Next up on building my Clik is to attach the elevator , again i use a rule to give me a guide when cutting the 45 degree angle required to give the desired travel of the elevator . I attach the elevator to the Fus stab as per the method I used in the ailerons .

This is now the time for me to add some carbon to the wing edges and fus sides . I use 3mm x 0.13 carbon again I get this from http://www.expressfly.co.uk/ (you can use cyno or uhu-por to attach ) . The idea behind this is to get that all important rigidity that gives you perfect flying characturistics . No flex = true flight !

I next attach the underside of the Fus . Please first do a dry test fit to make sure all fits OK. Using a meter rule as a guide and a square for perfect 90 degree angle attach the fus underside to the horizontal fus .

Next up is the wing braising . Again for a competition model I use 1.5mm carbon tubing from http://www.expressfly.co.uk/ . If you only want a standard Clik then use the solid carbon supplied with the Clik .

Please please make sure your fus is square to the wings and also that the wings are firmly down on your flat building surface before you attach the carbon braising . The small attaching clips supplied with the Clik are really perfect for the braising and use them .

For braising the Fus i use again 1mm carbon Tube and this is for an ultra ridged Clik body . The small geladipac strips that come with the Clik are perfect for the pilot that just want a plane to fly at his local indoor venue .

Now it time for adding the undercarriage ,

I have to admit I found the instructions wrong on this part of the build . When measure down from the horizontal fus to the U/C cross over point please measure 70mm ! not 50 as per instructions ! This extra 20mm will give you a reduced U/C angle and the U/C becomes more ridget and also gives you a better angel of attack for smoother take offs . I again use1.5mm carbon tube , but the 1.5mm carbon supplied is also good .

Use all the fiber attachments that come with the Clik as these really do a great job . Wheels that are also supplied are ultra light and the only issue I have found is you will need to cyno on the wheel rubbers as they do come loose from the Hub .

Time for a break and a nice mug of coffee .

Building a F3P CLIK from expressfly

Hi its almost mid July and it is time for me to start and prepare planes and schedules for the ever approaching indoor season . At present i am flying last years F3P Clik from expressfly and now is the time to start a new Clik . My Clik , as always are built on the kitchen table , Life on your own has some great advantages LOL . Below is a video of the master pilot Derk flying his F3P Clik . This was a record scoring flight , the Clik is a marvelous plane .

Now you have seen the Clik fly its time to start building .

First on opening the Clik kit all looks good nothing missing and all in good shape .

I always read the instructions a few times to familiarise myself with the building techniques .

First up it to trim all the wee tags left from when the Clik was CNC cut . I use fine sandpaper to remove the tags

Then its time to start the wings . The Cliks wing come in 2 sections and you have to cut out the ailerons . This is simple as there are small marks on the wings to indicate were the cuts are made . I use a razor blade to cut my foam , please be careful as fingers can also get sliced and keep the blades away from small hands ! KIDS !

Next up is bevelling the aileron to give a good amount of throws , I aim to get 45 degrees throws in all my planes . First i use a meter rule and lay it on the aileron , them i simply cut at the desired angle , this being 45 degrees . I then attached the ailerons using ultra lite hinging tape from expressfly . A great tip for getting the perfect strong hinge is to lightly smear the area in which your applying tape to with Uhu-Por . This gives an ultra bound and sunlight will not perish your tape !

Next up is to attach the wings to the flat fus . Please make sure your building surphase is perfectly flat and free off any protruding items .

Lay the flat fus of the CLIK on the table top side down . Then first test fit the wing segments , having built quite a few Cliks i have never had one that didnot line up ! A good tip is also check from wing tip to opposite elevator stab that the over all squareness of the wing/fus is correct . Once your satisfied all is tight fitting and square you can cut the slice into the flat fus area for your carbon wing strengtheners to fit into . I then attach my flat 3mm to the wing leading edge using cyno ( Uhu-Por can also be used ) Fit the wing to the flat fus , again test fit first before gluing !

TO BE CONTINUED !

