FlisKits Tiddlywink

[TheAviator]

Thanks to Jim again for another great kit. All of the parts were high quality... and there were quite a few parts to this kit! The balsa was relatively light and very high quality. Quite a bit of extra too, enough for an extra blade or fin should you goof. Finally, the Robart hinges were a great find, they were a lot smaller than I thought the would be!

I have two comments about my build. I accidentally airfoiled the blades the wrong way! :blush: To remedy that situation, I cut the tips of the blades the opposite direction to accommodate the fins. This ends um making the blades about 1/4" shorter than they should be, but it should still work just fine.

The other modification (if you look closely at the second picture) is that I set the fins into the blades. I figured that I could shave a couple 1/100th's of a gram and clean the lines up a little this way. Any thoughts, Jim?

Flights will be this Saturday and Sunday at Steel City Smoke Trail 9.

Anyways, for all of you picture fanatics, here they are!

 

[chanstevens]

Well that makes at least 2 of the TW's that will be flying at Steel City this weekend

 

[Micromeister]

Thanks to Jim again for another great kit. All of the parts were high quality... and there were quite a few parts to this kit! The balsa was relatively light and very high quality. Quite a bit of extra too, enough for an extra blade or fin should you goof. Finally, the Robart hinges were a great find, they were a lot smaller than I thought the would be!

I have two comments about my build. I accidentally airfoiled the blades the wrong way! :blush: To remedy that situation, I cut the tips of the blades the opposite direction to accommodate the fins. This ends um making the blades about 1/4" shorter than they should be, but it should still work just fine.

The other modification (if you look closely at the second picture) is that I set the fins into the blades. I figured that I could shave a couple 1/100th's of a gram and clean the lines up a little this way. Any thoughts, Jim?

Flights will be this Saturday and Sunday at Steel City Smoke Trail 9.

Anyways, for all of you picture fanatics, here they are!

Yes: That's one of the Modifications I suggested and did on my Tiddlywink back in April. Makes a nice difference in flow and balance. Good Luck at Steel City looks like it should dry out of the meet.
We'll be interested to hear what kind of Durations folks are getting, I'll look forward to the reports on Monday.

 

[TheAviator]

Did you fly yours off of a piston John?

 

[jbuscaglia]

We'll be interested to hear what kind of Durations folks are getting.

My teammates (Spanish Inquisition team) flew a stock Tiddlywink at a regional in Michigan last weekend. They took first on a single flight - there was no need to fly again. One tmer had it for 73 seconds. The other timer lost it much earlier, so the average was less.

Most of the others were flying QCR kits. Not even close. I expect that Jim got a big order from Michigan this week.

 

[jflis]

well, sales *have* been brisk Going to kit some more this afternoon as we depleted stock Wednesday...

As for integrating the fin right into the blade, I have heard of several folks doing that and getting good results. Sounds like a winning modification!

 

[Micromeister]

Did you fly yours off of a piston John?

Actually NO Brain:
It was supposted to be a "test" flight flew if off my 6pad Micro Rack launcher instead. Sorry the pic is so far away.

I just finished a replacement, Hope to get it in the air sometime in the next couple weeks. That one will be from my floating head piston launcher.

 

[TheAviator]

John,

Could I get a set of drawings for your MMX (what I assume to be) internal lead piston launcher? I have one that will work on pretty much anything (including 10.5mm) except MMX. They're just too darn small! Thanks!

 

[chanstevens]

Brian:

I'll be flying off a floating head piston up there tomorrow. I can show you the basics (after I confirm you're not flying against me in C ).

 

[Micromeister]

John,

Could I get a set of drawings for your MMX (what I assume to be) internal lead piston launcher? I have one that will work on pretty much anything (including 10.5mm) except MMX. They're just too darn small! Thanks!

Sure:
I just finished the drawing as a matter of fact. I'll try to post it here, If I can't get it to upload, I'll have it in pdf format in the files section over on the MicroMaxRockets group.
I've been flying with this piston setup for a couple years now, I have to say I've been exceptionally happy with the plug in heads & igniters, I've yet to have a misfire with these little beauties. Making up the igniters is a breeze, I usually do it while watching TV.
Hope this helps.

 

[TheAviator]

I don't have any pictures (sorry!), but my flights today are 31s perfect deployment and 9s with a hinge that broke loose.

