vmsguy

Date: December 31, 2007

Part 2.

Picture 10: Block under tail to hold it.
Picture 11: Move angle finder to tail, a block between fuselage sides provides surface.
Picture 12: 2.5 degrees. I'm not going to quible over a half of a degree.
Picture 13: Top stringers forming wing saddle.
Picture 14: 1/4" flat stock pinned to 1/2" tri-stock.
Picture 15: Tri-stock is part of stabilizer mount.
Picture 16: Tri-stock glued in place, flat stock helps hold it for clamping.

vmsguy

Date: January 1, 2008

Last night, before going to bed, I glued the other tri-stock in place. Today, I continued on by gluing the stabilizer mount in place. (Picture 1) You can see how the completed mounting looks, by looking at the fuselage end. (Picture 2)

At this point, the fuselage is almost complete. I have a few odds and ends that wait for the wings to be complete. I need to mount the landing gear. After those parts are done, a few reinforcements here and there.

Some good news, my camera arrived. I don't particularly like the mounting system that came with it, so I will build my own. I can go back to work on the wings, making the camera mount and the servo mount areas.

Picture 1: Stabilizer mount glued and clamped.
Picture 2: Mount structure as shown from end. This should be very strong.

vmsguy

Date: January 2, 2008

First task today, was to go to the post office. I had to send my flycam back. First, I couldn't get it to download files, then after updating the firmware, it wouldn't even take pictures or video. So I'm a little bummed about it. At least I took some measurements, so I can begin work on a mount. Hopefully, I'll get a replacement next week.

Work on the plane continues. A simple little step. I added some tri-stock to the stabilizer. (Picture 1) This is to provide more area for monocoat to adhere, if you remember earlier pictures, there wasn't much area.

Finally, I can shift to making the servo areas on the wings. First I needed to figure out the mount, and where the notch for the servo arm needed to be in relation to the mount points. To do that, I took a scrap of 1/8" ply, and mounted a servo to it. I mounted it so the servo arm would reach over the edge. Then, using a servo tester, I moved the servo arm back and fourth until I was comfortable with two marks on the edge of the plywood. (Pictures 2 thru 5) Once the glue dries, I'll remove the servo and take measurements.

Picture 1: 1/2" tri-stock added to center sides of stabilizer.
Picture 2: Servo mounted to test stand, just to get some measurements.
Picture 3: Servo mounted to test stand, just to get some measurements.
Picture 4: Servo mounted to test stand, just to get some measurements.
Picture 5: Servo mounted to test stand, just to get some measurements.

vmsguy

Date: January 3, 2008

The main landing gear arrived today. So I can get start work on getting it mounted to the fuselage. But first, I need to get some work done on the servo mounts.

My work started out at my computer and TurboCAD. Taking my mock-up and ruler with me, I drew two drawings. The first had the location of the servo arm hole, as well as the location of the mounting stock. The second drawing took some of the mounting stock lines away and put in cross lines where the inside corners of the mounting stock was to be located. Once I was satisified with it, I copied the drawings and flipped them to make a left and right handed version. (Picture 1) In Picture 2, you see get a closer view. (Picture 2)

Next I cut the cutting drawing out. I cut carefully along the inside line, but I only needed to be close on the other three lines. I then Scotch 77'd the templates to the plywood. I was careful to align the carefully cut inside line with the edge of the plywood. Then I fired up the bandsaw and cut the top and bottom lines, template and all. (Pictures 3 and 4) You'll notice the outside line isn't cut. I didn't need to. I had cut the plywood to the proper width I needed before I added the template.

Next, I cut away two areas from the template. (Picture 5) As I said earlier, where the lines meet is the location of the vertical posts. Cutting the paper away allows me to place the posts precisely. I sidetracked a moment and cut the posts. Here's a tip. I took a clamp and placed in my mitre box. I measured the first post's length, then placed the clamp at the end. Now I can make multiple pieces without measuring each one. (Picture 6)

Before gluing the posts in place, I took the time to cut the servo arm holes. It went rather quickly. Since these pieces are mirror images of each other, I placed them back to back and clamped them together. A couple drill holes, a few minutes with a coping saw, and a file to clean up the edges, and they're done. (Picture 7)

Finally, I could glue on the vertical posts. End grain is hard for glue to get a good hold, so I added some tri-stock for reinforcement. (Picture 8)

After a few hours for glue to dry, I returned and started getting the wing ready to accept the servo mount trays. In the picture you can see the left wing. You can see the inner (right) bay with the actual servo tray, and the outer bay with a blank. (Picture 9)

A cross member is needed at the back of the wing bay. This is for the monocoat to wrap around. I put it in place, and then from the bottom made sure it was flush with the bottom of the ribs then clamped it in place. To simulate the presence of the servo tray, I clamped a 1/8" spacer along the rib. (Picture 10)

I proceeded to glue and clamp screw blocks to the ribs. The glue aslo between the blocks and the spars and cross members. (Picture 11) It was a simple matter of continuing on to the other 2 blocks in the bay. (Picture 12) Then onto the other servo bay in the wing. (Picture 13) In the picture you see clamps on the bottom of the wing. They are there to keep the wing from tipping over from the weight of the clamps. (Picture 13)

