Cutting Day 1

So after taking a week to contemplate cutting i finally decided to start cutting this week. Day one saw a lot less progress than i initially thought we would of made however towards the end of the day we were rocketing along. Which was cut short by my awesome assistant Tim having to head to work.

We managed to cut out panels M and N which totals 40 panels. Tim and I laid the fabric to the length of the two panels and cut the sheet to length. This was repeated 5 times per colour to create 20 sheets which we then cut the M and N panels in sets of 10 layers.
We also managed to cut out 17/20 lengths for panels L and K which will be the last double panel length until we get into the smaller C,B,A panels which i plan on using the lengths which had defects that would of either visually affected it or structurally towards the end of its life.  Hopefully the smaller panels will fit around the variety of defects i found which was mostly on the black.

Sadly i didn't measure the length of fabric which has been benched for now but it was about 8 meters however majority of this is still salvageable.

The team over in Australia are pushing through sewing up Barbs 60k at the moment which is pushing me to make my own progress. Its busy times at the moment for XLTA Australia with one balloon at the final stages, another having trouble with Gores but has a weekend planned to push some progress and a couple back either in the planning/cutting stages.

Tomorrow for me however brings Neil in to hopefully help me for another 5 or 6 hours which will no doubt help see some more garbage bags filled with fully cut panels and my cutting checklist slightly more fulfilled.

Patterns done!

During my days off last week i completed my patterns which ended up taking two days because i mostly drew them up solo and called Katie over to help rule lines which in theory wasn't very efficient as i could of just cut the line straight away but a few times i discovered some short falls and wrongly ruled lines.

As i mentioned before the program i have used for this design spits out all the measurements required for each panel and gives me all kinds of numbers such as material requirements and pricing etc.

One of the discoveries i found in the research and development stage of the project is the program i am using spits out DXF files which is a autoCAD format. It displays a 2d drawing to scale of each panel therefore i converted the DXF to PDF which gave me a printable version. This gave me a idea of the shape, measurements and make up of each panel which in turn made it a hell of a lot easier.

So with the panels all cut on the second day which surprising took longer than i had thought i am now ready to cut fabric. A very daunting and scary prospect i must say. Its a hard feeling to describe you are cutting into something that you know has required X work and Y money but you need to cut in order to achieve the goal. Once i start cutting the first cut of panels i will be fine however screw ups are inevitable and no doubt ill learn a few things a long the way.

On a final note you are all probably wondering where the hell i am cutting. I talked about building my own cutting table which Katie said screw that Torpedo7 has tables used for packing. Just come and use one of those. So only on week days and the days i have spare i go to Collins road to make some progress. Hopefully i wont be there much longer but someone said to me on the phone last night, "Plan on it taking 2 days a week for a month. You may think it will be a 2 day job but let the days and hours happen".

Fabric Day!

Well i have been very busy over the weekend with a variety of things including flying, a party, working, the fan and not to mention the fabric finally arriving! I finally have found a moment to write about the last few days.

While i was at work on Friday four bundles arrived which had about 860m of fabric. This was made up of 3 different kinds (1.3/1.9 double sided silicone coated and 1.9 double sided polyurethane coated) The 1.3 and 1.9 silicone were really test lengths that i ordered to test the integrity. Hopefully i will use the fabric for a model or something useful.

Anyway back to the main fabric which i am very pleased with. Obviously for me to have no concerns or niggles would be very odd however the list is very short.

1. The colours are dead on however in certain lights the gap between the mid and bright green could of larger
2. When the fabric is crumpled in the hand it displays more visual creases unlike the silicone coated fabric or the single side coated variant of mine however this will become better over time.
3. The fabrics rigidness is concerning but the same solution is applicable.

 Other than those small things i am very happy. Obviously i knew about the weight of the double sided coating however the weight of the fabric wont unmanageable for me however for others that are slightly smaller they might have issues on solo flights.
due to the 20 gores i plan to cut down weight when it comes to not having hyper-last in the top along with lighter load tapes. As there is 20 tapes i can lower the strength of each tape even though the strength of the tape i am planning to buy is strong enough to hold the entire vertical  load on just two tapes.

Lastly i leave you with a selfie of a very happy girl! If Katie was this happy you couldn't imagine how stoked i was once i saw that the amount of money i had spent was at least on the right track. Once the panels are cut out and coating/ fabric defects are rules out i will be a very happy man. 

Hopefully the next update i give you all will be on the completion of the fan which is currently waiting on the fan hub, paint and a balance check prior to starting it up. 

Lesson learnt!

Well my fabric got into port on the 28th of December 2013 and today (15th Jan) i paid the invoice to release the goods to me! if your thinking 18 days to get my goods from Auckland to my doorstep is a very lengthy layover you would be correct.

After spending a day on the phone and emailing my shipping agent, they finally found the goods and the next phase began which on my end consisted of emailing back within the hour or waiting on a reply. After filling out importer papers i  left the ball in the court of my shipping agent which had various questions which took several days to cause any progression. After about 14 days in i got involved in the process and bought customs into the fiasco which seemed to solve the issue within a day.

This leads to today which saw my bank account shrink by $945NZD and the goods about to finish there journey (i hope). The big lesson i learnt from this is if you are going to import anything you have to inquire as soon as the goods leave the port and get the paper trail out of the way prior to arrival.

It has been a few rough weeks sorting through the countless bumps in the road however hopefully i will have my fabric by the end of the week and that will drive me to progress with planning/cutting my panel templates.

