hllywdb

Hi David,
My thinking is that the Norvel 25 is only 8.03oz with the muffler, less with a pipe or mousse can. This is realy 15 size wieght, so I get all my power with a low wing loading to boot. I do get my cake and eat it!

doxilia

My Feedback: (3)

Bill,

Norvel's were little wonders - too bad they stopped making them. I still have a new AME 061 which were being promoted with 1/12 scale HOB kits some time back (late 90's?). Although my Cox TD 049 has countless hours on it I don't know if I'll ever use the Norvel engine what with electric being so tempting for small models.

Do post some pics of that engine and its exhaust systems. 8 oz for a 25 does sound like good cake!

David.

hllywdb

Hi David,
The Norvels are available again, also parts. Check on the 1/2A forum for a post on them. So I ordered all the parts I needed to get 3 of my Norvel 25's back up to snuff, also 3 of my 061's and bought a new 074! So to me, the 42" Kaos seemed like the perfect fit for the Norvel 25. Especially with the fat wing. I don't need 100+ mph, but I do like unlimited vertical. So I will run a 8 or 9" prop, depending on what the plane tells me it likes best. I have a 42" sort of Joker style swept wing pattern that I fly with a GMS 32. But the whole plane and engine package is a bit heavy for my taste. Hence the Kaos 25[8D]

As for good cake, 8oz and I am getting 19K with a 9X4 with just a mousse can. That's my kind of cake!

doxilia

My Feedback: (3)

Sweeet! [8D]

hllywdb

David,
As requested, here is my Norvel 25 next to a plain Jane OS FP 25 for comparison. Also included is the mousse can and a header for the tuned pipe. And remember the FP is a light weight motor. It's amazing how the Norvel gets so much power into such a light motor. I wish they made a .61!

hllywdb

Back to the build. Here is the LE edge finished off. For those who have never done a 2 piece before, you can see why I like them.

Next is the wing tip shaped, sanded, then epoxied on and finish sanded.

At this point the 1st half is pretty much done. The other side is about 80% done at this point as well. Once I finish that I will be on to the dihedral brace and gluing the 2 wings together.

kdubose

You deserve all the credit on this one! The build looks great!!! I'm excited just watching this evolve. At this pace, you'll be done in no time. If only I could find the time...
-KD

hllywdb

Thanks Kirt,

I'm hoping to inspire you to start yours.

Next up is to cut through the root ribs just in front of the spars to slide the dihedral brace in. Notice it has the holes for the wing dowels pre-drilled.

Note* I think if I had to do this again, I would wait and sheet the bottom of the wings after I had glued them together, added the dihedral brace, and drilled the dowel holes.

Then epoxy it up, slide in the brace, and slide the wings together. I always use tape on the joint to keep the epoxy from leaking out and all over the wings.

hllywdb

A little bit of epoxy mixed with milled fiberglass for filler, then lots of finish sanding the wing is done. Next it will be on to the tail feathers.

hllywdb

On to the tail. The tail framework is 1/8 X 3/8. I found it easiest to just cut them from a 1/8 X 3" sheet. I started by pinning down and gluing the outside frame.

Then I marked and cut all of the inside framework and glued in place. Once finished I sanded the top and glued down the top sheeting. When gluing sheeting down on flat surfaces, I lay another layer of wax paper down and place a scap piece of marble on top to hold everything completely flat while it dries as well as keeping steady pressure on the piece.

hllywdb

While the top sheet was drying, I glued the plywood wing saddle doublers on to the fuselage. Again, sandwiching them between 2 pieces of marble to keep them flat.

Notice that I have cut a space out in the doublers for the wing mount block. A bit more on wing blocks here. I run my blocks seemingly backwards from many plane kits. Instead of having them fit flush on the wing bottom and go from front to back, I shim the wing bottom with an angled shim and have them thread from front towards the back. This keeps the stress on the shear strength of the bolt, not the tensile strength. I find the nylon bolts will tend to stretch much faster than shear. Plus, under stress this pushes the wing against the fuselage instead of pulling it away.

hllywdb

Next up is the rudder and fin. After sanding and fitting all the pieces, I use epoxy to glue them together for the extra strength, especially on the plywood block for the control horn.

Once glued I pin them in place over the plans to keep alignment as true as possible.

hllywdb

Then on to the elevator halfs. Make up the 1/8" music wire joiner and drill the holes and cut-outs.

Then the same drill, epoxy in and pin to the plans to keep them straight. I then mixed up some epoxy with fiberglass filler and built up a fillet around the music wire.

