Originally Posted by
Gryphus31
Indeed. This thread is a wealth of information about this plane. Unfortunately I just discovered it yesterday. And I bought my engine 4 months ago already, when I came back to construction.
Gray Beard, you were talking about reinforcing the front of the airframe. Could you be more specific?
What I already did is put triangular balsa rods on all joints, as well as add an extra layer of wood to the firewall. I also covered the whole firewall and surrounding areas with epoxy.
What are your extra suggestions?
the weak spot on this plane is the fuse just in front of the wings leading edge. They used very thin ply for the doubler. The design was fine when used with a nice .60 or .90 glow engine but if you notice, most people started using the heavy 1.20 four strokes or the 20cc gas engines. The downward force of landings can snap the nose right off at this point. That's the voice of experience talking. Of course mine is very old and I'm sure there was some oil soaking into the Wood? Just look at it and give it some thought. After building a number of this kit I simply started cutting new doublers from 1/8 aircraft ply. Just an easy fix.