The UPS truck delivered the TriPacer yesterday afternoon. I was busy and did not open it untill this AM. My initial inspection leaves me with the impression that this is going to be a great build. I was suprised to find a very complete harkware kit enclosed. Looks like good quality too. As this is my first Lazer cut kit I was not prepaired for the parts to literaly "Fall" out. I can remember the good ol' days when we broke as many parts getting them out as we did not. This is a fairly big airplane, 72 in span and 55 in loa. While the snap together nature of this kit is very high tech there are some things that are old fashioned . The cowl nose and air scoop must be carved. Not from blocks as in olden times, but from stacked lazer cut balsa and ply. You align the parts and sand off the "burn" marks. Viola! a nose. One thing I really like is that the wing tip bows are made from lite ply and lock to the end rib with a contoured tip spar. This makes the tip very strong and rigid. No warpping while pulling the covering taut over the tip bow. It will also protect the tips from damage when I ground loop the plane. I think any one with any craft skills at all could build this as first kit. It is very straight forward and requires little or no intuitive modelling input. It will be a few days befor I can get it started, but I will shoot some photos as I go along. Ken, at Mosqutobite tells me I should be able to build the fuselage in 2 hours. We will see. If this kit sounds like something you would like to try, you can download the assembly manual direct from their site.

Rodger, Like you, I received my Tri-Pacer kit last week and am very pleased with the over all quality. It will be a few weeks before I can start building but I think it will be a fun build and I'm really looking forward to it. I'm kicking around the idea of making mine an electric but nothing definite because I have no electric experience. How are you planning to power yours? If I don't go the electric route, I will use a Four Stroke for sure. I will be watching for your photos........RS

hey.. where can I order this kit at ?

The kit can be ordered from the manufacturer directly. Try www.mosqitobiteplanes.com . The price is $219.00 CN and UPS to the lower 48 is less than $20. That converts to about 165 US$ depending on the exchange rate on the day it posts to your credit card. I think it is a pretty good deal in todays kit market.

http://www.mosquitobiteplanes.com

try this link

Are you guys building the trike or tail-dragger versions? From the website pics, it sure is beautiful. I love the idea of a removeable radio compartment.

Last night I got started by doing some subassembly work. There are a number of parts that have to be glued up befor the actual construction starts. Nothing to it really, all the parts to be assembled are shown on the plans in quarter scale and they are all labeled.

I had planned to build the wing first but when I broke out the parts I found that one of the ply ribs had fallen out of the cut sheet. Unfortunately it fell out in Canada and was not in the box. Before I turned in last nite I shot a quick Email to Mosquitobite. I had an answer this morning. The real suprise was that Ken called me this afternoon to make sure we were talking about the same part. He said he was sending two ribs so they would be a matched pair. How cool is that?
So now we start the Fuselage.
As you can see, this plane is not built "over the plans" all you need is a flat spot. I use a 2 foot square high density fiber board. The stuff used for counter top underlayment. Cover it with something that CA won't stick to, like wax paper. They call their system FastFit and it really is. If I had a faster drying wood glue I would have completed the major assembly in about 2 hours. It took 4 hours because I use Tite Bond and like to give the glue plenty of time set up. The fuselge in built up mostly dry. Glue is only applied to tack the tabs once the parts are aligned. Pay close attention to the instrctions and it's a snap. One caution though, while the balsa in this kit is very good I did find it somewhat soft in a couple of instances. This Airplane is very light for it's size so some of the formers will seem filmsy Once they are glued in they lock into the structure. I got a litte heavy handed and broke a tab off one of them. Remember, This setup fits very, very well. Do not force anything. If something does not want to fit it is more than likely your fault.
I will add the internal braces and stiffeners tomorrow, sheet the forward section, and begin on the gear.

I have some more fotos so I will see how this comes out and post the rest after dinner.

A/Pnuts, I am going with the trike setup. I am looking around for the right sized nose strut for a more scale look. There are a few available but I don't know if they are worth the bucks. I am not that fanatical about scale when it takes 100 bucks for a fixed strut.
You could convert this to conventional gear. Piper just turned the gear around on a Vagabond/Pacer to get the trike. You would have to add a block or ply sheet the rear to mount a tail wheel. The plans show a tail dragger mod and there may be a tailwheel mount in the kit. I have not looked for it because there was never any question as to gear chioce.