Back to the servo trays, I removed the last of the paper template and did a little cleanup sanding. (Picture 14). And just for fun, test fitted a servo. (Picture 15)

Picture 1: Paper template for servo mount.
Picture 2: A closer view of template.
Picture 3: The cutting template temp glued to plywood.
Picture 4: The cutting template temp glued to plywood.
Picture 5: Some of the template cut away. Vertical posts go in the cut away corners.
Picture 6: Put a clamp in the mitre box to cut multiple pieces the same length.
Picture 7: Servo arm hole cut out.
Picture 8: Vertical mounts glued down. Notice tri-stock reinforcements.
Picture 9: The servo trays sitting in position.

vmsguy

Date: January 3, 2008

Part 2.

Picture 10: Cross member glued and clamped in place. 1/8" spacer on the side.
Picture 11: Two mount blocks glued in place. The spacer removed.
Picture 12: All four mount blocks glued in place.
Picture 13: Both servo bays done. The hand clamps on the bottom hold the wing upright.
Picture 14: Servo trays with paper removed.
Picture 15: A servo test fitted.

vmsguy

Date: January 5, 2008

Yesterday I did a little shopping. My newest toy, a router/router table. (Picture 1)

I bought it specifically so I can make the leading edges for wings. I found it makes a tremendous amount of sawdust! I mounted a 1/2" roundover bit. I set it so the stock would just touch the bearing on top the bit. Before running the stock through, I Scotch 77ed the balsa to a straight piece of birch. This gave me more to hold onto and safely guide through the maching. (Picture 2)

Once the pieces were rounded over on one side, I'd flip it and reattach it and run the other side through. The plans call for a slightly skewed round-over, but I can't replice that without a custom bit. I ended up with a symmetrical round-over. (Picture 3)

I needed three pieces of edging. My stock is three feet long, and each wing half is nearly four feet long. So I'll need to splice a bit extra on the end of each. I gave the three pieces a good initial sanding and they turned out pretty well. (Picture 4)

One of the things I did last night, but didn't document, I made a couple quick servo testers. The first is to test the connection and workings of landing gear retracts. (Picture 5) The second is to test the extremes and workings of a bell crank. (Picture 6) The first won't help my much for this project, but the bell crank test will be very handy. It will help me determine the position of the bell cranks in the tail.

Back to the leading edge. It looks like I will be able to get the off-center look I need afterall. First, I cut one of the three pieces into two 15" lengths. That left a six inch scrap extra. I glued the longer pieces onto the ends of the other pieces. I added a piece on the back for added strength. (Picture 7). While waiting for the glue to dry, I tested fitted the scrap onto the front of the wing. It turns out the front edge of the wing rib isn't quite 1" tall. It's almost 1/8" less. So, taking my razor plane, I planed edge of the scrap flat so the piec was the correct width. Then I scraped the "top" at an angle a few times so the leading edge more closely flowed into the wing rib. (Picture 8) I tested it against the wing, and it needed more work. (Picture 9 and 10) A little more planing off the top, than I sanded it a bit, and I ended up with a nice looking leading edge piece. (Picture 11)

While the hand plane was handy for a sample piece, it wouldn't do for the larger pieces. I decided to use the tilting feature of my bandsaw. First, I cut the splice pieces off the back. I would glue them on again later. Next, setting up a rip fence, I carefully cut the piece to 7/8" width. Then, tilting the bed of the bandsaw, carefully held my sample piece against the blade, and tilted it, until the blade met the angle of the top of the sample. Then I refastened the rip fence to the correct width. Carefully, I cut the top angle. (Picture 12 and 13) In the pictures you can see the square cuts.

Now it was time to smooth things out. I reglued the splice pieces back in place, then went to work sanding the pieces. I sanded the cut areas smooth, then sanded the transistions smooth. It took a few minutes, but the first piece turned out well. I will wait until the glue dries before sanding the second piece. (Picture 14 and 15) I hope you can see the difference in the pictures.

After a couple hours I decided to forge ahead and glue the sanded piece to a wing half. After a quick test fit, I glued all the rib ends and glued the piece place. I used rubberbands to hold it in place. (Pictures 16, 17, and 18) I rapped rubber bands around the end of scrap sticks around the front, then back around the scrap. (Picture 19)

Tomorrow, I will go back and add some glue to each joint to make sure the bond is strong. I may add a few pieces of tri-stock, just to make sure.

Picture 1: My new toy, "The Sawdust Maker" Next time I fire this up, I'll have a vacuum attached.
Picture 2: I temporarily scotched the stock to a larger piece.
Picture 3: I didn't get the off-center round-over, but this will have to do.
Picture 4: Leading edge pieces after initial sanding.
Picture 5: Landing retract servo test.
Picture 6: Bell Crank servo test.
Picture 7: Pieces of leading edge glued together. One flat piece is a splice, other protection to keep clamps from damaging stock.
Picture 8: Initial planing. A few strokes of the bottom, and a few more, at an angle, off the top.

vmsguy

Date: January 5, 2008

Part 2.

