Bipe Flyer

I just mix the plaster of paris per the directions on the box and pour it into the commercial canopy and let it dry overnight. The plaster of paris plug will pop right out and can be used bare without any preparation. The plug is reusable, and comes out of the formed piece easily. Plaster of paris is porous, so the plastic forms very well around it without trapping air under the plastic. The other advantage of its being porous is that it wont make a seal to the newly formed piece, making it easy to remove.

Andrew

Here is another [link=http://www.indplastic.com]source[/link] for HIPS and PETG that I have used -- sometimes they will run specials for end cuts that are sufficiently large for our use.

meowy84

Beautiful! Thanks Bipe and Ptulmer. You learn something new every day. I feel like a parasite on this board...just sucking it all in.

meowy84

More parasitic behavior: Will the MAN texan (with it's faulty 30" span) fly purely freeflight (no radio controls whatsoever) using a .020 PeeWee? I already asked but no one answered.

Phlip

Hey Art, I think I'll build one, also. You building the 30" plan, or using the download? I downloaded the tiled PDF plan and pieced it together yesterday ... comes out about 31.5". You gonna go electric or glow? I'll probably pick up a Norvel .061 for it.

I've used that process to make soda bottle cowls for Guillows kits. The cowls have come out great, but my experience is that the plaster is difficult to get out of the Guillows vacuum formed originals, and I've ended up pealing the plastic off of my plug. Also, the shrunk down soda bottle gets a good grip on the plaster, as well, making it difficult to save the plug after removing it from the new cowling.

Phil

Phlip

My experience with the PeeWee is limited to a 10" C/L home design when I was about 16. Flew that OK. Prior to that, at about age 14, I lost one OOS when I stuck it on the front of a Monagram Styrofoam rubber powered model with about a 12' span. Flew great under power, nice climbing circles, never saw it glide! Man, those things run a long time on a small tank of fuel!

meowy84

*sigh* I guess I'll have to try it and see. Good thing the PeeWee has only about 90 seconds run time on the thimbledrome tank....hopefully if it flies well I won't lose it....and it it doesn't fly well at all then I definitely won't lose it. heh heh

Phlip

Has anyone done a BOM for this plane?

Phil

meowy84

*stupid question* What's BOM?

ptulmer

My Feedback: (5)

I was wondering the same thing...

Phlip

Sorry ... no such thing as a stupid question! Only stupid answers, (or stupid assumers).

BOM = Bill of Materials. I'm looking for a quick shopping list!

Phil

meowy84

Phlip, this reminds me of a story....One of my college teachers used to say that exact quote....and then someone asked his THE QUESTION and everything changed. This was one of those profs that no one ever dared ask anything...The guy way scary! Anyways, we were talking about the principles of electric trolleys (like they have in europe with the electrical lines avove the trolleys). Anyways prof says "any questions gentlemen, and remember the are no stupid questions."...So this guys says "Yes professor, I have one...If I take my right arm and get ahold of one of the high tension wires..."...and the teacher was like "yes, yes? Go on..." waiting for a brilliant question....and the guys says "...and if I put both of my feet on the tracks, will I go down the track like the trolley?".....Well, the prof went red and then green and threw the chalk against the blackboard and stormed out.......

It was funny and then very scary at the same time.....You just had to be there....

Where were we? Oh yeah 1/2A planes and Bill of Materials, LOL, no clue.

cwrr5

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Ok - Now to "ressurect" this thread.... (I couldn't find another one)

Here's the progress as of tonight on my AT-6, building from the magazine 30" plans. Planning to use the Eflite Park 370 brushless motor, direct drive(prop still T.B.D.), Jeti Advance 18-3P speed control, 2 cell Lipo ~ 1500mah(or whatever I have at the time), 3 Cirrus 4.9 servos, Hitec Electron 6 receiver. I "made" the cowl from a plastic container, and will probably vacu-form the canopy when I get a chance to play around with the new vacu-former I bought Sunday(still gotta carve a plug [:'(] )
Got the fuselage framed up and sheeted around Christmas, but then got sick and haven't been working on it much. Just finished the wing tonight, ready for covering except for the servo opening. Still have a lot of stuff to do on the fuselage, but it's looking pretty(see pictures). Sorry 'bout the fuzzy-ness, the lighting in my shop isn't very good as I'm in the process of installing new flourescents.
Just a note on the plans, many of the parts are drawn to the wrong size and don't fit the other parts. Specifically, the wing spars are too short and the ribs are kinda wonky. If you build this plane, redraw the wing so the parts fit!!!

cwrr5

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Just noticed what forum this one's in.... sorry guys, I know it's electric.(but it's the right size at least )

rrragmanliam

My Feedback: (1)

Thats All right CW Looks like your diong a great job none the less!

meowy84

Looks great!! Nice job. Any idea on the final weight (with servos/receiver but without the motor/esc?)

