Doug Cronkhite

My Feedback: (34)

Just thought I'd throw Dave a little plug for his wings and stabs. My Evo (as in Spark Evo) wing/stab + jigs set arrived today. I'll take some pics tonight. The quality is AWESOME! Really can't wait to start building these this weekend!

Doug Cronkhite

My Feedback: (34)

So you can see here, a couple of the jig pieces. Everything is laser etched with its part number for easy identification. Pic #1 and #2 are of the jig pieces. There are 8 sheets of laser cut pieces that make up the jigs. Pics #3 and #4 are of wing ribs plus a sheet of the shear webs. The wood selection here is VERY good and again, everything is easily identifiable. The design of the wings/stabs themselves is really nice. Dave put a lot of thought into making these strong where they need to be, while staying VERY light.

Along with all the wood (I think there are 12-14 sheets that make up the wings and stabs), there are full-size plans for both wings and stabs that are very clear and easy to understand. No instructions with the kits, but realistically, if you've decided to go with built-up wings and stabs for an F3A airplane, you more than likely won't be someone who requires instructions to build these. They're really pretty simple once you look at the drawings a bit.

All of this was delivered to my door for about $295. Pretty reasonable IMO.

Portlandflyer

Doug,

I too built a set of Dave’s Evo wings and Dynamic stabs. They really are a joy to build. One of the things I did was study Dave’s build thread inside and out. It really helped. Of course the real challenge is to get good contest balsa for the skins. As I am sure you know, it’s really hard to come by, but worth the effort to find. I got mine from Sig.

One little trick to keep the weight down is to use a glue syringe for the Gorilla glue versus direct from the bottle. With the syringe you can run a really small bead.

My wings came in at 8 ½ oz per panel before covering.

tggilkey

Ditto on the quality of parts fit, engineering, etc. Definitely study the build and pictures. I ended up using Sig also for the wing sheeting. The glue syringe is a very good way to control the placement and amount of glue. There are a few places in the construction where the expansion can create heartburn. Fortunately I avoided that! I'm quite pleased with the way mine came out. (PassPort wing and modified Spark stab).

The one piece of advice I would have is really post-construction related. Don't let your 18 pound cat walk on the wings...

gdaddy

I built the Dynamic (Krill) AJ version wings and stabs. Put them on my Lightning. To reiterate what others have said, the workmanship, design, etc,, is top drawer. I was not hip to the correct method of using Gorilla glue and used far too much.

The wings that Darin Peirce has been building for himself and Andrew are all in the 8 oz to 8.5 range. Darin puts his sheeting down on the jig and lays the built rib/spar structure over it. He traces around EVERY dang rib and spar with a fine tip Sharpie and then moves the sheeting off, Then puts the tiniest of beads down where he marked . I would swear its not enough glue but,, when it dries each of the ribs has a beautiful meniscus of foamed Gorilla glue along all joints. Beautiful work on his wings. He is doing a half dozen sets of Evo wings and the Dynamic stabs. Great combination.

Guy

Portlandflyer

The most important issues to control weight is obviously the wing skins, but as important is the amount of glue. You need just an ultra fine bead of Gorilla glue. Like I said, I used a glue syringe with a very small opening. I applied the glue direct to all ribs and spars like Dave does. If I build another set, I think I can knock off a half oz. or so from each panel now that I know how little glue is needed.

gdaddy

Man,, I cant get over the difference in balsa quality these days. There are good pieces here and there from different vendors but,, 20 years ago when I was building two pattern planes per week and Dad was doing the same,, we'd get orders of wood where 200-300 sheets would be sub 20 gram per and white with straight A grain. Just a sight to behold. Oh well, pining will get me nowhere.

Guy

Portlandflyer

Alot of good balsa is going into wind turbine blades.

Doug Cronkhite

My Feedback: (34)

Yep.. used to be super tankers, and now it's wind turbines. We modelers get scraps by comparison. Oh well.

Brenner

Just this last week I was able to get a set of Dave Snow wings in the air with my Contra powered Wind S Pro. These wings were built and covered by Dave himself, so all I had to do was mount them. My immediate thoughts with regard to comparision with the stock Wind S Pro built up wings are as follows:

1/.. Dave's wings are lighter by about four ounces. (113g)
2/.. Exits from snaps are easier to hit consistently.
3/.. Dave's wings are noticeably faster than the stock panels. I'm flying with a set of 22x20 front and rear props and they at least as fast as when I fly the stock wings with a 22x22 rear and a 22x20 front.
4/.. I've moved my CG back about 12mm from where I had it with the stock wings. (I'm still experimenting with this though ..)

These wings are not a direct copy of the Wind S Pro wings. They are replicas of the Spark wings that Dave is building for Andrew Jesky, which are also not direct copies of the Krill Spark wings.

All in all, I am very happy with the switch. My AUW has gone from 5075g to 4910g, (includes swapping out the wing tube as well..) and I figure I'm going to pick up points on all my snaps at least.

Brenner ...