Red Bull Mechanics Mounting Structure
The mounting of the main mechanics has kept me thinking for a bit. I knew right away what I wanted, but was not sure how to do it. With lots of planning, and some ideas from JestRR on ScaleRCHelis forum for tail boom support mods, I finally have it all figured out. Below you can see all the steps I went through to get to the end result.
This is a very long section as I am showing all the details of my thought process. Wow!!! That could be scary, ha ha..
I am using tape rolls for support to see where about the mechanics should sit.
Here I have started making a card board pattern for the bulkhead structures that I will be adding. These bulkheads
will also connect the mechanics to a mounting plate. The whole structure will be tied to the existing wood structure
and will form an egg shape inside the fuselage. I will be making two, maybe three of these bulkheads.
Making some markings to get an idea where the mechanics will sit side to side.
Now I am marking where the bottom of the mechanics will sit. Once this
is done I will have a good idea where the mounting plate will be sitting.
Just marking from underneath to be the most accurate I can.
Here is the marked up card board ready to be cut.
Here's the second bulkhead marked up and ready to cut, and then cut out.
And now a test fit shows it needs a bit of trimming. I'm not surprised.
And now the front bulkhead being test fit. I ended up cutting the cross brace from this
bulkhead because it will not be there for the final part. You can also see the pattern is a
little short on both sides. I just made a note and added this on when cutting the wood.
Here you can see the first bulkhead rough cut in place.
Here you can see four bulkheads cut and holding up the mechanics mounting plate.
And a little more test fitting. This process was done about 50 times before I
was satisfied with the fit. This is very important to get this part correct as the
whole mechanics setup relies on it to be correct, straight, and level.
Here is the first of two vertical side supports that will go under and lock into the
mechanics mounting plate.
Here you can see how it all fits together.
I also had to cut out for the tail drive pulleys and belt.
Now you can see how the mechanics will sit on the support structure.
And what it will look like inside the fuselage.
Now before the bulkheads can be glued in I had to cut out for the magnets
and mounting tee nuts that were already installed in the fuselage from the factory.
Now you can see how they fit flush against the fuselage, and also how the
mechanics mounting plate sits and fits into the bulkheads pieces. This was lots
of work and test fitting over and over, but I am very happy with the way it's looking now.
This was a concept drawing I did for the mechanics mounting structure.
Now a made a pattern for the tail boom support that will tie the boom to the
main support structure installed from the factory. This was a suggestion from Mike Spinner
from Scale RC Helis forum. He had to do this to his Red Bull from RC Aerodyne. I figured I might
as well do it from the start as he already did the ground work and flight testing and found it was needed.
Saved me lots of head aches.
Test fitting inside the fuselage.
Wood is cut and getting fitted. Note the bottom of the vertical piece.
I extended mine down to go inside the original wood structure. Mike's was
different, but I think this is better. So I did it my way on this one.
Here you can see a backer plate and the vertical rib coming through the center.
A better view of the same setup.
And now most of the wood structure in place for number n(x) test fit.
Yes, you're correct!! I screwed up one bulkhead on the Stbd side and I'm
short on supplies so I will add some small wood pieces to tie it together.
A view from outside the front window.
All the wood ready to be glued together and glued in place.
And now the gluing begins!!!
Rear fuselage and tail boom support.
And then after all that I decided I needed more support, so once again...
