S3eker

I had crashed my RV-4 earlier this month and did some rebuilding of the wing. The issue I had was that the wing did not come out as straight as it should have and has made the plane very unstable inflight. I'm considering rebuilding the wing from scratch and ordering the parts (cut balsa) from GP. Has anyone ever had issues like this and have rebuild new wings or ordered parts from GP?

Thanks,

Henry

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

I've done it many times in the past. Great Planes is a very good company to deal with in a situation like this. If you call them up they can work with you to get you all of the parts you need to rebuild your wing.

While it's a little late for this situation, here's something I do that may help you out in the future. When the kit manufacturers put plans in these kits they aren't what are called builder's plans. Builder's plans will have the outline of all of the parts on them that will let you cut your own parts from those outlines. The manufacturers leave off key parts from the plans so that you can't just cut a new kit in the future. So when I get a new kit I pull all of the parts out and see if they are located any place on the plans. If they are not I will lay them on the planes and trace their outline. This way I will always be able to cut a new part if I need a replacement, or I can cut an entire new plane if I want to. Anyway, some food for thought on the next plane you do.

Hope this helps

Ken

hkilian

I built the RV4 some time ago and was not happy with the way the the first wing came out. I re-ordered a complete new wing and received all necessary materials prompty. The second time around it was a charm. This is a very nice flying sportplane (I had 4 servos in the wing and fully operational flaps). Unfortunately I lost the plane when trying to fly with a collapsed antenna which gave me a smooth take-off but an out-of-control situation shortly thereafter.

Herb

S3eker

RCken, thanks yes it helps. what do you normaly use to cut your balsa? I have been using a small precision handsaw but it's very laberous. Do you recommend any type of small bandsaw?

thanks

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

I have a 16" scroll saw that I use for most of my cutting. I'd like to have a bandsaw too, but I don't have one at the moment. I do the lion's share of my cutting with the scroll saw. Then I finish by sanding down the the edges using a 4" disk sander from Harbor Freight

Ken

JollyPopper

My Feedback: (6)

Ken, I've often thought of cutting pieces like you are saying and building a plane that way, but the thought of cutting all those small notches, especially in the wing ribs to accept spars and stringers and such, intimidates me. The rest of it seems pretty straight forward, but cutting those 1/16 - 3/32 - 1/8 notches really puts me off. How do you cut them? I have a 16" scroll saw and some very fine tooth blades but it seems like using that to cut balsa precisely would be very tricky, especially the square cut across the bottom. Maybe do the vertical cuts with the scroll saw and use an exacto knife to do the bottom cut? I don't know.

Bax

My Feedback: (11)

Having built a number of airplanes over the years from plans only, you can cut all the notches in several ways: knife only, use a saw to get close then use the knife to finish, saw to get close then a sandpaper-covered stick to finish the notch, and so on. If you're good with the saw, you can just cut to size.

The main key is to be consistent in the location and size of each notch. If they're slightly undersize, you use a bit of sandpaper on a stick to fix them so that the spars fit smoothly into them. It's not difficult, sometimes tedious, but always something as calming and soothing in a Zen-like way. Just make sure your knife blade is good and sharp!