mimoore67

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Hello All!

Just thought I would throw up a little post and possibly turn it into a assembly post for Global's Super Decathlon.

As with any ARF's I build, I always modify and improve or what I think is an improvement, either structually or cosmetically.

Landing Gear - After reading some reviews on how the gear was week and after inspecting my, I decided to have the boys at www.tntlandinggear.com make me up a new one. This new gear is stiffer and we tried to make it more scale in apperance, by removing the triangular shape. Real Citabrias and Super Decathlons have a straight or rectangular shape. So if your interested, contact the guys at T-n-T, the link is above

Servo Hatch/Plate - After looking at the instructions and begining to assembling the aileron servo mounts, I decided to toss the "hard wood" blocks, supplied in the kit. Using hard maple from the hobby store. I cut (4) blocks to 3/8" by 7/8", this is a little larger than stock and allows me to move the servo a little futher off the hatch mount. One additional think I did was drill a small hole in the plate, where the hard wood block will go. After gluing up the block, I then drilled through the whole and inserted a #2 button head screw to act as a pin for extra strengh. I don't like just having one glue joint to hold on your mounting blocks I'll up load some pictures latter to hopefully illustrated this.

Next - CA Hinging

sj3cub

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Lets see some pics of the TNT gear. I may be interested if they are more scale looking.

Scott

mimoore67

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Hey, Scott I wish I could, but Southern Michigan and Northern Ohio, got slammed with snow yesterday, so I wasn't able to get down to Toledo. Hopefully I can stop by on Monday and get it picked up. I'll definately post some pictures as soon as I can get it.

CA Hinges - We'll I gave these type of hinges a try, for the first time. After much research and asking around, I installed the hinges, per an article found here on RCU (see link). The best idea of this article was to trim away some of the covering around the hinge slot and to drill a small hole in the middle of the hinge slot. I usded a .090 drill to make this whole to allow the CA to wick throughout the whole hinge.

http://www.rcuniverse.com/magazine/a...?article_id=55

The Only thing I did wrong, was us to much CA on one hinge and had some run onto the wing surface, but I think I can get off with some debonder! Anyone got any suggestions on how to remove excess CA

sj3cub

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Debonder will work, but the faster you get it off the better off you will be. If it has already hardened it will take alot of rubbing and elbow grease to get it all off but it wll come off.don't let any run down into the hinge,then use windex to clean off the excess
residue. Yes, please post pics of the gear as soon as you get it. THANKS!

Scott

mimoore67

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New Scale Gear from T-n-T Landing Gear www.tntlandinggear.com

Picked up the gear and this is what it looks like.

mimoore67

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Tonight's building session, I was able to remove some of the excess CA, that I managed to get on my wing from hinging the ailerons.

Also, I secured the aileron servo hatches to the wing. In the first picture you'll notice the black inserts, where the #2 button head screws will thread into. These are Ohio Super Stars "Thread Inserts. They are extremely hard plastic that you drill a predetermined hole, based on the size of screw and then CA them in place. I like to use them in areas that are made out of soft wood, like ailerons, elevators and rudders. They take the place of putting in a piece of plywood to mount your horns.

I like to use the button head screws, because I think they look nicer. But what a pain, they can be if you don't have a quality allen head wrench. Anyone out there know where I can get a #2 and #4 button head driver??????

IronCross

Your gear looks nice.. I assume the wheel pants fit the new gear OK ?.. Even appears to be the same thickness as the stock gear.

mimoore67

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Gear - Yes everthing will mount up fine. We just made out of a little thicker, better aluminum. I held up a wheelpant yesterday and we'll have no problems. From the picture you see that we still have the width where it mounts with the four blind nuts, so fore and aft stress will be okay. Also, notice that it's just a hair wider, than the fuselage, for a more scale look.

mimoore67

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Mounting The Engine-Magnum XL-61RFS

I think mounting engines is the hardest thing, so I’m going to be a little long winded, which I hope helps someone out there.

The first thing you have to do before you can mount the engine is cut open the holes for air inlets. I used a piece of plywood with 80-grit paper and the some small files.

