Sethhunter

Henner she's a beauty! Congratulations! I think electric is perfect for this project because the nose is clean and scale, which is so much a part of the look of the DIII. I've been thinking eventually of making the leap to electrics - actually been building an SR Cutie with my 10 year old daughter so "she can learn" about it!! Another Pfalz might be just the project. You're a tad over 3.5 lbs. Could you describe the power plant and how you access the batteries? A picture would be great. If you don't mind, a quick run down on the construction materials - covering and "size of the sticks" and especially the fuselage would be interesting too. Did you need to add weight? Love the picture with the moon. Very nice job. I have a funny feeling this thread is going to last forever [sm=thumbup.gif]

Henner Trabandt

Seth, thank you for your interest in this model. Nice to hear your 10 year old daughter will be a model pilot. When my daughters were at that age, they didn´t want to build airplanes. Together we made wooden horses, a swing in the garden or little houses in the tree.

So let´s begin with the power plant. As I didn´t want to add lead, I returned to the roots of electric flight. Deep down in my workshop i found an old brushed electric motor. Some time ago, is was one of the most high tec things, but times are changing. Its weight is 345 gramms, not far away from one lb. But it still is powerful, relyable and I need the weight in this place of the plane. A 11" x 6 " airscrew is mounted, but it is too small. Next time I shall be going to 12" x 8". The current is about 18 amps, not enough for a 3,5 lbs biplane. should be 25 to 28 amps.

Battery is 3 cells: 11.1 V /3200 mAh. This will last for a 10 minutes flight. The whole dummy engine is removable. It is fixed on the fuse by 2 strong magnets. As you have no vibrations and no oil dust, that will do. (The dummy on my Halberstadt is fixed the same way, it works) So, after removing the dummy, you have enough space to fix the battery with adhesive strips and to connect the battery with the controller.

Yours Henner

abufletcher

I just love to see these Pfalzes rolling off the assembly line! It seems like a million years ago that I started this thread (just as "research" as I didn't yet think it would be possible to do any serious modeling in Japan!) and I don't know if I'll ever really get around to doing a Pfalz myself. But this thread taught me a lot about the sort of research that goes into a fine scale model and also a lot of humility for all the really fine scale modelers out there.

[sm=thumbs_up.gif][sm=thumbs_up.gif]

Henner Trabandt

And the fuselage. Well, there is nothing new in the construction. It is built in some kind of a jig. Fixed the frames is their position, then added 4 stringers, balsa 5 mm x 10 mm (3/16" x 3/8" about) and the support for battery, Rx and servoes. A tube to fix the front legs of the U/C was epoxied into place and then I covered the fuse with stips from balsa 2mm x 10 mm. To imitate the "Wickelrumpf" it is covered with paper strips, glued onto the wood with painters glue. I don´t know if it was worth the pain, as you must take quite a close look to the fuse to see it.

The cabane is made from ply. With 4 split pins the cabane in screwed to the support points. I know, there are better (and closer to scale) ways to do this. But she is a small plane.

And at last the U/C: carbon tubes and short pieces of steel wire. This way there is no problem to make both legs equal in length. (Although meanwhile I know how to bend a full steel U/C)

I forgot to tell about the electric motor: Is is a Plettenberg HP 290.

http://www.plettenberg-motoren.com/U...tschrauben.htm

Sethhunter

Thanks for posting the pictures. Very nice indeed. I like the selective use of steel and carbon in the UC - shear strength where you need it, bending strength elsewhere! The paper also looks good. I bet paper put down with white glue can really improve the puncture strength of balsa. Again, very nice job.

abufletcher

I just have to post this photo which illustrates the weird and wonderful ways that modelers and replica builders interact. I didn't realize when I started this thread back in 2005 that it would become such an extensive repository for information about the Pfalz. And in fact, it soon become so helpful that the leader of a team of trainees at the new Pfalz Flugzeugwerke (Aerospace) who were building a non-flying Pfalz replica (the first) started looking in on this thread and I even exchanged a couple of emails with him about details of the original construction.

When the replica was first finished it sat in front of the company headquarters. But now it is on display at the Technik Museum in Speyer (Germany) and I just happened to drop by this museum on my recent trip to Germany. And as soon as I saw the Pfalz I knew that I had seen it before! Right here in this thread!

So in some small way, all of us who have contributed here had a hand in creating this wonderful replica!

Baphomet

Hello Sethhunter!

Haven`t follow this thread for a long time.

You`ve told something about the "Wickeltechnik" for the fuse and you took a look at the boatbuilder.

I`ve found some pics in the web, only german language, but it shows the "Wickkeltechnik" for boats.

[link=http://www.bootsbau-nixx.de/html/beplankung.html]"Wickeltechnik" for boats[/link] klick at the pics in text!

