RAP Fun Factory

14/03/2022

A new rabbit hole has opened up wide in front of us and we're heading down it.
Full size cockpit building ticks all the boxes - building, electronics, design, art and flying.
The help and expertise available online is simply mind boggling!
It'll be a little while before we're landing on the Hudson as it's a big complicated project but that's what makes it fun. 😁
For anyone interested check out Helen and Karl's site here
https://www.737diysim.com/

10/03/2022

These photos represent an end of an era for us in this hobby.
We are no longer aeromodellers, all of this is sold including our trailer.

The lack of integrity and transparency in our club where we fly has made it impossible for us to go on flying there. We've run out enthusiasm to go on calling it out and dealing with it. The fun of flying no longer outweighs the grief of having to deal with club sh*t. Perhaps it's the way we view the world but it's not possible for us to turn a blind eye and we can't unhear and unknow things.

We'd like to think that there'd be a new, fresh faced couple coming along into the hobby to carry the batten forward who would design, build, innovate, teach, share, inspire, enthuse and give their all to the hobby but unfortunately we don't see it.

It's also disappointing that small minded club politics can drive out rare females in this hobby who fly, build and teach and are willing and capable of taking on leadership roles within the hobby.

We're extremely proud of what we've achieved over the last couple of decades with the pinnacle being a totally scratch designed and built 1/5 scale, 3.2m P-38 composite White Lightnin'.

We've developed a polished metal look, composites using core cork and vacuum bagging techniques, lumpy/bumpy panels and rivets and realistic pilots based on real people. We've been happy to share any and all of this knowledge with anyone who asked.

We have way too much creative energy to not go on making stuff but it will be in a different direction and we may even post things her on our page in the future but one thing is for certain, it won't involve clubs!

27/01/2022

A few shots from the maiden flight.

We're thrilled with how well it worked with the DLE-55 RA
Might have to make a mould for a pair of Bob Odegaard's racing F2G's now 🤔

26/01/2022

The most successful maiden flight ever! You read about maiden flights where no trim was needed but never experienced it ourselves but this one was literally zero trim required!
A perfect landing to boot.
What a SWEET plane this is. Looks awesome, flys awesome. The only down side was the flight was cut short by a low voltage receiver battery warning caused by a tail wheel retract servo problem.
We ended up putting the DLE-55 back in because when we went to balance it with the DLE-111 it was quite nose heavy even without the cowl. It balanced perfectly with the 55 with a robust firewall and steel standoffs. It ended up being 16kg which is a good 3kg lighter than our Moki powered "Lucky Gallon". There was certainly no lack of power and the loop was effortless.
We couldn't be happier with this beautiful plane and it may even change our building plans for this year!
Thanks Jorgo for your help and support and Red Bull pilot Eric Goujon for being a model pilot 👌

23/01/2022

This is a collection of videos we took while we joined the P-51 wing.
Each time we make something we refine the process and make improvements, this time all the wiring was done and put inside the wing before it was joined.
We also made a landing light.
We had a hiccup with the audio when we were opening the mould but you can see what's going on.

It's just a collection of stuff that we get up to in the Fun Factory for anyone that's interested!

1/5 scale composite wing, painted in the mould. This is how we join and what goes into the wing before it's joined - wiring, undercarriage mounts .... Open...

22/01/2022

The Red Bull Corsair is nearly ready to go with the DLE-111 in it. It'll be an exciting maiden - maybe on Australia Day.
There's a bit of "old school" bell crankery and push rods to make all four gear doors work from one servo in the middle! Because of the angle of the bottom of the wing there are some interesting angles going on but just having a bit of fun designing something that works. (note - he didn't say it was fun at the time 😉)
All the inside of the wheel well has to be painted, lots of final finishing to do once it's flown.
We're knocking up a big, shiny prop nut (Hamilton standard)then we'll give it a start. The Red Bull Corsair has a painted blue prop cover/spinner but we think the starter would take the paint off so a shiny one might have to be the go?

30/12/2021

We’ve got 3 projects nearing completion.

Patsy’s new P-51 “Daisy Mae II”
Red Bull Corsair
Spacewalker II-MR

This Mustang has more detail than previous ones - sliding canopy, landing light, cockpit detail …
The 2nd wing has been layed up and joined.
We made a video of the joining process and internal structure but a hiccup in the fancy new wireless microphones ended up with no sound on the opening of the moulds so there’s a fair bit of editing to get that watchable 😖
Flaps and ailerons to make and that’s about it.