I hate mounting engines, or more that I’m afraid to do it by myself. However my RC, mentor over the last 10 plus years has taught me well and I’m going to try this one myself. I’m a perfectionist when comes to certain things on RC airplanes. I can’t stand to look at airplanes with huge gaps between the spinner back plate and the cowl. I’ve always scheduled time with my mentor for extra hand, but now that I have 19-month child, it’s harder to find the time. My child comes first, RC a distant 3rd. Wife would be 2nd.

Okay, so today during naptime, I dug out an old Klett engine mount. After reading the manual and then taking some measurements. I determined that my particular Global Super Decathlon has 4-½� from firewall to the front of the cowl. I’m going to shoot for a 1/16th gap on the spinner back plate. According to the manual, they suggest 4 ¾�. This would leave ¼� gap, this is the equivalent of having a missing tooth, when you smile.

Now, I said my confidence on setting up engines is lacking. But after thinking about, a small clamp and doing one side of the mount at a time should be very easy to align the two mounts. I used a small clamp and eventually got the engine position a hair over 4- 9/16th for a 1/16th gap. So will see how it all comes out when it all said and done. I used a .136th drill bit to mark the mount, by twisting the bit through holes on the engine’s crankcase. I then used an awl to make an indentation on the mount and then drilled the holes on a drill press to make sure we get a strait whole. This seemed to work! Yeah!!! For the other side, I bolted the engine to mount that I just drilled and placed on my workbench. I then used some #6 screws to attach the mount to my table. This allowed me to accurately align the other engine mount and scribe the holes.

mimoore67

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Back to cutting on the Cowl!
I put the engine inside of the cowling to try and get an idea of where to cut the opening for the cylinder. After several hundred fittings, I got it right. Here’s what it looks like.

mimoore67

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Mounting the Cowl
I had to break down and call for help when it came time to mount the engine. I was trying to position the engine first and have that determine where to mount the cowl. I called my RC mentor and drove down to his house today to mount the engine. He’s preferred method for engine mounting is to position the cowling, and making sure it looks right, as far as square if any stripes are lined up. I used the #4 Threaded Inserts by Ohio Super Stars to secure the cowl. These plastic inserts, give you a solid and hard surface to secure and tighten down screws. (See picture) I drilled one hole on the cowl and then repositioned the cowl and taped in place. Once I was satisfied I drilled the first hole and removed the cowl. Now you drill a larger whole depending on which “Threaded Insert� you using and drill the fuselage. Once drilled all you do is place the insert into the fuselage and use some thin CA and it’s rock hard.

Now that the cowling mounted, it on to mounting the engine and in my opinion takes two people. So one-person positions the engine with the cowling on and the other person, using the spinners back plate as a guide to equally align with the cowling. Now the trick is to try and get a long pencil or what we used was a flexible drill of about the same size as the engine mount to reach through the opening in the cowling to try and get a mark through the engine mount. Once you get your mark, then we removed the cowl and engine mount and drilled the first whole. With first hole drilled, we put everything back on and snug up the “one� hole with a 6-32 blind-nut, and put on the cowl. If everything goes right, they you should tighten up the “one� bolt and mark the three remaining holes and suck up the blind nuts into the firewall. Here’s what it looks like.

sj3cub

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Progress looks real good, I might have to order that gear for mine. Are the mounting holes for the gear predrilled? I ask that question because I just got a new gear for my mini funtana from TNT and no holes were predrilled. BTW, in my opinion the global decathlon is the most scale .50 size kit on the market. Makes the others look sick as far as scale outline goes.



Scott

mimoore67

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Thanks Scott, I too think it has better lines!

As far as the wholes being pre-drilled on the Scale T-n-T landing gear, I would probably have to say no. Because, it would be hard to match up. However, when I got my gear, the holes were drilled, mainly because they had my stock gear as a pattern. If you want, the next time I get down to www.tntlandinggear.com , I'll donate my stock gear to their collection and maybe as option they can pre-drill the holes for you. Email or call and ask if they need the gear. Possibly, they made a hold pattern.

mimoore67

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Wing

The wing went together relatively easy and I used the stock plywood joining thingy. (Words escape me at 5:00 a.m. See picture)

We did a test fit to the fuselage and found the that when you placed the wood "key" on the front of the wing into the slot on the fuselage, the wing did not lay flat on wing saddle. This would cause a "pre-loading" condition and stress the wing. The solution is either to sand the key on the wing or make the slot on the fuselage a little longer. The fix here was to simply sand the key on the wing and after a few tries, came in real nice. Again, this is something my RC Mentor taught me.

