Quest - Space Clipper

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Gillard

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Started this one last night.

It has been sat in a build poile for years and i finally decided to build it.

The bag it came in was tatty and torn.
when i opened the bag, i found that it was missing two pieces: part of a foot, and one of the cardboard tubes that make its landing gear.

I reckon that i can easily make the first and use a launch lug, with paper wraps sprayed black to make the last.

the cardboard shroud is overly curved and spent the night under some books and got ironed this morning.
 
after reading the instructions and the very interesting details about the real space clipper that is included, i set about the build.

it is possible to start a few steps at once so last night i built

the feet.

launch lug to the body tube

the motor mount.

(as i was building the motor mount i realised that there was one more piece missing- a centering ring - luckily i had a spare.)

sc feet.JPG

sc tube.JPG

sc mount.JPG
 
This morning I glued the body tube to the base.

The base is made of thin card that warps easily.

To get everything flat, I pinned the base down to a fibre board with pins, this made the base much easier to glue to the body tube.

sc bottom to tube.JPG
 
Whilst the glue is drying, I added the half a ton of clay into the nose cone.

Initially, with the very low weight of the parts, I was wondering why the instructins say to use only a C6-3. Now, with the large mass of clay, I understand.
 
Do yourself a favor and replace the hollow legs with wooden dowels, my clipper has almost 50 flights on it and those were the first things to go. Also one slightly larger chute is better than jamming two small ones into the BT. :)

DCY_3_24_07.jpg
 
thanks for the advice.

i had already thought about connecting the two half together under a 15 inch chute, - will make the shock cord longer to cope, the snap back of that heavy nose cone would cause an (ESTES) dent.

i'll go look at by dowel supplies.
 
gee someone beat me to it. and epoxy is your friend when it comes to the feet
 
I dont know if any more nose weight was added. but a club member of ours used to fly his on 18mm D-13 motors all the time. It really flew well and fast !
 
Whilst the glue is drying, I added the half a ton of clay into the nose cone.

Initially, with the very low weight of the parts, I was wondering why the instructins say to use only a C6-3. Now, with the large mass of clay, I understand.

Could you post how much the NC weights with the clay?
 
I dont know if any more nose weight was added. but a club member of ours used to fly his on 18mm D-13 motors all the time. It really flew well and fast !


I flew mine on a single use D21 one time. Excellent flight, very little coast, and I used a little masking tape on the shoulder to keep the nose cone from drag separating at burnout, but yes, I like the D13 reloadable better. And now that the prices are down, I might fly it more often!
 
added the four sides to the tube this morning using CA gel to tack into place and then filleted with white glue.
the struts are really very flimsy, i would have lied then to be more solid.

struts.JPG
 
Taking the advice about the landing gear tubes, i purchased some balsa rod from the local hobby store (30p - last of the big spenders)
cut the rod down to size, and have just finished sanding the edges
(photo shows rough edges and one of the original tubes)

will glue them into place in the next few minutes.

landing gear.JPG
 
glued the landing gear tubes into place and have spray painted the base black.
also added the side pieces that add strength.

the instructions have these pieces going from tube to tube, but they are far too small for that, so they sit on the struts just inside of the tubes.
this should not effect anything.

sides.JPG
 
added the four sides to the tube this morning using CA gel to tack into place and then filleted with white glue.
the struts are really very flimsy, i would have lied then to be more solid.

I have put together AT LEAST 20 of the Space Clipper models. Once assembled the framework is plenty strong. All it needs to do it to support the shroud. You will not be disappointed with its final strength.:D
 
I have put together AT LEAST 20 of the Space Clipper models. Once assembled the framework is plenty strong. All it needs to do it to support the shroud. You will not be disappointed with its final strength.:D

wow, at least twenty - why so many?
 
motor mount is glued in place and the feet have been added.
feet are real easy, as once they have been glued, just stand the model upright and they level out flat.

feet.JPG
 
The shroud was the thing that i was fearing would go wrong but it was amazing simple.

The shround was cut outm ironed to remove curl, and then shaped and left paper clipped over night.
in the morning i taped it useing the strip provided which was done easily and first time.
next i slipped it over the frame work and then spot tacked it with bostick glue.

shroud.JPG

shroud glued.JPG
 
Next i fitted the nose cone to the shock cord and she is ready to fly (i have not added the decals yet)

finished.JPG
 
i decided to go with the two parts corded together, and with an 18inch 'chute.

Flew her this morning with my Boy; Bill.

clip bil.JPG

clip take.JPG

clip air.JPG
 
recovery was at a decent rate with the 18inch chute, and i thought she landed softly, but when Bill returned with the clipper, one of the balsa rods had snaped - which i was surprised 'cos she looked as if she had landed on all four feet at the same time.

clip broken.JPG
 
It's an easy repair and she should be ready to fly again - and she does fly well.
i'm tempted to increase the chute size on very calm days to cut down damage.
 
Flew the clipper twice today, both times on an 18 inch chute.
first landing was on long grass, no damage
second landing was on hardish playing field grass and she snapped a leg again.
i'm definately going to increase the 'chute size to 20 inch.
 
It looks great :) Watch out it doesnt do a channel crossing on a 20 inch :)
Cheers
fred
 
Taking the advice about the landing gear tubes, i purchased some balsa rod from the local hobby store (30p - last of the big spenders)
cut the rod down to size, and have just finished sanding the edges
(photo shows rough edges and one of the original tubes)

will glue them into place in the next few minutes.

I would not have used balsa rod, but spruce dowels (at least I think the dowels here in the US are made of spruce).
 
Flew my DCY yesterday twice on the new Quest C6-3 motors (which are actually more like C3-3's with a high thrust spike at the beginning).

Both flights were great and had many people asking whether the kit was still available. Had to say no, sadly, except on eBay.
 
I would not have used balsa rod, but spruce dowels (at least I think the dowels here in the US are made of spruce).

in hindsight, spruce would have been better. two landings on hard ground have broken a balsa rod each time.
 
One thing I found out the hard way is how close to instability the model is. I have a Clipper I built when they were first released. Pulled it out of "mothball" a few months ago and flew it. The flight was very unstable. What I found out afterwards was that my clay weight had come loose and dropped to the bottom of the nosecone. The shift was enough to make the model unstable. So you need to make sure the clay is as far to the front of the nosecone as possible.
 
Gillard:
I have a couple DC-y's I fly every now and then, One standard 18mm and a 13mm that was a freebe handout at Naram-35. Quest made the 13mm model as a non-flying desk model but we just couldn't let that be;)

I've found if you build them LIGHT they fly fine and don't break stuff on landing even with the ton of nose weight that has to be added.

Another thought is to add a spill hole to the chute to stop the Parasheet swing which can greatly increase the landing impact.
 
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