F3P - B INDOOR AEROBATICS , N .IRELAND OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP ,TEAM EXPRESSFLY , MATTHEW POOTS CLIK

SUNDAY the 2nd March 2008

This was the date for my brain child , F3P for all to participate in . Adrian my brother was my main man as to putting this together , also a few of Dungannon flying club mates like Eric and John and not to mention the help and support of Banbridge modellers !
First thing to sort was venue , I chatted with Dungannon district council and found them to be very helpfull , sorted ! The leisure center was ours for the Day ! Yipee !
Next was sponsors , First thing in my mind was this comp was not about money . I wanted to encourage people into indoor flying and my aim was for newbees . So i got on my PC and got the numbers of the major suppliers of RC produts in the UK . First up was FLIGHTPOWER . They were first onboard and all i asked for was products relating to indoor flying , batterys and speed controllers and FLIGHTPOWER hates , T-shirts etc. were soon to arrive on my doorstep . HORIZON HOBBYS were next onboard , they were again very, very generous , FREESTYLE RC sent models , as did WWW.EXPRESSFLY.CO.UK , CPS Hobbies , LEEDS model center , Robotbirds , FLying Doctor , and gift tokens from Mid-Ulster models .
Next was the judging panel . This is very important to me to get right and i did study alot of options , i went for Ireland premier judge Ray Jennings to be the anchor man , next was my club judge Ian Cardwell , Banbridge was well repersented by Dennis McNeill , Andrew Wallace repersented Ballymoney club and Liam Nolan was another anchor man . We had scribes in place from compeditors in other sections to help our judges .
Catering was again covered by our clubs members .
Soon the word was out and the buzz got started . We received interest from all parts of Ireland and the UK . We were taken aback !
Adrian and myself aimed at around 20 pilots after the first day of registering 21 pilots were onboard . This set alarm bells ringing , so we were forced to cap the entry numbers to 30 so we could fit all into one day .
We had 3 schedules open to pilots , novice , F3P-C and F3P -B , and the aeromusical was open to all .
The novice schedule was again well supported and the ages ranged from 9 year old Adam Robb to my father aged 76 ! Mr. Reggie as christened by Donatas .
The C schedules was very compeditive with lots of great pilots
B section is the most demanding and it was a first time for alot of pilots who are top of their field out doors but new to indoor .
The registration should 6 pilots from England , 1 from Scotland and 3 from the South of Ireland . This was a massive achievement in its own right . The Top UK pilots were all up to travel to Ireland .
Practising now began in earnest .
First thing i did was to get a high rate competition model , and first choice was a CLIK , www.expressfly.co.uk had them instock so my plane was soon ready to fly . I will soon be building another one so the build thread on the CLIK will be my next project .
The CLIK really flys so true and has no real vices . My good friend Matthew Poots was also a CLIK flyer and soon we realised that the clik would help us get good results . Expressfly asked us to present their company in the indoor competition , which we were more than happy to do .
Sunday the 2nd of March soon arrived . All the preperations were in place and i was very nervous . Not only had i to think about flying but i had the responsability of all the compeditors and making sure all was ok for our visiting pilots . Adrian again was truely amazing on the day and proved he is one in a million . Kees was the man on the scores and this is a difficult job , Trevor Poots was the flight line supervisor and he kept the pilots rolling , our John was the man on the mic and he kept us well entertained , Eric was the caterer and the transmitter pound superviser . Everyone was in there place , LET THE FLYING BEGIN !
Flying started at 11 am on the dot , and what a standard of flying in every section , i was amazed ! Everyone had practised and it showed how in their flying .
F3P can be sometimes boring to watch but the gallery was buzzing and visitors enjoyed the sight of small foamy planes being flown to such a high standard of control .
Aeromusical are very spectator friendly and this is were there is a chance of a crash and there were a few incidences but no real damage was done to aircraft . The leisure center was rocking to the sound of music , this is the part i love .
I was going to put up the winners but i think that everyone that flew were winners in every section . This was one in a life time event for Northern Ireland . Will i run one again ?


Richard