opps....wrong post[:'(]

So should i buy the kit plane or should i build the half wit from the plans¿

I like to take my HS 55s apart and drill lightening holes in the servo case, and in the gears. I also drill out those little steel axles that the gears rotate on . Then I acid dip the individual battery cells, because the standard cell containers are WAY too thick. You can also save some weight at the RX by removing and throwing away the case and deleting all the components on the circuit board that you don't need, like the throttle and rudder channel stuff. Of course the lightest fuel tank is NO TANK at all, just seal off and fuel proof the front end of the fuselage, then push a light weight fuel line into it, done deal.

If you are using good, light wood to begin with, lightening holes aren't a good idea. If you are using tough, heavy balsa, then you shouldn't be building a 1/2A plane with it anyway, that kind of wood should be set aside for building doll houses.

RCKid90, you gotta decide that for yourself. It's small enough for the first time scratchbuilder to handle it easily. And just so you know, Combatpigg is probably being serious... I happen to know he's tried the built-in fuel cell before!

rckid90,

My opinion is if you have never built a kit berfor do that befor attempting a scratch build. The kit basicly has all the wood, a carbon fiber tube, some carbon tissue, aluminum landing gear and other misc items. It comes with very detailed instructions on a cd rom with color photograhs documenting the build sequence. As far as kits go is a very complete Kit. To finish it you will need.

An engine .061 - .071 or brushless electric equivilent with a speed control and battery
Radio equipment - Transmitter, reciver, reciever battery, servos (4)
Covering
Misc. hardware
Fuel tank
Super Glue- ( CA )
Epoxy or Flex CA

Basic modeling tools
Covering iron

Darren

I thought i needed 5 servos. Rudder, elevator, throttle, 2 for the ailerons.

rckid,

You can do it with one aileron servo no problem.

Duke

thank very much duke

rckid,

As Duke noted you can build it with four servos. In fact I would recomend that you do as the plane will be lighter.


Rrragman

Duke/Rragman are right about the single servo. That is my prefered setup on the glow powered bird. The aileron pushrods are little bit more difficult to bend in that setup, but it is definitely lighter that way : )

Well i did some think this weaken and im going to build the half wit. I printed off the planes and taped them together last night. Im going to see if my mom ill buy the wood and covering to night. So i will more and likely start building it on tuesday.

Right on Rckid,

The HW is a great little plane. How are you going to power it? Personaly I like the .074 as it makes the plane easier to ballence and has plenty of power. It's very important with this plane to keep as much weight out of the tail as possible. At least the was my experience. I actualy shortened the tail moment by an inch on mine and it helped alot. Good luck and keep us posted.


Rrragman

Well i bout all the wood and the covering to night. It all came to like $42. The covering is like a clear lime green. I still need to get the arrow shaft and some ca before i start building it. I asked my wood shop teacher if i could do it as a school project and he said sure. So im going to trace out all the parts at home and use the bane saw at school to cut them out. So if i can trace out the parts this week. I will cut them out on monday and tuesday at school. Any ways i have a question what do i use to notch the wood and what kind of arrow shaft do i need¿

Most of your cuts should be made with either an XACTO [with the standard #11 blade], or a razor saw, for cross cutting the sticks, and notching hard wood. I like to use a table top scroll saw for everything else, like curved cuts in plywood. A band saw needs to be fitted with a very narrow blade for this kind of work, a scroll saw is much better. Tracing a fine line marker outline on balsa sheet with my #11 blade is how I whip out ribs. It takes 15 minutes to cut out 12 ribs. I cut the spar notches slightly under sized, for a tight fit to the ribs. I mark the rib locations on the spars, L.E. and T.E. with a fine line marker. To get ready for assembly, just lay down waxed paper and tape it to the table. Then mist the waxed paper with 3M77. After this, lay down the lower spar, and position the ribs on the spar with a triangle and hit each glue joint with thin CA. The rest of the long pieces just fall into place, check your work with the triangle as you go. No need for fancy jigs and time spent doing layout, we aren't building the SPACE SHUTTLE here, you're just making a rectangle out of sticks. The sticky waxed paper takes the place of pins, magnets, tape, jigs, etc. Have fun!

The only thing I'd change about CP's advice is that if you work in an enclosed area, use a dot of medium to assemble it. For the ribs and other type joints you can walk outside with the whole assembly and shoot the thin where you feel it's needed. The medium will wick like the thin, it just takes a couple extra seconds. As a matter-of-fact, I rarely ever pull out the bottle of thin. A little experience is all you need to develop a "feel" for glueing.
Of course, if you're like the INFAMOUS COMBATPIGG, you love the smell of CA fumes in the morning... (<---for some reason CP you remind me of that guy)

ok thanks. Ya i cant build it in shop class any more because the principle came into are class and yelled at our teacher for not having a class plan. So im going to be building it at home know. Im going to go trace the wood and if i have time to cut it out to night. So the ribs can be easily cut out with a xacto¿ O ya im going to pick up some medium/thin ca and a arrow shaft today. So i should be busy for the next couple of days. I will be take picture as i go a long to.

