RE: Building a Dynaflite Super Decathlon
I did a bit more work on my first wing. I've included a few images. You can see in the dowel plate area I added some triangle stock to increase strength there. You can also see that I have increased the aileron area by 4 bays. These four bays will be for the flaps. I also added the additional servo mount areas. I really didn't like depending on 3/32 balsa as support around the servo openings, so I also boxed in the perimeter. I shouldn't need to be quite as careful handling the wings with this addition. Also, you can see that I ran a bit of light ply from the sides of the strut mount blocks to the adjacent rib and added a bit of balsa on this other rib as a glue point. I plan to put this model through the paces and am expecting the struts to have some stress on them. These blocks should now be able to withstand a pretty good force during either an upright or inverted loop.
So far, I plan to run a 40cc gasser on it, so I'll have plenty of power which means I'm not worrying quite so much about weight. The engine planned is a CRRC Pro 40cc, which weighs just under 3 pounds. One of the best power per weight ratio gassers I've found that don't cost a fortune.
I have since taking those photos, sheeted the wings and now only need to add the 1/4 x 3/32 strips to the tops of the ribs. Also I noted that the plans do not show one of these strips on the tip rib. I'm not so sure how you're supposed to trace the wing shape onto the balsa wing tip block without these so I'm going to add those as well. Once done with these bits and the trimming, I'll move on to the next wing and get it caught up to this one. I want to do both wing tips at the same time so as to get a better match. Also, doing both ailerons and both flaps at the same time should keep me on the same track with those better. I'm sort of anxious to get those wing tips done as that outboard rib looks awfully fragile and requires some special attention when moving the wing about.
I think I might do a slightly less rounded but more straight angled shape to those wing tips... leaving a bit of a flat area on the tip of the tip. LOL! This should make covering go a lot better. Not so much pulling, tugging and struggling to get a nice job around those curves. The photos a few post back of the real Decathlon seemed to look a bit more like this, so there's my excuse for doing it this way. I REALLY like the looks of that plane. I might have to copy those graphics, just using my pearl white in place of the yellow and my orange in place of the blue.
As for the quality of my build... well the leading edge looks really good. The aileron trailing edge has a bit of a bow to it across three of the ribs. Crud! The wing however does lay pretty well on the wing jig even with nothing holding it down so I'm all in all pretty satisfied. I just wish that one bow wasn't in it but I don't see any easy cure for that. Maybe I can pull it a bit with the covering. I'm feeling pretty good though for my second build and first large model from a kit.