MarkNovack
Posts: 1547
Joined: 2/9/2002
From: Nameche, BELGIUM
Status: offline
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Hi,
Cool! I'm glad to see a semi-recent post on this thread. My S-1-11B is back on the bench after however long its been. Had a baby (actually my wife had the baby, I just did the fertilzing), built eight other airplanes, crashed one cute little ARF, replaced and leveled my second floor and staircage, sanded all the upstairs walls and repainted the house plus a dozen other things, and now I'm back to the Pitts until I don't know (next honeydo project I guess, restoring the stairs).
At this time I'm just finishing up the wings. Some changes I selected are as follows. Lightening holes in all ribs. I extended the ailerons inboard one extra bay for extra control at low speed and used thicker facings than called for on the plans for extra bevel and hinge grip. That offsets my lightening holes. I'm using one servo per aileron, no interstrut pushrod as per scale. I'm using exposed servos mounted on birch rails tied into light ply ribs 1" inboard of the strut rib. That gives me pushrod attachment just outboard from the center of the airleron. I'm going to use 3mm hard ply tabs and short blind-nuts from MP-Jet for strut attachment instead of the brass and bolts and nuts listed on the plans for ease of field assembly. I have four bipes and I like field assembly to be as easy as possible. I should have the wings sanded and hinged (not covered, that will be much later as I'm now torn between flames that I saw on an S2 and the original green/orange/powder blue, dark blue, etc...OMIGOD where did they dream that up) later this week and then I'll put them on the scale to see how they came out as far as weight is concerned. I have a big aluminum sanding board and I'm going to reduce the entire thickness of the sheeting a bit to drop some weight (its overbuilt anyway). That should kill an afternoon nicely. Once that is finished, I'll lay out the fuselage plan and see what weight can be removed. I have a 3W75 sitting around doing nothing and if I feel that the wings are light enough and that the fuselage can come in reasonable, I may plan on that motor instead of the DA100. 24 pounds would be just unlimited on that motor but 24 pounds is asking a lot on this frame. I don't yet know when I have to make the engine decision during the fuselage build, its dependant on the cannister installation. There is lots of room so stuffing in one is easy but two needs more planning. Covering, someday, will be Oracover with auto-laquer on the fiberglass parts. There will be no cockpit or pilot, just an instrument panel if it seems necessary. I have not made a decision on the tail controls as to whether or not they should be enlarged. My Super Stinker does great with normal size tail surfaces and quite moderate throws so I'm thinking per plan on that. However, I'll cross that bridge when I get there as I hate being short on control effectiveness after the airplane is all finished and pretty. I just took a peek at the plans and perhaps an angled counterbalance on elevators might work and not look at all bad. A few holes lined with carbon ribbon would lighten up the tail nicely and keep it nice and stiff. I have all the fiberglass pieces but I'll be bending my own cabanes (brother-in-law has a very nice metal bender) and I'm not sure what I'm going to do for a landing gear. Maybe Abel (a nice girly calender sounds good to me), maybe beg one of the metalsmiths at the club where we have real bluecollar expertise in a wide variety of skills.
Anyway, that's where I am now. I'll probably be far behind again as I'm flying almost everyday now. This week the wind is just blowing like crazy (trees are really bending hard) though, so I'll get those wings done for sure. All I have left is cutting out one last aileron, facing it out, cap strips and sanding until everything is straight, even, level, and lighter, plus hinging, beveling and a dry run fitting on horns and servos.
I'll check back later in the week or next year :-)
Regards,
Mark
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RE: Hostetler Pitts S1-11 - 
