le fou

My Feedback: (12)

Hello,

I am in the process of building my patriot XL. I am planning to use a ASP .90 and BD retracts. I want to completely sheet the wings and I was also thinking of fiberglass the wings. If I do these two things, am I going to see a big difference in weight and most importantly in flight performance ans speed?

Thanks,

Le fou

vasek

My Feedback: (4)

Bonjour M. Le fou

I have the .40 (small) Patriot and I have full sheeted the wings, also B&D retracts BUT no fiberglassing. Unless You are very good at glassing, this would be the most obvious weight penalty. Some say they can glass/ paint with minimum difference between the Monokote finish.

It's up to you, but the full sheeting is IMO a good thing. Just choose light balsa.[8D]

Be careful tho with the B&D and the .60 size plane if you fly of grass (the wire struts have a smaller dia )

Salutations,
Vasek

Flyboy Dave

My Feedback: (21)

Sheeting the wing, and using Mono-cote or Ultra-cote will give incredable
strength to the wing. Glassing the wing would add unnecessary strength
and unnecessary weight to the wing. I wouldn't glass it, if it was mine, the
sheeting is plenty good enough.

FBD.

rmenke

My Feedback: (13)

LeFou:
As usual, these guys are right on the money. At best, you are going to go around 110 mph, the standard wing will normally hold up to this, you are plroviding additional insureance. The fully sheeted wing will look very nice done correctly and be quite strong. If you don't fly retracts frequently, be sure to check them for working freely after every flight without fail. Hanging up with mechanicals may pull your flight pack down to 0 during flight as the servo is stalled. Air retracts do not insure thay will come down when a gear is stuck in the well. ENJOY

jon_focal_plane

My PatXL was built to plan but nylon tape/epoxied the center section. Consistently run mid 140's on radar. Highest recorded speed was 157mph with a fair tailwind. I've pulled pretty hard in a full power split S, wings are still hangin'.

Jonathan

le fou

My Feedback: (12)

Hello,

Thank you for your replies. Here are two pictures of my sheeted wing - top is only fully sheeted, I am waiting to have joined the two half wings to sheet the bottom. Do you have a technique to make the balsa harder? I don't want any little nick or "hard" handling to leave an impression in the balsa.

I plan to us BD pneumatic retracts - are they strong enough for the size of this plane?

Thanks,

Le fou

HaveBlue

the build is looking very good , great job..I'm sure it's going to look very good when finished[sm=thumbup.gif]

vasek

My Feedback: (4)

yes BD can do the job, i've seen them on a 12lb DF jet... but you might have to tinker a bit with the struts after a hard landing

viet-grunt

My Feedback: (18)

Barry from Australia i built 2 x 40 sizes and were sratch built from the original kit as i wanted all sheeted fuselage and wing the whole plane was glassed and painted with epoxy clear the finished weight came out at 5 lbs 7 oz, i have to XL kit i will sratch build from the kit using it as templates and it will be glassed finish, there hardly any extra weight if you do it properly. also it give a good finish for a good paint job. VIET-GRUNT

rmenke

My Feedback: (13)

Viet-grunt:

Have been building for well over 55 years, and I must stand up and applaud your ability and strick attention to detail to achieve this type of work. I can usually get a great paint job with about 5 pounds of paint. Great work! You get a honest salute from this 101Air Borne Sgt. ENJOY, WERE STILL HERE!

le fou

My Feedback: (12)

Hello,

I glued my wing together following the instructions but I am affraid that there are not perfectly level. When I check with an incidence meter, one side is ~ 2.0 and the otherside is ~ 2.5. I also included some pictures with the post where you can see a straight edge put on each bottom spar. What do you think I can do at this point ? Is it going to have a big impact?

Thanks,

Le fou

diggs_74

Depends on the speeds you're going to run at... At 100 it will result in a few extra clicks of aileron trim, at 180 it will result in roll that wont stop until you slow down.. How do I know? I took a Q40 off that had about that much difference and I couldn't stop the roll... As soon as the power was cut it was flyable but just barely... If you haven't sheeted the bottom yet you could pull the wing to the correct AofA before gluing the sheeting... This might take a couple extra hands though.

le fou

My Feedback: (12)

Diggs_74,

Thanks for your reply. Do I need to slightly wet the top sheeting before to twist the wing to the right Aofa? What technique would you suggest?
Also, does the fact that I have already rounded the LE (if both sides are not exactly the same) can affect my incidence reading?

Thanks,

Le fou

vasek

My Feedback: (4)

Le fou, if it is just slightly of, when you will sheet the OTHER side make sure the wing is pinned STRAIGHT & secure. When the glue sets, you can remove the pins/ weights and I can assure you it won't move. That's another advantage of fully sheeted wings

diggs_74

Like what was said above, you should be able to force it straight and glue it... As far as the LE shape goes I would think it would have to be really out of wack to effect the incidence that much..

Roary m

My Feedback: (67)

If you feel brave and you have access to a 10" band saw, you could run it through both #1 ribs and build a root and tip jig to reset the assemblies; otherwise I like what everybody else is suggesting.

jeffk464

Actually, one advantage to a non-fully sheeted wing is that you can tweek it the way you want with only a hot air gun.

le fou

My Feedback: (12)

Thank you for all your replies. I sheeted the half that was off correcting for the difference in Aofa but when I removed the wing from the jig, the problem was still there[&o] I need help
Can I wet that half of the wing slightly, put it back in the jig and wait until it is dry? What else do you recommend?

Thanks a lot,

Le fou

RC flyer 2

The wing is suppose to have very slight dihedral. Look at the directions, the root rib or R1 is put in on a slight tilt, It's not perpendicular to the wing spar. If this is what you were concerned with, I wouldn't worry. Glue it together, finish sheeting and you'll be all set. Do make sure you sheet as the instructions say. You'll have a great flying model.