It Flies what else?

Well finally the second Jart had its maiden flight, this last weekend at Volksrust, a group of us went down for the weekend. On saterday afternoon the wind had swung easterly and really picked up so we moved to the eastern point and I decided to give it a go.

This Jart is light it weighs just under 1kg and is fitted with two nice MG digital no name brand servo,s which I am trying for the first time.

The launch was uneventfull and she only needed a few clicks of up, this one is a little faster than my first one which has an MH32 airfoil . I also programmed in some flapperon which helps slow down for landings.

Anyway the first flight was a blast and on the sunday I tried a second flight in lighter air which resulted in a nasty tipstall and flick , you need to keep the speed up on these gliders, so due to the lack of good lift I safely landed.

I guess it's on to planning Jart number three .

Cheers

Mike

Ps I highly recommend you get yourself one they fly great.

Hot Jart

Well I got a chance to do a little final decorating , this is often determined ,by the colours I am spraying , as I line up a few plane projects for spraying at the same time .

Yesterday I mixed up some bright red 2k to finish off the yellow Jart and also spray up some mylars for a thermal ship which has been sidelined for some time.

First off I decided on a pattern and started masking with some plastic tape which gives nice sharp lines.

Next I masked and covered the entire plane , if there is any small overspray, this can be polished off later.

I layed down 2 x coats of 2k red and let it flash off, which is quick with the fast harderner.

As soon as its touch dry I remove the masking , carefully lifting the plastic tape. It all came out

rather well and with the red paint still pliable there is no chance of flaking or chipping which happens if you de-mask after a couple of days cure.

Final touch a JART sticker and now I will cut the ailerons and elevator and start the plumbing.

Jart 3 Canopy

Some good progress this last weekend on this build, I managed to join together all the big pieces,and it is now a Jart.













I fill the join lines and the wing shoulder gusset with micro balloons and some cloth on the wing and tailplane join lines.

After carefully cutting out the canopy, I make two small pieces in the mould, I dont spray the mould , the yellow in this case is pigment in the resin, these are the rough pieces on the wing nearest.











These pieces o about 4 layers of cloth are cut so that they fit on the inside of the fuselage and being flexable and more or less the right contour,
are easy to position and epoxy in place.











In this photo the lip is epoxied in place and the pegs hold two pieces of ply , which will be drilled to accept two small self tapping screws which hold the canopy on.










In the final picture the tear drop canopy has been sprayed black and the rest final coats of yellow.

Next I need to cut out the ailerons and elevator and wire up the servos.

At the moment it weighs 740 grams and feels lightish but battery , radio gear and balancing will change all that.

Hope this one flies even better than the red one.

I have done a slightly different canopy shape, but still starting ahead of the leadind edge so that I can still fit in a fair battery pack and full size receiver in its protective foam.

Some stripes next to tell the top from the bottom , important when doing rolls as these things roll , at a rate nothing short of a frenzy.

Jart 3

Nothing like practice, Jart 3 the white fuselage popped out the moulds no problem. If you build a glass model that you think you may want several of , its always a good idea to pull a mould, especially off a smaller model .If one crashes (does that ever happen to you) you can simply make another.

I am pleased ,I had made a mould , as my RED jart flies great so it is a well proven design. It also allows a fair amount of experimentation , with different lay-ups.

I am sure ,Glen from Durban will appreciate this as he is busy with his Jart using the lost foam technique, and the accompaning sanding and sanding.

PS. for the very sharp eyed, you will note I had in fact previously built a white fuselage so this is in fact Jart 4 , that one was traded to a licensed Jart Plan owner for 4 sheets of blue foam a fair swap I think.

JART no 2 and 3

A little Jart building at last, I sprayed up my moulds a nice rich yellow some months ago and put them aside to finish other projects . Recent outings with my red Jart have really been fun so time to get cracking on number 2 Jart, you cant have to much of a good thing ,you know.

The fuselage came out nice and strong and is now ready to be cut for wings, tailplane and canopy.

The yellow wing is blue foam with 1 layer of 104 gr glass then a lengthways 100 gr UD carbon and finally a 163 gr glass at 45 degress, it all feels nice and stiff and now needs to be trimmed and cleaned up on the leading and trailing edges.

The current weight of these two parts is 680 grams , but it still needs assembly of a tailplane and radio gear. they fly great at about 1.2 to 1.5kg in a fair blow.


With several "white" model projects on the go I always keep my moulds waxed up , and if for some reason some mixed 2k is available I go ahead and spray any excess paint into the next mould , so white it is . These fuselages are also perfect for using up all those off cuts of glass , these I sort and store in seperate plastic bags by glass weight and shapes.

















The third Jart out of the mould is going to be white , and I laid up some ud carbon cross ways
were the wing and taiplane bond onto the fuselage.
Some nice red and blue striping would make this an attractive colour scheme?
go build your own Jart.

Mikes Jarts No 2,3

With the local gliding scene moving to the thermal competetions there has been a break in Jart activity.