As to a removable Radio Compartment, it could be removable with a little inginuity. The plans show a box that contains the servo tray battery and Rcvr that is glued in. I talked to the factory about it and several suggestions were talked about. It is a neat set up, and with a little thought you can make it pretty nearly "removeable" Down load the manual from Mosquitobite and you will see what I mean.

I just got back from dinner so I will add comments to the photos in my last post. I am not yet compleatly confidant with this upload process so we will take it slow.

The photos obviously loaded out of sequence but they dont need a lot of commentary. The first shot is of the nearly completed fuselage structure. As you can see there are no sticks. The tube structure is simulated by using sheets at various elevations rather than the sticks often used for fabric airframes. This goes together very quickly after the forward section is setup. As I said in the prior post most of the glue goes on at this stage.

Second Shot: What can I say? Parts! Not that many for a unit of this size.
Third Shot: This is about 20 min. into construction. Both sidwalls have been tacked to the formers and the floor plates are going in.
Forth Shot: The wing bolts go thru a ply doubler block right behind the windshield. I used Titebond and clamped it after aligning the bolt holes.
By the way, to give you an idea of size, the ruler in some of the shots is 15 inches.

New Shots. The first is the tail feathers after the joining operation. They are cut from 1/16 sheet and then sheeted cross grain again with 1/16. The rudder,vert stab and elevators are each made from 2 pieces and the horizontal stab comes in 3 parts. The Ply wing tip bow is to the right of the fin/rudder assy.

The last shot is the stack of 1/4" parts that become the nose. Each has a 1/4 square indexing hole so you can stack them on a 1/4" stick. once stacked they are self aligning. CA the stack and start sanding. Each part is cut so that when you sand off the lazer char (black line) you have the correct contour. Lots better than the 4"x3" balsa block of yesteryear.


More later.

RussMall, I am the wrong guy to ask when it comes to E-Power. Go for it. The factory is waiting for someone to electrify one. They think it is a good candidate because it is so lightly loaded. Sneak around in the Electric forum, they fly some big planes too. I have not decided which engine I will use. The factory demo uses a MVVS 61 but they have proto-types powered by 46's and 4 stroke 90's. I will most likley go with a 2 stroke 56 or a 61. OS or thunder tiger. I wanted to use an RCV 91 but they get so darn much money for them. By the way, the 4 stroke in the build manual is an 80.

Its sunday night and I got some work in on the TriPacer over the weekend. So far I have skinned all of the tail feathers, built up the flaps and ailerons, and added all the internal braces to the fuselage. With the tail on it really is starting to look like a triPacer.

More photos. I should finish up the furelage details tomorrow and start building some wings this next week. So far this thing is a snap to build.
If anyone else is building another TriPacer feel free to jump in. Any input or suggestions will be welcome. After all, as Red Green says, "We are all in this together"

Last nite I sheeted the nose . Did it just as shown in the instructions, 1 piece on each side with a triangle in the middle. Used a spritz of water and amonia, let it set a few min. and bent it down. Thats the easist sheetig job I have ever done. Glued down some 3/8 and 1/4 sq sticks to the bottom of the fuselage and let them dry over nite. sanded the contour this AM. The gear goes in just aft of the faired area. Built up a box of 3/8 sq sticks on the firewall per the instructionsand set it aside. Dru fit the firewall/engine box/nosegear assembly as you see it. It gets glued in once the engine is set. The arms protruding from the firewall are to hold the cowl nose block. That gets started after supper.

I'm also building a Mosquitobiteplanes Tri-Pacer. Just about done buiding it. Just have to complete the covering and install the flight pack, fuel tank and engine. Oh yeah, and install the second strut.

This kit is a dream to build. Most of it was completed in about 7 days. I couldn't stop building once I started. The instructions are very complete and clear. Anything you're not sure of when reading the instructions is quickly apperent when you look over the two roled plan sheets.

The wing went together very quickly and is nice and straight, but then again this didn't really surprise me since I'd already built one of their T-Rex's this spring. They've used the same style of wing construction, complete with clamping the main spar root in a vice and hanging the spar extensions and ribs off of that.

To make sure the wing was straight, I once again used a laser line generator sitting on one end of the main spar and aimed it along the spar toward the other wing tip. Once again a perfectly straight wing!

