F4u5

My Feedback: (81)

This one: http://www.rcuniverse.com/market/item.cfm?itemId=419267

The glass work is exceptionally good. Very few pinholes in a nice grey gelcoat. Stabs could be made removeable, but I will permanently mount them. Nice canopy as well, with a nice cad wing plan and DVD.

This is a big zero with a 110 inch span. I will be building 2 of these...one for me and one for a friend (Phil). Phil want to put an 80 twin in his, I will go with a Q-100 likely.

As soon as my wing kits arrive, I will begin looking it over.

Watch for the build here....coming soon.

Jeff

F4u5

My Feedback: (81)

The laser cut wing kit just arrived. Very nice laser cutting and good quality wood. I'll need to gather up some spar material and get building the wing. The wing kit also comes with pre-cut landing gear plates for Sierra gear.


Jeff

u2fast

My Feedback: (37)

jeff, i wait with excitement. i am a zeke lover and the bigger the better. barry

F4u5

My Feedback: (81)

Me too Barry....they fly awfully nice with that long tail moment. I'll be doing some fly-ins and ripping some spars, but I hope to start one of these birds by 01OCT at the latest. I'll post some pictures of the fusealge and cowl/tail cone. This is some nice glass work.

Jeff

Vintauri

My Feedback: (25)

Hey your building one for Phil? Cool. I wish I could afford to build a Ziroli Corsair to chase them around with.

I look forward to seeing the progress.

See ya this weekend.

bosssman

My Feedback: (35)

On one of my building tables, I am building the "small" Ziroli Zero. I think the Zero is one of the BEST flying warbird models out there, and it seems the bigger they are, the better they mimic the flying characteristics of the full scale plane. Look forward to following your in depth coverage of the build up. If it's anything like your Corsair, I am sure it will come out great!!

randy

F4u5

My Feedback: (81)

OK, here we go!!!!!!! THE BUILD IS ON. I received my gear from Darrell at Sierra....fantastic stuff as usual. 85 degree angle with a 12.25 inch strut:


Jeff

F4u5

My Feedback: (81)

All of the ribs from Ty are superior lazer cut ribs. The first step it to dry fit and glue the landing gear plate doublers to the ribs. The steps I took:

1. Align landing gear doubler rib to the wing rib. This sets the proper angle and forward rake of the gear. These doublers are applied to ribs #4 and #6.

2. Tack with a small brad nail and double check alignment.

3. Remove rib doubler from rib.

4. Apply epoxy to rib doubler and use the brad nail tack holes to align. PRess together and then weight down the rib doubler until the epoxy is cured. I used 5 minute epoxy, which is plenty good with this much fay surface area. BE SURE TO MAKE A LEFT AND RIGHT SIDE GEAR RIB FOR EACH WING PANEL, otherwise you will not like yourself later[:-]

Jeff

F4u5

My Feedback: (81)

Here I have tacked the LH bottom wing spar to the forward dihedral brace and glued with T-88 structural epoxy. This is clamped and will cure overnight. T-88 takes about 24 hours to fully cure. You get a good, deep penetrating, strong glue joint. I have used this epoxy glue on a homebuilt.


Jeff

NCIS

Jeff,

I tried to look at the pictures but they didn't show up. Can you post a pic of it. A stock photo would be great. Maybe we can have a dog fight between my 122" F4U-5N Corsair and your monster Zero! I promise to stay along way away from each other. Maybe in Madison. By the way I've been trying to find out about there fly-in but don't know what it's called, do you?

Barry

F4u5

My Feedback: (81)

Barry, which picture are you trying to see? The ones on this post? They show up for me. As for the MAdison fly-in....not sure what it is called.

Jeff

Vintauri

My Feedback: (25)

Barry if your looking for pics of the finished plane Ty has some pics on his site: http://tysplanes.com/110_zero_kit

I bet you'd have a good chance of finding Jeff in the skies at the Northern Alliance Warbird flyin Aug 7-9th in Owatonna MN or at Warbirds and Classics in Fon DuLac WI the following weekend.

