Thanks to Tony Russo / productive weekend

[JPrc]

Jim

You need to add some more side area along the hatch where the canopy glues to the 1/4" spruce frame. My canopy cracked in several places along the glue joint. I had to go back in and add triangle stock the length of the hatch to give the canopy a larger glueing surface.

Jonas

[JimC-MD]

Thanks Max. I would bet you have the skills to kit build, it would be the time issue. Work, web ninja, hubby, hobby and building? Sheesh.

Oh MOMO, not necessarily in that order........

JP, thanks for the heads up. I have only started to fit the canopy and may make a couple of mods along the way. I had not heard of one cracking the canopy, but that would really bite.

I just slammed the pictures up earlier, but I did a couple of things I wanted to explain.

There is a picture of me holding a tube in post 13. I wanted to have a wire tube to the rear of the plane. There are holes down both sides of the bulkheads (fuse formers) where you could put tubes. I could not find any tubes that were light enough or long enough to do that. So....... I rolled one up. I used 1/64 ply that I got wet and fed into another pipe after rolling it on a dowel. As it was coming out the other side I was gluing the seam about an inch at a time to keep it round. Then I made mounts to anchor it down the fuse. The front mount was the largest I needed but I lightened it up a lot.

I used the Aero Perfect Incidence meter to set up all my phenolics and tubes. Really slick. I have already set the wings and stabs but was not taking pics while I was doing it.

You can see that when I was gluing on the vertical fin, the balsa cap was already beveled and drilled for hinges. It takes a little more balsa to do it that way, but the results are really worth in IMO. Forty six degrees of deflection with a near zero gap at the hinge line and no more than 1/32 deviation down the seam at full deflection. Some time for measurements and a little work with the drill press and band saw and you are good to go. Since I was drilling both caps for the hinge points at the same time, I used the incidence meter to be sure the drill press work table was 90 degrees to the drill head on both axis. I did the same with the band saw and then used the gage to set the 23 degree bevel cuts. I minute or two per cap with a long sanding bar and they are ready to glue onto the stabs, rudder etc. This makes WAY less mess than the old razor plane and quality time with a sanding bar. (tip, use a fine tooth blade on the band saw for less sanding and a closer to perfect cut.

The other toy I picked up to play with was a self leveling two beam laser that would mount on my camera tripod. This would have been handy in setting up the wing tubes too, but made the rudder/fin checks cake. I had already set up the phenolics and tubes earlier, so I just needed to be sure that the fin was square to the tubes. I used the laser to level the wing tube by shimming the fuse on the table. (slight slope to the concrete floor.) Then it was a matter of trusting the center line for the hinge points I had drilled and the peak of the V on the bevel. The other picture is with the stabs mounted and the rudder on its hinges. The laser lines went straight up the back of the rudder and out both elevator trailing edges all the way to the tips. I had to play with the white balance on that photo to try to get the laser to show up on the photo. Hope that makes sense.

I have since trimmed my caps flush to the stabs and elevators and installed the servo boxes in the bottom of the stabs.

Oh. One other thing that was a little trick I used. When I was setting the stab incidence I was using the stock mounting method with the hard point and stab bracket. I got the stab close and marked the hole for the 6/32 screw through the stab bracket. Then I put in the blind nut and rechecked the incidence. When I had it within .05 degrees, I tightened the bolt. Then my lovely assistant (Pilot's Wyfe) held pressure on the stab while I drilled for the 1/4 dowel. Nothing fancy there. What bugged me was that the "1/4" dowel did not fit snugly in the aluminum tube or the hole I drilled with a fresh bit. It was loose. So I went shopping and found a 1/4 dowel that was a little over-sized. I took section of it and chucked it in a hand drill and held a piece of sandpaper in my hand. I turned it down until it was a perfect fit. Once it was glued in place and slid back into place on the fuse, you could not detect even .05 movement WITHOUT the 6/32 bolt in place. Since I will need to take the stabs off this plane, I wanted a really precise fit there and it worked.

I know there have been a lot of these planes built and shared on the web. Hope you do not mind one more. I am having a blast.

later.

[dmichael]

Jim- lookin' good. Would love to be there for the maiden if I can. Drop me a note if you know when it happens- I'd like to get out to Pegasus and fly. Won't be long and you'll be a 40pct snob....

Dave

[JimC-MD]

	Quote: Originally Posted by dmichael
	Jim- lookin' good. Would love to be there for the maiden if I can. Drop me a note if you know when it happens- I'd like to get out to Pegasus and fly. Won't be long and you'll be a 40pct snob.... Dave

Thanks Dave,

You were actually on my list of people to call. I was hoping to get another set of eyes on it before the maiden. There are no other really giant scale pilots in the two clubs I belong to. A couple of 50cc fliers and that is it. Only two of those aside from me in over 125 total members.

I hope the new year finds you well. The Pegasus club was talking about putting on an IMAC contest this year. I thought I sent you a note about it, but may not have. We would like to give it a go and see if we can stir up some interest. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Take care

[JimC-MD]

OK, a little more to update on this build.

I was thinking about how I wanted to install the cannisters in this plane. There is plenty of room for the installation. What I wanted was good airflow, solid mounting and the ability to remove the cannisters easily for service/repair or change. I looked around for ideas and then just started designing.

I am using MTW110K cans and 90mm drop flew headers. I did not want the cans dancing around and breaking the flex couplers, so I used two mounts. To make the cans removable, the mounts had to screw in place. I made a 1/2" balsa shelf around the tunnel, at the top, flush with the bottom of the ignition tray and back to the opening in FB2. The front mount was notched to go around the 1/2" landing gear plate to motor box reinforcement and trimmed to just slide inside the motor box/tunnel. The back mount sits on the ledge at the back of the landing gear plate and the bottom screws to the 1/2" hardwood. I made angle brackets out of GP giant control horns (glass filled nylon) to mount the top of the back plate and the bottom of the front plate.

The back plate was VERY solid at this point so the mounting tabs on the top of it are only to secure the top cover from vibration. The front mount needed a little stability at the top, so I made a 3/32 ply doubler to go ledge to ledge and secure the top of the front mount through the 3/32 balsa cover plate. By removing the cover plate, the rear cover plate and unscrewing 5 #4 button head screws, you can remove the couplers, mounts and cans for service. I have not weighed the extra parts but they are lite.

I also used the plan side view to make a template for balsa fillers for the cutouts in the motor box area. These are 3/32 balsa and fit flush with the inner edge of the motor box sides. The cannister exhaust exits just behind FB1 between the stringers, so the cowl can be removed and installed without disturbing any of the exhaust.

Too much fun! Time to get back at it!

As a side note. I did all of this with the fuse already built up. I had not decided on the setup prior to this point (recently). This would have been a lot easier if some of the prep work would have been done during the frame up. However, it is a good indication of how easy it would be to retrofit one of these airframes after construction if you had used standard mufflers. Noise is an issue for me so the next one will be done during the frame up.

[JimC-MD]

Remember this build? I have been working on it and rounding up more parts. Here are some more shots. I have both wings cut and capped. The left one is now hinged. The servos are all here as well as most of the power system. The pilot came in. (One of those shots is for the wife. All guys put a cowl on their head at some point, so why not a spinner?

[JimC-MD]

Well, I have been working along on this bird. Now that I am settled in I have been making some progress (finally)

I am waiting on a couple of things to finish the fuse but I started covering. I think I will make the Nall with it this year.

I started with the bottom of the stabs.

[Comp Arf Kid]

nice job on the build man, keep it going!