Picture 9: Tested against the wing, needs a bit more work.
Picture 10: Tested against the wing, needs a bit more work.
Picture 11: Final product.
Picture 12: After bandsaw cuts. Kind of blurry.
Picture 13: A better picture see the sharp angles.
Picture 14: Sanded piece above, unsanded piece below.
Picture 15: Sanded piece above, unsanded piece below.
Picture 16: Leading edge glued to wing.
Picture 17: Leading edge glued to wing.
Picture 18: Leading edge glued to wing.
Picture 19: Rubber bad wrapped around front of wing, held tight by pieces of scrap.

vmsguy

Date: January 6, 2008

I continued working on the leading edges for the wing. First, on right wing half, I added some tri-stock in a few of the joints between the wing rib and the leading edge. After that, I went to work and finished the sanding of the other leading edge piece. I added some tri-stock there as well. (Picture 1 thru 4)

As the glue dries, I went to work on the stabilizer. First, I cut away extra sheeting from the bottom of the wing. I clamped the stabilizer between the straight edge and the board, then ran my exacto knife down the edge. (Picture 5)

Next, just like the wing, I needed to fill the area between the stabilizer ribs. I found some aileron stock that had close to the correct angle. To get an idea where the elevator cut would come, I measured the front and back of the trailing edge. (Picture 6) Then, transfered those measurements onto the sheeting of the stabilizer. (Picture 7)

NOTE: After working on hatch fabrication, (See January 30, 2008 entry) The bottom sheeting needs to be reinforced with addition material. 1/8" material needs to be added in outer rib bay.

Next, just like the wings, I added stock between the ribs. On the end ribs, I added extra material to make sure the entire bay would be filled. (Pictures 8 and 9) Why? The elevator ends will be cut at a angle so the entire area will need to be filled. Then I used my plane, file and sanding block to get the extra material down to level of the ribs. (Picture 11)

After sanding down some of the stock so the top sheeting would sit flush, I added the top sheeting. Like the wing, I put extra material so the clamps wouldn't crush the sheeting. (Pictures 11 and 12)

I decided to cut the excess sheeting off. Like the wing, I left the bottom sheet a little long. Then when the top sheeting was in place and dried, I clamped a straight edge to it, and cut both top and bottom. If you look in the pictures, you can see plans underneath. You can see the outline of the stablizer and the elevator. You can see that my built elevator does not extend as far as the plans call for. (Pictures 13, 14, and 15) Once I cut the elevator away, I believe I will glue a piece of tri-stock to the front of it. This will provide both a point for the hinges, as well as some extra depth for the elevator.

I think I finally figured out how I'm going to handle all the rudder bell cranks. It looks like I'll have to go into town tomorrow. If I'm really lucky the hardware store will have the wire I need. Otherwise, I'll have to go into the hobby shop. And that's a two hour trip.

Picture 1: Leading Edge glued to left wing.
Picture 2: Leading Edge glued to left wing.
Picture 3: Leading Edge glued to left wing.
Picture 4: Notice tri-stock between ribs and leading edge.
Picture 5: Cut away extra sheeting material from bottom of stabilizer.
Picture 6: Measure the front and back of the stabilizer trailing edge.
Picture 7: Transfer those measurements to the stabilizer.
Picture 8: Fill the areas between ribs with aileron stock. Extra material on ends.
Picture 9: Fill the areas between ribs with aileron stock. Extra material on ends.

vmsguy

Date: January 6, 2008

Part 2.

Picture 10: Plane, File, and Sand extra material down to top of end ribs.
Picture 11: Add sheeting to top of stabilizer.
Picture 12: Add sheeting to top of stabilizer.
Picture 13: Sheeting cut even. Notice outline of plans under stabilizer.
Picture 14: Sheeting cut even. Notice outline of plans under stabilizer.
Picture 15: Sheeting cut even. Notice outline of plans under stabilizer.

vmsguy

Date: January 7, 2008

I made a special trip into the cities today. I needed extra long pushrods. After I got back I started work on the stabilizer bellcranks. You'll notice in the first picture a bellcrank in the center of the stabilizer, and another bellcrank at the far end. (Picture 1) There will be a similar bellcrank setup on the other end as well.

First I needed to fashion the mounts. To this I cut two pieces of 1/8" plywood the width of the rib bay, and 5/8" wide. Next I used my mock-up to measure the full travel width of the bellcrank. This is the distance between the stopping points when the servo moves it extreme end to end. The measurement turned out to be just under 1-1/4". (Picture 2) I took this measurement and divided by two. This would be how far in from the rib the pivot point would go. (Picture 3)

Next I drilled holes for blind nuts, and glued and pressed them into the plywood. (Picture 4) I mounted a bellcrank. (Picture 5)

I wedged the mount and bellcrank into the rib bay and moved the bellcrank from extreme, to middle, to extreme to see how it would look. (Picture 6, 7, and 8) Also, I tilted the mount a little front to back so the pushrod going out to the rudder will be in a better angle.. (Pictures 9 and 10)

