lbscottsdale

Hi and welcome

My wing was 8lbs primed and including gear etc. However I don,t think I did a great job glassing as I have some grain showing through.A little more epoxy would have helped. Used two ounce cloth, two layers top and bottom and half ounce to tips. Wil weigh completed painted wing next week and tell you all up weight. Presently on vacation in N C!
Cheers

Len

Brad330l

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Hi cavery and welcome to the thread with your build. It will be great to see another beautiful lady constructed here so build away.
Firstly, as far as your built and completed wing goes I would not worry too much about 10 lbs, (mine is 7.81 lbs as it flys) I would be more worried to see if the strengthening mods were done. In saying that though just remember how many YA Spitfires were flying for many years with out the mod (all be it with the odd failure).

I see no problems with using the water based to apply your covering cloth. The strength will be in the cloth adheared to the wing surface, not the excess resin a lot of people may think is the key. (not saying any of the guys here thing that) With the wing mods done and some 2oz cloth at the joins you will be laughing mate.

Good luck and post it all right here, tell your wife she is very special. She sounds like a gem.

Bob H, I am going to try your riveting method on my next project (a Spitfire) and I might even try it on the bottom of my Yellow wing even though it is all finished.

Cheers guys,

Brad

kenair

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Wonderful to see new stuff posted on the thread. Our local warbird season is over for the year, the Spitfire is hung up in the garage for the year as we had snow this week which has since melted but it's cool out. A couple of photos from last week, already looking forward to spring and flying the Spittie again. cheers - ken
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Brad330l

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Might you get a couple of gear doors on over the winter Ken?

Cheers,

Brad

kenair

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Hi, main gear doors and tail wheel doors planned for this winter.

Anyone thinking of retofitting to the DLE 55 rear exhaust?
.

smkrcflyer

What's the cost of this kit? Can't seam to find it on there web site.

ccostant

My Feedback: (38)

I have the spitifre kit and when I saw the DLE55-RA announced my first thought was this is the perfect engine setup for this plane. Rear carb and no ugly muffler sticking out the side.

ccostant

My Feedback: (38)

If the prices haven't gone up since last year, the airframe kit is $515, YA main retracts $365, YA tail wheel retract $30, main wheels $98, spinner $62.

shaked israel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6v48vCTTmk

Flyfast1

My Feedback: (1)

Nice Israeli scheme. I haven't seen that very often. Nice video and flying. The plane looks great on the fly bys and you landed it perfectly. Was that a warbird event in Israel?

-Ed B.

Flyfast1

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To All:

Any ideas on where to purchase a tail light that is mounted to the rudder? Or, how to make one?

Thanks,

-Ed B.

BobH

My Feedback: (2)

A small LED can be the light. The base can be made from any material. Perhaps brass tubing or plastic. A bit of sculpting with filler where the LED fits into the socket will finish the look. If you want to make it operational you'll need to do the necessary wiring through the rudder etc.

lbscottsdale

See post 710, page 29 by Brad..shows his taillight construction

Chris Nicastro

My Feedback: (3)

I have the the new DLE 55 RA engine and its very compact.

138mm from center line to top of plug cap.
175mm from firewall to prop drive face.

Its loud so if you have a noise Db limit at your field there is a very good chance this engine will break it.

Flyfast1

My Feedback: (1)

Thanks and also to Bob H for his suggestion. I wonder if there is an easy way to make an index for this thread to make finding topics easier?

-Ed B.

lbscottsdale

Apparently I have been working on my Spit since June 2008!!! I checked the date on page one of this thread! Next year it WILL FLY!!!

Here's how it looks so far...Just finished painting.

Brad330l

My Feedback: (1)

Well you know what mate?? It is going to give you so much more joy for every minute you have put into it and for us the wait will be worth it too.
Looks great and keep plugin' away.

With mine I have to pull the engine as I think the mesh strainer in the carby is restricted with lint or something. This is after fitting a new ignition battery and me thinking I was good to go for a good campaign of flying.
Oh well, you never stop working on them.

