CA Models Osmose Delux ARC

[Jim Woodward]

Hi Guys,

I want to try for a short description of how I monocote in general, and the largest piece on top of the wing. From cutting to sealing the edges, this piece of white took me 20 minutes. There is not an airbubble in it.

Here are my general tenants of monocoting: Sand the surface with 400 grit. Fill holes you can identify and resand. Blow off surface with air. Wipe surface with tack-cloth 3-4 times. Monocote must "adhere" to the surface, rather than simply be stretched tight over it. I chose the "adhereing" and resultant visible wood grain method, versus the stretched and air-gun shrunk method. I use no heat-gun on solid surfaces. Later on in the life of the plane, this method seems to hold up better than the "heat/n/shrink" method (at least in my experience). Monocoting is an art, and these are the basic ideas I use on all the surfaces. I'm not really trying to get a shrunk-tight finish, rather one that had no airbubbles and is actually stuck to the wood. Try to run the iron as hot as you can without out-gassing the monocote adhesive.

Once you cut the piece, lay it where you want it to go and smooth out the initial ironing area, making it taught (not stretching it). Monocote doesn't like to bend in two directions at one time. Find the highest-longest run you can get with the iron and begin a slow full-iron run until you run out of film. There should be no airbubbles in this iron-swath you just made. If you picked the lay-direction nicely, begin a second iron-swath where the tip of the iron is running parallel to the first swath, and overlaps 50% of the first path. Work out and parallel as long as you can, until the lay-line changes. You'll notice as you move towards the aileron and root/TE of the wing, than you'll need to change your path angle a bit with the iron as to avoid "bunches" or "excess" monocote in those areas. I you start to see this developing, pull up that area and hit it again at a slightly different angle. Try not to fight the monocote or surface, just lay it down in the direction it lays best, always overlapping the prior iron path 50%.

[Jim Woodward]

Next up, cover-down the edges to your desire. I use a simple "top-down" approach, where all top colors carry down the full TE, rather than splitting the TE's with the upper/lower scheme. I'm going for a functional covering job that stays put and looks pretty good, rather than a "perfect" show-room finish. Quality, functionality, ease of cutting, and "fast" to put down! This scheme has all of that which fits my eye and ability to make and measure the pieces.

I cut all the monocote on a piece of thin sheet wood. I've used this same piece for 3 40%, fun-fly, and now a pattern plane.

When positioning the piece of blue, make pen-marks on the adjacent colors where you want it to go, always ensureing your new piece covers the pen marks
Jim

- I'm not worried about the monocote police coming after me, so I'll take a few shortcuts some times.

[Jim Woodward]

When laying in the blue parts be extra careful because there are no open edges left. However, even when laying in strips, still try to find the high-points and work out from them to avoid airbubbles. If in doublt, rip off and put on a new piece! Notice the T-pins in the hinges. This is done to ensure 50% of each hinge goes into the wing and the aileron. Before hinging and covering I had already measured each aileron, sanded, hinged, fit to the wing, and sanded as a unit. I'm happy to report that (again), the wood work was nearly flawless and I hinged the ailerons perfectly in line with the wing.

[Jim Woodward]

One other thing - cut your nails before handling the wood too much. That can save some accidental scaring of the wood. Also, be very careful not to scar the wood with the iron.
thanks,
Jim

[Jim Woodward]

On a side note, I've done way too much building, covering, & painting over the last 10 months!!! Here is some of my latest handywork. Custom "Swany House" fun-fly, CA 38% Extra 330, and the Dalton MEL 300.
Jim

[Jim Woodward]

Aileron Servo Box: Some have complained the CA models has made the aileron boxes for the servos too big. It took about 10 minutes per aileron create 3 pieces of wood, glue in, and sand flush - done.

1. 2 pieces of light-ply for servo rail. One side was 1/2" x 1/8" x 1.0" (approximately). The other side was 5/16" x 1/8" x 1.0" (approx). Glue these into position. Then I took a piece of balsa wood stick, cut it just longer than the opening of the servo, cut 1/8" relief area for the servo rail, and installed it so that is hung under the servo rails (to support the rails), and came up higher than the wing surface. I think it was .25" balsa stick. Then I sanded it all flush. easy enough.
Jim

[Pattern Freak]

He Jim awesome build ,nice work!!!.

I`am currently debating on witch model to buy the Osmose,Shinden,Integral,Genesis WC,Proline??.It`s very difficult for me to choose one of these since i`ve got very little feedback of how they perform in variuos aerobatic manuevers(PO9-FO9),i hope you can help me with some of your feedback on the Osmose flyingwise and quality wise,i have read before that the CA models had some minor issues with quality and they turned out sometimes on the heavy side but i know that there are some out there that like to talk trash and bashed companies without no reason,anyway Jim you as a pro should know whay you choosed the Osmose as your next model,please help me out!!,i really love this plane but i don`t want the looks of the plane to affect my decision,thanks for your help.