After I was happy with the placement, I made a few marks. Then glued it in place. I added some reinforecments for a better joint. The screw is too long. But I'll cut excess off. (Pictures 11 and 12)

Finally, I can assemble some mechanicals in the stabilizer. I put Z-bends in the ends of some pushrods, and slid them into the holes in the stabilizer. I drilled holes in the ends of the end bellcranks and put them in. I cut them to length. (Pictures 13, 14, and 15)

In the center, I added a wheel collar. After some test fitting, I needed to drill a new hole for a center bellcrank. In the picture you can see the dark circle of the clamp I used to press the blind nut into place. (Picture 16)

It took a few tries bending the final piece, but finally I got it right. You can see the extreme left, center, and extreme right positions. (Picture 17, 18, and 19)

Picture 1: The right portion of the stabilizer. Notice the two bell cranks.
Picture 2: Measuring the area and throw off bellcrank.
Picture 3: Measuring in from edge of support half the bellcrank width.
Picture 4: Adding blind nuts to the supports.
Picture 5: A bellcrank on the support.
Picture 6: Bellcrank and support wedged between ribs. Positioned at inside extreme travel point.
Picture 7: Bellcrank and support wedged between ribs. Positioned at midpoint of travel.
Picture 8: Bellcrank and support wedged between ribs. Positioned at outstide extreme travel point.
Picture 9: Bellcrank and support wedged between ribs. Notice a slight tilt.

vmsguy

Date: January 7, 2008

Part 2.

Picture 10: Bellcrank and support wedged between ribs. Excess screw length will be removed.
Picture 11: Mount glued in place. Notice a couple reinforcements on each end.
Picture 12: Mount glued in place. Notice a couple reinforcements on each end.
Picture 13: Pushrod in place. Left side.
Picture 14: Pushrod in place. Right side.
Picture 15: Pushrod in place. Right side.
Picture 16: Axle collar in the center. Blind nut in place. (Dark circle)
Picture 17: Center bellcrank, extreme left position.
Picture 18: Center bellcrank, center position.
Picture 19: Center bellcrank, extreme right position.

vmsguy

Date: January 8, 2008

Work today started with the stabilizer. After I cut the bellcrank screws to length, I glued sheeting in over it. (Pictures 1 and 2) After the glue has dried, I'll shape the edges down to be flush with the ribs.

Onto the wing. First, I the leading edge down to size and shaped it. (Pictures 3, 4, and 5) Then I finally added the last of the covering between the spars over the first three ribs. (Picture 6)

After the glued had dried. I did some preliminary sanding and filing. To get the wing edges flush with the rib, and to get smooth the surface of the sheeting. (Picture 7)

Next I need to make the mounting "hook" piece. This is a piece of 1/4" plywood in the shape of the wing, but with extra material extending downward to hook into the #2 bulkhead. This will hold the front of the wing in place. I will use nylon screws in the back of the wing. First, using the template, I drilled two holes, then bolted it to one wing half. (Picture 8). I traced around the wing, and removed it. (Picture 9)

I drew in extra material for the hook, and cut the piece with my bandsaw. I bolted it to the wing again just to check the look. (Picture 10) In the bottom of the picture you can see the hook extending in front of the wing. I trimmed the hook a little using one wing as much as I could, but I dared do only so much. So it came time to bolt the wings together and test fit them to the fuselage. It's really hard to conceive just how large this plane is. But putting the wings and fuselage together is really impressive. (Picture 11)

I have more trimming to do. The hook is keeping the wing from sitting flat on the fuselage. The back edge of the wing is about 1/4" away from touching. (Picture 12) The front of the hook looks pretty good. (Picture 13) I'll just file the top of the hook down a little and try again. After some filing and retrying, I got the wing to sit properly. (Picture 14.) Because the wing was leaning back the more I filed, a small gap appeared between the back of the #2 bulkhead, and the leading edge of the hook. (Picture 15) I will need to cut this down a bit. This will slide the wing a bit forward. It may even make the back of the wing sit inside the stringers on the fuselage. And more filing may be needed still.

But now for an oops. I notice the sheeting on the bottom of the wing wasn't extending to the fuselage. (Picture 16) I will have to add some additional sheeting. Bummer.

Picture 1: Cover piece glued onto stabilizer.
Picture 2: Cover piece glued onto stabilizer.
Picture 3: Wing leading edge cut down.
Picture 4: Wing leading edge cut down.
Picture 5: Wing leading edge cut down.
Picture 6: Sheeting added wing.
Picture 7: Primary sanding completed. The wings halves side-by-side.
Picture 8: Bolt on plywood "hook" piece onto one wing half. Trace outline.
Picture 9: The traced outline.
Picture 10: The cut hook piece bolted to wing again.

vmsguy

Date: January 8, 2008

Part 2.

Picture 11: That's a big bird!
Picture 12: About 1/4" gap under back of wing.
Picture 13: The hook doing it's job. Need to file the top down. Wing must sit flat.
Picture 14: A little more filing. The back of the wing sitting flat on the fuselage.
Picture 15: A gap appears between the back of bulkhead #2 and the hook.
Picture 16: Uh-oh! The sheeting on the bottom of the wing doesn't meet the fuselage.

vmsguy

Date: January 9, 2008

I took a break from plane building today. A good book has kept my attention.

