Battle Short

My Feedback: (5)

That's borderline blasphemy there

Congrats on the condo Vince, I hope you enjoy the new pad.
Glenn

VincentJ

Thank you Glenn, while I am excited, I am also saddened at what I'm leaving behind...

WacoNut

You will like having a basement shop. I have a 12x20 room in my basement for building and it is amazing how fast you can fill up the work space. I am still working on getting better ventilation down there for painting. Will have that resolved before the next paint job. I have to take all my models up the basement stairs which requires making a turn thru the doorway at the bottom and top of the stairs. Can be a real PITA but as you know I have some big models and I manage. My WACO fuselage has to have the stab and landing gear removed to get it out of the basement. I store all my planes in my trailer and seldom take them back to the basement except for major maintenance.

I used to have a 13x25 room in the basement and gave that up for the home theatre. Truth be told a good portion of the back end of that room has some of my airplane stuff stored in it. I get reminded of that every time I buy a new airplane.

Later!!
Anthony

out2pasture

I remember from my psych 101 class, that moving was number two on the list for most stressful Life events. It must be true. Because, when ever I ask my daughter to move over when I want to sit on my couch she pulls a hissy fit.

smithfj

Hey fellow builders, I have a question about the wing. Does the outer tip panel taper down towards the tip? Sure looks that way in the photos on the net, that's what few we can find. I agree with Tom that the 6 degree dihedral seems a little excessive. What do you think? No rush on replies I'm just curious and won't start building until fall.
Frank

VincentJ

Frank you are correct. There are 12 ribs on each wing half, starting from the center is rib 1, going outwards towards the tip would be rib 12. Ribs 1-7 are identical in size, ribs 8-12 start to taper to the tip. I did not reduce the dihedral in this wing as I am building it true to scale. I have heard of no complaints on this...

VincentJ

Enough of the fuselage has been completed for me to get accurate measurements as to where the flaps will go. With the fuselages side marked on the wing I can direct my attention finishing this wing.

The flap servo hatch covers were made and secured into position exactly the same way as I did the ailerons. Before I can finish sheeting the top and bottom of this wing, I will need to run the wires for the navigational lights as well as fit the hinge blocks for the flaps....

Leroy Gardner

Vince in some ways I'm like you when it comes to leaving things alone, dihedral is one unless you really want to change the flight characteristics of it and know what the change is going to do to the plane when you do it. There is plenty of changes worked out before these kits go into production and are best left as is for best handling quality and at the same time some planes take a bashing real well, like my Tiger 60 and at the same time I wouldn't do it to a lot of others.

Your Bravo aside from looking super also flies quite well from all I have read about it and I bet it don't need flaps when you get it done, it looks to be a floater to me.

Leroy

TomCrump

For anyone interested, my Bravo flies great with less dihedral. It exhibits no unusual tendencies.

My choice to reduce dihedral was for cosmetic reasons only. I thought it would look better, so I changed it.

VincentJ

Tom , I'm always interested in your opinion as I have always admired your work and building skills...

VincentJ

It's snowing to beat the band here, another 10-16" expected, that's on top of the 30" of snow we got just a few days ago!

...meanwhile in my workshop, the comforting hum of the electric heater is keeping me warm as work continues on the Bravo. I cut and fit blocking through almost the entire trailing edge of the wing. Additionally, I glued balsa blocking in places that will secure the Robart hinges. Once this is completed I can finish sheeting this wing, however, I can't finish now as I am short on 1" balsa, so a trip to the LHS is in order (but not today). The balsa blocking was hand selected as it is very light, this is why the blocking shown is as generous as it is.

Leroy Gardner

I made a comment about the parameters that go in to the design of a kit, be it scale or other wise, I never intended it to be taken any other way.

Sorry I butted in on your fine build.

VincentJ

Leroy, did I miss something? Your post was in no way taken negative, you are always welcome to express any opinion that you have my friend.

VincentJ

With the hinge blocking out of the way, I started on the sheeting...

Melchizedek

Vince,
What method do you use to sheet the wing, weights, iron ?

