mgnostic

I thought I would celebrate the new year by posting some pictures of progress made. I have to admit to being remiss about keeping up with the thread. On the other hand there isn't a lot that is unique about the wing structure. I think I have mentioned before that the wing structure is basically a BUSA Camel wing blown up to the appropriate chord size with the outline and rib placement rearranged to match the Pfalz. This is the first time that all of the major bits built to date have been in close proximity to one another. The long lens on the camera compresses distance and make the shop look more cluttered than it is but it really is beginning to get a little cluttered. Luckily the Stinson in the background has a home to go to. I'm helping a club member with finishing the framing and installing hardware.







I think I'm approaching the 90% done 90% to go point. The wings need their leading edges and hard points for the struts. Although the airplane should fly without them I am also going to have hard points to mount flying wires. The lower wings will get anti-rotation pins which will also set the angle of incidence. When the time comes I will level the fuselage in the work cradle and mark the datum line. Then I can set the angle of incidence on the lower wings. I'm going to make foam board jigs to hold the upper wing in place while I set up the geometry of the wing struts. Most of the structural data on the full sized aircraft involves the DIII. several were captured and evaluated. A lot of the lack luster performance attributed to the DIIIa is actually based on information from the DIII. The DIIIa was a substantial improvement in the DIII and one of the differences was a decreased angle of incidence on the wings. For modeling reasons I am going to use a modest angle of attack. The goal is to mitigate the tendency to climb at higher throttle settings. Given that the Pfalz has a relatively streamlined structure it may be a little speedier that the rotary engined planes.