Once again I'm sitting at an airport with time to kill, so I'll get some more of this written up as I wait. I'm headed home after visiting the Weak Signals show in Toledo yesterday. I've only got two words to say about the show, “HOLY COW!!!!” It was incredible. I've never seen so much RC stuff in one place at one time. I'll be going back next year for sure. If you ever get a chance to attend the show I high recommend going. Not only is it a great place to pick up some great bargains, it's also fantastic for seeing all the new products coming out for the upcoming flying season. There was one that caught my eye that I can guarantee will be in my hanger this year. Top Flight (a.k.a. Hobbico) is coming out with an ARF version of the Beechcraft Staggerwing Biplane. One very gorgeous plane IMHO. The plane will have a fiberglass fuselage and it's sized for a 160 size glow motor. The reps at the booth told me that it's going to cost in the range of $475-$500. I did notice that there was always a huge crowd around it during the show!! [link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_4138579/tm.htm]Check out RCU's coverage of Weak Signals 2006[/link]

Continuing on with the build let's finish up with the wing now that we have the aileron servo and hardware installed. The last thing to do with the wing will be to get it's mounts installed. We're not going to check that the wing is square with the fuselage at this point, but rather we'll check it after we have the covering installed. This is a little bit different from almost all other planes where the wing will be squared on the fuselage and wing bolts installed to hold the wing on. But since this plane uses rubber bands to secure the wing on there is no fixed point of reference for mounting the wing like there is on most other planes. So what I prefer to do in cases like this after the plane is covered I will determine where the wing should be mounted and then I'll make reference marks so that the wing can be lined up correctly every time we fly.

The wing is held on by rubber bands that are hooked to two dowel rods, one mounted at the leading edge of the wind and one at the trailing edge. We need to go ahead and glue in these rods now. Before gluing them in place make sure that they are centered on the fuselage, with the same amount of the rod extending from the fuselage on both sides (pictures #1 and #2). Once you have the mounting location determined go ahead and glue them in place. Some will tell you that you need to use epoxy to glue these dowels in but I consider that overkill. Wood glue or CA will hold fine here. Pictures #3 and #4 show the dowels in glued in place. As I said above, we'll determine the exact location of the wing after we cover the plane, but for now we will mount it so that it's square with the fuselage. Mark the centerline of the fuselage at both the leading and trailing edges of the wing, and set the wing on the fuselage with the center of the wing aligned with those marks (pictures #5, #6, and #7). Picture #8 shows where we are at on the build so far.

In pictures #9 and #10 I am using rubber bands to hold on the wing while I work. In the pictures I am using only 4 rubber bands to hold on the wing. But I do want to point out that you should never try to fly like that. When you are going to fly you need to make sure that you have 12 good rubber bands holding the wing in place. What I like to do when I mount wing is use 8 rubber bands that are hooked on the front dowel and extended back to the rear dowel on the same side of the fuselage. Make sure that you have the same amount of bands on both sides of the fuselage. And then I like to cross the last bands across the fuse, this should be the 4 remaining bands. By crossing the last bands it will help keep the first rubber bands from coming off of the dowels.

One final note, since these dowels are outside of the fuselage you will need to seal them so that fuel and exhaust reside will not soak into the dowels and weaken them. I used a little bit of thinned epoxy to seal them up.


Pictures
1. Measure the distance of the dowel extending from the side of the fuselage. Ensure that it's the same on both sides.
2. Measure the distance of the dowel extending from the side of the fuselage. Ensure that it's the same on both sides.
3. Rear wing dowel glued in place.
4. Front wing dowel glued in place.
5. For now center the wing on the fuselage
6. For now center the wing on the fuselage
7. For now center the wing on the fuselage
8. Plane “in the bones” is starting to look like an airplane.
9. Temporarily secure the wing with rubber bands to hold it in place as we work
10. Temporarily secure the wing with rubber bands to hold it in place as we work


Until next time

Ken