Insanemoondoggie

I know there has been several SlowPoke builds before , but it`s winter time and what the heck , here goes.
Laid the kit out and marked all the pieces , and checked to make sure all the pieces were there. The wood in this kit is pretty good , as is the die cutting.
This well be my 7th build and I have recieved a lot of help from MinnFlyer , but did`nt want to bother him to much , so I inlisted the aid of Minnie Minn , You`ll see him in some of the photos, checking my work.

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

Oh goodie!!! Another Slow Poke build!!!! I love it!!!! [sm=thumbup.gif]


Ken

Insanemoondoggie

Have the tail feathers finished , they have been sanded to 180 grit and the hinge slots are cut. I just got a GreatPlanes eletric hinge slot tool and I love it. What a time saver.
Ken , I taking your advise and putting a 4 stroke in it. I have a Saito .56 and a Magnum .52 to choose from. Leaning towards the Magnum , because it weighs 1.25 oz. more than the Saito. What do you think ?

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

Robbie,
Go with the heavier engine. Slow Pokes come out tail heavy. I've seen builds where they needed 10-16 oz of weight in the nose. I was very carefull when I built mine and build the tail as light as I could, moved the receiver as far forward as I could, and put the battery under the fuel tank and I only needed 2 oz of weight to get it to balance. So a little heavier engine will help you out here. I used an OS 52 Surpass in mine which weighs 14.2 oz.

Ken

ChuckW

I really need to get me one of these. I started one a couple years ago and got sidetracked with a new house and all. Somebody else took it off my hands and finished it.

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

Chuck,
You won't be sorry. The Slow Poke is such a great flying plane. It will quickly become one of your favorites. Mine has almost 500 flights on it now, and I still take it to the field everytime I go!!!

Ken

Insanemoondoggie

The Magnum weighs 15.70 oz. , just about an 1 .40 more . Magnum it is. It runs really good and swings a 12x6 well .
I`m going with Spektrum DX7 for a radio , so running a larger battery might be the way to go for the extra weight.
Out side of tail heavy , is there any weak spots I should address ?

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

None that I can think of right off the top of my head. From my build that was the only thing I can remember that stands out in my mind, the weight issues.

I will note this. As you are building the wing it is going to seem "flimsy". Don't worry about that. It will strengthen up nicely when you cover it.

Ken

sebo

Ken,
I have one that needed no nose weight at all. In fact, I put a Higley 2 ounce heavy hub on it to be sure it was heavy enough (running an old Royal .45 engine). It was too nose heavy. I used the CG that was on the plans but it is too close to the front of the wing. I removed the heavy hub and moved the CG to the main spar. Big difference.
I don't know how it got the name "Slo-Poke". Mine really hauls butt. I was really shocked.
If the nose drops sharply when you reduce speed it is nose heavy and will be a problem on landing. LOL

NorfolkSouthern

Mine has the exact same characteristics as sebo's. Cut the throttle, and the nose will drop sharply and abruptly. Mine doesn't dead stick very well with its steep glide slope. I have to keep the airspeed up on landing to avoid a stall. On takeoff, it's a lot like a car with a manual transmission. You need to ease on the elevator at the right moment and be well coordinated with the rudder. I shorten my takeoff roll as much as I can. Once my Slow Poke is up, stall recovery is easy as long as the engine runs: Just give it some throttle and yank the right stick. It won't drop a wing either. Slow Pokes are great machines, they just take some getting used to.

I would also like to point out that a Slow Poke isn't necessarily slow, just as sebo pointed out! I have seen fully symmetrical 3-D planes that could land at a walking pace, which is not so with the Slow Poke. You need airspeed when landing, or it will nose in with NO provocation, when it's least expected!

NorfolkSouthern

NorfolkSouthern

I forgot to add: My Slow Poke behaves a lot like the one on RealFlight.

NorfolkSouthern

Insanemoondoggie

ChuckW , Theres still time to order one before x-mas. Make it your Newyears project. For $60 , you can`t beat the price.

sebo / NorfolkS Thanks for the info . That does suprize me, dropping the nose. Just started the center section of the wing and it measure about 18 in. across. You would think , with that wide of wing , it would float like a leaf .

For the center section of the wing , you have to build two sheets 18x8 5/8 , using 3x 1/16 x30 balsa . I used Elmers wood glue to glue the edges together. After fitting all the seams , I used masking tape to hold the together, I then could fold them open , aplly glue and laythem flat to dry. Maybe my pics can explain it better.

ChuckW

I sent a few links to Towers gift card page. Maybe somebody got the hint so I'll probably be making an order next week. If not, I'll just have to get myself a little something. The local hobby shop has a nice little .52 4-stroke for a good price that would be perfect for this plane. Of course, the last time I walked in there for some servo horns, I walked out with a P-51 ARF. I hate it when that happens.

Insanemoondoggie

Hope everyone had a good x-mas. Been snowning for several days , has keep me busy keeping the snow cleared . But I still can get to the shop .