Regards,Greg.

P.S. i`am a very good friend of John Bainatsah from Suriname and we are going to the competition in Bogota Colombia in October and he told me that maybe you`re going to join us i hope you can make it.

Greetings from ARUBA.

[Jim Woodward]

Hi Greg,

Thanks for the note. I think its fair to say that CA Models has improved the quality of their planes overall. This year I have seen a few of their models, kits, ARC, and ARF, and the work seems very well done. Some of the Osmose are finishing towards 11 lbs, but I have not heard of one being overweight. The Osmose though, is a big plane. I have seen some Genesis that seem very light, but I do not know the final weight.

Before picking the Osmose I talked to all the Osmose owners I personally knew (Humberto P (masters), Marcio G. (Advanced), and Ivan K. (FAI), Mike C (Masters to I believe). It seems like if you install the T-Canalizer, the plane is near "zero-mix" even doing knife-edge corner loops. Also, the loop/roll integrated maneuvers are reported as being easeir to do. Plus, Luiz had this in stock, and "availability" always seems to factor into my decisions.

However, I also talked to "Passport" owners. I read FG and RCU comments and spoke to Todd Blose and a few other about it. I would also like to get a Passport. This plane is reported to do "effortless" roll/loop combination stuff, however there wasn't one available at the time.

The Genesis is also a good flying plane and on sale through Netbox Hobby right now. The Integral is having great success too. I think the real key is to happiness with any of these models is going through them, stiffening where needed, and ensureing you start flying them at the correct CG location with all incidences and thrst angles verified by you!!! Leave no doubt that you know exactly what you have before you go flying it, regarding setup.

Oh man - Bogota! I love the "Colombianas" I see on Telemundo!!! It would be really fun to make it down there for sure and a great experience overall. We'll see.

Thanks,
Jim

[Jim Woodward]

Guys - not a lot of photos, but 70% of the other wing panel is nowmonocoted. I'll finish this wing tonight, then its onto fuselage prep for paint!! Hopefully primering this weekend.
Jim

[Jim Woodward]

Well, 3 nights to sand, mark, monocote, hinge, seal gaps, and install servos and horns is a new record for me! The wings look really good, and its onto prepping the fuselage, chin cowl, and canopy for paint. Now that the flying surfaces are done I'll take more photos of the fuselage as I get started.
Thanks,
Jim

- turns out the 15.1 oz panel was the heavy one! The other panel weghs 14.92 oz RTF!!!!!! This is a fantastic weight for factory or pro-built wings!!

[Pattern Freak]

He Jim,thanks for the feedback.

Wow 3 nights that`s sick and with that quality job that`s even sicker lol nice job!!!

I`am really looking forward to your feedback on how the Osmose turns out in the air,it`s good to know that CA Models have improved their products and i think i`am going for the Osmose.I hope you can point out all the equipment and measurements of the plane e.g CG,throws,thrust etc.Do you think the new Hyde AR80 mount will fit the nose?.
Btw check the new bird from Christophe http://www.cplr.com.fr/pages/avions/...olution_en.php the prop seems strange,for a sec. i thought he went electric lol,the canaliser seems to have moved further back closer to the vertical stab.
Jim,yep you`re right the Colombianas are very``Deliciosas``lol.I hope you can make i assure you that it`s going to be one heck of a good time.

[Jim Woodward]

Hi Greg,

I'll post a full accounting of the setup and flying qualities and such. I started sanding the canopy and chin cowl with a 400 grit 3M pad. I rubbed them until the shine came off. I then used my "SST" (sophisticated sanding tool) with 320 and 220 grit to knock down the seam. I thought I was "OK" to begin my 3rd consequtive painting project, but when I mixed the Easy Sand to fill the seem, I started some type of shaking and physcotic episode. It resided shortly, and I was able to fill the seam. Working on nice gel-coat parts is as easy as it gets for painting. The seem work and a couple small areas needed filling. It is sort of hard to capture becuse the "Easy Sand" is a light green color, and the parts a dull white now. Reallly, this was a piece of cake. One thing about gel-coat though, is that you don't want to sand through it totally as it can open up weave holes underneath, so I just took the shine off of it.
Thanks,
Jim

[MattyMatt]

Nice work Jim... you are really booking through this thing!

[Jim Woodward]

Thanks Guys,

The fuselage is sanded down a bit, and the seem is covered in Easy Sand. The seam work CA Models did on the fuselage is truly excellent. The overlap or fill area is very small. I'm looking to shoot primer this weekend.
Jim

[Radioactive]

Yo Woody, looking good... can't wait for you to start ours... it's going to be another Sick RIDE>>>>>>>>>And after it has been Woody-ized.... it's going to be BADAZZZZZZ...