Love To build

My Feedback: (30)

When you get the EDF system up and running I would love to hear your opinions on it. I'm looking at a few different ones. I have the Fury fan from Shulman aviation and I'm getting 13.8lbs of thrust on a 12S. I want to get a bunch of data on other systems. I'll be starting my Panther after the holidays. I'll be following your build with special interest and would like to see your mods.

Ron Stahl

My Feedback: (12)

Kirk we have yet to meet even though we live 30-45 minutes apart. I am also building a Panther for EVF power and Nick is in town working for me until next Wednesday. Maybe we can hook up after the holidays.

k_sonn

My Feedback: (32)

Thanks.

k_sonn

My Feedback: (32)

Hi Ron. Your Panther should perform very well with the EVF. Sent you a PM.

Kirk

k_sonn

My Feedback: (32)

Left wing has been framed. Both wings have been sanded and are ready for sheeting.

Kirk

k_sonn

My Feedback: (32)

The instructions state the wing needs to be fitted to the fuse and the wing tube glued in place before the top sheeting is glued on. In order to do this I need to glue the formers in the fuse. I was waiting on hysol but it has arrived.I sheeted the bottom of the wings and cut out the servo bay covers for the aileron and flap servos. Next, I cut out the fiber glass in the wing root area on the fuseleaving a 1/4 inch over hang for glueing purposes. I dry fitted the formers in the fuse. The install sequence of the formers is from the rear to the front. I used hysol to glue the 2 rear formers in place. I'll let this setup over night before glueing the mid section formers in place.

Kirk

k_sonn

My Feedback: (32)

More Progress ...

As I was looking at the plans I noticed the fuselage wing root rib should be cut from 1/8th 5-layered ply. The laser cut one is light ply so I cut two new ribs from 5-ply aircraft plywood.

I dry fitted and taped the mid-section structure together and slide the wings in place to check to see if there were anyissues. Everything went togehter smotthly and I didn't see and issues.

Kirk

k_sonn

My Feedback: (32)

Next, I disassembled everything and placed the parts in the fuse. The structurehas to beassembled in the fuseby pacing the fuse wing ribs in place and then attaching the parts working form rear forward.

Once the structure was assembled, I placed the wings back on to double check the fit. Everythnig look good so I removed the wings and glued the structure in place.

Kirk

k_sonn

My Feedback: (32)

Now that the holidays are over, work is taking up the majority of my time. I did manage to do a few things though.There were two formers left to glue into the fuse. These formers support the nose gear so, inorder to install them straight and make sure the nose gear was aligned, I cut out the nose gear doors before glueing the formers into the fuse. I used a 1/48th scale 3-view drawing to measure and layout the doors. I used a metal straight edge and a hot knife with a #11 exacto blade to cut out the doors.

Kirk

k_sonn

My Feedback: (32)

Next, the formers were placed in the fuse and the nose gear mounting rails were set in place. The nose retract unit was set on the mounting rails and alignment was checked. Everything looked good so the retract unit and mounting rails were removed without disturbing the formers and the formers were glued in place using hysol.

Kirk

k_sonn

My Feedback: (32)

I also installed the tube into the wing and the tube receiver into the fuse and checked the fit. Everything fit great so the tubes and receivers were glued in place using a heavy bead ofhysol.

Kirk

k_sonn

My Feedback: (32)

I ordered a cockpit from PST and received it within a week. The flat cockpit deck of the hatch cover was cut out and the cockpit was rough fitted. A little more work is needed to get it in the correct position but the photos shows it will work with the Ziroli Panther. The verticle stab was built and glued in place with hysol.

Kirk

Ron101

My Feedback: (22)

Sweet work as always Kirk.... looking real nice
you going to use the S-Bus on this one?

john491

My Feedback: (13)

I've just finished covering this Ziroli Panther fuselage in Flight Metal. Is there a good way to do rivits for the panels?
John

k_sonn

My Feedback: (32)

Thanks Ron. Yes, I'll be using the sbus system on the Panther. I'm using JR 3421 servos for the elevators and rudder so I'll be using one of the decoder cables for those servos and I'm using the S9072SB servos for the steering, ailerons, and flaps andthe S9071SB for retracts and brakes.

Kirk

k_sonn

My Feedback: (32)

Your Panther looks good. I'm considerihg finishing minein natural metal. I use a 1/16th brass tube with the end sharpened to make the rivets. Iuse the warbird template from Tower hobbies for spacing the rivets.