You'll see in the pictures, that I cut away the covering. Although the manual says t just glue the wings, I always use fiberglass tape to reinforce my wings. You can use 3" fiberglass tape here, so we will end up with a really clean and straight edge.

The sticks you see on the wing are a way my RC Mentor, uses to align wing panels. Basically two really straight balsa sticks, placed equally and in the same position of the wing. Next place to equally size pieces of balsa square stock underneath about where the ailerons start. If you stand back and squat down to the same height as the sticks and look down from the middle, you'll see if anyone of the sticks is out of alignment. The wing was "Dead Nuts On" when the front and back of the root ribs were matched up at the center of each panel. 30 minute epoxy per insturctions.

sj3cub

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Thanks for the landing gear info. I will have to call them. I will let you know. Thats a cool way to check wing alignment. Never seen that before. Will have to use it as a double check one day.

Thanks,

Scott

mimoore67

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Landing Gear Cover

I immediately noticed that there, was no cover for the landing gear, when I first examined this ARF. Well, I thought this was strange, but remember this is only a $159.00 kit, so it didn't suprise me. I've built these covers on other ARF's in fact my Great Planes Giles 202 has a similar gear cover, which i'm using as the bases for the constructions of this cover.

Step 1 - Measure you opening to determine size of the balsa block.
Step 2 - With gear on the fuselage, try and fit the block between the gear legs.
Step 3 - When you satisfied with your fit between the gear legs, firly press down on the balso block. This will make marks on the bottom of the bals block where the allen head bolts that hold the gear on are located.

Step 4 - Use a drill a little larger diameter than the bolt heads and drill only down into the block the height of the bolt heads. This will give you clearance around the heads when the block sits on the gear

Step 5 - Drill a hole in the exact center of the gear cover, for a 4-40 bolt to be used to secure the gear cover to the aluminum gear. When you drill through the balso block, press a little hard unto the aluminum gear, to make location mark. If you have some index drills, use the drill size appropiate for taping a 4-40 size bolt. This will allow you to secure balso block to the gear. Also determine how far you'll have to drill into the block so the bolt head is recessed just below the surface.

Step 6 - I used some making tape to protect the fuselage. Carefully sand the block to ruff outline. Also, your going to have to pust some small pieces of 1/8th piece of balsa under the block to simulate the height of the gear, when its remove for sanding. Also too, you'll have to put a little piece of wood on the rear corners, wher the gear has a cut out you'll see this when your building the gear cover. I used a pecil to mark the outline from the fuselage, sand until you get close and check your fit.

Step 7 - Final sand the cover. Use CA or your prefereed method to make the Center attachment hole harder so you don't crush the blasa when you tighten down the cover. I'll probably use a Ohio Super Stars threaded inserted drilled out to accomodate te 4-40 bolt.

mimoore67

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Finished Piece Landing Gear Cover

I'll post another picture later tonight

mimoore67

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Scale Wing Struts

Just happen to come across some streamline aluminum tubing at the local toy store, so I thought I would try and make up some scale looking wing struts.

On the full-size Super Decathlon the front strut is larger, than the rear, so I'm using 3/8th" for the front and 5/16th" for the rear.

In the first photo, you can see the round stuff that comes with the kit, compared with the streamline tubing. On models like this, the wing struts are purely for looks, so we don't have to worry about the wing folding. Anyway this wings is getting fiberglassed in the center, so it will plenty strong.

I used the demensions, given in the instructions, where to locate the "hard wood" blocks for the outboard attachment of the sturts. The rear strut is 2 1/2" from the aileron hinge line and the gront, is 6 13/16". I also measured in a 1/4" inch in from the rib and drilled a .086 hole for the #4 button head.

Using the stock wing struts as a bases for length, I cut it about 1/2" to long, so I could slowly figure out the angles so the strut would rest 3/16" up from the fuselage side. I'm using pictures from the Internet and guessing what looks good to get these demensions.

