ORIGINAL: ChiefK
David,
I just started putting the pieces together and have a few questions.... and requesting your thoughts about....
1/8" fuselage sides are butt glued to splice forward and aft sections. - only 1/16 balsa doubler in wing bay to reinforce that. Wing bolt blocks are also just glued to balsa sides. I'm thinking 1/16" ply would be better.
Yes, not a bad idea. The fuse is very light per design. I don't think you need to go to 1/16" ply but 1/32" ply stretched into the FW area would do nicely. Wing bolt blocks could be reinforced by adding a piece of ply in between and glassing the whole affair before installing. Beefy triangle stock underneath. With ply doublers you should have no issues of the wing pulling off.
1/4" ply firewall/engine mount bulkhead is directly glued to the 1/8" balsa fuselage sides. No ply reinforcement is indicated. I'm thinking, why not just extend the 1/16 ply from the wing bay into the fuel tank area up to the firewall. (I plan to have a strong OS .55AX up front).
Sure thing. I guess there is also a fair amount of triangle stock in this area which you could reinforce with glass in the tank area. Make sure you do this before gluing on the bottom and angular side blocks.
Decided to 1/16" sheet the stabilizer.... so now it's 3/8" thick instead of 1/4" thick.
Excellent.
Main gear ply rib doublers were not even close to the right shape/size. Remaking from rib tracings.
Had to do the same.
I was thinking a 12 oz fuel tank would be good. Fits, but no room for foam. Thinking either a smaller tank or widen the fuselage a little.
I would go for a round 12 oz Sullivan mounted directly to the FW without needing to mod the fuse. This also simplifies considerably the plumbing process and provides for a nice foam cradle all around. In fact, with a round tank, it won't even touch the fuse except at the mount point (check 8178's threads for this technique if necessary). Frame up engine mount, tank and engine on plans before building fuse to insure it'll work once built. I'd also make sure there's enough length for the 55AX with the FW and nose ring placed as per plans.
No engine thrust adjustments indicated on the plans. Do you agree that 0-0 is right?
0-0 is what I assumed given plans but I ended up dropping the nose about 1 degree when installing the engine (we'll see about side thrust). Make sure you have enough clearance (~1/8 inch) at the nose ring to make any adjustments you deem necessary post maiden.
Probably more issues later, but those are good for starters.
ChiefK
If I were to rebuild, I would also change the way the F2 former (behind the tank) is built probably using 3-ply laminated 1/16" balsa cross-grained capped with 1/32" ply (or maybe just a 1/4" former) cut out to fit the round tank. Nothing else needs to pass through F2 except the throttle pushrod.
I would also add a half section former somewhere in the radio compartment probably where the stringer is shown to provide more rigidity in this area. Ply doublers might void the need for this though.
Make sure you drill out the F2 ply section for the wing dowels, per plans,
before building the fuse and mount your wing before finishing the front section. It'll be much easier this way to get the wing installed and square.
Finally, I would add at least one if not two more formers to the turtle deck to support the 1/16" sheeting as it tends to crack post sanding in between formers.
I found the fuse the most labour intensive aspect of the build. Plenty of sanding.
I hope this helps,
David.