Posts: 746
Joined: 11/1/2002 From: Laurel,
MD, USA Status: offline
quote:
ORIGINAL: as722
Hi doug,
After looking at your stabs I'm a little concerned about the strenght on that center section. I've only done it two ways, glue the two halves together and glass the center section or use a one piece trailing edge to act as a spar on the stab and no glass. Your stabs look very weak and I hate to see something happen to your plane after all the hard work. Other than that it looks really good.
Albert
I was about to make the exact same comments, Albert.
Posts: 136
Joined: 6/20/2006 From: Hastings,
MN, USA Status: offline
quote:
ORIGINAL: DMichael
quote:
ORIGINAL: as722
Hi doug,
After looking at your stabs I'm a little concerned about the strenght on that center section. I've only done it two ways, glue the two halves together and glass the center section or use a one piece trailing edge to act as a spar on the stab and no glass. Your stabs look very weak and I hate to see something happen to your plane after all the hard work. Other than that it looks really good.
Albert
I was about to make the exact same comments, Albert.
Posts: 136
Joined: 6/20/2006 From: Hastings,
MN, USA Status: offline
Not much new for awhile. I have been busy building pinewood derby cars with the boys for Cub Scouts. Last week we left town for spring break and today I started school, so building has slowed. I did manage to make a fillet to transition the rear deck to the horizontal stab using some scrap foam and 1/16" sheeting. I orderd a pilot figure yesterday and began fitting the front cowl. Depending on how the cowl goes I hope to finish up the fuse this next week and will post some pictures. All that is left on the build then is to cut out and hinge the wing and install the rotation pins w/ retainer screws. Color and scheme has been a mystery, but I think I have decided on a combination of red over white with silver and black accent.
Posts: 136
Joined: 6/20/2006 From: Hastings,
MN, USA Status: offline
Some slow work over the past few days. I have spent way too much time trying to make the rear deck fillet with the stabs, but all in all it has turned out acceptable. I have done a little work with the cowl mounting, any tips/advice on what works best will be appreciated. My pilot figure showed up yesterday from Aero-Works, I think he is pretty cool. The colors are perfect since I am planning white over red with black and silver accent. I gave him a little head twist to the right just for kicks, I like it because it gives some animation.
Posts: 136
Joined: 6/20/2006 From: Hastings,
MN, USA Status: offline
Some work was done on the cowl this afternoon. Sanding and cutting fiberglass, whooo.... I saw someone else use the wood dowel trick for ease of alignment between the two parts, so I added it to mine. The cowl is tack CAed in place (the only CA in the whole build so far) and ready for some epoxy. Every day this thing just gets cooler and cooler to work on, I can't wait to mount an engine on the front.
Posts: 136
Joined: 6/20/2006 From: Hastings,
MN, USA Status: offline
I know, it looks like the same pictures but...
The cowl is on, epoxied to the ring and aligned. Sounds easy, but I'm just pleased it turned out as well as it did. I fine lined the canopy so I could final sand and fit the edges safer. I tried somthing new before attempting to tape the contour around the front of the canopy. I grabbed one of the 10,000,000,000 crayons in the house (orange) and rubbed it along the inside of the canopy contour to give a contrast for me to apply the tape line. It work pretty good, it made the job of following the transition lines a lot easier. I will sand and fit outside the tape line and then remove the tape. When I am ready to paint, I will then follow just above the sand line with blue 1/8" fine line and cover the rest in paper.
Posts: 136
Joined: 6/20/2006 From: Hastings,
MN, USA Status: offline
I set the fuse and canopy aside to finish up the wings.
Tonight I cut and added the root and tip caps. Tomorrow night with any luck I will get them sanded and begin cutting out the ailerons. After that most of the big stuff will be finished, some clean up items before final sanding.
Posts: 136
Joined: 6/20/2006 From: Hastings,
MN, USA Status: offline
Tonight I got a chance to do a little more work on the wings. The tips and roots were sanded to shape and the aileron cut lines were drawn out. Then I went to work cutting the ailerons free using just a #11 blade, the chord was thin enough that cutting both sides did the job. This was MUCH easier than the cutting free the elevators and rudder.
Thanks Rocky for having me over to your shop the other day. The visit was inspirational to get back and finish this project. With heavy snow and general crappy weather forcasted through the weekend I should be able to finish up the wings by Monday.