12' Laser-cut Telemaster Kit Build
I have been a fan of the Telemaster for over 25 years, having had 3 of them. The most recent Telemaster is a 40 size kit that I built in 2008. While it looks a little ratty these days, this airplane is still going strong with hundreds of flights on it. When Hobby Lobby introduced the new 12' Laser-cut Telemaster last fall Ithought that this planewould be a worthy successor to the40 size plane in the hanger. A recent sale on the Hobby Lobby website made the decision to acquire the kit easy.Searching on the internet revealed little aboutthis kit, so I thought that I would share my building experiencesin the form of a building log.
The mission profile for this airplane is fun flying with the ability to haul cargo or a camerain the bomb bay and perhaps tow gliders. While aDLE 55 or similar engine is probably ample power for this plane (one of the prototypes was powered by an OS55 gas engine) I wanted a little bit more zipgiven the glider towingsegment of the mission profile.DLE's new DLE85 looked like it would fit the bill, and somecalculationssuggested that with a 26x8 prop it would hover at 40% power, even given the slight weight penalty of this engine relative to a DLE55 with Pitts muffler.All-up weight is targeted at around 32 lbs. My 40 size Telemaster is not hardcore acrobatic, but it has its tricks, like flying backwards in a slight headwind with full crow.The DLE 85 on the 12 footer will only add to the fun. Hobby Lobby advertises that the airframe of the new12' kit isa lotstronger compared to the previous edition of the kit,so I'm not concerned with overpowering the airplane.
Anyways - to the build!
About a week ago FedEx dropped off a rather large and heavy box (35lbs) at the front door. Opening the box revealed a ton of laser-cut balsa and ply, some sheet material and sticks, anda rather large aluminum landing gear. A hardware packwas also included, along with 4 sheets of full-size plans. The vast majority of the parts are laser-cut, and there areover 600 parts on 85 laser-cut sheets.The laser-cutting is outstanding, and some of the bestI've seen in a kit.The hardware pack is comprehensive, requiring that you supply the regular items like wheels, fuel tank and control linkages. Attached are a couple of pictures...
In this post I'm generally going to follow the construction sequence givenin the manual. There are also some unique construction methods used, and I'll detail those as I go.Construction starts with the horizontal stab, and the next post will begin with that.
Enjoy!