I should add that I used CA glue for pretty much all of the kit except for where the manufacturer specified otherwise in the instructions. This made assemble very quick, but watch those fumes!

I developed a little trick for gluing hinges with CA glue. After destroying a hinge when a little CA wicked into the hinge and bonded the hinge and cotter pin together, I had to spend 3 hours carefully removing the bad hinge. From that point on I took appart all hinges and using a foamy brush, filled the hinge with grease so that even if the CA crept that far, there was no chance it would bond the joint together. This worked beautifully and left me with smooth, free operating hinges.

I notice that you used wood glue for your construction. Good for you. If I were a little more patient, I'd use it myself. I used to, and I have to admit that wood glue gives a much longer lasting bond then CA. I've never had a plane come apart using CA, but you can hear the joints creaking much more than with wood glue.

Hard not to enjoy using CA though. It's so fast, and lets you move on the the next component right away. Maybe next kit I'll pull out the wood glue again...

Once the elevator was installed I noticed that in it's rest position, it likes to drop. I drilled holes into the leading edge of the elevatore and inserted lead plumber's solder pieces to ballance the elevator. Now it rests in the neutral position.

MegaMang, thanks for joining in. You must have been one of the first guys to get the kit. I know what you mean by not wanting to quit when you start. This thing is a lot of fun. This is the first kit that I have built in a dozen years. I forgot how much fun CA is to get off your fingers! The titebond sets up fairly quickly but I like to leave it overnight to ensure a good bond. It is stronger than balsa by a lot.Are you going to use dacron or film on yours? I perfer the more authintic look of dacron. Plus I just love to seal, fill, sand,fill, mask,paint,mask,paint,mask,pai.............. What is your choice for power?

Worked a little after dinner. Stacked and sanded the nose piece and scoop. Total time for that was one hour. The "sand to the marks" system works great. Got the gear wires installed and bent and soldered the joiner wires. Got to run into town tomorrow and get some 22 ga. bare wire. I just finished building this house and there is not one inch of it here. Too bad Icant' use 12 ga. I've got lots of that.
Still waitig for the Canadian post to deliver my ribs. Want to start that wing.

wascamp, I probably was one of the first to get the kit. Being in Canada myself of course, I don't have the lag of going through customs and whatnot. Our mail system doesn't need to worry about some kind of terrorist threat hidden in a package within the country.

Too bad your ribs haven't arrived. Being small, maybe they'll make it through the border quickly. Here's hoping at any rate. You are going to love building the wing. Such a great and accurate wing.

I'm covering mine in Ultracote. I covered the T-Rex in Ultracote and got good results, so going for it again.

I was tempted to sand, fill, sand, paint myself, and may yet do that for the nose and air/oil scoop. Haven't quite decided yet. I'm covering it with a pearl white, then designing a graphic for the topside using pearl charcoal and metallic burgundy. My design will be far from traditional, but will hopefully still look OK. I'm not trying to make it look like a scale plane. Instead I'll just make it look splashy. Maybe someday down the road if I feel extra rich I'll build this one again and make it a tail dragger, then make it a whole lot more scale looking with a new graphic that looks like it could have been authentic... Maybe...

I haven't tried dacron yet. Been meaning to, but just haven't done it yet. I know what you mean about the authentic look of it though. It'll look great I'm sure.

On the issue of 22 ga wire... My father who is a model builder of some 30 odd years, likes to use lamp-cord to wind around and solder. He says he finds it much easier to work with. Just strip a 1 foot length of it or so and take the twist out of it and wrap around the undercarriage wires. I think I'll try that myself next time. I looked at a couple of his examples and they did come out much neater than mine.

I'm planning on using an MDS .58 two stroke for powering this. The only problem I have so far is locating a Pitts muffler to route the exhaust nicely. The only real hitch I can foresee is the carb. It sits quite close to the thrust washer so I'll have to carve out a little more nose cone then I'd prefer for the needle valve assembly. I'm kind of hoping that I could somehow order from them, or someone, a remote needle valve. I know that their .68 and up have remote needle valves, but I don't know if that'd work on the .58... Anyone else have any ideas on that issue?

Wascamp,

Nice job on the nose cone and air scoop. Your air scoop turned out nicer than mine. Think I'll put in a little more time on making the airscoop smoother. I'm thinking I'll fill both of them and sand again. I started covering the nose cone with Ultracote (not an easy job with all that curve!) and notice the laminations through the covering, so here goes that sanding and filling thing you were talking about!

