marko509

This was the reasoning behind him using the FM wing on the Paris White fuse... "My reason for substituting the "Flying Models" wing for the Paris White wing was that the ribs are shown more clearly and full size on the FM plans and not Paris' plans; thereby, making construction a little easier." "As to the slight difference in the wingspan, I do not recall this being a problem at all. If there was a difference in the center wing chord, it surely was very slight. It is possible that I had to slightly "cut and fit" the wing mounting area on the fuselage."

I agree with him to a point- I would much rather cut out each individual rib than block sand a stack of the to shape.

I have not received the plan yet in snail mail, so I can't comment at all about the FM fuse. I have a smaller plastic model (not sure what scale, ws is about 12") and I agree with you- not only are the sides flattened out (as compared to the Paris White plan) but so are the top and bottom. It is too bad, as I have all of the fuse formers cut out already! I'm not sure how to trim away at all of the formers in a scale method and get them to turn out. I will probably leave them alone.

"By the way, I just remembered that my K&B .61 powered DC-3 was very nose heavy. It required about 8 oz. of lead in the tail to balance. The use of your .46's may just about eliminate the nose heavy problem." Doesn't sound like I need to worry about the tail being heavy, as long as I use common sense construction. It is good to know, as now I can consider mounting the elevator/rudder servos in the tail and avoid long sloppy linkages.

While it may be awkward to build and utilize the jig to build a straight fuse, it shouldn't be too difficult. I've used methods much like this in various areas of home construction, with excellent results. Did you sheet/plank the side of the plane 2" down the centerline of the fuse before removing the half-completed side (as the plans specify)? I might even consider temporarily fastening diagonal braces on the insides of the formers to help hold the shape- I can always remove them when I have the other side completed.

Osman, I would love to see that washout file you have, but it will need to be done as a .pdf file- I do not have autocad. I believe that in the instruction manual for the Top Flite DC-3 it instructs you to place a piece of wood under the trailing edge of the outer wing to build-in the washout. I'm pretty sure that they specify the actual size of the block of wood- wouldn't I be able to scale that block up to the scale of the Paris White (or FM) wing?