I AM that guy! I like the way gasoline smells too! Never tried the MEDIUM CA as a wicking glue. If you drizzle lots of thin CA into a glue joint, you are actually adding more weight than a single drop of medium would have. For real carefully built projects, those plastic eyedropper things work real well for single drop doses of thin CA. But unless you are building .010 sized stuff, what's a few extra drops of glue?

RCKID, that was a very unprofessional thing for the principle to do, chewing the teacher out in front of the students. You guys should all write a group letter to convey the message to this jerk that what he did to your teacher was strictly "bush league" and an abuse of his authority. To take it a step further, the SUPERINTENDENT of SCHOOLS [the principles' boss] should be made well aware of what happened. If the shop teacher has any back bone, he will also file a grievance with the school board.

Be thankful that your school still has a shop class. In the 80s' the educated idiots that run the school system decided to dismantle the high school shop classes and bring in computer labs. It was a direct one for one replacement in many districts. So now, there really isn't ANY WAY for a kid who ISN'T college bound to land on his feet with employable skills [in the industrial arts] after graduating H.S., unless you count being able to push the cash register key that has a picture of a BIG MAC on it as an employable skill.

Ok guys i started on the fuselage yesterday[sm=RAINFRO.gif] and the wing[sm=crying.gif][sm=confused.gif]. Well the fuselage is all most finished. Now the wing on the other hand yeeee. My notches weren't lined up so the wing was cock eyed. So im going to start all over again to night. So my question is does any one have some pics of there wing building process and how do i get those darn notches to line up¿ Also what should i use to notch them¿

If you have done a half way accurate job of tracing the rib outlines with a fine line marker, from a master pattern rib, then it should be an easy job to trace your lay out lines with a #11 blade. You should be using fairly light grade balsa, right? Now stack all the rough cut ribs together and see if you can press a hunk of spar material into your lined up notches. Work the notch with a file if it is too tight. Now do the same thing with the other spar notches while the ribs are still indexed on the first spar that you fitted. Now with all the ribs solidly pinned together by the scrap spars holding them together, you are ready to sand all the ribs as one unit, to a point where they are even, especially even in length. If you slightly notch the L.E. and T.E., [where the ribs intersect] it makes for a better glue joint.

ok i think i get it know. Well the fuselage is done. Im going to start on the wing here in about 30 mins.

Hi Rckid,

I'm guessing your talking about the spar notches in the ribs. There's probably a better way but here's how I did mine.

1. Cut out all of your ribs WITHOUT any of the notches.

2. Stack all of your ribs in a pile one on top of the other like a deck of cards. Try to align the leading and trailing edges as best you can, they won't be perfect but close is good enough.

3. Then take a couple of straight pins and push them all the way through the stack of ribs to hold them tightly together. Like putting a toothpic through a sandwich.

4. After pinning all the ribs together, get your sanding block out and sand them so that they are all the same shape. Don't remove too much material! All your trying to do here is get the ribs to a uniform and identical shape.

5. Use the plan to mark the notch locations on each end rib of the stack. Then use a ruler to draw a straight line connecting the notch marks and you will have laid out your spar locations in a straight line.

6. With the ribs still pinned together, cut on the lines with a razor saw to your notch depth. Unpin the Ribs and use a #11 exacto to make the last cut in each rib for the notch.

7. I have also used a small file and just filed the spar slot insted of sawing it.

Be sure to make the cuts with the saw a little smaller than your spar width so that the spar fit's snugly in the notch.


Darren

Well the wing would be finished if i didn't run out of glue. I couldn't find my bag of t pins so i use some painters tape and the wing looks square. So im happy with it. But i have another question. How do i shape the leading edge[sm=confused.gif][sm=biggrin.gif]¿

HI rckid90,

I usualy presand the LE into a trapizoid before assembly then finish sand after assembly to the correct shape. If you have already put yours together then you can carve the majority of the wood off, then finish sand to the final shape. Make yourself a inverse template of the LE shape from the plan and as you'r sanding frequently check the shape along the length untill it's right. Be carefull when sanding this wing, go slowly and lightly as it's a little fragile untill it's covered. I think I spent about an hour on mine with the sanding block before I was happy with it. Good luck and keep us posted.


Darren

RC KID If you plan on being in the hobby for awhile, then get your self a MASTER AIRSCREW razor plane! One of the best tools out there. Congratulations on your wing carpentry too. Mine is 20 years old and it still has the original blade.

I still dont have any ca to finish the wing. But here some pics.