Here are a couple of pictures of the wing when it was in progress. Sorry for the quality of the pictures, I don't own a digital camera as yet, so used the picture function on my cell phone. Not too clear.

If you look hard enough you'll see the laser line generator on the wing shining down the main spar.

Since I have to rely on the kindness of friends for good digital shots I am at their mercy and also ended up with this cockpit view of myself!

MegaMang, I have got to ask you, how did you find working withe the flat sheet for the cowl? I have never hat much luck getting that sort of thing to work. It looks like a guy could realy ball it up. I alwas approach this sort of thing with a little apprehension, ever though they usually work out. You know that tip from your dad got me to thinking. I have some telephone wire that I used to hook up all the phone jacks here, I bet it would work. I'll have to go down to the store room and dig around for it. One thing I plan to do is cover the landing gear strut fairings in very light fiberglas and poly. I think that will be tougher than film or fabric. I can't wait to start the wing as it is the last big thing to build.

As to your nose and scoop: filling is a necessity. I use wood filler that comes in a tube. It sands pretty well and dries in about 20 min. It also takes sealers like poly and shellack. I won't say that is fuelproof, but if you seal befor covering it works fine. Some guys use lite spackle. The waterproff stuf is best. I will use that to fix any dings in the fuselage prior to cover. Tell me, was the sheet of 1/8 balsa in your kit a little on the hard side. Mine was like teak. I had to razor saw it to cut cross grain. Thank heaven for the water/amonia trick.

I have an idea to use on this plane to simulate the doors. If you have seen a Tripacer up close or seen good photos you will note that the doors look as if they were added as an afterthought. They are sort of covering a hole rather than filling one. Well the idea is that I will cut the doors out of card stock or very thin abs, cover them and glue them on over the fuselage. Really, they look very crude on the real thing. The Tripe was not the cleanest airplane ever built. In fact it was so draggy that if you cut the power and dropped the flaps it would beat a brick to the ground.

Wascamp,

I love it! "Beat a brick to the ground!"

The flat ABS for the nose cone worked beautifuly. The only real hard part was lining it up so that it was centered before wrapping down to install the side screws. I just taped it along the trailing edge at the top and wrapped the sides down averaging the amount showing on each side so that it was ballanced, then installed the two screws. Admittedly this required lifting the tape a few times to reset it in a new position before it was in the right place. Flip the plane over and bring the two tangs together on top of the cowl block, presto!

The real beauty was the windshield. If you use the template it's a perfect fit. Once it's installed you won't believe how easy it was and how good it looks for a flat piece of plastic!

I've seen five or six tripe photos that show what you mean about the doors. I look forward to seing your modification.

Re the phone line... are you talking about single strand or multi-strand? The single strand will probably work. The thing I liked about the lamp-cord was that the wire strands are quite fine, but there are so many that it's very strong. Because they are fine strands you can flatten them down nicely for a really smooth finish.

I've actually got some filler with micro-baloons in it to keep it nice and light. I've been meaning to try it out, but have been too impatient to wait for it to dry properly. Now that I'm committed to filling, I'll wait the time and do it right.

The 1/8 balsa in my kit was pretty good. Like all sheet stock it had some harder spots in it, but nothing too hard. I use a small hobby saw for cross grain cutting. I find I get less end grain break out that way.

MegaMang
That's great to hear about the cowl and the windshield. I built a sig Kadet a few years back and the W/S was a real pain. The telephone wire is about 28 ga. solid. It worked pretty good. I had to go to town anyway because I needed some flux.
Its funny that you mention micro balloons. Thats to high tech for me. I have all this wood filler left over from trimming out the house that it never occured to me to get "modlling filler" I must have 5 or 6 different types of wood filler here. Say, has a picture of your T-rex been on the net. There is one built in Canada that has maple leaf motif that is beautyfull. Is that one yours?

Wascamp,

Glad you liked the Canada Leaf motif. You guessed it right, that is my plane. It flies very nicely. No complaints about that kit. Just had to try the Tri-Pacer after that kit.

What do you think of the building instructions so far?

Wascamp,

Did I see in another posts that you were building a garage, so you wouldn't be building this kit until December? Couldn't wait?!