But I did get a little work in. First I disassembled the wing to make the cuts I needed on the hook piece. Before I reassembled, I remembered I hadn't taken a good picture of it. (Picture 1)

Once the wing was reassembled I refitted it to the fuselage. It sat well, except for one thing. The dihedral made the back of the wing sit on the center point. I needed to cut down the cross brace so the wing would sit down into the fuselage a little. (Picture 2) Once that was done, I refitted the wing, and it sat well. The tongue of the hook needed a bit more filing to let the back of the wing down another 1/8" but that was accomplished quickly.

On tomorrow's agenda, I need to start building the aft wing mount area. I also need to fill in the open area between the #1 and #2 ribs enough so it will extend over the fuselage.

Picture 1: The hook piece.
Picture 2: The cross brace atop bulkhead #3, cut down for wing to sit in.
Picture 3: The wing sitting in the cutout.

vmsguy

Date: January 10, 2008

First order of business was a little touch up on the stabilizer. The sheeting I glued on earlier needed trimming and sanding. (Picture 1)

Next, I added some pieces into the first bay of the wings, this will allow me to add some sheeting after the glue dries. (Picture 2)

After the glue dried, I returned and added 1/8" sheeting. Tomorrow I'll come back sand it down flat. It's just a bummer I had totally forgotten to check this before I built the wing. I would've added all this during the build.

Picture 1: Stabilizer top sheeting completed.
Picture 2: Wing reinforcement added to support extra sheeting.
Picture 3: Wing sheeting added.

vmsguy

Date: January 11, 2008

Work continues on the wing. First, I broke out my new flat sanding bar and 77'd some course grit sandpaper to it. I proceeded to flatten out the bottom of the wing sheeting I added yesterday. It worked really well. I think I'll get another one and put fine grit paper on it. Anyway, after the rough paper, I used finer paper to sand the sheeting smooth. (Picture 1)

Next I bolted the wing halves together and test fitted them on the wing. This time, it looked much better seeing the bottom sheeting extending all the way to the fuselage. (Pictures 2 and 3) I added enough to actually extend into the fuselage a little.

Next up, building the rear wing mount. First I glued some 1/4" balsa together into a block. This block will be cut in the shape of the wing's dihedral, and sit inside the fuselage in front of the #3 bulkhead. Next I put the assembled wing on it's edge over some paper and traced the dihedral.

With the glue dried, I returned to cut the cradle block. I 77'd the paper onto the side of the block and cut the cradle area with the bandsaw. A little sanding, and viola. (Pictures 4 and 5)

Next I took a little time to center the wing on the fuselage. I prefer my planes to fly straight. I got lucky, the back of the wing needed to be moved less then 1/8" to be centered. (Picture 6)

Next, I cut the plywood stiffener. This will go under the cradle block and the blind nuts will go into it. It's a little wider than the cradle block. (Picture 7) Then I glued it in place. (Picture 8) It goes under the side pieces of the fuselage, and against the front of bulkhead #3. Once the glue dries, the cradle block will go on top of it.

Picture 1: Added bottom sheeting sanded smooth.
Picture 2: Sheeting now extends to the fuselage.
Picture 3: Sheeting now extends to the fuselage.
Picture 4: Cradle block.
Picture 5: Cradle block.
Picture 6: Wing centering marks.
Picture 7: Cradle block, and plywood stiffener.
Picture 8: Plywood stiffener glued in place.

vmsguy

Date: January 15, 2008

I've taken a few days off to enjoy the weekend. But I wanted to get back to this build. I'm waiting on some 1/16" plywood to reinforce the wing before I drill and build the last of the rear wing mounting.

In the meantime, I wanted to get the stabilizer trued up. I eyeballed it, but the left side was significantly lower than needed. I put a small piece of scrap under the left side, and it trued it up nicely. (Picture 1 and 2).

At this point, why the left side was too low became apparent to me. It was obvious the fuselage is twisted. I tried to build it straight, but somehow it twisted. There's no help for it now. I'll just have to adjust the stabilizer, and go from there. (Picture 3)

After some filing and sanding I got it much closer. The left side is still a little too low. Oops.. I had it, then I sanded down the wrong side. OK, back at it. This time sanding down the right (and correct) side. I think I've got it. (Pictures 6, 7 and 8)

At this point, I think I can take the giant step, cutting off the elevator. First, with the stabilizer still on the fuselage, I traced the back of the fuselage and made a line on the bottom of the stabilizer. In the picture you can see it about halfway down the sheeting. (Picture 9)

Next, I measured the plans of the stabilizer. I wanted the back of the stabilizer's trailing edge. 7-1/8" (Picture 10) And verified the same measurement on the actual stabilizer. (Picture 11)

Now for the actual cutting. I set up a fence on my bandsaw, and cut away. After the cutting was done, I looked at the edge I had made. I found a few bay where there was a gap between the sheeting and the filler. (Picture 12) To fill these, I used the razor plane on some scrap and scraped off a thin slice of balsa. I sanded it down a little more, and slipped it in the gap. I squeezed in some glue as well. (Picture 13) Then I lightly clamped it together. (Picture 14)

The elevator itself seemed to take on a bow. I will need to try to straighten it a little before I proceed.

