Half-A-Hec

Howdy All,

Here is the latest update. The wings are completed with the exception of shaping the leading edges and final sanding. As you can see the wings together weigh 0.4 Ozs. I used a 3/32" square bass wood bottom spar and a 3/32" x 1/16" bass wood top spar. The 5/32" aluminum tube is sandwiched between them. I used Gorilla Glue on this as it expands and fills in any gaps. The result is a wing that is very stiff. I don't think there will be any trouble with these wings snapping! That's why I didn't opt for shear webbing. Once the covering is on it will stiffen up even more. The glider now weighs in at 2.1 Oz. including flight pack.[:@]. I hope to still come in under 2.5 oz. The added spar and detachable wing added some weight. One thing to note, I attempted to balance the glider as it is now and it required about 0.45 oz. to balance. The entire flight pack weighs in at 1.2 Oz. So I guess I am adding around 0.8 to 0.9 oz. to make this 2 ch r/c. I will not add the wing struts or the dummy wheel. Lets see what she weighs in after she's covered. It appears the batt will be located directly under the C.G. and the receiver and servos under the canopy.
I drew up a template in autocad of the wing dihedral and glued it to the balsa piece the carbon fiber tubes are glued into. I used this as my guide for drilling the holes. You can see it in one of the pictures. This worked great! I checked the measurement of each wingtip to the table and it was dead nuts on! . I do notice that the right wing appears to be a little heavier than the left. I hung the glider from a thread connected to the spine of the fuselage and noticed that the right wing dips. I weighed both wings and they weigh exactly the same on my scale. I don't think my scale is acurate enough to pick up the difference. I will have to keep an eye on this. I may have to add a B-B or something to the left wing to make them equal.
Hey BMathews, thanks for the heads up on using Cheapbatteries.com. I received my 160 Mah NiMH batt this week. It weighs in at 0.7 oz. The service was great! Thanks again. By the way, what small glider are you working on?

I have a question. How much, if any, wing incidence should I build into the horizontal stab? The drawings show about a one degree angle on the horizontal stab as compared to the wing. In other words the front of the Horizontal stab is angled down one degree. As always your comments are welcome.

Here are some pics of what I got so far.

Hec

BMatthews

I sure wish you were doing the covering in tissue and clear dope. That would look SOOOOO nice.

Have you ever done a tissue and dope covering and finish?

Half-A-Hec

BMathews, I have used dope and tissue when I was a kid getting started in the hobby. I used silkspan on my control line models, I used tissue and dope on my peanut scale rubber powered models. Ah the fumes! I never could get tissue to stick to the balsa framework using dope only! I must of been doing something wrong. I was self taught, so there is a good possibility that I did do something wrong. I would end up using thinned down Elmers Glue to fasten the tissue to the frame work. Do you have a weight specification for the Japanese Tissue you mentioned? I wonder how it compares to Doculam?


Hec

BMatthews

The old jap tissue from the 60's and early 70's was much more limp and "rag" like. This new stuff is very crinkly. I used the origina good stuff with dope and no problems. The current crinkly stuff is all but impossible to dope down to light frames and have it come out nice.

The thinned elmer's is one option but I've used just good ol' Uhu glue stick with good results and it stays tacky for a nice working time and you're not adding moisture to the wood like with the watered Elmers. One point though. If you try the Uhu I learned the hard way that you need to cover the surfaces and then leave it for at LEAST 2 hours for the glue stick to dry more before VERY LIGHTLY misting water onto the tissue. I use a plant sprayer and shoot it up into a cloud and then pass the wing through the cloud of mist a couple of times and that's all it needs to bag out and that's enough to shrink the tissue when it dries without softening the glue stick. As long as you see the tissue go fairly limp it's good. It doesn't need to be actually wet. to your sight. And while I can't prove it from tests I think the glue stick is lighter than the Elmer's option.

Yuu

Bruce... I've read somewhere, perhaps F M, of a guy that uses UHU stick, presses the tissue on, then secures the tissue to the wood using a small paint brush dipped in alcohol. Alcohol penetrates the tissue and adheres to the glue and wood, then evaporates very quickly. I haven't tried this as I just read the article this past week, but I have misted tissue with alcohol, and it reacts and dries quickly.

Hueydriver

I've used the methods above and agree the Uhu stick works best. The thinned white glue isn't bad, but the thin glue wicks into the tissue and gives a glossier shine at the leading and trailing edges than between the open frame work. You get a bit of shine with the glue stick if you rub it down too hard, so it seems the alcohol makes good sense. I, too, never could get dope to act properly for adhesion.