Off topic, but went up flying this morning, zero wind. A few guys at the club fly IMAC, a few fly 3D, not so much old school pattern. So I'm usually the only one up there with swept wings, 2 stokes, and retracts. Anyway, had a great session but apparently was waxing a bit poetic to my wife when I got back about how the new stuff just can't compare to the gracefulness of a old school, gear up, slow roll the length of the field and she started looking at me like I was talking about male figure skating or syncronized swimming. If I hadn't spent yesterday eating chili and staying up until midnight watching the Pats beat the Steelers I think she would have been worried!

Jim_Purcha

My Feedback: (8)

From what I read here. You built the dihedral angle into the wing root when constructing the separate panels? I built a Bridi kit and had to sand the dihedral angle into the a 1/4" wide center rib, than mate the panels.

Jim

hllywdb

Hi Jim,

Since the ribs taper from root to tip, I build the wing upside down, making sure the ribs are at 90 degrees. When you glue the wings together (again, upside down) both root ribs are flush, the top of the wing ends up flat and the bottom of the wing has a "dihedral" as it tapers up from root to tip. Bridi built his original Kaos this way as well.

doxilia

My Feedback: (3)

Jim,

it's a standard flat top wing. The wedge dihedral center rib was needed on wing panels built with ribs from root to tip perpendicular to the table. It's a somewhat arbitrary construction technique in my opinion unless the center rib is machine cut. By the time Bridi designed the UFO (maybe even the DB) he had opted for more conventional wing LE sheeting techniques as well as a simple dihedral template to lock in the dihedral in the root rib.

David.

hllywdb

OK, back to the build.

Up next is the fuselage. I start by first drawing the placements for the formers and the firewall. I also lined up the right side of the fuselage and marked the cut off from the plan for the 2 degrees of right offset I am building in. The Kaos, depending on size and year designed have been built with anywhere from zero to three degrees thrust. I chose to use 2 degrees right and down thrust. This way I can go to one or three degrees with one washer.

hllywdb

Next I add the 3/16 square longerons to the top and bottom of the fuselage sides. At this point I also glue the plywood brace onto the F2 former.

Once dry, I sand the angle into the rear longerons to match the plan and trial fit them to make sure they line up ok.

Then I final sand each of the formers and trial fit them to the fuselage. Once completed I pin the first fuselage side over the plan and brace with speed squares. Then Glue in the F2 and F3 formers and the second fuselage side, again using speed squares to make sure it is square and aligned to the plans.

hllywdb

I finish adding the rest of the formers and glue the end of the fuselage sides together.

Before adding the firewall, I set the wing in place and drill the 3/16 holes through F2, the leading edge, and into the holes in the dihedral brace with a 8" long drill from the front.

Once drilled I cut the dowels to length, test fit, then glue into the wing.

hllywdb

Next I epoxy the firewall in place. Once dry, I cut and add the 1/16 sheeting on the top of the fuselage, stopping just short of the firewall. I will wait until I have the motor mounts and cowl cheeks done before I finish the sheeting over the top of the firewall.

I am sheeting the entire top as I have decided to use a hatch on the bottom, I think that keeps the top a bit cleaner looking.

Then I temporarily fit the stab, fin, and elevator to fuselage and line up the pushrods with servos laid in for placement. Once marked, I cut out the fuselage sides for the pushrod guides and epoxy them in place. I mix up a bit extra epoxy when doing this and add milled fiberglass filler to the excess and fill in around the pushrod tubes. Once dry, I cut them off and sand smooth against the fuselage.

hllywdb

Next I add the 1/16 sheeting to the bottom of the fuselage. I also relieve the cutout in the F3 former so the pushrod will set at the correct height for the servos.

I then line up the wing in place and sand to fit level on fuselage. After centering the wing, I mark the outline of the wing hold down plywood doubler. I then epoxy the doubler in place and clamp until it dries.

hllywdb

Next, I glued 2 pieces of 3/16 ply together to form the wing hold down mount. After drying I sanded to fit then epoxied in place.

hllywdb

After the mount was dry, I fitted the wing in place and squared it to the fuselage. I prinned it in place to keep it from moving and drilled through the wing and the plywood mount. After removing the wing, I tapped the two holes in the mount to fit the 10-32 hold down bolts. Then I drilled the wing out to the size of the bolts.

Next up was to glue in the rear servo rails. I glued 3/16 rails on the top to bring them snug up against the saddle doublers.

hllywdb

After the rails had dried, I fit the wing back up and fit the stab in place. That took a bit more sanding and fitting to get it square with the wing and fuselage, as well as level with the wing.

Once I was satified with the fit, I marked the stab and epoxied it in place. I weighted down the fuse and then used a sanding block as a shim to hold the stab level while it dried.

R_G

My Feedback: (1)

Looking good so far hllywdb! You're moving right along! Very nice! [sm=thumbs_up.gif]