Steve

F4u5

My Feedback: (81)

OK, the spar blade doubler has cured, so it is not time to frame up the left wing. The first thing I did was cut the ribs for theirn intended purpose. First, the plans call for 3/8 X 1/2 inch balsa along the aileron hinge line. This will work fine, but I am more comfortable with the way ziroli does this area. So, along the hinge line of the aileron ribs, I noted 1/4 x 1/4 notched on the trailing edge of the wing and the leading edge of the aileron, with a 11/16 inch space between them. This will allow me to put a 3/16 balsa cap on the trailing edge of the wing at the aileron hinge line and a 1/2 inch leading edge on the aileron.


Jeff

F4u5

My Feedback: (81)

Ah....good catch Steve...the old ad expired, but if you go to Ty's web as Steve said...you'll see it.

Jeff

F4u5

My Feedback: (81)

OK, next, you will see the series of cuts I made to the ribs as follows:

1. For rib #5, I cut the gear plate angle in to the rib for just a little more support. I think Ty calls to cut it off forward of the spar

2. I cut rib #2 to accept the 5.5 inch main wheel

3. I cut the laminated rib #1 for a 5/8 inch dowel

F4u5

My Feedback: (81)

Ty calls for a trailing edge jig to be lined up along the trailing edge to set the approximate 1 degree of washout. Again, this will work fine, but I am more familiar with the Ziroli approach of laying a 3/8 square hardwood under the ribs at an angle to set the washout. Ty supplies the root and tip rib distance from the building table, via the jig. All I did was take a 3/8 strip of wood and set the root and tip ribs to those measurements and make a mark at #1 and #14 rib. Then, with a straight edge, I simply draw a straight line and align my wood strip along that line. This wil build the washout into the wing panel. Here, I have the jig strip in place and have the outer ribs glued to the bottom spar. You will see that I have also installed the 1/4 x 1/4 trailing edge of the wing at the aileron hinge line


Jeff

F4u5

My Feedback: (81)

Next step...add the servo tubes. Glue this in to help hold the ribs straight.


Jeff

F4u5

My Feedback: (81)

After about 3 hours, I have clamped and glued the top spar in. The wing panel is now ready to start having the top sheeting applied to hold the washout, but first, I will need to add the 3/8 square sub leading edge.

Jeff

NCIS

Jeff,

I'm talking about the first post before you started building. The site you posted comes up but not the images. I just want to see her.

Thanks,

Barry

F4u5

My Feedback: (81)

For anyone interested, here is a link to the prototype flight.:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70BW9Ob92dA

The spar and ribs came out perfectly straight...no humps to be found. This tells you how nice the lazer cut ribs are.

I need to hit the LHS tomorrow to get some 3/8 sq. balsa before I can sheet.

Jeff

NCIS

Jeff,

Very nice Zero by what the video tells me. It is a sweet flying bird. I am an all American Boy or maybe I'd get one of them Japanese Warbirds.

Barry

F4u5

My Feedback: (81)

Hey Barry, you can always paint it in US captured scheme


Jeff

F4u5

My Feedback: (81)

OK, dug and found some 3/8 sq. balsa, so I added this to the rib leading edges to create the sub-leading edge, and then capped the front of the ribs with 1/8 inch balsa and shaped to match the rib contour on the top side.


Jeff

F4u5

My Feedback: (81)

I do not like to land sheeting on the center line of the spar as this always creates a flat spot. I also do not like trying to glue down large one-piece sheets. Here, you can see that 1.5 inches aft of the spar, I build a shelf for the balsa sheet. I use light 1/2 x 1/4 balsa to glue between the ribs. Then, I sand them to contour the ribs. I will lay the sheet spanning the center of this "shelf" and run it to the leading edge. This allows the sheeting to span across the spar, keeping a nice radiiused contour. I always run a small bead of Gorilla glue along the spar to fill the very small void that will be present between the spar and sheeting. I am using 10 inch x 48 inch wide sheets from Balsa USA. These are a little more expensive, but save you a lot of time and well worth the extra cost.


Jeff

F4u5

My Feedback: (81)

First piece of top sheeting is now on and glue drying. I ran this first sheet from the balsa spar I added, to the 1/8 balsa sub-leading edge. I have found that those Squadron books make great weights for holding the sheeting to the ribs while the glue dries.

I forgot to get a shot of the gear mount before I sheeted the top side. I will get one of those on the next panel, which I will start tomorrow night.

Jeff