Pete, Tim,
that's right, I was looking at the square "cutout" on the side.
I have the same issue Pete as I have to remember to flip servo trays all the time when cutting them as I draw as if seen from above but the installation is from the bottom.
In the re-draw of the plan, I decided to try working the cowl into the fuse design much along the lines of how your cowl is built up. I extended the narrowing sides (a good thing) to the front of the engine which will bond to a 1/4" balsa former. I'll use 2 x 3/8" balsa side bottoms under the sides and cut to the fuse side view. Both the cowl and "tank" area (now empty except for the battery - probably) will have 3/8" sheet caps on the underside to span the block sides. It should allow for a nice round shape. I also changed the planking region to only span from the wing CG (F3) forward since the slope of the fuse aft of this is linear and can all be treated like a turtle deck. It might have to be sheeted in two sections to account for the fuse side curvature so the wood doesn't deform but I feel it can actually be done in two half side passes. I like to mold over the stringer, mark the centerline on the skin, remove it and cut. I then repeat for the other side. I think I'll also deal with the belly pan in two sections; the front being solid balsa sheets cut to planform laminated and the rear with 3/16" or 1/4" sides with tristock and a 1/8" cap sheet. Things are still moving around but below is where I'm at with the drawing.
I moved the FW forward for long stroke 60 power but after thinking about Hyde mounts with the preceding conversation, I'm considering moving it back again and making my own Hyde mount. Apparently, all it takes is 2 balsa discs, 2 ply discs and some good inner tube, thread and CA. The only question is, how thick are the mounts for a 60-90 size engine? I was thinking of using 1/8" ply discs and 1/4" balsa discs which would result in a mount standoff of a little over 3/4". I would then use a radial Dave Brown mount on the front.
I also changed the incidences of the wing and stab back to zero per Ron' earlier TT's and will add down-thrust to the engine. It would be easy to convert the design to plug-in surfaces but the removable fuse top is not quite as simple. I'd be interested in hearing/seeing how your friend did it Tim.
The RE OPS shown at the moment is just for spacing as this is a long engine. I was thinking of using either a YS 61-S or an OS 61-SF-P allowing a regular tank to be put back over the CG. With the SF-P however, the Hyde mount wouldn't work too well as the rear of the mount is ideally hollow to allow the lines to pass through the FW. I also noticed that if one were to use a pipe, the location would be a little high on the fuse side. One could fix this by simply mounting the engine 30 degrees CCW from vertical which would lower the header output and put the pipe along the fuse side top datum. If it can be put just over the wing, better yet as the pipe would mount to the vertical side rather than the curved deck portion.
Any thoughts or suggestions would be welcome and appreciated.
David
PS Tim, I like how Ron sets up his blocks for wing cutting. He places the top of the root and tip airfoils an equal distance from the top of the block. This basically cuts in the dihedral and allows one to join the panels in the shucks as the roots are flush and perpendicular. Of course, for this to work, one has to flip the templates for the other core so one winds up with a left and right core. I've received cores which were cut with the templates off from the block centerline (just a fraction) and cut as if they were identical. Of course, once the core is flipped, the roots didn't match. In addition, the airfoil wasn't symmetric where it should have been. I couldn't build that wing...