The 31s flight is a new B-Division record (sure to be broken at NARAM though, oh well.)

 

[chanstevens]

This was pretty popular in C division today as well, though in my case I continued to show I'm all bluster/no performance. I brought 2 models--#1 was my experienced "stock" build with 4 flights in dead air, no piston, averaging a pretty consistent 40 seconds or so, weighing in at 4.1 grams. I built #2 earlier this week, slightly tweaked/improved, and got the weight down to 3.8 grams.

Bubbles Ash-Poole started the TW parade with a very nice 31 second flight, setting the bar admirably. Her second DQ'd, but I didn't catch it for the issue. I htink Jim Filler flew one of these today as well, but DQ'd first flight (shed a blade IIRC).

I pulled out #2 and loaded it on a piston. AMAZING boost, much higher than the other flights. Instant blade deployment, but for some reason it didn't really start turning. It qualified very feebly, getting a total of 3 rotations on its way down for 17 seconds. Upon further examination, it looks like one of my 3 blades must have twisted in the hinge a bit while CA cured, as its angle of attack was not quite in line with the others. I re-mounted it tonight and will test it tomorrow.

For my second flight, I needed a better/more reliable time, so went back to Ol' Faithful #1, on a piston. Another very good boost, though not quite as high. Double-DQ, though, as I spit the motor and broke one of the hinges, so no rotation.

I've got 7 TW flights in now, and have broken 2 hinges, so this appears to be a weak spot the modeler will need to keep an eye on. Both breaks were right in the ball joint, very delicate.

I stand by my comment on EMRR/review that this is absolutely the model to beat at NARAM. Obviously good air+bad model will tend to beat bad air/good model, but all air equal, no other design is likely to top this one in 1/8A.

 

[jflis]

Great flight reports.

I am looking into the hinge concern and will be trying an experiment this coming week. A few folks who have contacted me regarding "broken hinges" turn out to *not* be broken, rather they "dislocated" the ball from the socket.

I have one myself that has done this. It is easy to pop back in but once dislocated it tends to pop out a lot easier. What I am going to try is to heat a straight pin and use it to expand the ball slightly while in the socket in the hopes that it tightens up the ball/socket joint and prevents dislocations.

I'll let folks know what happens. On these that "broke hinges", are they actually broken or dislocated?

jim

 

[TheAviator]

Jim,

It was a dislocated ball socket. I found some metal pin robart hinges at my hobby shop. If you like, I will send a sample to you.

 

[kjohnson]

I also had a hinge that was more likely than not to "dislocate" on delplyment. I was thinking about adding a little somthing to the top of the ball to keep things connected but wasn't having much luck. I made a field modification using a small section of motor hook to act as a brace over the joint. I'll see about posting a couple of photos tomorrow- I just want to sleep now.

kj

 

[chanstevens]

Put me down for two more of the "dislocation" occurrences (one at least was during the build, not flight). I did try heating a pin and flaring out the ball piece, but it didn't work too well. First pass was too careful, didn't flare enough to work well. Second attempt was more aggressive, flared so much there's too much friction and it tends not to deploy well, so I just replaced the hinge entirely. Given that the hinges will probably be a high replacement item, I'll probably forgo the Kevlar thread wrap holding them on and go with something along the lines of a twist tie or plastic clamp strip.

Aviator/Brian also mentioned the hobby sop he works in has a version of the Robart hinge with metal pins. That might be another option.

One other failure mode encountered Sunday on 2 different models--forward centering ring on piston/glue joint failure, causing the piston itself to spit off/separate. My model was one of the two, and I know I went very thin with the glue fillet. Seems like a silly place to try to shave a bazillionth of a gram as I did.

 

[jflis]

I would be most interested in any info on a metal pin hinges in the same size range as a future kit improvement.

I've received a wealth of feedback on this kit as we have moved so many in such a short period of time. Keep'em coming!

jim

 

[kjohnson]

Here are photos of my field modification to splint the dislocated hinge-

I was looking for a piece of music wire in my range box but came up empty.

kj

 

[TheAviator]

I did something similar with mine; but just using scrap 1/16 inch balsa that was lying around. I wish I had it here to take pictures, but I put it in a tree while giving demos in my back yard. Finally managed to catch a thermal with the thing and when I was looking for a BAD flight. Oh well.