SplinteredProp

The rest of the time was spend cutting the ribs from 1/8" balsa, and starting dry-fitting.

acerc

That sure does remind me of why I like magnet's. No glue needed untill all part's have been fitted.

SplinteredProp

To each their own.

acerc

Was just an observation of difference in technique, sorry. Will not make any other such comment's again.Fine workmanship going on here andI'm taking note's. On my collection toward's the pitt's I have added the reciever, batteries, power switch, servo's and a really sweet tailwheel.

SplinteredProp

You can make any comments you would like - I certainly didn't mean anything by mine. I just prefer using pins.

Thank you for the workmanship comment - I try to make everything as accurate & neat as possible, usually at the expense of time. I'm predicting that this one will take me close to a year to complete.

acerc

Great then were all good. I thought I may have offendedyou. I try to build the same way. The only time restraint I have is, uh hmm, the end before I'm done. One year to build a masterpiece is doing quite well.
Are you doing all the bell's and whistles?

acerc

Getting closer. Placed an order with BUSA today for all the wood and then some. Can't ever have too much. Now to decide what color scheme. Hopefully I'll decide beforeI'm ready to order paint.
I think I have narrowed it down to the following three. Really leaning toward's the Marlboro one just to be a bit provocative.

SplinteredProp

I really like the black...I was going to go with the traditional red/white scheme, but after seeing the black....hmmm....

Good call on BUSA. I ordered my wood from Lone Star, and I couldn't have been more disappointed.

SplinteredProp

Well, I haven't posted in a while, but I have managed to get some things done.

The top wing is getting close, but the plans really made me scratch my head a few times. There is, in my opinion, not enough "meat" shown in the center section of the wing, so I made a piece of 1/8" plywood to span 4 ribs rather than just spanning 2 as shown on the plans (pic 2).

There are also plywood braces epoxied to the main spars on the side of the wing not shown.

The trailing edge, as shown on the plans, is a solid piece of balsa with dadoes cut in to accept the ends of the ribs (pic 3). This method was a real pain, considereing I had to rough cut each side of the TE to get the approximate shape, then sand sand sand until the final shape was achieved. For the bottom wing, I may consider extending the TE of the ribs and eliminate the solid piece.

SplinteredProp

These pics show the aileron bay and wing tip. No real challenges with either of these.

SplinteredProp

I've never done any metal working before, but this Pitts is going to force me to learn. \

Pic 1 shows the top wing brackets - the were made from aluminum channel, which was easy to rough cut on the band saw and fine tune on the disc sander.

Pic 2 shows a top wing aileron control horn which was cut from .064 aluminum. I sandwiched the aluminum between 2 pieces of 1/8" plywood, glued together with 3M 77 adhesive, and cut with a jeweler's blade on the scroll saw. Again I fine tuned it in the disc sander. A short soak in a bit of acetone released the plywood from the aluminum.

acerc

Very nice work. I have heard those type of complaint's about LS. I have used BUSA for years with no reason to switch. Really looking forward to my build. I'm considering taking a shortcut on the metal work and have it laser cut.

acerc

SP, where you been. Doing any building? I don't know what you got in mind for flying wire's. Found this guy who will make them to scale and length. http://www.bruntons.co.uk/
And here's one for some nice build pics. http://www.steenaero.com/PittsS1/con...lery_index.cfm

Also, I will be going to the factory the first of Dec, need any particular pics?

gordon_mcln

My Feedback: (2)

ACERC.

How would you go about having the metal pieces laser cut? I have a number of projects and need to figure out a way. Would you send copies of parts to a laser shop?

Let me know when you have a moment.

Thanks,

Gordon

acerc

I contacted a lazer cutting shop local to me. They said it would be no problem. Just have to give them a copy off of the plans of what is to be cut. After speaking with them on cost I may not do it. They have a rather heafty set-up fee. Total for me here would be somewhere around $350-400. Needless to say I have not made up my mind yet. I probably will go the following link route http://www.proctor-enterprises.com/p..._fittings1.htm. Seem's they have pretty much everything needed. But more than likely I will make all of them myself same as SP.

john josey

Far from telling you guys how to build, but i thought it may be worth mentioning the way i built the wings on my own pitts. I used panel pins to 'pin' the spars to the board then cut them flush with the spar using sidecutters that way you can do the spar webbing, the sheeting, cap strips, the lot, while the wing is still pinned to the board, once you have completed the wing, you simply prize the whole thing off the board. When the wing is removed it is very very stiff with very little chance of a warp at this stage.



Exellent workmanship though, truly top drawer !

acerc

Nice Pitts JJ. Is it the s1c?

SplinteredProp

ACE - still here. just haven't been doing any building lately - been flying instead since the weather here has finally turned decent.

JJ - beautiful airplane, specs?

john josey

Thanks guys,

My own pitts is built from the Toni Clark kit and is an S1S at 1/3 scale (68") it is covered using profilm, also known as oracover including the coloured trim. It's powered by an zenoah G62 with stainless exhaust and weighs 19.5lb's including the smoke system.

I'll post a link for the Toni Clark kits as the metal brackets you guys are making are 'spookely' like the parts that came in my kit.

http://www.toni-clark.com/index_en.htm

Cheers, john

acerc

JJ, I just e-mailed him. Curious what a kit would cost shipped here. Depending on price might buy one for future use. Thank's for that link!

john josey

My pleasure.

I would think it would be quite 'pricey' to ship to the states. I'd be curious to find out how much of the hardware from the TC kit is useable for the plan build you guys are doing.

What are the main diffrences from the standard S1S to the sheber S1S ?

acerc

It is my understanding that the only difference's of the (s1s) is whom ever drew the plan's. I do know Andy Sheber's is pretty much exact to the original. I know that because I have a set of factory plan's for the full scale. The reason I asked which version your's is, is because it does not appear to have ailerons on the top wing. The Aileron's, according to the factory, are the biggest difference between models-A,C,D,E..etc. As well as airfoil.

I got an e-mail back from Toni. The kit is $812 and shipping of $96 for a total of $908. For what is in the kit that's not bad.They are out of stock and will e-mail me when more comes in.

john josey

Ah, ok. yeah mine does have ailerons on the top wing, you can just see the horn on the right wing just behind the front cabane strut. The kit supplies the parts and materiels for the scale pushrods between the top and bottom wings, but i had just had enough by then and decided to miss them out.

It's not as expencive as i thought it would be. The only thing i can say is, if i had total loss of the aeroplane in a crash i would have another one in a heartbeat ! it flies so well, even near the stall, it just gives a gentle waggle of the wings to let you know.

acerc

Here is a link to the factories history page of the pitts. In some ways one could actually build several versions into one airframe. All the variations of the wings are availabe for the ,original, Pitts s1 fuse.
Good reading!

http://www.steenaero.com/PittsS1/history.cfm