Now silkspan and dope is something else entirely. I did two Super Clown control liners in silkspan this fall and may never use plastic film again. It gives great satisfaction when finishing a model.

Here's a Comper Swift that I built from plans from Mikes Scale Free Flight site ( http://www.ffscale.co.uk/comper.htm ). The tissue was attached with a glue stick (Uhu purple) and then finished with nitrate dope:

Half-A-Hec

Howdy All,

I am writing this in a hotel room in Galesburg, IL as I am traveling on business. I brought the plane with and thought I would do some sanding on the wings tonight. I did bring a piece of doculam with me to mess around with. I may even attempt to cover the horizontal stab. I even brought a can of Tamiya yellow spray paint to mist the adhesive side of the doculam. I can't believe how light Doculam is!! Thanks again Build Lite for the roll. I have a question for those who have used Doculam, How long do you wait after you have appied the paint to the adhesive before you try to iron it on? I can't wait to try Doculam out. I have never used this stuff before but I am sure anxious to.

Hueydriver, that's a nice looking model you have there. How does it fly?

Hec

Half-A-Hec

Howdy all,

I got the wings covered in Doculam. This stuff is great! Thanks Build Lite for the Doculam. The covering added 0.1 Oz. to the wings or 0.05 Oz per wing. I fogged the adhesive side of the Doculam with Tamiya Plastic Model paint. I started covering about 30 mins after the paint was applied. That paint dries fast. Here is what I did. I taped a piece of doculam to a poster board and then applied 2 foggings of the yellow paint. If you don't tape it to something it will curl up on you when the paint hits it. Maybe I can get the tail feathers done tonight. That's all for now.

Here are some pics of the wings and plane.


Hec

PS, does anyone know how to make decals?

Half-A-Hec

Howdy All, I hope everyone and their families had a wonderful Christmas. I managed to get some building time in over the past few days. It was great. The wife and her sisters all went shopping and left me at my in-laws house with the kids. I bought all the kids an AMA Cub rubber powered plane and we all worked on our planes together. Kids worked on their Cubs and I worked on the glider. We made good use of the ping pong table in the basement! I got the magnets installed to hold the wings on. I can hold the glider by the wing tip and let the plane dangle. The wing stays on even after shaking the plane a bit. Should work OK! I installed the servos, receiver and batt pack too. I just need to run pushrods and install control horns on the rudder and elevator. Speaking of the rudder and elevator, I had to recreate them out of 1/16" balsa sheet with lightening holes. The ones made from 1/16" square stock warped too much after trying to cover them with the Doculam[:@]. I also added the tow hook which is screwed into the bottom of the fuse. I can move the tow hook in 3/16" increments between the 2nd and 3rd bulkheads. If you take a close look behind the canopy just above the wing, you will notice that I used unpainted Doculam for this area. The plans actually tell you to not cover this area, but the full size is glass soo... I think it came out great. As for the final weight? I will have to weigh it to find out. I am writing this from my In-laws house and didn't bring my scale with. Looks like its time for the decals and some air brushing.

That's all for now.


Hec

Hueydriver

Hec,

This is model airplane building/flying as it should be.....this thread would rx great attention on the Small Flying Arts forum. After the AMA Cub, get your kids building the Sig Cub....longer w/s and a great flyer. May the gods of thermals be with ye !

Kirk

Half-A-Hec

Hueydriver,


Thanks, Here is a couple of pics of the rubber powered planes I was speaking of. One is an AMA Racer and one is a Cub. We built 5 that day and flew one the next day, we almost lost it!. The others arent shown as they went home with their new owners. Incase anyone is wondering, I used Doculam hinges on the elevator and rudder. I thought about using hinge tape like the Lecky's, but couldn't see paying $6 for a roll of tape when I only need about 10" of it.



Hec

Half-A-Hec

Tonight I got the nose painted and did some air brushing of the canopy area. I tried to make it look like a canopy frame. I think my lines are too wide[:@]. Dang it. I weighed in today at 68 g. Not to bad. I also made the decals on the printer. I will get them on tomorrow as I have to let the sealant dry. I drew up the decals in Autocad. I think they turned out well. We will see how the work on the plane though. Gotta love those waterslide decals. That's all for now.


