Looks fantastic Manolo! You did it right. Now you don't have to worry about snapping off the bottom wing incase your wing tip catches on the grass or pavement. My wife and I put what you wrote in a web translator and I thank you for the kind words.
I used to cut my strips or trim tape by hand like you are doing. It works well but then a friend of mine suggested that I purchase a SmartStripe by GreatPlanes:
http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...P?I=LXHZ33&P=8
I bought one and gave it a try and I was highly impressed how it worked! The only draw back is you have to keep replacing your #11 X-acto blades in it. It's good for cutting 4-6 strips of trim tape before you need to replace the blade with a new one. What happens is the blade starts to become dull, then the strips become jagged edged. Not good, so I'll cut about 5 strips of Mono, Ultra or Solartex then I'll replace the blade with a new one just to be safe.
I used the SmartStripe for cutting the Solartex strips and it cut (pardon the pun) my time in half. Also it cut my strips in perfect width measurements every time. Just thought I'd give you a tip that might make your work a little easier, give it a try one day and let me know what you think. Again I'll keep peeking at your GreatPlanes Fokker DR1 build and if you have any more question feel free to ask.
Keep an eye on the stock landing gear when you fly your plane. It has been reported to be a little weak and the solder tends to break making the landing gear wing swing freely in the breeze. (Not Good) Mine was broken when I bought mine and instead of repairing and using the same old stock landing gear, I bought this:
http://www.horizonhobby.com/Products...ProdID=HAN4685
I had to modify a few things to make it fit, but it's longer than the stock gear and all I had to do is widen the landing gear grooves in the fuse, and drill the holes so the Hanger 9 gear would fit in place. I had to bend the wire a little in a vice, but it worked out OK. On my maiden flight the landing was a little rough and it held up even though I snapped a few rubber O-rings, but that saved my axle from becoming bent which is a good thing IMO.
The stock landing gear doesn't have a very good shock system, that's why I think GreatPlanes had redesigned the landing gear after the complaints started to pour in, but even after they upgraded the landing gear, it wasn't enough in my opinion. What I like about the Hanger 9 legs are they have a bungee style shock absorber system that is very helpfull for those bad landings. You can either use the rubber o-rings (That can be purchased at Horizon Hobby)or use cloth hair ties like the ones that women use for their hair.
Last but not least most important thing I must add, don't use CA hinges for your rudder! GreatPlanes failed to do a reprint of the directions or do a Tech Notice! Many people have followed the directions and used CA hinges only to find that they had a major flutter problem in the rudder. It became worse when they flew the Fokker at high speed! Reports came in that people started losing their rudders resulting in a crash! Matter in fact Sport_Pilot wrote about it in my build thread:
ORIGINAL: Oberst
ORIGINAL: Sport_Pilot
I need to rebuild the one pictured in my avatar. It spun in when the rudder tore off. A factory defect, but I don't recall what the problem was. I have the worst part, the front half rebuilt, but stopped working it a year or so before kids went to college.
If you used CA hinges for your rudder- like it said in the directions, then it would eventually fail due to stresses put on the rudder over time. It's not your fault- and what I've read, it was quite common. I read that the plane didn't like to be flown at a high rate of speed either, the massive rudder had a bad tendency to flutter when the CA hinges were used.
I blame Great Planes for not updating the ARF and directions by adding 2 or 3 nylon hinges for the rudder. Hanger 9 and Seagull Models seem to a better job in the upgrade department from my experience.
The original owner who built mine put in 3 Du-bro Hinges on top of each other and epoxied them in.
I did a little more work on the wings, I took some measurements and studied a few pictures of Jacobs 3rd plane and cut out my white crosses out of Solartex. It doesn't take much heat to attach Solartex on Solartex. It's really starting to look good!
Next I'll be cutting out my rib tape in a few days, more pic's to come!
Pete
So please, the best tip I can give anyone building this aircraft- I ask that everyone uses 3 Standard Dubro Nylon Hinges instead of CA hinges for the rudder.
http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXD941
Take care Manolo, I hope you can have someone film your maiden. I'll be silently cheering you on- but since I am superstitious, I don't dare wish you anything even though I want to. I hope that made sense?
Pete