Insanemoondoggie

Finished the right wing panel , made 2 mistakes. Forgot to glue the torque block in and and over lapped the LE sheeting on top of the spar , instead of butting it up against the spar. Wonder if I should do the left wing to match , lol

The wing center section is done , I just need to install the top sheeting.
The little palm plane I have , sure make shaping balsa a breeze, not to mention kindling for the wood stove.

Ken , your right , the wing does seem very wimpy. Especially the wing tip . I`m wondering if I should`nt have made new ones out of ply ? I did put a little 30 min epoxy in the spots I thought were a little iffy

This is a little different type of building of the wing , than I`m use to . The right one should go faster. I got Dogfights the first season for x-mas and am watching it while I`m building . Slows me down some , but I love the WWll planes , and it`s great to hear the pilots tell their stories first hand.

sebo

Just a suggestion: To strengthen the wing tip, laminate two pieces of 1/16 balsa to the inside of the tip to cover the holes. Not much weight added for a plane of this wing area. Ron

Danh4

My Feedback: (5)

Great to see this thread, I'm in the process of building one of these too. I'm only a little ahead of you, I've got all 3 sections of the wing done and just need to join them so I can move on to the fuselage. I think you only made one mistake though- the leading edge sheeting is supposed to go on top of the first auxiliary spar. Look at the side view of the wing on the plans and you can see that it says "sheeting ends here" with an arrow pointing to the back edge of the spar.

I felt the wingtips were a little flimsy too, so I put 1/16" vertical grain webs out there and that really stiffened them up. It was a pain to cut them so that they fit perfectly between the spars and the angle of the tip plate but once they were in it gave a lot of strength to the plates themselves.

Dan

Insanemoondoggie

Dan , your right , went back out to the shop an checked the plans. The sheeting does set on top of the for ward spar . Cool , and I can still glue the torque block in with no problems.

The wing tips, I coated the insides with 30 min epoxy , it did help a lot.

Have you got your engine yet . Feel free to post some pics , the more the merrier .

Danh4

My Feedback: (5)

I haven't quite decided what engine I'm going to use yet, probably a .46LA. There are 8 of us building these this winter and we're going to pylon race them next summer. The rules limit engines to bushed .46s or a .52 four stroke and since I have a .46LA that isn't being used it will probably get the job.

I epoxied one of the outer panels to the center section last night, hopefully I'll get the other one done tonight and then I can get on to the fuselage. How's yours coming along?

Dan

Insanemoondoggie

Pylon racing, cool. The la.46 would probably have more speed and they run pretty good .

I`m gluing up the leading edge on the last wing and should have the wing pretty much done by tonite. I was going to glue my wing together all at once, but have`nt read the instruction that far , lol. Wings are the slowest part of a build for me , but taking extra time seems to always pay off in the long run.
Did`nt take any pics of the left wing panel, same as the right one . lol

Do you have youe color scheme picked out yet ?
I`ll post some more pics this weekend , unless I drag the Cub out with floats and give the snow a try.

Danh4

My Feedback: (5)

I have no idea what kind of color scheme I'm going to do yet. I'd like to do some kind of 30's classic racer type scheme but I don't have it worked out yet. There's a thread here on RCU with lots of photos of Slowpokes and there's one that's yellow and black that is just gorgeous, it will be hard to top that. I especially like the way he did the black on the nose, it really hides some of the "not so pretty" lines of the Slowpoke.

What do you think of the wimpy trailing edge of the outer wing panels? That single piece of 1/16" balsa just doesn't do it for me. I think I'm going to stiffen it up with some more wood in that area. Just a 1/2" wide piece of balsa between the ribs and sanded to match them should make a big difference.

Dan

sebo

I practically filled the whole aileron with balsa. I put some ply where the control horns go.
But, I moved the control horns out one bay to more closely center them on the aileron.
I also put my servos in the wings. One on each side out by the aileron control horns. No slop this way. I also sealed all the hinge gaps (including tail surfaces) with the Ultracote. Ron

Insanemoondoggie

Got the wing done ,except for the final sanding and hinge slots. Very pleased with the way it turned out . Wings are the slowest part of the build for me and am glad to get them done.

Started the fuselage last nite , but did`nt get to far.

I agree , the wing does seem iffy in several spots. But I trust RCKen , so I figure it will strenthen alot when it`s covered.

Sebo ,I did put double lite ply at the control horn mount area and went with a litttle larger hinge block and laid some 30 min epoxy in a few spots, but outside of that , it`s built so far to GP specs.

sebo

I couldn't tell, by the photos, if you had cap stripped your wing ribs. That sure adds a lot of strength to the wing. Sounds and looks like all things are going well. Nice job! Ron

Insanemoondoggie

Ran into a discrepancy with the wing bolt plate . it is 3/4 of an inch to small . I`m going cut one out of 1/8 ply to fit the plans .

Not a big deal , but thought I`d mention that , in case some else runs into it.