Hec

Half-A-Hec

Another update. I managed to ruin the canopy so I had to vacuum form me another one. It took me 3 tries till I got one that I liked. I mounted little tiny magnets on the back side of the canopy that attach to another set in the fuse. The canopy does stay put! I added the black trim to represent the canopy frame. This time I used black monokote trim. Way Easier than the air brush! I added the wing decals as well. I think they turned out pretty good. I printed them on decal water slide paper on my inkjet printer. Then sprayed them with decal sealer. I let the sealer dry overnight and presto! Nice decals. I have the red and white stripes for the tail made too. I will add them on later. I don't know if I will add the blue color to the model or not. I would either have to spray it on, and I always get bleed through on my tape lines [:@]. Or I can paint some doculam blue and give that a whirl. What do you guys think. If not she will stay yellow.

Here are some pics of what I have so far.


Hec

build light

Hec, Your glider looks great so far.

In the interest of saving even more weight in the future (not that this one needs more weight savings You could only use the paint on one panel. For instance just the upper surface of the wing and use plain Doculam on the lower surface which will be clear once heated. On the ground one will see the upper surface and in the air you will not be able to tell that only one surface has paint!

As for de4cals, I see you have that taken care of. Still one might use the Doculam in a printer and print (in reverse) the things you need! Just iron it on and there you have it!

Robert

Half-A-Hec

Howdy All,

Got the rudder in the proper colors! Just need to install the push rods. Too bad it's winter. I'm getting the urge to chuck her in to the wild blue yonder!


Hec

Here is a couple more pics of where I am at with it.

Thomas B

My Feedback: (4)

A real cutie!

Besides towing or piggybacking, It might be a good model for slope soaring on some micro slope...a berm, a small ridge.

I have towed some smaller sailplanes and if you pick the right 1/2A model, you could indeed tow this thing.

Something like a slow flying Craft Air Piece 'o Cake or other 5-6 foot 1/2A powered sailplane would work fine.

Use a loop of fine thread as a weak link on the towplane side. You will need another micro servo on the TG-2 model for a tow relase...I have found that trying to use rudder or elevator to release an air towed model to be dangerous to the model..

An electric parkflyer type model like a GWS Tiger Moth or similar might make a better towplane..but that is a little outside the scope of this forum..

Half-A-Hec

Thomas B,

I have been contemplating on trying to slope this little guy off of a 70 foot dam. When the winds are out of the East and about 5 mph, I think I will give it hurl off the damn. I think the next time the wind blows out of the east will be in the spring. According to BMathews, it should be a floater at 2.5 oz . Can't wait till the maiden.

Hec

Half-A-Hec

Howdy All,

I got the airbrush out tonight and laid on the blue. I think it turned out nice. Tape lines came out nice and crisp. I won't need some fine black tape lines to clean things up!.


Well here she is just awaiting the pushrods! Oh yeah! It still weighs in at 70 Grams!.

Hec

Andrew

I don't.

I think it turned out SUPER. It really looks great -- you've done an excellent build!

BMatthews

70 gms = 2.5 oz....... sweeeeeeeet

I think I'm almost as enthused about this project as you are...

Half-A-Hec

Thanks for all the kind comments. I really am enthused about this little guy. I have even gone and drawn up a set of plans in Auto Cad. I have sent off to have laser cut ribs made. Should have them back hopefully today! I am going to make another set a wings for it. The laser cut ribs should produce an even more acurate wing. My hand cut hand sanded ribs are ok but not exact duplicates of the templates. Close but not close enough[:@]. I am almost done drawing up the bulkheads as well. I figure I can have enough pieces lasered out of one 3" x 24" x 1/32" and one 3" x 24" x 1/16" sheet to make three gliders!

Hec

BMatthews

If you liked this one I've also got plans for a Wolf glider that has Thermic/Bird of Time style wings and is a real cutie. Mind you it's more of a "jumbo" at around 36 inch span.

Half-A-Hec

Bruce,

Do you have a pic of the glider?

Hec

gittarpikk

He he...

have you ever really compared what those td .010 will do.?.. I designed/built an eliptical dihedral (yep inspired by the hobbie hawk which was too expensive for me at the time) v-tail sailplane with an ace stomper shaking the v-tail for rudder only. and put a td .010 on a small pylon over the nose. A bit funny looking but had to turn the prop backwards on the td .010 to keep it from climbing straight up vertical. Man , those engines have the power to weight ratio! That .010 had more power than most .049s (excepting the TD's)

BMatthews

Here's a teaser. Send me a PM with an email addy that'll take a 700K file.