I think he was really proud of the work he did on the Protege. I sure know that feeling. I did the same thing he did back in 1985 when I sold all my stuff. Won't do that again. I did feel a little like the hamburgeler, but I think that was because i was hungry.

Bryan

Will, Bryan, Rick,

thanks for the comments, suggestions and plans. Bryan, regarding the 60 size, that is basically what I was thinking of too. Stretching things out from the rear of F4 and from the front of F3 - makes sense. Thing is, like Rick suggested, messing around with the enlargement is a bit of a shot in the dark without building and testing. I have no reason to doubt that a 58" fuse and a 64" wing make for a good combination but this design is short coupled and the designer, Miller, has strong feelings about that - much like Kimbro has about his design - no messing around with the rudder length for example...

Having said that, Kimbro took plenty of license to fool around with the Deception design and I've seen airfoiled fins in variations like the Double Vision so that's what I plan to do when I get around to putting one together. But I digress.

Rick's re-opening of the Side Pocket subject and Bryan's better quality plans, got me inspired and I finally got some traction on the CAD work. For the time being I'm not messing with it (much...) and just getting the i's dotted and the t's crossed as it were. The fuse plan is fine and straight forward and so far I didn't find any inconsistencies with it although I haven't done a proper cross check of the formers vs the fuse. Where I am running into issues is with the wing ribs not tracking with the planform. Of course, I chose to keep to the planform and adjust the ribs to suit but I'm still working on that part of things.

I like the layout of these plans and the details provided - it makes it an easier job to decompose the plan for laser cutting layout. As soon as I'm done with the wing plan, I'll continue with the layout which so far is just started with some elements of the fuse.

I made some minor modifications to the fuse plan/construction to suit ease of building, lightness and my preferences. These are the changes that come to mind:


Added the cowl/nose section to the fuse top drawing.

Added two pieces of anti-warp cross-grain balsa to the rudder.

Removed some material from the tank top 1/4" block to better accommodate the fuel tank and provide a recess for some foam padding. The material isn't needed where I removed it.

Lightened the fuel tank plate.

Lightened the 1/32" fuse side doublers.

Changed the F3 former from 1/4" ply to 1/8" ply with a 1/8" F3B ply doubler at the bottom where the wing dowels are retained.

the fuel tank plate is supported buy the top of the F3B doubler and remains flush with the bottom or the tank opening in F3.

Placed the tank plate lower in draft in order to accommodate a 12 oz Hayes slim tank. This reduced the amount of space for a potential front retract unit but in the event the builder wants to use retracts, they can adjust the draft of the plate and the size of the tank used.

Added a 1/4" balsa F1B nose ring and fuse side front former replacing the small pieced of 1/4" tristock called for on the plans. This small section of cross grain balsa makes for a stronger front end coupled with the 1/16" ply nose ring.

In view of the current lack of Wing Mfg. Sport canopies, I designed a canopy "backbone" consisting of a 1/16" ply vertical keel which is fully covered with two pieces of 3/32" balsa one on either side. The total 1/4" thickness of this "spine" blends into the 1/4" balsa fuse top dorsal fin section. The spine also keys into a 1/16" temporary ply canopy base with three centerline alignment tabs. White, blue or pink foam is then added to either side and carved/sanded to shape to reproduce the canopy shape. Once the canopy has been shaped, the base can be removed and the canopy glassed for painting. The assembly should be pretty light but I'm considering just using a 1/32" keel as the TE of the canopy can be widened to the 1/4" required with some foam on either side rather than sanding it entirely away.

I may also add a couple of small pieces of cross grain 1/16" balsa on the inside of the fuse sides in the canopy area above the 1/2" tristock for stiffness.

Finally, I'm thinking about drawing up a little section of ply to allow a Sullivan 12 oz RST fuel tank to be front mounted and placed behind the F3 former in the wing saddle area. This locates the tank closer to the CG but might require a fuel pump or a pumped engine. I am thinking of a YS45 for my own model but it might be overkill and might substitute an OS 46 FX. Part of the motivation for moving the tank rearward is due to the comments made Miller in the article regarding the model turning out nose heavy in all cases - not surprising with a shorter fuse and heavy/larger engines that we might be inclined to use.

If the fuel tank is mounted in the saddle area with a pumped engine, the Rx would go behind it on the servo tray while the battery might be located on the fuel tank plate, or, if necessary, behind the servos aft of F4.

I might modify F4 (or have both options cut) to provide support for a couple of Nyrod type pushrods for the elevator and rudder.

Here's the progress on the plans with some minor re-organization of parts. Wing plan in progress. For those interested, I hope to have this finished and cut sooner than later, famous last words..., hopefully not!

'nough said,

David.