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Well once again I have changed my mind on the hinging of the gear doors. In my last post I showed some pictures of how I was going to attach the hinges to the gear bay "walls" by tapping the hinge holes for 3mm bolt. I liked this because it is a clean method of installing the hinges...the problem is that once I sheet the wing the hinges become trapped. We all know as soon as you cover up a component you need to get at it! Anyway here is the old (left)vs. the new(right). I can now get at hinges to make adjustments as necessary. I was also able to use my second set of walls (out of three) which I think are the strongest (1/8" basswood sandwiched with 1/32" plywood).

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I next needed to build the bearrings for the 3/16" aluminum rod that will drive the gear doors. I used brass tube with 3/16" inner diameter mounted in some 1/4" plywood. I temporarily installed the gear so I could mark where the aluminum rod should go where it will not interfere with the retracted tire. Once I knew where the aluminum rod would go, I could drill the holes through the inboard and outboard walls and FINALLY install them permanently. It felt good to get that done!!!! I then glued the two bearing carriers to the inboard section of the gear bay walls. I will be able to remove the rod by pulling it through an access point in the wing root
Here's a pic showing the wheel well, bearings and the 3/16" wheel collars with 2-56 bolts that will lock the rod in place as well as actuate the doors.

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Here's a blurry picture of the wheel collar setup I used to drive the gear doors. I threaded a Du-Bro EZ adjust nylon horn bracket onto a 2-56 1" bolt until it stopped. I used red thread lock to lock it into the existing 2-56 treaded hole in the wheel collar. I then ground a small flat spot 90 deg. to the bolt, drilled and tapped a 2-56 hole (this will act as the set screw) and lastly attached a ball link to the nylon horn bracket. I made 3 of these per side...2 to drive the aft hinges and 1 to drive the aluminum rod.

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The next step was to mount a ball on the 2 aft aluminum hinges and attach the control arm to the hinge via ball links. This took some adjustment to get it close and is still not exactly correct yet. I've got some "throw" issues that still need to be worked out. I used yellow nyrod to drive the rod from the servo. That set up works very well. I'm sure once I actually make the doors and attach them there will be more adjustment challenges. So far so good...I'm having a ball working at it. Thanks again "GROUP BUILD" guys!

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Here's what I'm talking about with my "throw" issues. You can see the hinges are clearly not opening enough. Part of the problem is that the wheel collar set screws are bumping into the aft wall of the wheel well...an easy fix. Hopefully as they rotate farther that will solve some of my problem...Any suggestions?

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Made more progress this week although not much of it is new. I fixed the "throw" issue on the gear door by using longer 6-32 bolts. I also removed the head of the bolt. My initial thought was to butt the nylon connector against the head of the bolt so it would'nt rotate with a ball link connection...after threading the connectors on I've changed my mind. They are on there pretty tight. After I had revised and completed one of the gear bays I set off to complete the other (it did go a little quicker). Here's a before and after on the control arms and the new "throw".

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I also upgraded the connection from the yellow nyrod to the aluminum control rod...went all metal and changed the type and location of the set screw. The location of this connection is close to the flap panel so my thought is to make one hatch cover that will allow me access to both the flap servo as well as the nyrod/clevis connection.

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The rest of my time was spent building and sanding the 4 wing skins, sanding the leading and trailing edges of the outer wing panels, and doing all those little things that I keep putting off. Next week I'm hoping to get the outer panels skinned as well as the bottom of the gull...then on to the gear door fabrication. I have to say, as much fun as I'm having building this wing, I'm looking forward to having it done and moving on to the fuse!

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I weighed the wing all together with retracts, skins, servos(4 Hitec 645, 2, JR 507) gear door hardware etc., no flaps or ailerons, fiberglassing, paint and I'm at 8.5lbs. Anybody out there have any comparisons for me as far as wing weight???

Also, anyone have any good info on RCGF 62? I've looked at the RCGF thread but most of that talk seems to be centered around the 20cc and 30cc engines. Any first hand experience would be greatly appreciated.

