Don Szczur
Posts: 959
Joined: 1/6/2002
From: Chantilly, VA, USA
Status: offline
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Well, I took the FOCUS version II out of the box last night, at the urging of my 4 year old son. Did more in an hour with this kit than two weeks with my FOCUS I. Great kit with lots of little improvements that make it go together so much easier (and the FOCUS I was pretty easy).
First item in instructions is to put in the (supplied) phenolic wing rotation pin support to the wing. The holes are pre-drilled, but the ply doubler rib is not perfectly aligned. I spent about 2 minutes with a small round file to get them to fit, but quickly lost patience and decided to do it the quick way by using a drill. The first one I picked fit well. I have no idea what it was since its worn out, but measured it against either .281 or .29 inches diameter drill. Whatever... I used the first hammer I could find (a metal hammer) and, after putting a little 5-minute epoxy on the sockets, hammered them in. I went back and read the instructions that say "rubber faced hammer". Oh well, they are a little deformed. No fear, I put the wing adjusters pins in and they still fit perfectly. Ok, this whole process took about 15 minutes. Now I play with the son (he likes assembling the pieces together for the plane- particularly the vertical fin, which fits perfectly on the end of the fuselage).
Cut the wing tube to 25 inches, measured 10 inches from each side (fuselage is just about 5 inches wide) and mounted tube in one wing half. Quickly found the dowel hardpoint (could see it by reflecting the bottom of the wing to light) and drilled a 1/16 hole all the way through and into the aluminum tube. Screwed in a #2 sheet metal screw for now to hold it. Done.
OK, next is to put the wings together on the fuselage. Remember how hard it was getting the wing adjusters in that narrow fuselage of the Focus I? Well, this one is so easy now its amazing. Since the top canopy comes off, one has clear access to the wing adjusters, plus the flat top to the fuselage sides provide a nice flat surface to calibrate the smart-level to set the incidence.
After trimming off the covering around the wing tube socket and pre-cut wing rotation pin cut-outs and putting a 1 inch block to prop up the tailpost, I calibrated the smart-level to the fuselage sides, put on the incidence mount, and rotated the wing slightly to give positive half degree of incidence. Slid the other wing half on and did the same for the other wing panel and marked both the leading edge and trailing edge wing root centers marks on the fuselage sides.
Pulled the wings off and "connected the dots" for leading and trailing edges marks (for sanity check on incidence). Extended the incidence lines all the way to the tailpost and marked where the intersected (perfectly) at 1 1/16 inch high from the bottom of the tailpost.
Looks good. Incidence and wing mounting is done. It took longer to type this out!
Two things I saw- the wing tube was a bit tough going thru the first inch of the wing socket. I took a portable dremmel with drum sanding bit and just took the glaze off of the inner wing socket about a quarter inch inward (probably where the socket goes through the ply doubler at the wing root). Wing tube now slides in easily into the wing.
Next thing- the instructions show to CA the metal wing adjusters to the ply adjuster plates- I'll think that one over tonight (gluing the wing adjusters with CA rather than bolting them to the ply plates).
... til next building session...
Don
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FOCUS II ARF construction by-the-numbers - 