Once the glue dried on my fill job, I sanded the trailing edge down. (Picture 15) Just for fun, I test fitted the stabilizer again to make certain of my measurements. The trailing edge matches up nicely with the end of the fuselage. (Pictures 16 and 17)

Picture 1: Stabilizer parallel to wing. But there's a wedge under the left side.
Picture 2: You can see the twist in the fuselage.
Picture 3: If you look closely, you can see the wedge under the stabilizer.
Picture 4: Just a little too much sanded off.
Picture 5: The left side is a little too low now.
Picture 6: This looks about right.
Picture 7: This looks about right.
Picture 8: This looks about right.
Picture 9: The mark on the bottom of the stabilizer.

vmsguy

Date: January 15, 2008

Part 2.

Picture 10: The plans measured to trailing edge of stabilizer.
Picture 11: The same measurement verified on actual stabilizer.
Picture 12: After the cut, some gaps were found between filler and sheeting.
Picture 13: Thin slices of balsa added into gaps.
Picture 14: And clampled down.
Picture 15: The same place, glue dried and sanded.
Picture 16: The stabilizer aligned with the back of the fuselage.
Picture 17: The stabilizer aligned with the back of the fuselage.

vmsguy

Date: January 16, 2008

I started work today with a little work on the elevator. I need to extend the elevator, to make it thicker, front-to-back. If you look at the first picture, you can see what I plan to do. (Picture 1) The pieces are sitting on the plan. There is a piece if 1/2" tri-stock on edge, then a piece of 1/4" by 1/2" stick, then finally the remains I cut from the stabilizer. These pieces are sitting on the plans. I will glue them all together. First I glued the stick onto the elevator. (Picture 2)

After the glue dried, I used my razor plane to get both sides flush with the elevator. (Picture 3) Once that was done, I added the tri-stock to the assembly. (Picture 4) It is important to make sure the tri-stock is centered top-to-bottom on the elevator. The tip of the tri-stock becomes the leading edge of the elevator and must be centered. (Picture 5)

I thought I could spend a little time attaching the main landing gear. I took measurements off the plans,went to my TurboCAD and came up with the following drawing. (Picture 6) The 4-1/2" by 3-1/2" outer rectangle is the size of the landing gear. The 3-1/8" by 2-1/8" inner rectangle is the patterns of the bolt holes. The line 3/16" (0.188") from the top is a line representing the front edge of bulkhead #2. I made two of these drawings. This one, and a second one with a vertical centerline. (Picture 8)

First I carefully measured, and remeasured the center of the landing gear. (Picture 7) Then I taped the second drawing onto the bottom of the landing gear. (Picture 8) To assure a good drill hole I centerpunched the holes. Since this is aluminum, a heavy nail served the purpose. (Picture 9) I have a centerpunch, I just didn't want to go looking for it.

I cut the first picture down to the first line, the line denoting the front edge of the bulkhead, and taped it to the bottom of the fuselage. Carefully trying to center it, etc. (Picture 10) Next I drilled the upper right bolt hole in both the fuselage and the landing gear. (Picture 11) I looked on the inside of the fuselage and found the hole is very close the reinforcing tri-stock. (Picture 12) This isn't good. I can work around it, but the next build I will have to move the holes in closer side-to-side. Also, I will have to note to NOT add the tri-stock until I have the mount holes properly drilled.

To fit the blindnut, I had to cut away the tri-stock until it would fit. Also, I drilled the fuselage hole out a little larger (11/64") for the blind nut to fit easily. I applied some glue to the bottom of the blindnut and pulled it tight with the screw from the other side. (Pictures 13 adn 14)

Next I attached the landing gear. Then I drilled a second bolt hole diagonally from the first. (Picture 15) I followed the above procedure to install the second blindnut. Then reattached the landing gear with two bolts. (Picture 16) In this way, the gear will not move while the last two holes are drilled. (Picture 17) I removed the landing gear, and you can see I got pretty close to the other template's holes. (Picture 18)

I went ahead and installed the blindnuts then attached the landing gear again. (Picture 19) I flipped it over to stand on it's front feet. It looks like this plane will be able to handle a goodsized prop. (Picture 20)

I have altered the template for future builds. I have moved the bolt holes in 1/8" from each side, and moved them back an additional 1/8" as well. I also went back to the earlier documentation and added the advice NOT to add tri-stock reinforcement to the back of the bulkead until the gears it mounted and the blindnuts are in place.