Did you mean this or something like that?

abufletcher

The process used on the Pfalz is similar in concept but different in detail. For one the sides of the "wickelrumpf" were, in fact, laid down (in crossing strips) in pre-shaped moulds. The two halves were then joined over the minimal underlying structure. And then the entire fuselage was covered with fabric and doped.

gabriel voisin

Dear Abu,
The "Wickelrumpf" is made quite differently as you think.
I have an original Movie of the Pfalzwerke 1916 and blueprints.
In this Movie was documented how the Pfalz was build.

Greetings Gabriel

Baphomet

Tell us, please!

abufletcher

Yes, please tell us!

FokkerAce

Ditto!

Can you upload the movie?
Do you have a reference?

FA[8D]

geezeraviation

My Feedback: (3)

I'm as interested as the rest of these guys, can we see it? Your friend Doc

gabriel voisin

Sorry,

I can not upload the movie,  it is celluloid material and not yet digitized.

gabriel

caribefoto

My Feedback: (2)

Gabriel, perhaps you could describe the method employed by Pfalz as you interpret it from this movie. I'm sure there are many of us who are keen to know the "secret".........John

ARUP

Hmmm! Very interesting Matthias! The process Abu describes is how I interpet the photos. You see pictures of these factory workers standing next to half molds applying the wood strips over the mold. All the excess lengths of the wood strips are hanging off the edge of the mold being tied together in multiple bunches. I have a segment on an old video that shows workmen pulling the forms for a Pfalz DXII off the plugs and gluing/nailing them together. The Lougheads (Lockheed Aircraft) brothers did the similar process for their birds except the wood layup was inside a halfshell mold. I hope you can explain the process that we evidently don't interpet correctly. Thanks!

Baphomet

Hi guys!

Maybe this could be a new source ?

[link]http://www.fliegermagazin.de/news/druck.php?objectID=3196&class=[/link]

abufletcher

Rolf, if you read back earlier in this LONG thread, you'll find that the team from the new Pfalz were in contact with the people here and we exchanged some information back and forth. They were not doing true replica...rather they would creating a non-flying imitation using modern methods. For example, the body is fiberglass and the spars are metal tubes. I mention above seeing that replica in the museum in Speyer.

Baphomet

Hallo Abu!

Habe die letzten Seiten ab dem Maiden von Seth`s Pfalz nicht mehr gelesen!

Naja, was solls!

Ich habe den Jungs trotzdem eine E-Mail geschrieben, wegen der CAD-Dateien. Ich suche die Spanten, wenn möglich alle, denn, ich denke nicht das ich noch bei AZM das Kit bestellen werde, zu unsicher.[]

abufletcher

Du solltest die ersten halbdutzend seiten diesem Thread nochmal durchlesen. Da findest Du wahrscheinscheinlich alles was gebraucht würde, z.B. Spannten und Profile. Das Kit von AZM besteht aus nichts mehr als der Bauplan von Tom Polapink und gefrissten Holzteilen. Der Bauplan von Polapink ist nicht einmal der bester (der von Alan Spievack ist viel besser).

Baphomet

Abu,

ich habe die "Scale-Aircraft-drawings" !

Daraus einen Bauplan im CAD zu entwickeln, kostet viel Zeit. Ich möchte die Spanten und Rippen gern fräsen lassen.

gabriel voisin

Hallo,

heute habe ich ein paar Fotos vom Pfalz-Film gemacht.

Natürlich nur vom Anfang, der Film geht 45min und das ist zu viel Material.

Die Qualität ist nicht besonders, aber ihr könnt sehen dass es eine tolle Sache ist.

Zur Info:
Der Rumpf wurde auf der Seite liegend in einer Helling gebaut. Die Spanten und die Gurte wurden montiert und dann auf einer Form die Aussenhaut in zwei Teilen angefertigt. Dann wurde diese von der Form abgezogen und auf das noch in der Helling montierten Rumpfgerüst aufgenagelt. Zuerstdie Seite diedurch die liegende Position zugänglich war,dann wurde der Rumpf aus der Helling gezogen und die zweite Aussenhaut aufgenagelt. Die Aussenhaut war sehr dünn und "schwabelig".


Viel Spaß

Gabriel

Sethhunter

Auf Englisch, bitte.

gabriel voisin

Sorry Sethhunter,..... naturellement.

Today I took some photos of Pfalz-movie.
Of course only the beginning, the film is 45 minutes and that's too much material.
The quality of the photos is not so good, but you can see that it is a great thing.
For your information:
The fuselage was built on the side lying in a form. The frames and the longerons
were installed and then made ​​on a form the outer skin into two parts.
The  plywood strips were always placed diagonally and with cloth strips streched to dry .
Then it was removed from the form and was nailed on the fuselage frame.
First on the upper side, then the body was pulled from the form and nailed the second outer skin on the otherside
The outer skin was very thin and unstable. (in german "schwabelig")

abufletcher

Thanks for uploading the photos, Gabriel. And thanks for the description. The process is almost exactly as I had imagined it, but perhaps I hadn't expressed it clearly. Anyway, the film looks like it will be a great resource for replica builders.