OZ SPAD trainer
 

Imreturning to RC after about 25 years so I have to learn to fly again, And frow what you all say in this forum, this looks like the purfect to build a trainer that will survive me till I get to be able to fly again.

But i have some question, because I live in Australia about the meterials used.

1) what size is a yard stick? (I know its 36 inches long, but how wide is one, and how tall are they) I can find the odd meter ruller but they are quite expencive. I was thinking i could rip myown Yard Sticks out of cheep pine with a table saw.

2) we don't have square down pipe in Australia its rectangular (i know, dackward countary)
ours is 4" x 2" so you would end up wide quite a wide fuslage, but i can't see why it wouldn't work?


Anyone In OZ thats had a go, any sujestions would be most helpfull

And any very kind member in the US who would measure a Yard stick for me I would be most thankfull.

Sorry about all the stupid questions.

Im thinking of writing across the wing of the first one.

"SPAD by Spaz"

Thanks Andrew

RE: OZ SPAD trainer
 

Andrew,

Welcome to SPAD. The yard stick is about 1 inch 1/8 (28mm) tall about and about 1/8 inch thick(3mm). Ripping them yourself will work just fine... you might want to use spruce...but pine will work.

If I were you I would just build a coro body....in my personal opion there better than gutter pipe. Just make sure that the firewall is mounted securely to the coro. See image.

Good Luck and Happy Flying
Steve

RE: OZ SPAD trainer
 

Andrew some of out great spadders are from down there in OZ. I am sure they will jump in here soon for ya. Just hang on. Check out wwwdot spadworlddot net
Al

RE: OZ SPAD trainer
 

Rectangular downspout is more common than square in the U.S. as well. However, the plastic rectangular downspout we have here doesn't work well for spads. First, it has wavy walls for some reason to make it look like aluminum (of all things). That makes it hard to mount stuff on it. Second, it has very thin walls, and very little structural strength, meaning you can crush it sideways very easily. So, if your downspout is like I described, and if you're just getting into Spads, I think you'd do better getting materials that have been proven to work, rather than using materials that haven't been that succesful.

RE: OZ SPAD trainer
 

welcome to our mad SPAD world.

for the spar's best place is bunnings, they have KD and pine in the house skirting board and arcitrave section, i've used everything from 3mm x 19mm to 32mm x 12mm, for the every day SPAD's either 25x6 or 32x6 seems to be about the right size.

for fuzz's you can use the 50x100 spout either horizontal or vertical i've seen it both ways, or do what i do and cut it to a U section 50x65ish and use it as formers for a coro fuzz, the formers face up U at the fire wall, down at the front and rear rubber band dowl location, up at the rear where the cut out starts, then use the off cuts where the fuzz slopes to the tail. Oh i forgot this is for a standard square box fuzz, works well on everything from DPS's to Debonairs.


use 3mm coro for fuzz's, and wings, use 5mm for tail feathers and control surfaces.

we cant get Gorilla glue so where the yanks wood pecker and gorilla glue use Fullers 303 (bunnings again), stick with Flash, Zap or Max bond CA's.


dont spend over $15 for a 6x4 or coloured 3mm coro, blue, green, white and red seem to be easiest to glue.

any more Q's just ask.

RE: OZ SPAD trainer
 

Andrew, the 55x105 pipe works great.. you just have to work a bit harder! I built my FlatStick trainer using a 3mm coro fuzz similar to the spadet in some of the building methods except I used a half length former made from our Aussie pipe. I cut it down to 70mm from memory and then rivited in the cap which was about 15mm high. Then a hole saw makes it about 40% lighter or so. Woodsy's way of just using the "U" of pipe as a former would work great too.

http://www.alphalink.com.au/~thetron/flatstick/ has a few building pictures of how it was assembled and a few more of the finished product. But here is a good one to see how it fits together:

http://www.alphalink.com.au/~thetron.../corofuzz3.jpg

Oh yeah, a 3mm coro fuzz is tougher than you think... I built in a weakness (a ply wood doubler) so that the landing gear breaks off on a hard landing/crash... My plane has lost its gear about four times now, and I've flown it into the fence that has claimed more than a few balsa models... Needless to say, the model is still in great condition and I should solo with it pretty soon (I wish I had more spare time! and I wish the weather was better lol :D ) ! SPADs are great!

-Tron

RE: OZ SPAD trainer
 

Hey Trev, good to hear from you, so SOLO soon!!! is that the SO LO you crash in to the fence???

hopefully we can all catch up again when daylight savings comes around, i recon we all go and beat KAHN up at his field durring the summer, i'm sure Nathan would be in it.

RE: OZ SPAD trainer
 

Hey the fence bit wasn't my fault!!! That fence came outa nowhere! :D:) LOL... But last time i flew i had greater success... it was blowing about 15 knots and after about half a dozen landing approaches, I did a landing pretty much vertically down... The stopping distance was very similar to the fence "landing" but I had a much bigger smile on my face ;)[8D]:D

And yep, sounds good! That Nathan guy's been missing for a while, but I'm sure the prospect of ganging up on Kahn on his home field would bring him outa hiding... :D

RE: OZ SPAD trainer
 

Yep, sent Nat an e-mail tonight, i think that new catlick uni has him locked in the pull pit. studying various bi balls and other works of fiction.

RE: OZ SPAD trainer
 

Trev mate; good luck with the solo.

And to you all Ozzies and others thank you for all your help and infomation.

Andrew..