Picture 1: The three pieces that will make up the elevator.
Picture 2: The stick glued to the front of the elevator.
Picture 3: The edge piece planed down and rough sanded.
Picture 4: Tri-stock added to elevator.
Picture 5: Tri-stock added to elevator. Centered.
Picture 6: Drawing of landing gear bolt holes.
Picture 7: Measure the center of the landing gear. The mark on the right is accurate.
Picture 8: Drawing of landing gear bolt holes, with centerline.
Picture 9: Centerpunch the hole positions in the landing gear.
Picture 10: Template taped to fuselage. Notice top line is missing. The front edge aligns with front of Bulkhead #2, which is also front edge of plywood mount plate.

vmsguy

Date: January 16, 2008

Part 2.

Picture 11: Upper right hole drilled in both fuselage and landing gear.
Picture 12: Found the hole on the inside, very close to tri-stock. This is an oops.
Picture 13: First blind nut installed. Notice tristock is cut out for clearance.
Picture 14: First blind nut installed. Notice tristock is cut out for clearance.
Picture 15: Drill a second hole, diagonally from the first.
Picture 16: Install blind nut #2, and reattach landing gear.
Picture 17: Drill remaining holes.
Picture 18: Fuselage template shows the holes are pretty close.
Picture 19: The landing gear attached.
Picture 20: Looks like this bird can handle a pretty big prop.

vmsguy

Date: January 17, 2008

Before starting on anything else, I wanted to finish up the elevator. I removed the rubberbands, and did my sanding. The result turned out pretty good. (Picture 1 and 2)

I think I'm going to work on the rudders today. I intend to keep the original shape, but since this is a twin rudder configuration, each rudder won't be as large as the single rudder. I intend to end up with more rudder area than the original. There are two reasons for this. First, I've read that people have added rudder size for better rudder authority. Second, because this is a twin rudder, there will be no prop wash over the rudder, also decreasing the authority.

I need to do some number crunching first. I took measurements of the plans. The fin is about 10" high, 7" at the base and 3" at the top. I came up with a little over 50 square inches in area. The rudder itself has about 29 square inches of area.

Just for fun, I decided to make the fin about 3/4 the original height. The base is still 7" wide, but now the top is about 4-1/4" and the height is 7-1/2." Doing the math, I came up with one fin having a little over 42 square inches area. So double that, and I have about 85 square inches of area. The rudders will have a combined area of about 44 square inches.

All told, I should have about 1/3 increase in both fin and rudder area. (Picture 3)

Now to get to work.

The first three pieces of the fin frame went typically. (Picture 4) The angle on the bottom of the front piece is flush with the bottom of the stabilizer. I took the stock I cut from, and flipped it over, giving me a matching angle for the lower front piece. I set it in place, then put a ruler on top where I thought it'd look good. (Picture 5) And traced some lines. I cut the lower front piece, then glued and pinned the bottom piece. Next I carefully fitted a brace piece to brace the front joint. Before I glued it in place, I used it to trace lines for the second fin. (Picture 6)

Next, I needed to fill in the area that would meet the end of the stabilizer. Like the stabilizer, I needed to provide for area the monocoat can attach to. The first piece was put in place with the top flush with the bottom of the stabilizer. (Picture 7) Next, I test placed the stabiliser on the fin. I maked the location of the stabilizer lower spar on the piece I had just put in. (Picture 8) This is why I left the spars a little long. I want them to insert into the fins for a bit more strength.

I measured and cut the next side piece in the fin, then transfered the spar marks I had made earlier to this piece. I then proceeded to cut a notch on it so the spar would fit. (Picture 9) I continued to add two more side pieces in the fin. (Picture 10)

I placed the template stabilizer rib on the fin. I carefully aligned the notch I had made as well as the bottom of the rib, and traced the top spar location, as well as the maintenance hole. (Picture 11)

To finish the rib, I added braces in the top corner, as well as a cross brace. I cut the extra off the bottom of the trailing edge. And I call this fin as done as it can be. (Picture 12) I'll wait for the glue to dry, then build another fin on top of this one.

Picture 1: The completed elevator, setting on the plans. Can't get much better.
Picture 2: End of stabilizer. You can see the extensions glued on the front.
Picture 3: The numbers for the fin and rudder.
Picture 4: The first three rudder pieces, glued and pinned.
Picture 5: The fourth piece set in place, the ruler representing the bottom edge of the fin.
Picture 6: The fourth and bottom piece glued and pinned. Test fitting the front brace.
Picture 7: The first side piece glued and pinned. It's flush with the bottom of stabilizer.
Picture 8: The stabilizer set in place, mark the location of the bottom spar.
Picture 9: Test fit the next side piece, cut a notch for the spar.
Picture 10: Remaining side pieces glued and pinned.
Picture 11: Stabilizer rib set on fin, align bottom spar cutout. Trace top spare and maintenance hole.
Picture 12: Add braces in top corners. Add cross brace.

vmsguy

Date: January 18, 2008

The first thing I did today was make a duplicate rudder. I put a piece of wax paper over the first rudder, and used it as a template to build the second. (Picture 1)

Once the glue was dried, I pulled up the pieces and clamped the first rudder on top of the second. (Picture 2) Then I proceeded to cut the spar holes in both rudders. I also drilled out the maintenance hole.

