to find one of the last they produced. I wanted an all glass ship with full span glass/carbon fibre spars,as I could not add this requirement retrospectfully I needed to rely on the manufacturer to do their sums correctly and produce a strong airframe. Other then that there has been a large departure from the destruction book that they had popped in with the kit. For those interested:-

Our slopes in this part of the world although very pretty, and I love flying from them, unfortunately are not very high or steep.. They therefore do not create the type of lift needed to be able to fly a fox like it should be flown.(check out one of Jimbo's vids on this forum to see how it should be flown Also as the aircraft design is not built for out and out thermalling such a model can get you into serious trouble and caught out big time when the lift decides to have a rest. Also when I owned the third scale fox which Eric Friend now owns I found that more times than not I would load up the car with the large model, then find the wind was not quite in the right sector, or there was no one about I could trust to launch it for me, or any of a number of reasons that would stop me flying it. Which ended up with me carting it about more then I flew it.

So,oo Me thinks a need for a motor up front,(sorry Barry C).Not so unusual as you may think ,a great deal of full size gliders are now being retrofitted with motors upfront just like our models complete with folding props and Lipo batteries. I understand that Guy Westgate is experimenting with just this set-up on his full size fox as we speak,so who knows I might have got there first.

I think an aerobatic machine capable of the full repertoire should not have a piddly little get you home motor up front. It needs the same power of performance upwards as it has downwards, so I chose the Hacker C50-4lX with a 6.1 gearbox on 10 cells to start. (This motor is used extensively in large 3D flying) The maiden will tell if I should add the final 2 cells to increase it to 12.

Elec calc's say near vertical flight at Its final weight. I cant wait.

Before fitting out the fuselage I strengthened the high stress areas with carbon fibre and glass cloth. You can just make out the unidirectional carbon tape in the vid. This runs from and takes in the motor formers back through the wing recesses to behind the wing roots.The third runs along the floor taking in the wheel mount (a high stress point on a fox) to again a point well behind the wing root. Finally there are a number of hoops and half hoops crossways to help stop the crushing effect of the wings on the open cockpit. The wings are held to the fus with 5M bolts with integral springs to allow a little give if necessary.

The back end has also had a similar going over. The foxes slab sided fus design (to help it hold knife-edge manoeuvres) leaves it vulnerable to creasing on a hard arrival so extra material here is always welcome.

The caverness fus size at the back end allows you to get in and do almost any thing you wish here. I like to keep the extremities light especially the back end so I tacked drinking straws to the inside, spaced evenly one top and one bottom down the length of each sides, then glass taped over the straws. This formed internal longerons down both sides of the fus with the extra benefit of 4 conduits for the cables to the rear servo's and satellite receivers.

Discussions have been on this forum before of direct drive to the rudder for aerobatic models such as the fox and there I tried to describe my rendition of direct drive. The vid helps.

One of the pains in my life is trying to get a metal clevis on or off its horn whilst sitting on a cold, damp hillside with snow all around and my wife calling me for tea, and it refusing to play ball. The foxes tail plane is no different and made all the harder by having a low tail plane to the fuselage. So I decided some time ago to fit the servo's in the tail plane itself. As this t. p. is of a hollow glass molding I needed to fit a carbon spar the span of the tail plane to replace the strength that the monocot design supplies,thus allowing me to cut into the bottom skin to get the servo installed. Now it is the simplest of tasks to connect electrically and go.

I must mention that my mate Andy Shafer kindly did the decals for me which transformed it from an all white thing to what you see on the vid today. Thanks again Andy. Excellent work.

Well that's it folk,I hope I haven't bored you to much. Now for the Maiden flight, and post No 2. But not just yet, I am awaiting the fitting of a pace maker electric puffer to give me the strength to perform. No not flying it, Hell no, That's for my son Rick to do I just build them. Kind regards to all Terry.

[Antonia]

Nice one Terry, looks lovely . Hope to see it flying soon.

Antonia

[Geoff Pearce]

Nice one Terry almost professional , when part 2 comes on line I would expect on the maiden launch to here Jimi Hendrix FOXY LADY

Geoff

[Simon WS]

Looks very nice Terry - I guess it is quarter scale rather than third as your video says? Very funky sound track!
Phil H and I had our Purbeck Foxes in the air a few weeks ago on the South Downs and they were as awesome as ever!

Si

[jimbo]

Wow, stunning build terry and great video, love that rudder install, its the dogs, love the scheme too.
Hope the maiden goes well, best of luck, will you be bringing it to rhossili, with that motor you could sit and fly it from the car park
Jimbo.

[roo Hawkins]

Hi Terry I love the fox you have done. I think motor in the nose is the way to go I am thinking of adding one myself as I find it a bit hard to get flying has my local slope is only good in a west wind for larger gliders. So adding a motor in the nose is the way to go with a dolly? Get well soon after your pace opp mate. ROO

[Rick]

Old habits Simon!

I've updated it now.

R

[jimbo]

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