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Old 01-30-2005, 04:24 PM
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Don Szczur
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Default RE: Rebuilding a destroyed wood aircraft

That's a really good question. Why not just use new stuff. I did where I had to. For example the two engine box/inner fuselage box sides. It seemed to go faster when I re-used as much as I could. What I found was that every piece I had to cut out myself (there were not many) took about 5 times longer than just glue the others back together. Even things like the ply landing gear plate (although delaminated in a few spots) went back together reasonably well. It saved a lot of time, not having to re-drill and set the blind nuts, alignment, and doublers.

Another thing I found was that when all the pieces fit, there was not much to have to re-align. Everything fit together very well and the balsa sticks are actually stronger than before. The plane "aligned" itself as it went back together. The big test was when I put the wings back on. Everything matched up, even the counter-rotation pins.

One interesting thing is that I'm going to switch from the Q 200 to a DA 150. I'll be losing at least 3 Lbs, and will almost positively have to move the rudder servos from the tail back up into the forward fuselage.

The new cowling is also a lot lighter, probably a half pound (almost 1/4 Kg) when its all said and done.

With all this stuff, the plane will probably come out at about 44 Lbs, vs. the 48Lbs it was before.

Should be pretty neat.