The second picture shows a 1/64" piece of ply wood that has a streamline shape, that the struts will rest on. The two dots are where I will drill two mouting holes will be.

The next thing to do is to mix up some epoxy and micro balloons and spread the mixture around the base of the two inboard struts, where they come together. Also I have roughed this up with course sand paper and will dril a couple of small holes for the epoxy to grip to. The outboard struts will get the same epoxy and micro balloons and I'll sand them to shape.

IronCross

Caution
Couple of things to keep an eye on with this plane... A while back I had a problem with what appeard to be the tail twisting in flight and split the covering... I patched it with Ultracote (much stronger) and no more problems there.
Yesterday after several great flights with it I was cleaning it up to go home and noticed now the front wing mount is breaking out on the left side... The front of it broke out almost level with the saddle.. The hardwood piece that is painted black on the front side and runs down into the fuslage is not even glued in... Only thing holding that side together on it now are the two screws and the plastic windshield.... I just lucked out that the break was between the two screws and they and the plastic held it together... This area definitly needs reinforcing.... I plan to use epoxy on the break and then epoxy some triangle stock the length of the flat/black hardwood strip on the inside...
This plane has not been abused.... It is a great flyer and I am mainly just a sport flyer attempting occasionaly to fly pattern with it... I did reinforce the firewall, landing gear and the back mounting plate as I do on all ARF's when I build them ... This area did not look as though it needed it.... Surprise...
Two pictures attached.... One with the windshield on and the second with it removed and a little pressure on it...

mimoore67

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Hey, Thanks!

I'll double check all the areas you mentioned.

With the tail, I am planning on making up some flying wires, for the horizontal stab and vertical stabilizer. I use 2-56 clevis and and threaded rod, with a soder link on the other end. It looks scale and really ties together all of the tail feathers so they don't twist.

I've noticed too, that the wing saddle, needs some balsa filler between the wing and where the wing bolts attach to the fuselage. The wing wants to move side to side about 3/16th of an inch. I found this out when I was knocking out the stock metric blind nuts and re-tapping the holes to 1/4X20, nylon. I'll post some pictures this weekend.

IronCross

The problem I was having in back was the whole tail was torquing the back part of the fusalage... The covering on it is not the best and it split... It has not done it again since I recoverd part of it with the Ultracote...
I also punched out the rear wing bolt nuts and put in some 1/4 inch T nuts... Also epoxied triangle stock all around the hardwood mount to better secure it... Haven't had any problems there yet... I have a bit of a gap in the back also but the mounting bolts pull the wing into the same position each time so I haven't worried about it...

mimoore67

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I've been busy trying to accomplish many tasks this week on the Super Decathlon. I had this week off from work, so I wanted to get the wing exactly aligned and fiberglass the center section. It only took me two tries to get the wing aligned properly. The first try resulted in the wing being about 1/8th of an inch off, this drove me nuts, so I filled in all the holes with old Hobby Poxy "Thixotropic" its the equivelant of JB Weld. I then re-aligned the wing measure 40 times and drilled each hole with a number 7 drill and then ran a 1/4 X 20 tap. This time it was dead nuts on!

I also finished up the scale wing strut fairings and mounted the wing struts. I still have to make the small "Jury" struts that go in the middle of the main struts. I'll post hopefully in the next few days completed pitures of the sturnts.

I also got the landing gear cover (Covered in black ultracoat) installed and it looks good.

Here's what I got so far.

mimoore67

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Hey, I just learned something. Don't upload pictures in the thumbnail mode. It' makes the pictures huge!

IronCross

I noticed that. [8D]
It also makes your thread almost impossible to read as it spreads it way out off the screen...
Interesting

mimoore67

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Jury Strut - Small Struts that connect the main wing struts to the wing for extra support. I'm using some brass sheeting cut to 3/16th" strips, that I then wrap arount the larger main wing sturts to make clamp, much like a radiator clamp. This gives you the outline of the main wing strut, with some extra material bent at 90 degree angles, that are then drilled with a hole to except the bolt and nut.

The Jurt Strut is made out of some 1/4" K&S streamline tubing, which is then bent over and flatten to attach to the wing and clamp I made.

Pictures far better explain this. These struts give the plane a real nice scale touch.