DaddySam

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Thanks Chad. Also thanks for your thread on the Chino air show. One of these years I'm going to have to make it see those planes in person! Here's a quick pic of the finished jury strut recess. I'm not sure how/when I'll attach that strut, but it will be after the maiden flights. I hope to have the wing undersides sheeted to day and maybe the upper surfaces tomorrow. Depends how fast I can edge glue!
Sam

DaddySam

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Wing sheeting progresses: Edge Gluing, wing prep including wiring for landing lights and wingtip lights, servos. Then glue application and finally glued, weighted, pinned, and taped...

DaddySam

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Today is the top sheeting which means making sure the washout it correct. I built the wings as per Roy's article On building in washout. I glued a piece of balsa stick along the rib datum line at the roots and the tip, so I would be able to rest my bevel meter (which I bought to set heli blade pitch). I got the center section weighted down and root set to 0 degrees, and then used a block of balsa to raise up the trailing edge until I had 2.5 degrees incidence. Then I put on the rear sheeting. After it sets up I'll add the front and the washout should be locked in. Then I'll do it to the other half and I'll be close to putting on the wingtips, final sand, and glass.

DaddySam

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Of course it would help if I read the plans and put in the correct incidence! TWO degrees!

DaddySam

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Wing sheeting is basically done. I have some small areas on the top I need to cut some sheeting for, and I need to finish my access panels for the wing servos. I've made the hatch base plate from 1/32" ply and will surface it with 1/16" balsa, so it will sand to shape and I can recess the screw heads slightly. Wingtips next and then glass after prep.

DaddySam

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I was going to work on the wing fairing but got detoured once I had to take over the garage to assemble the plane. I decided to mount the cowl, which meant cutting out and fitting for the live exhaust. The cowl does not fit the fuse former perfectly but that is what Bondo is for. I'm going to have to cut openings for air over the cylinder head and for the sparkplug cap, but that will be later. Here are a few cowl pix, plus an overview - its beginning to look like an airplane!

DaddySam

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Still avoiding the wing fairings by working on the cowl. I cut the openings for the exhausts, and then cut a cowl ring out to fit inside the cowl. BIG MISTAKE! I should have cut a slit along the centerline of the exhaust stubs and then fitted the cowl ring. The cowl is just smaller than the firewall so when I fitted in the cowl ring the cowl spread apart. The cowl now fits the fuse perfectly but the expansion has widened the slots I made for the exhausts. After the epoxy dries I'll be fitting in some of the cowl I cut out in order to make the exhaust openings fit the stacks. Definitely will not make wthat mistake again!
The cowl is guided onto the firewall by a 1/4" dowel peg on top and bottom. I haven't decided how many bolts to use but it looks like cowl removal/attachment will be through the spinner opening and the air intake.

DaddySam

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I've been trying to figure out what's wrong with the wing root and I've finally figured out that it's the curvature. I made a new root form for the rear wing fairing and it turns out to be quite close to the BT plan, although the designers mount the wing and fairing in different ways. Below is the Vailly wing root, the BT root for comparison, and the first glue going down on the saddle.

DaddySam

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I've been puttering on the wing mounting, fillets, etc.. I've used some balsa and ply "mini - ribs" to help keep the ply wing fillet down, and I intend to use them to guide the putty knife when I make the fillet. I've also built up the front fillet with balsa so I won't be using so much epoxy or auto body filler when that time comes. The last shot is just for my inspiration so I will remember that the end is in sight. The rear wing fillets will be covered with fiberglass and epoxy, so I will make a joint between the solartex and the fiberglass with masking tape. I'm hoping to practice on the fillets so I'll get it right on the fuse.

DaddySam

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I think I should have built in a carry handle for the wing. As many times as I have to put it on and take it off, the amount of hangar rash from my hamfisted mitts is unreal. Today I thought I'd work on the wingtips, taking some dimensional tips from the BT plans and taking advice from Stan on making them come to a finer point. I thought I would be ahead of the game when I cut the wingtips I got with the PCK kit in half, because they had the basic shape down and I thought I'd just laminate balsa to the proper thickness and then sand down. That would have worked if I had not sanded away too much from one tip. I ended up laminating extra pieces here and there - if you could see all the joints it would like like Frankenstein's monster. I hollowed out the tips to save weight but also to stash the wingtip wiring. I don't have the plastic yet to pull wingtip lenses so I thought I'd just forge ahead and get them mounted and sanded to shape. I'm not sure if I will have the wingtip lights on by the maiden but the option is there. The last pic shows the wingtips mounted - all 92" of wing! Thank goodness for Dremel tools and 36 grit sandpaper!