Your skins always look so nice.

Keivn

VincentJ

Thanks for noticing Kevin!

There are so many different ways to skin a wing, finding a method that your comfortable with and works is important. Once I fit the panel and am happy with the seams, I apply the glue on top of each rib or underlayment and then place the sheeting on top. I pull the seams tight with tape, this seems to give me just the right amount of clamping force to keep the seams closed. Depending on the curvature I will lay one of my aluminum straight edges on top as weight to ensure the sheeting is making contact with the sub structure. It's that easy, I rarely ever have to use a lot of weight on top of the sheeting for it to make good contact. Of course this all depends on how much I'm asking the wood to bend, and how flexible the sheeting is in the first place...

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

My 2 cents, I use blue tape and then weight with open old phone books. The books conform nicely to the contours and they are cheap/free, readily available, and easily replaced if ever damaged. Like Vince says its a personal preference. I wanted to pick up some steel or lead shot to bag for weights but couldn't find any locally and shipping is expensive so I hit on the phone book idea. Again it comes down to how much you are asking the wood to bend as to whether or not weight is necessary. Use your best judgement and then don't sweat it.

smithfj

I will probably go with the design dihedral but I do have a couple more wing questions. Does the wing have any washout in it , and if so, how much. If looking at the leading edge and aft does the outer panel show flat on top or flat on bottom?
It's really hard to tell in the photos. Would appreciate it.
I see you have been getting a lot of snow and cold temperatures too. Upper Maine has been awful cold and I'm ready for spring. Basement is almost to cold to work in.
FRank

VincentJ

As if Mother Nature hasn't given us enough, she's getting ready to give us northerners another gift!

Sheeting the wing continues, but not until I first pulled some string through the servo lead tube. When I'm ready to install the aileron and flap servos I will be glad I did this. Boy this is a big wing to sheet, I have gone through quite a bit of 3/32" x 4" wood stock already. It's a bit tricky to go around the servo openings and get a tight fit, but with some careful measurements it's getting done.

I snapped a photo to show how I use the blue painters tape to pull the joints together and how much weight I use to get good contact with the ribs.

Frank, there is washout in the last ribs (8-12), as far as how much that I don't know. On step #9 under Wing Construction, I quote: "Continue gluing ribs in place on the elevated spar. Make certain both the front and rear jig tabs are firmly in place on the board. If they are, the panel will have the correct amount of wing washout automatically incorporated as you build".

VincentJ

Well I gave it the ol' college try, but I pooped out before I could finish the sheeting. The top is completed and you can see how far I got on the bottom half. I said it before, this is a BIG wing! With a bit of sanding it just might do...

VincentJ

This morning I decided to make/install the last of the blocking needed to fill the void where the wing bolts to the fuse. Having it solid will ensure that when the wing bolts are tightened, there will be adequate support beneath the sheeting. I will also later inset some birch ply into the sheeting to ensure that the wing bolts don't crush the wood as well.

yel914

Wow VJ, that's a lot of lumber! Looking excellent, as usual. So sorry about all that snow. I think the east is getting our snow and bad weather, as we have none. We're going into 3 weeks of 50-60 degree temps here. Not complaining but it's very strange.
Rick

JZHANDYMAN

I wish you luck Vincent. Your such a meticulous builder with more Space it will make you even better one. In my home I have three spots in the house I use all with a flat screen TV.

again the best of luck to you!!!

VincentJ

Rick, if I could I'd help you out with some of the white stuff, love to send it your way!

Thanks jzhandyman, I am looking forward to a large work space. I won't ding up my projects so bad then! LOL

VincentJ

The wing is sheeted! It was a lot of work, but I hope it was worth it. The first sanding was done with 150 grit, I'll follow that up with 220 grit tomorrow.

Where the trailing edge sheeting meets (in the very center of the wing), I used epoxy rather than my usual Titebond glue. I did this for two reasons, first since the edges of the sheeting is tapered and so thin, the water based glue would warp the edge, the second reason is by using epoxy it will give me a much more rigid edge.