And now something completely different…
PIK-18 ‘Sytky’, one of clumsiest looking planes around. But they say it flies great. What about indoor sized version? Like 1.2m (1:6.667)
Month: July 2012
Status of Vinka-project?
Just an brief comment about the status of Valmet L-70 Vinka -project. I have finalized (at least I think…) initial drafting stage. Things which are still missing are some parts (rudder to be exact) and better positioning of parts etc. And some quality control. My way of working is quite straightforward. I draw quite intesively and then I have to stop project for an while to allow brains re-think some items. After this ‘it’s just cooking there’-phase I will make some quick fixes which are absolutely necessary.
Below you will find latest bitmaps of this 1.44 (1:6.67) creature.
another pic of Vinka fus design
It’s a beauty. Classic modelling at it’s best.
New design project Valmet L-70 Vinka, scale 1:6.67, wingspan of 1.45m
This is exciting. I have been negoating with Patria Aviation and they kindly allowed me to make scale planes (+kits) of their range of military planes and even supported me with providing original factory drawings of L-70 Vinka, L-80 and L-90 Redigo. That last one was eventually re-branded as Aermacchi M-290 Redigo.
Great many thanks for Patria Aviation. I really appreciate the fact that they took effort on supporting us. This is so great.
Also, my old pal HSK’s father was part of part of design team of L-70 Vinka so this has some personal meaning to me also.
This time my goal was to make extremely light parkflyer with 1:6.67 size ending with 1.45m size. I wanted to draw something which is as easy to build as PIK-16 Hinu, but lighter. The scale ratio is exactly same. Eventually this means that my next project L-90 will have same scale. But in L-90 I will make it quite much stronger allowing faster speeds.
Reasoning is simple, L-90 and L-70 share same canopy design and I am quite lazy. I will make one canopy mould and I will use it for both them. …. also same canopy was used in PIK-23 Muhinu…. interesting…
For Vinka (which btw means cold wind in Lappland) I used trusty old Clark Y for wing and again variety of Naca’s to tail. Current stage of project is :
- fuselage is ready in devfus waiting to be 2d’d. I am quite happy with design and 3d-modelling in this project. I managed to iron all normal devfus kinks out and all stringers are nicely done. I even used devfus capabilities to draw canopy frames.
- Wing + foils are ready
- Elevator + everything associated is also ready
Regarding PIK-16a Vasama
And that brings us to most interesting topic. My original intention was to make also PIK-16a Vasama as the only difference is fuselage and tail section. Wing is (almost) identical with only difference of sheeting. 16a has full width sheeting, 16c has ‘half’ sheeting with cap strips, so no design difference.
I started drafting 16a using only existing 3-view which I am aware and quickly noticed that it is most flawed. It’s canopy area is almost 100% different than the original’s canopy area. You can make comparision by yourself easily. Just compare Vasama-biography-book 3-view and Raunio’s PIK-book pictures. They are not from same plane. I did contact Vasama aviation club members last summer and the 3-view in Vasama-book is the only one they have found.
So unless I manage to find better 3-view this project is waiting. I could easily design something resembling 16a because it is really quite straightforward fuselage. BUT I would end up with something which is nice looking, but it is not 16a. Bad.
This is quite sad situation as PIK-16a is extremely nice looking plane with it’s v-tail and shorter nose (that is 0,2m shorter compared to 16c).
Anyone happen to have something to help me?
Vasama stats
Oops, I forgot to add some vital statistics to Vasama case. Wingspan 5m, profile at root HQ30-12 and HQ30-10 at tip of panel 1. Second panel has HQ30-10 all the way. I had to use 2 panels per wing to retain scale appearance. If you look closely original 3-views you notice that there is an wedge at TE of wing. To make that kind of wing in Profili you need to use 2 panels. Actual building can be done in one go, ie the panels are just to allow Profili to keep up with wedge. Elevator is Naca 0009. In rudder I used quite interesting design. The root of rudder has Naca 0010 and tip has Naca 0012. So the relative thicknes increases to tip. This is due the fact that the rudder tapers aggressively. Logically thickness to rudder tapers also. And it looks too funny. So I increase relative thickness to decrease effect of tapering :).
An new project finalized & ready for building : PIK-16c Vasama
I completed couple days ago an new designproject which has been long overdue. It is one of most beautiful Finnish sailplanes, PIK-16c Vasama. Only sailplane which has been mentioned being more beautiful is it’s predecessor, PIK-16a.
16c was quite complicated design. It looks rather simple, but in fact it is tremendously challenging. It’s way of connecting wings to fuselage is structurally quite difficult and it caused a lot of head-scratching. But I guess that I have found way to simplify it and now it is buildable. You can find that design in www.iwaru.fi/vasama.html. But do not expect to see it finalized anytime soon. I am buried in build projects. It’s estimated time of build is approx 2013 spring. If everything works out nicely. Unless somebody is brave enough to volunteer for beta building.