DaddySam

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I needed some easy stuff to do so I'm furring out the stringers that are 1/8 by 1/4 spruce. I used mostly 3/8 by 1/8 balsa stringers to save weight aft of the CG. So to make the spruce and balsa even I am using pieces of 1/8 square balsa for the furring.

glazier808

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Looking good Sam!

Casey

DaddySam

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Thanks Casey. I think my goal of a summer maiden flight is within reach, if I take advantage of the weather we have right now, which is good for building but not flying. Once summer hits I will find my plate full with other things so I'm trying to get as much done now as I can.

DaddySam

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I've been working on several aspects of the Hurricane the last few days. I decided to cover the rear of the fuse, but then decided that I had better install some canopy rails so I can sometime install a sliding canopy. Eventually I'd like to vaccuform another canopy without the molded in framework so I can make it a bit more scale. I also had to rebuild some of the fin trailing edge. I'd made them balsa but they were just too fragile so I opted for some 1/64 ply. Then today I decided to bite the bullet and start the front fillets. I bought a new tube of BlazeGlaze automotive putty. It sets up fast and is ready to sand in just a few minutes. I set the wing down on top of a bottle of wood glue and punched a hole in the wing - dang! but it's fixed now. I'm anxious to get to the fiberglassing but I'm guessing that is still a week or two out. Here are some pix:

wphilb

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One thought on the canopy. Just get another from Roy and cut out the glass, leaving an intact framework, sand and paint this and add over the clear version you have.

DaddySam

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Whit,
Here is a pic of the canopy, and I do have a second one for the other Hurri. I think that if I cut out the glass the sections would be too small. I think I'll use the untouched canopy as a mold for a plaster of paris cast, then sand off of the framework and then vaccu form a clean one, and then add my own framework. I've attached a couple of pix of the actual canopy.

DaddySam

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All I was going to do was to finish covering the fin, but I got distracted by the thought of eventually putting in lighting. I ended up drilling holes in the fin, the post, the fuse, and inserting plastic sleeving, and then running the wires for the tail lamp. Can anyone confirm that it should be white, and is it flashing or steady? I've attached a pic of the HK lighting kit I bought that has the wingtip, and tail lights, as well as strobes.

Peter_OZ

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it is white and non flashing. Typically they were not overly bright but a sort of incandesant appearance.

DaddySam

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Thanks- I think the rather less than bright LEDs should work ok. I discovered a ROOKIE ERROR in my build. Once I got the wings on I found that my stab was out of kilter. I had to go in and do some chiropractor and surgery work to the stab saddle. I think once I cover up the damage it should not be too noticeable. Better now than when I take it to the field and one of the sharp eyes says "hey looks like your stab is all off!"

Sandy69

looking very very good there....... a question please, and excuse me if the answer is buried in the thread and I missed it......what is your distribution of fuse stringers between spruce and balsa..doing the whole thing in balsa would save almost 5 pounds in nose weight, but make the fuse fragile......so some split seems in order....

ProfLooney

looking great. I did a 1/3 scale enlarged from his plans. have the book hurricane II manual which is amazing book. tyhe only problem is I havent found anyone making scale gear for this plane. the hurricane manual shows the gear setup and I will try to cad up a set in solidworks sometime and do another 3rd scale. the hard part is the gear needs to torque them into rotating 15 dsegrees to fit in the wing properly

will be following thread

DaddySam

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I can't recall exactly - I can't find it either in the thread. I think it is very close to 1 in 5, although there are some areas where there are two spruce stringers side by side for strength. I counted from the spine to the beginning of the bottom sheeting and I think I had six spruce stringers out of 21 on that one side. My recollection is that I did 25% spruce. The plans call for 1/8 spruce capped with 1/8 sq balsa. I did that for the 25% of the stringers but on the all balsa stringers I used 1/8 x 3/8 so that I would not have to glue an additional 1/8 sq balsa. I figured that it would save the weight of the glue plus the effort.
Thanks for your interest, let me know if I can answer any more questions. Day off today so I am hoping to get some more progress in.

DaddySam

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I remember watching your build on another site, but I never saw the finish. I'll check your site. How did your 1/3 project turn out? I saw a short video of Mick Reeve's Hurricane gear - it looks marvelous but I'm not sure if it rotates.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZgL1HfVXvs[/youtube]

ProfLooney

it say for a yr and half waiting for darrel at sierra to make gear for it and he never did so it was sold to a local guy that just put fixed gear on it

he is still flying it

Sandy69

Hey Prof. - Sierra makes retracts for the Hurricane - they rotate as they retract - very nice, great craftsmanship, but expensive...

just saw your other post..... I phoned him, he had a set and sent them, had 'em in a week..