Kirk

k_sonn

My Feedback: (32)

Now that my contract is finished in the Pacific Northwest and I'm back in Maryland, at least for a couple of months, I can enjoy my workshop and resume working on the Panther.

The diameter of the fan is smaller than the ducting so I will use a BVM intake ducting adapter. The inner diameter of the fan and the adapter are the same. The outer diameter is not. I wrapped carbon fiber tow around the adapter to build it up to the same as the O.D. of the fan. Next, I waxed the front area of the fan really well and epoxied 2 layers of fiberglass seam tape around the fan and adapter, creating a lip for the fan to plug into.

The intake opening at the fuse was rough cut open and the formers were epoxied to the inside of the glass. When cured, the intake opening was cut open to fit the ducts. The inside of the fuse was primed to give a neat, uniform look. The main gear area will be primed at a later date. Icut that area open and will make gear doors and a hatch out of the pieces so I can get to the main retracts. The retract mounting rails were cut to length and glued in place.

Lastly, the intake ducts, adapter, and fan were rough fitted.

Kirk

k_sonn

My Feedback: (32)

Work was done to complete the horizontal stab.The elevators were built and cut off of the horizontal stab.Before sheeting the top of the elevators, a strip of carbon fiber was glued to the trailing edge to make it strong and help prevent hangar rash. The trailing and leadingedges were added to the stab and the leading edge was added to the elevators. The tip blocks were added and everything was sanded to shape. The elevators were hinged using Robart hinge points instead of the flat, ca type hinges shown on the plans. The retracts were installed and the wings and horizontal stab were placed on the fuse for that moitavtional shot. She's starting to look like a Panther. Next up will be to finish the wings.

Kirk

k_sonn

My Feedback: (32)

The wings are nearly complete. The hinge blocks were made and glued in place then the wings were sheeted. The plans show the ailerons hinged at the top with flat hinges and the leading edge is at an angle with a large gap at the bottom. Idecided to use Robart hinges so I had to add some wood to the leading edge of the aileronsin order to sand the leading edge into a rounded shape. After that was competed, the aileron and flaps were hinged. I left a small area unsheeted so I could install the anti-rotation pin. Before installing the anti-rotation pin, the incidence was set and the wings were taped in place. Holes for the anti-rotation pin were drilled. The plans show the anti-rotation pin going into a balsa block in the wing but I used 1/4 inch aircraft plywood, which was hysoled in place along with the pin.

Kirk

petera38

Hi Kirk,

Looks like you´re going to testfly your Panther in Spring? How do you intend to do your wingtanks? Using Zirolis ABS tanks?
I did, and that was quite some job!
I haven´t flown mine yet, in spite it was ready last year....Was flying Boomers all last summer!
I have just reinstaledl my JetCat P80SE in the Panther, as it was sitting in a Boomerang Sprint.
Looking forward to fly it...as for now, we still have lots of snow up here in Sweden.

Regards
/Pete

k_sonn

My Feedback: (32)

Hi Pete,

I hope to have the Panther ready to fly around June. I will be using the ABS tanks. They do look like a bit of work. Did you add any formers in the tanks? Good luck on your maiden.

Kirk

petera38

Hi Kirk,

Yes, I added some formers to make it more stable. But the fiberglass did the job, however I had to use spray-on filler and a lot of sanding.
I wrote a thread here http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_69...tm.htm#6989905
in case you should be interested. On page 2 at the bottom and page 3.

/Pete

k_sonn

My Feedback: (32)

Today's task was to glue the horizontal stab in place. The fuse was set on the foam stand and the wings were installed. The fuse was leveled side to side and an incidence meter was used level it front to back (1 degree of incidence on the wings). The fuse had the horizontal stab shape already cut out so the horizontal stab was set in place on the fuse and the incidence was checked. The plans show 0 degrees of incidence but when it was checked it showed 4 degrees of incidence. I made new stab saddles and epoxied them next to the saddles that were previously glued to the inside of the fuse, setting the incidense to 0 degrees. I had to remove the lower rib on the vertical stab so I could have enough room to work. It will be reglued in place later. Once the epoxy set, the horizontal stab was hysoled in place.

Kirk

k_sonn

My Feedback: (32)

Hi Pete,

Thanks for the link.  I tried using the RCU search engine earlier today to find your thread but it never showed up in the results.

Kirk

petera38

I also tried the search engine to find my Panther thread without success. Does the enclosed link work?

/Pete