Originally Posted by
born2build
Hey, Hydro Junkie. How ya doin'? Perhaps you read something in my post that was unintended, even though it was unwritten. I never said you should "beef up" or "over build" an airplane. Light, straight, and strong have always been in the forefront in my building endeavors. I believe you can build strong without any weight penalty by make sure the parts fit accurately and the use the right adhesive for the task at hand. For example, I never use 5-minute epoxy, for anything. Slow-cure epoxy weighs the same but is much stronger. Firewalls, landing gear mounts, wing halves, etcetera all get careful fitting and 30-minute epoxy as I'm sure you'll agree. Stick-built models such as the Sig Kadet Senior or any of the Pat Tritle designs require special attention, of course. Careful sanding and fitting of each part will yield a stronger AND lighter model at the same time. I hope I have clarified myself to your satisfaction. I certainly don't want to mislead a beginning builder into developing bad building habits. Happy landings...Rick.
Trust me, I wasn't cutting down your post, just putting in a word of caution. Many new builders(including me, way back when) don't know the difference since there is a not too fine line between strong and overbuilt. As I said, many times we see a new builder that feels the structure isn't strong enough so they start beefing it up. Over-sizing parts or adding unnecessary fillets were just two examples of things I've seen. Over the years, I've learned many lessons the hard way. My first plane was wrecked before it was even completed due to having to move. Looking back, it might not have survived it's first flight due to the then unknown errors I made in assembling it.