Jakeluke

I'd like to think this category was still alive.

I'm not a computer whiz, but it does have its advantages. I tried the DOS version of DesignCad a number of years ago and found it pretty tedious. Same goes for TurboCad.

Two years ago I got the idea of building an electric model of Sikorsky's Grand. After digging around and getting some help from one of the members of the family, I was able to get photos, drawings, and data regarding the plane. Then I had to face drawing up a set of building plans.

I was going to dig out my DOS DesignCad, when one of the guys in the club I belong to offered me the Windows version of DesignCad. It took me a fair while to learn how to use the program, and, whenever I haven't used it for a while, a re-learning period, but it is to me a superb way of making drawings.

There are lots of details that need to be worked out and it's easy to draw a detail in whatever scale I need to to be able to see and draw what I want, but then I can fit the detail directly into the master drawing without having to redraw it. And I can rotate it, draw its mirror image, etc.

I can print out whatever portion of the drawing I need to to allow me to proceed with construction of the various pieces. If I need some special drawing, as, for example in this case, to construct the marvelously complex undercarriage, I can do so, adding or deleting whatever I wish. (On this plane, the undercarriage, as I am making it, consists of 35 pieces of 1/8 inch diameter carbon fiber turing, connected with some 100 music wire connectors and epoxy resin, then reinforced with aluminum gusset plates.)

While I've done a lot of scratch building before, this is the first time I had to draw the drawing and to work out all the details.

Originally, I thought of making this with an 8 foot span, but soon realized that getting it to the field fully assembled would be very difficult. Soon I was facing a 5 foot span. This gave me a problem trying to find motors that I could use as this plane uses four motors exposed, mounted on the lower wing.

After thinking a bit more about it, I finally figured that I could get a 6 foot model into my van, and so that became the span. Even then, the smallest motor I could find that could be dummied up into a 4-cylinder engine was the Razor RZ2500 with a 4:1 gearbox. It was about 15% larger in diameter than the crankcase of the original Argus engine, but I think few people will notice it.

I'm two years into the project now, and expect that it may not fly until next year. But it has been quite an education so far, and I'm sure I haven't stopped learning yet.