We’ve ended up putting the DLE-11 up the front of the Red Bull Corsair instead of the DLE-55. It fits beautifully inside the cowl as long as we don’t put spark plugs on it!! There’s just going to have to be some “cowl features” added (holes!) to make it functional. It started out as a quick test bed to see how well our 1/5 scale Corsair flies on a DLE-55. We still like the idea of a pair of Bob Odegaard’s F2G’s as a future project.

We’ve mounted the Moki 180 up the front of the Spacewalker II and it doesn’t look ridiculously big at all or make for a ridiculously nose heavy CoG. Full steam ahead on the wings.

This will clear the benches for a new Lightning and a new plug and moulds for a 1/4 scale F-86.

That should pretty much take care of 2022 😁

30/12/2021

It's the season for visitors. We had a visit from a lady that works at ATL Composites where we buy our epoxy resin and other consumables for mould making and plane lay ups.
We've been buying from them for nearly 10 years now and have spoken to Pauline on the phone a lot. Just before Christmas we put in another order and she said she was coming up to camp at Mon Repos over Christmas, the turtle rookery just near us so she said she'd come and say "hi".
It was so good to meet her and really interesting to hear about the business, and the stuff they make, how they make it and all the applications that people use epoxy for, apparently not just for planes!! Over the years we've got all sorts of technical advice from their technical people.
She loved seeing our finished products - composite planes and then the basil farm as well.
We got her to sign our "door of fame" - the Fun Factory "visitor book" we started this year for a bit of fun

12/12/2021

Visitors to the Fun Factory - Jack and Ross from Brisbane up in Bargara on holidays. Ross flys RC at the Brisbane North Electric club and he and the family happen to be staying at a holiday house just round the corner from the RAP Fun Factory 👌
We were happy to show them around and answer all the questions on plane building and hydroponics 🌱🌿🛩✈️

11/12/2021

We thought we'd posted this already but the post disappeared off our page. So here it is again, it'll probably come up multiple times now 🤦‍♀️🤷‍♀️
We had a bit of a win with Patsy's new P-51. We went to get the wing moulds out and discovered the right one was already painted and layed up waiting for internals and joining. Winner! We'd started a new Mustang for Richard back in May but other projects just got in the way. We weren't even certain what the paint scheme was!
So we cut the internals and after having made lots of wings we decided to get really organised this time and put the wiring in before we joined it. Doesn't that make it easy?! Painted and wired when it came out of the mould 😁👍
This is version 14 of the internals so they're well refined and it just falls together now. The mount for the Electron 40's is pre installed with a 6mm plate and 3mm end plates. This is robust but light and the Electrons simply drop in and are screwed into pre-tapped holes.
It took a while but we've both learnt to land them "practically perfect" so no bending gear any more.
A pair of 1/5 scale composite Mustangs will be in our fleet for a very long time, they're just the nicest plane to fly - in any weather. (and a Lightning 😉)

11/12/2021

Eric is painted and dressed 😂 He's nearly ready to take his seat in the Red Bull Corsair then we can finish the canopy. Just a few push rods and a bit of plumbing and he'll be good to go.

The original idea was to make a quick trial Corsair to see how our 1/5 scale composite Corsair went with a DLE-55 instead of our Moki 180 radial. If this was successful the idea was to make a pair of F2G's in the Bob Odegaard colour schemes.

A lot of other projects have been prioritised mainly because Patsy wasn't as convinced of the merit of making the Corsairs our every day flyers. We just can't beat the practicality, functionality and manoeuvrability of our composite 1/5 scale Mustangs with the true laminar flow wing. However, we shall soon see 😎🤔

11/12/2021

We had a bit of a win with Patsy's new P-51. We went to get the wing moulds out and discovered the right one was already painted and layed up waiting for internals and joining. Winner! We'd started a new Mustang for Richard back in May but other projects just got in the way. We weren't even certain what the paint scheme was!
So we cut the internals and after having made lots of wings we decided to get really organised this time and put the wiring in before we joined it. Doesn't that make it easy?! Painted and wired when it came out of the mould 😁👍
This is version 14 of the internals so they're well refined and it just falls together now. The mount for the Electron 40's is pre installed with a 6mm plate and 3mm end plates. This is robust but light and the Electrons simply drop in and are screwed into pre-tapped holes.
It took a while but we've both learnt to land them "practically perfect" so no bending gear any more.

A pair of 1/5 scale composite Mustangs will be in our fleet for a very long time, they're just the nicest plane to fly - in any weather. (and a Lightning 😉)