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I managed to get a few more hours of building in this week...mostly the "cleanup" things I've been putting off. I want to prime the wheel well bays so I decided to line the forward and aft walls with 1/16" ply. This will give me a decent paintable surface with out having to fiberglass. Turns out it was time consuming but I like the way it looks. Pics later...the network I'm on won't let me download pictures!

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I'll give this another try...I forgot to change the size of these pics so I can only download one at a time...oops

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Next I doubled the gear rails with some maple stock...

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Built hatches for the flap servo...the die cut hatches were 1/16" thick so I added a 1/32" ply layer to make them 3/32" thick...same as the sheeting. the other hatch gives me access to the gear door drive arm.

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I added 1/8" basswood between the root rib and the outboard wall of the wheel well...both on the top and bottom of the gull section.

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I sheeted the bottom of both outer panels and also added basswood reinforcements above and below the aluminum spar...probably overkill but didn't cost much in weight.

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The next step will be to sheet the top of the outer panels using the jigs to give the appropriate washout. Then I can clip the wings and add the balsa tips. The outer black line is where I intend to cut the panel...it's 2" inboard of rib T-7. The Super Corsair only utilized the inboard and middle flap panel so I can "fair" the outer flap section to the trailing edge of the panel. Also, instead of covering the aileron as in the plan, I think I will sheet them instead.

The gull section guts are complete so the next step there is to sheet the bottom and lay the fiberglass for the gear doors...Let the games begin!!!

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As usual I got about half the amount of work done that I wanted but did make some progress. I got most of the sheeting done on the bottom with the exception of the oil coolers (which will be modified as well). I decided to mirror a Ziroli F4U build that I saw and run the grain of the sheeting where the gear doors will go parallel to the ribs. With a little water the wood bent fairly easy. Here's a pic of the sheeting that I ran perpendicular to the ribs.

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Here are a few pics of the sheeting over the gear rail section of the wing.

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Here's a pic of the sheeting on the bottom of the gull (less the oil coolers)...some filling, trimming and sanding and I'll be ready to make the fiberglass gear doors. The second is a top view of the wheel well...I'm happy with the door hinges. A few small adjustments...I'll think they're going to work well.

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Got quite a bit of work done over the Thanksgiving weekend...I started with a method to lock the two air tanks in position. I thought about using silicone glue to secure them but again wanted to have the ability to remove them without much hassel. The solution I came up with was to mount a slotted plate that would accept a vertical piece. I secured it with two button head screws. When installed it will lock the two tanks in place.

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Here's what it looks like installed.

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The next project on the list was to clean up the nyrod system that controls the gear door system. I needed to trim and secure the outer blue caseing and also attach the 2-56 rod and captured ball links an the servo end. I'm thinking about changing the servo to a Hitec 225MG...I'm going to try the JR servo first and see how it goes.

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I ran the plumbing for the retracts next...I bought a retract system from Sierra and in it were three metal "T"'s. Wow...they were so much easier to install the air line to...I'll never use the plastic ones again. The plastic "T"'s in the pictures are just hold the lines until I can get metal replcements. The previous post shows a picture (although blurry) of the retract valve setup. The first pic shows the position of the fill valve and the pressure guage that will be on top of the wing. Its positioned opposite the flap hatch so I'll have access from both sides if the wing. Once the top side of the gull is sheeted, I'll make a fiberglass hatch cover. The second pic shows the airline holders I bought at Toledo...they work great.

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Then the moment of truth...to build the fiberglass gear door molds. I used the advice of the "Group Build" and RCScale Model "Dual Build" threads and I have to say it was easier than I anticipated. I used a variety of cloth that I had and was given (thanks Paco) and Z-Poxy finishing resin.

Step 1. Marked the wheel well and the retract "bay" with a Sharpie.

Step 2. Covered the bottom of the gull with Seran Wrap and Sprayed with Pam cooking oil.

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Step 3. Cut all the fiberglass to size.

Step 4. Started with a 2oz. layer, 5oz., 6oz., 6oz., mystery layer (looked like a place mat...its a combo of fiberglass and carbon fiber
strands. It's thicker than 6oz.) then a 5oz., and lastly a 2oz. layer.