The sucess of my red Jart has prompted me to build 2 more, my son has his eye on one , so I am glad I bothered to make a mould.

I spray the moulds and , during other layup projects I use the off cut glass cloth , that comes from wing layups were the roll is cut at 45 degrees and there are big off cuts. I then build Jart and other fuselages.

Will post progress of these two as I go

later.

Mike's Jart

Well back from Volksrust , and maidened the JART successfully, a group of us went down for 4 days and generally the wind seemed to really pick up in the afternoons.
The first day the wind was ok for Zaggi flying but just not enough for the JART.
Thursday produced better conditions on the south slope so I decided to give the Jart a go.
It went straight out and only needed two clicks of up trim, left and right was spot on.

The video shows the moment of truth , unfortunately the wind dropped after a few minutes, and the jart just could not maintain altitude , it landed about 20 mtrs down the slope but was unharmed.

In the afternoon later in the day the wind swung easterly and we flew the eastern point , great lift and the Jart was, in its element it does all the things everyone raves about , its smooth flying when it has a some speed is most impressive , it does not like to be slowed down . The landing was down wind in a bit of a rotor and it cartwheeled on landing , slitting the nose open. That evening I rejoined the split which was on the join line with some cloth and it was good to go.

Saterday saw us back on the Northwest slope this time and at about 14-00 hours the air looked Jartish ready, this flight went off all wobbly until I realised I had the max rate set on my dual rate switch for ailerons a quick flick and she settled down nicely.

This flight was excellent and I pushed the Jart a little more with rolls and loops, what made it really special was that for the first time Blake my son stood next to me flying his Zaggi totally unaided so he has pretty much gone solo. The landing was fast and smooth with only a little flare, right at the end to prevent the nose(pointy in case you havent noticed)from spiking the ground.....

conclusion its a lovely design looks great in the air and is a perfornance machine ,well worth building one.

PS I have already started no 2. and have completed the fuselage already,I will post a mini build thread as I go , not so much the construction but the enhancements to the red no 1.

cheers for now.

Jart finishing

Well the Red Baron would approve of the colour scheme, I really needed to add the stripes so that it is easier to tell the top from the bottom and to find if it goes down in the rugged terrain of the slopes.

The yellow colour has proved easier to spot from a distance than the darker colours, I have helped find several gliders at Volksrust by looking back up the slope from the bottom with binoculars and orange/ yellow and to a lesser extent white stand out well.

The canopy is starting to fit ok but still needs some work I have added two ply-wood tongues,

and may now attach it with small cap screws, (dont want anything comming adrift as this beast comes screaming past)

The radio gear I am going to use is as follows.

elevator servo Hitech HS 125 flat wing metal gear (this fits nicely and screws down into ply- wood blocks from the top)

Wing servos HS 85 metal gear servos(HS125s would have worked, but I have 85s MG available. )

The receiver is a Futaba ppm 5 channel but on one of the less popular 53mhz band frequency which reduces the risk of a shoot down.

Battery is a 4cell 1000mah NIMH.

One of the last tips which I have noticed is often overlooked, is to label your plane with your name and telephone number, On Volksrust gliders often get lost and recoved later ...if your name is on it your chances of getting it back improve greatly.

Mike

Mike's Jart controls

These photos show the silicon hindging of the ailerons and the elevator.



The control surfaces are carefully masked onto the plane and checked for the right amount of free movement, then with something hard (I used the back of the scissors) you get a good seal of the tape to the surface(you can see this in the photo.


Next you apply a bead of good quality silicone (I use the marine type clear)and you half close the control surface, now you make up a scraper from some balsa scrap with a concave shape,
as shown on the left and you smooth the silicon bead down across the hindge line.

The control surfaces are held in the central neutral position with some tape and allowed to cure.



The tape is removed and the silicon checked (add some if there are any flaws) this should give a free moving hindge which is durable but easy to repair if required.
The whole aircraft will now require final finishing , to do this I will waterpaper the exposed carbon on the leading edges , the sealed wing tips the gusset between the wing and the fuselage and the tailplane and fuselage. Then the whole thing will be carefully masked and touched up with red 2k and my airbrush. Thats better all red now, some polishing is next.

I have some vinyl and will add some stripes to the wings for visibility the plain red is a bit boring .

The radio gear goes in next .

Cheers for now

MIKE SMART JART

I will put my complete JART build thread with all the never seen before photos on this build thread when time permits.
Here are a few photos in the mean time , in the build sequence.

Sorry not the plane but the tools I use to route out the foam on the control surfaces prior to a coating of resin and aerosil/cabosil

On one of the forums someone asked was it possible to build a jart in a day.

The total time on this project is about 17 hours at present , however that excludes epoxy curing

times and paint and glue curing times...so I guess it is possible to build a JART in one day

(24 hours) I would use fast setting everything but why bother ,current life has more than enough pressure.

Hope it flies as good as it looks watch this space the road ahead is clear of any obstacles.

regards

Mike