Dukester

My Feedback: (31)

Don't worry. My personal 1/2a electric definition was any motor that would fit through a paper towel roll, so you're right on target. And your Texan looks good so far.

Duke

Bipe Flyer

Does that include a gearbox?

cwrr5

My Feedback: (32)

Thanks all. Working on fuse this weekend, should be ready to cover by next week. Man! What a labor intensive way to get a T-shirt!
I'm shooting for around 16oz. ready for flight, but just checking with my "calibrated" elbow, I think it may be just a touch heavier(maybe - depends on how much sanding I can put up with) The motor/esc with wiring(no prop) weigh in at exactly 2.5 oz, so I'd say around 12-13oz. Hard to tell at this point without the fuse finished, canopy and electronics installed, but as it sits right now(bare bones w/ cowl, receiver, wheels, motor mount, and wet sheeting at the bottom of the nose), it weighs 4.8 oz(see picture )

I agree, paper towel roll is the accepted gauge.... hmmm, no gearbox on this one, so yes it fits (with room to spare!)

meowy84

Thanks for the weight info. Let us know how it flies. I'm planning to build one as well sometime in the not too distant future (there's never enough time!!) using the erroneous 30" MAN plans but powered by a Cox.

cwrr5

My Feedback: (32)

Will do... whenever I finally get it finished. Attached the vertical stab, fuse blocks(fairings?) not sure what they're called? Little triangle shaped pieces next to the vertical stab that carry the shape of the fuse back to the rudder. Anyway, got it almost perfectly aligned, but discovered my reference marks on the fuse and stab weren't. So, watch out for that when building from these plans - ANOTHER glitch. (centerline of the stab is off by about 1/16" - I don't think it's intentional, and actually may have just been me making a traced copy of the plans, I'll double check) Also started carving(sawing,sanding,cussing,spitting) the canopy plug [:@] , still have much sanding and cutting to do. IF I can get it right( [:'(] ), I can make 'em for anyone that builds the 30" magazine version.

Eventually, I'd like to do another, also with a cox(or norvell), but just like meowy said, there's just never enough time!

meowy84

Just be glad you're not working with a mahogany plug!! Hardest wood to work with as far as I can tell, never doing it again. Really stresses my dremel. (BTW, the mahogany is used in a little Chris Craft style vintage r/c speedboat model that I'm building).

cwrr5

My Feedback: (32)

oooooo..... No thanks! I'll stick with balsa!

Here's today's(actually yesterday) progress: Got the landing gear wires bent, most of the shaping on the cowl, although I'm not too sure about the forward end of it(kind of a weird triangular shape). 1st layer of fiberglass/epoxy put on this morning. Also starting the infamous "mounting the cow" step. Might be kind of difficult due to lots of downthrust built into the motor mount.
Didn't get much done, I was too busy flying yesterday(8 flights in 4 hours!), today will probably be just about the same problem.

Here's the plug for the canopy so far, along with the rest of the mess. More mess to follow...

cwrr5

My Feedback: (32)

Ok, moving right along, here's today's update:
Got the wing and fuse finish sanded and ready for covering, installed pushrod tubes, painted and mounted the cowl, aligned(and re-aligned) the wing and got that mounted, bent the landing gear wire and temporarily installed those, installed aileron servo, and finally decided on a color scheme. Whew! Got a lot further than I was expecting to get today. Didn't touch the canopy plug - I'm putting that off for now. ( [:'(] )

Here's some pictures(It finally kinda looks like a plane! )

cwrr5

My Feedback: (32)

By the way, this is the color scheme I'm going to try to duplicate... light grey monokote, Testors dark green and red. Still thinking over how to do the "stars and bars" and other graphics. Probably water-slide decals if I can find them.

Anyone know anything about this particular airplane?