Fabric and Fan progress

I have been very slack in the last few months. My fabric is currently sitting in Auckland port at the complete wrong time of year. The boat pulled in on Saturday morning and was ready for pick up as of Saturday night. So i will call them on Monday to sort out the specifics like import tax etc.

Now the current situation is out of the way, let me fill in the blanks of the past two months! A month ago i purchased a Titan 6.5hp motor for $299NZD which was a bargain in comparison to a genuine Honda which would of set me back around 3 times as much. With the Christmas rush i haven't been able to progress as much as i would of like due to time and money. Hopefully in the new year with the fabric here i will finally gain some financial traction and time to boot.

A friend of mine Neil has a friend that will be able to help me out with bending my fan frame. Once that is complete and sitting on wheels i can progress to getting a new hub made up to fit the new motor. Hopefully these two steps will progress faster after the new year however i am at the mercy of generosity as they are favors and not jobs i am paying top dollar for.

Another purchase of mine towards the fan was a set of wheels from Trademe which set me back about $70 for a set of four. The photos displayed in the auction didn't accurately describe the wheels therefore we had to make modifications. As displayed in the middle photo below the wheel hub goes past the edge of the rubber which isn't ideal so Dad machined the outside down. The other issue with these wheels was the listed height which was slightly off which created a minor redesign of the frame aka raising the cage to stop the wheels from rubbing.

On the other front by the end of January i hope to have the fabric cut out which means i have to obtain the fabric, cut templates and proceed to cut each panel. Hopefully once i get started it will light a fire in my belly and i will progress rapidly.

Project on the side

At this point i am lacking some of the key equipment required to fly this envelope of mine and its not like me to lack a plan however i am diving knee deep in this project without knowing of the bottom end ill fly in once its complete. In spite of this lack of direction i have found an inflation fan that needs a complete overhaul. 

This project is similar to the sewing machine and the balloon itself, that being purchasing something that needs a new lease on life or going to whole DIY route.

Sadly with this fan a new lease on life isn't as straight forward as the sewing machine where i kept almost everything and applied some elbow grease to get it all nifty again. The plan for the fan is to flick off the motor (once its running a lot smoother) to anybody who will give me a buck for it along with the frame/wheels.

Realistically i am only keeping the prop and cage which will be attached to a titan 6.5hp engine and a stainless frame. Obviously everything is in the planning phase and only time will tell to what degree my vision will come to life (Attached below is the design at this point in time).

The work ahead is mostly money related which at this point therefore nothing is happening at the moment besides the elbow grease jobs. Once i am on holiday from class i will proceed with straightening up the fan cage followed by looking into powder coating the cage is possible. 

The next progression is purchasing the motor which will set me back $299 NZD which is significantly cheaper than a Honda motor. The motor is a Chinese knockoff of the Honda design and is not as top quality/won't stand as much abuse as a Honda motor. 

 

Taking this into account by my calculations an inflation fan will do between 5-10 hours a year and considering these motors probably do that in a day or week i doubt it will break any time soon. Even if it does break in 5 years i will be financially in a better place to buy a Honda motor or replace it with another Titan motor if it proves to stand up to the abuse.

 

Fabric Nightmare

So since my last posts my colours have been modified slightly and i have finally raised the funds to proceed to the next step of the build which is locking in the core details of my fabric including colours, coatings, weights, cost etc. I am sure Katie slapped me in my sleep a few times because a lot of discussion happened concerning the optional coatings.

The whole discussion was sparked by my friend Mitch in Australia due to him receiving his fabric just over a month ago. He went for PU coating followed by UV which was on coated on the same side as the PU coating which doesn't help considering PU coating to my knowledge goes on the inside of the envelope.  So with this in mind i made some inquiries with our go to man for fabric Andy Wang. With much discussion and headaches in Katie's case i had finally decided on double sided PU coated 1.9oz without the UV coating (due to cost constraints).

The numbers i got from Andy:
Cost: 1.74USD/m 1.9oz Pu coated (both sides)
Weight (with extra coating): 1.92oz-2.06oz (yd2) or 65.10g - 69.85g (m2)
Total Fabric Weight: 48.119kg-52.06kg gross fabric weight
Total Weight: 75.638-79.579 kg

Envelope Weight (Projected number via dream program):

WEIGHT CALCULATIONS
Weight of fabric               : 48.119- 52.06 kg (including the overlap of the parachute)
Weight of Nomex            : 6.321 kg
Weight of tapes   (1)        : 13.200 kg
Weight of tapes   (2)        : 0.427 kg
Weight of tract. cord        : 0.374 kg
Weight of centr. cord       : 0.221 kg
Weight of command line   : 0.769 kg about without (with) a return pulley
Weight of crown line        : 0.499
Weight of cables              : 2.585 kg
Weight of crimpings         : 0.900 kg (32 crimpings)
Weight of 4 carabiners     : 1.000 kg
Weight of crown ring       : 0.500 kg
Weight of 2 pulleys          : 0.200 kg (without a return pulley, elsewhere, add a pulley)
Weight of the thread        : 0.524 kg
Total weight                    : 75.638-79.579 kg

Keep in mind these numbers are just estimates however in terms of weight its obviously heavier than Katie's 1.3oz 74,000 which is something like 65 kg's however 80 kg's doesn't seem to bad considering a 90,000 Kav is in the 110 kg range.