At this point, I couldn't resist I had to test fit the rudder onto the stabilizer. The stabilizer is so big, the rudders look too small. (Picture 3, 4, and 5)

Looking over the plans, I realized I had made a mistake. I realized I had not gotten the incidence of the stabilizer correct, and it was at too much of an angle. I had measured the bottom of the stabilizer, not the center. To get the stabilizer as close as I could, I looked at the plans again. I measured up from the bottom of the fuselage to the bottom of the stabilizer, at both the front and back. I remeasured the fuselage, and the back was over a quarter inch too low. All of the work I had done to mount the stabilizer would need to be removed and redone.

So that's what I did. First I had to remove the old mounting stock. (Picture 6) Next, I measured up the side of the fuselage for the stabilizer mount point. This is 2-3/8" from the bottom of the fuselage to the bottom of the stabilizer. (Picture 7)

While I had the back of the fuselage open, I took a sidetrack and mounted the tailgear. I used a couple 4-40 blind nuts and hex-head screws. (Picture 8 and 9) I had miscalculated the size of the tailgear. Had I gotten it right, I'd have put a larger plywood mount point on the fuselage to begin with.

Back to the stabilizer mount. My original idea to have tri-stock on the inside is a good one, I think. But it's hard to clamp tri-stock. So I took two pieces and pinned them together along the long edges, making a square. Squares are easy to clamp. (Picture 10)

So, I took my square and aligned the top with the mark on the fuselage. I drove a pin through the fuselage side and into the square. The pin would serve as a pivot point while I measured the rear end. (Picture 11) Actually, I'm making a mistake here. I blindly proceeded and measured up the back of the tri-stock. (Picture 12) I glued and clamped the square into this position, then instantly realized my mistake. The tri-stock only holds a piece of 1/4" stock. And the stabilizer glues to the top of that. I had forgotten to take the extra stock into account.

So, I quickly pull the square off and add a scrap piece of stock to the top of it. (Picture 13) I repeat the measuring and get the tri-stock glued into it's proper position. (Picture 14) I remove the temporary stock and call it good enough. (Picture 15 and 16) I will let the glue dry overnight and tomorrow, I will glue the other tri-stock in place.

Picture 1: The second rudder built atop the first.
Picture 2: Removed from the wax paper, clamped together. Cut spar and maintenance holes through both rudders.
Picture 3: A rudder in place.
Picture 4: The stabilizer and rudders.
Picture 5: The entire bird, the rudders almost look too small!
Picture 6: Tail of fuselage with stabilizer mount removed.
Picture 7: Measuring front of stabilizer mount point.
Picture 8: Tail gear mounted.
Picture 9: Tail gear mounted.

vmsguy

Date: January 18, 2008

Part 2.

Picture 10: Two pieces of tri-stock pinned together. Better for clamping.
Picture 11: Front of tri-stock pinned at correct height. Will pivot on pin.
Picture 12: Rear of tri-stock raised to correct height. Oops, Almost messed up.
Picture 13: Tri-stock with 1/4" piece pinned on top.
Picture 14: New piece, with temp stock glued and clamped in place.
Picture 15: The temp stock removed. This is correct.
Picture 16: The temp stock removed. Temp stock represents solid stock later.

vmsguy

Date: January 19, 2008

First thing I did this morning was add the second tri-stock to the fuselage. (Pictures 1, 2, and 3)

After the glue dried, I went ahead and added both the stabilizer mount plate, and two wedge shaped filler pieces on each side. These filler pieces will add to the side of the fuselage to fill in the difference, and present a flat side all the way up to the stabilizer.

Once that glued dried, I came back and filed away the access filler piece and did a rough sanding. The hole is for the bellcrank screw in the stabilizer to fit in.

Picture 1: The second piece of tri-stock glued on.
Picture 2: The second piece of tri-stock glued on.
Picture 3: The second piece of tri-stock glued on.
Picture 4: The stabilizer mount and filler pieces glued and clamped.
Picture 5: The stabilizer mount and filler pieces glued and clamped.
Picture 6: The stabilizer mount and filler pieces, shaped and sanded.

vmsguy

Date: January 20, 2008

I didn't do a lot today. I wanted to get the wing mounted completed so I can get back to the stabilizer. First I added 1/16" plywood reinforcement on the top of the wings. (Picture 1)

After the glue dried, I marked the location for the holes. (Picture 2) I normally use my cordless drill, but this I used my corded drill. My corded drill spins the bit faster and I wanted a good quality drill hole. Once the holes were drilled, I removed the wing and drilled the holes in the plywood a bit larger, 5/16" actually. (Picture 3) This is so the blindnut can fit. Next I dabbed some glue onto the face of the blindnuts and used a C-clamp to squeeze the blindnut into the plywood. (Picture 4)

Once they were in place, I did a test fitting. (Pictures 5 and 6)

Picture 1: Reinforcing plywood glued to top of wing.
Picture 2: Holes marked for drilling.
Picture 3: Holes drilled through everything. Holes in final plywood redrilled larger.
Picture 4: The first blindnut pushed in place with a C clamp.
Picture 5: Nylon screws test fitted.
Picture 6: Wing test fitted.