sscherin

My Feedback: (1)

I picked up a .40 Corsair kit with the wing and fuse already framed up.

after I got it home on a flat surface I noticed the center of the wing is badly warped.

the outboard sections look ok. iI's just the center that's badly warped.

I'm hoping I can strip off the sheeting and disassemble the wing enough that I can fix it.

If anyone has any tips it would be great..

I wonder if it would be easier to simply order the parts to rebuild the wing.
It looks like about $30 in parts I'd have to order.

robflyer82

My Feedback: (1)

When I built mine, the wood I got for the center main spar was really badly warped. It was so bad that I called GP and had them replace it. Maybe the builder just used warped wood. Anyways, I'm not sure there is an easy fix for this. The center section spar sticks out about an inch into the outer wing panels so that is something to considure. Do you have pictures to show how bad the warp is?

Rob

sscherin

My Feedback: (1)

I got some pics taken last night.. I'll post them when I get home today..

last night I ripped off all the sheeting on the center of the wing..

The scary part is I did it by simply peeling it off by hand..
I got all the sheeting off and the TE without damaging any ribs..

It looks like the LE and TE were misaligned on the ribs so that part is not as bad as it looked.

Now other parts of the wing are another issue.

If you set the wing down vertical with the LE flat on a table the right wing tip is 1/2" higher than the left.

Taking a look at where the outboard panels meet the center you can see the ribs where they join are not flush..
I think I'm looking at removing the rest of the sheeting on the outboard wing panels and spliting the wing into 3 pieces again.

I'll have to make new root ribs since I'll probably destroy the existing ones in the process..

pics to follow.

I wonder what suprises I'll find when I get into the fuse.

sscherin

My Feedback: (1)

Hey Rob you hit the nail on the head..

The center spar is badly warped. It twists left to right and is bowed front to back.
At this point I figure the wing is junk. I'd never get the wing apart enough to replace the main spar without trashing every rib around it.

The cost of replacing all the die cut wing parts is $43 so I need to think about where I'll go from here.

The plans are next to useless for cutting new parts. They went out of their way to not include any templates.

It's interesting that the fuselage plans only show every other former.

I have some PDF's from the GP site that show the cutting layout but it wouldn't supprise me if they distorted them somehow.

The guy did keep all the die cut scraps in the box.. maybe I can use them as templates.

Now just to add to the mess I started looking at the fuselage.

The firewall is not in straight.. it has left thrust!! weee! I can always shim the motor mount.

about 1/4 of the sheeting needs to be replaced BIG gaps everywhere.

Horizontal stab tilts to the left..

It's a freakin miracle. The vertical stab is on straight.

If the PDF templates are good I may end up building a whole new plane from scratch.

Taildrager-inactive

My Feedback: (11)

why not just get a new kit and start over and build it right from the 1st piece to the last stick. The kit is not that expensive, besides you do want a nice straight bird that you have built, not some cast off piece of crap that may or may not survive the 1st flight.

scottrc

I have built this kit and also Corsiars by Royal and TF. This kit is very docile for a Corsair and the great flying qualities rely on the incidence and straitness of the wing. The wing is built out from the mainspar, so if this is warped, the wing is, IMO, junk.

I would see about either getting a wing kit or spar and rib set from GP and build a new wing.

Scott

sscherin

My Feedback: (1)

Well there's nothing on the fuse I can't easily fix.

The wing is a write off. I'll start over fresh.. either from scratch or by ordering the cut sheets.

Since I have a fresh start on the wing what mods would you make?
Any tips on adding retracts would be great.

scottrc

This kit is a "sport" plane to the extreme. At first, I thought because of the flat sided fuse that it was going to be a lot like the old Jemco Corsair or the Midwest Success Series Corsiar, both were alright builders and flyers. But this plane was designed for easy take offs and landings and has plenty of washout built in and surprised me from the get go in both how easy it was to build and even easier to fly.

It will also not accept retracts without doing some major dissection to the mainspar which would weaken and jeopardize the wing integrity. I would build it stock and enjoy flying it. It flies like the GP P-51, Ultra Sport, and the Extra 300 and looks good in the air. Use it to build some flight time and then try a .60 size Corsair like the TF or H9 kits that accept retracts and mods like clipping the wings or adding flaps.

sscherin

My Feedback: (1)

Ahh bringing an old thread back from the dead..

I've been playing around with the PDF part layouts GP has.. While the scale is way off they are in correct proportions.

I converted the PDF's to jpg files and re-sized them to the correct scale. I've printed a few test templates and so far they have all been dead on the correct shape and size when compared to the kit.
So there is hope for fixing this bird without getting a new kit.. I'll still shell out for the LE/TE parts but I'll cut the rest..
I'm just a stubborn SOB I guess.

I'll prob cut the main spar from 1/4" birch ply unless someone can give me a reason the laminated 3 piece setup is better.
I just figured it was easier/cheeper for the factory to die cut 1/8" lite ply and 1/16" birch then laser cut or route out a 1/4" piece.

Why do 3x the work.. The bandsaw won't care much if it's 1/8" or 1/4"

The Corsair build is in line behind the Citabria and PT-17.. I prob won't start until after new years at the rate I'm going.