Cheers,

Brad

Flyfast1

My Feedback: (1)

Lbscottsdale,

You are getting close! It's looking good.



To All:

I have been making some (slow) progress. Here are some pictures:

Pics 1 & 2: Pitot tube for left wing made from 3/32 plywood and a 1/8" dowel. The base of the pitot tube slides into a slot in the wing and the second picture shows the small "foot" on the bottom of the pitot tube. A small screw secures the foot to the wing for easy field installation/removal.

Pic 3: front left side of fuselage. Gas filler cap on top, access panel on left side and the rear of the air compressor intake can be seen. The strange panel on top does not appear to have any rivets, based upon my drawings and photo books. Not exactly sure what it is on the full scale version, but at least it is the correct shape and is in the correct position.

Pic 4: air compressor intake on top right side of fuselage and some of the cowl latches.

Pic 5: panel and bulge on right side of fuselage at the wing fairing. Not sure what the bulge is for, but it's on my drawings and photo books. There were discrepancies with how many rivets this panel is supposed to have, so I went with six per several photos.

Pic 6: front left side of fuselage showing another access panel and the cowl latches. These oval panels only had two rivets.

Pic 7: left side of tail showing access panels, including access panels on rudder. There are at least two different size access panels and the right side of the tail has a rectangular panel. So, the panels on the left and right side of the tail section are not the same.

Pic 8: right side of tail showing trim tabs and actuators. I fiddled with making functional trim tabs using pull-pull cables and a bell crank and got it to work, but decided it wasn't worth all the extra weight and compexity, so mine will be static. Some useful lessons learned for a future project.

Pic 9: beam approach aerial on left bottom of fuselage. After all, the pilot has to get home in the dark fog! It was difficult to confirm the proper location because there were differences between my drawings and my photo books. One would think there would be a standard production position, but perhaps changes were made in the field?

That's all for now. I am still moving forward. Hopefully some paint soon!

-Ed B

Brad330l

My Feedback: (1)

Good work mate. You are going to 'talk' me into detailing the bottom of my wing if you keep posting these kind of pictures.
After I get a good run of flights, say another ten I will do some more riveting and lower detail and some more work in the cockpit.
Keep it up Ed, motivate me.

Brad

Flyfast1

My Feedback: (1)

Thanks Brad. Your plane looks great. I guess the fun thing about these planes is that more detail can always be added, right? I talked with one U.S. scale master competitor who forms his flush rivets into the paint instead of the primer and it looks great, so more detail can always be added, even after paint.

Cheers,

-Ed B.

Flyfast1

My Feedback: (1)

A little more progress to report:

Pics 1, 2 & 3: I fabricated a tail light starting with an LED that I purchased at a local electronics store for a few quid. I cut off the two metal leads, glued it to the trailing edge of the rudder, made a small wedge shape on each side using some plastic puddy and then added a small piece of aluminum tape, followed by some small indentations to simulate rivets. Look alright?

Pic 4: added some filler around the edge of the beam approach aerial.

Pic 5: bottom view of one of the elevator trim tabs

Pic 6: rivets added around the horizontal stabilizer. I did not add enough primer in this area, so we'll see how this looks after paint.

Pic 7: starting to add some detail to the wheel wells. I started with two simple rails and some raised rivets that didn't turn out that good. Any suggestions on how to get good raised rivets inside a wheel well?

Thanks,

-Ed B.

vasek

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MAN! F1, you could be restoring the real ones

glazier808

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For raised rivets, I use vinyl rivets with some rc56 glue on top(i use a glue syringe)perfect everytime.

Looking amazing btw...

Casey

pacoflyer

My Feedback: (23)

glazier808,
Where do you get vinyl rivets ?

Thanks,
paul

glazier808

My Feedback: (1)

I got mine from G-PETE here on RCU...great service and product...

Here's a link...he's doing a 2 for 1 deal ATM

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_11295099/tm.htm

Casey