BUILDING A PHOENIX 8
 

Finally, building a Phoenix 8 for myself.

Work, family, friends, all take a lot of time. So much time that I seem to neglect my own desires for a new plane. I just love the Phoenix 8 and I am finally building one for myself. I've been working on it for about ten days so far. I took some pictures as I was building but haven't posted any yet. I was talking to a couple of friends this weekend and they asked me if I could post the build. I may have missed taking a few pictures of some of the steps because I was on a roll and didn't stop to snap the pictures as much as I should have. Anyhow lets go.

This first one is putting in the wing bolt mounting plate. I used 1/4" ply and blind nuts and epoxied it in with 30 minute.

RE: BUILDING A PHOENIX 8
 

Cool, can't wait to see it.

RE: BUILDING A PHOENIX 8
 

Well welcome Rangerman it is always more fun with a audience.

I am laying out the tank floor and the front gear retract here. I just use a little 30 min epoxy on the pieces with a few spots of thick CA to tack them in while the epoxy sets. After all is good and tested out for the correct position I glassed the parts in with 6oz cloth and some West Systems Epoxy that I make the Fuselages with. They are rock solid now, don't want your front wheel to fall out.

You can see I added a piece of 1/4" ply to the area the wing plugs into because I am adding two 1/4 dowels for the wing to plug in instead of the single wing mount bolt the plan shows. The reason is when I was reviewing the plan I calculated that the front wheel when retracted may need to be notched into the leading edge of the wing. So by adding this ply bulkhead now I have the option of not using the front wing mounting bolt if the front wheel comes to close to it.

RE: BUILDING A PHOENIX 8
 

I have no picture of making the wing skins and putting the skins on the cores. I used 1/16" balsa for the skins & glue them together with Medium CA.

Then I take a small amount of West Systems Epoxy with the slow hardener and sheet the cores.

I smear it around with an old credit card as thin as possible on the skin and the core, put them back in the shucks, pile them up and set them in the vac bag with a piece of 3/4" melamine top & bottom to be sure they are flat and straight. Then I vac them for about 5 hours until they are set. I guess I should of taken some picture of this but you must work quickly and it slipped my mind at the time.

Nest was to mount the wing and glue in the Stab. Check the incidence of the stab with the wing set at Zero. I put the Stab at Zero also.

The Rudder post gets Epoxied in also right after the stab is in place.

RE: BUILDING A PHOENIX 8
 

When I was building the wings I take a 5/8" tube that is sharpened and bore a hole of the servo wires because I am using to servos for my ailerons, one in each wing instead of the one single one shown on the plans. I put my servo at the center of each aileron. It was all done after I sheeted the cores and they were dry. I lay out every thing on the wing, cut the sheeting for the servo hatch, I am laying the servo on its side and it is fastened to the bottom side of the hatch cover. It is totally in the wing. Only the rod comes out of the wing.

Next I layout and cut for the landing gear retracts , cut the balsa, cut the foam out,I use my solder gun with a piece of 14ga copper wire installed in the place of the normal tip, and box it all in with 1/16" balsa. I used a couple of pieces of 1/4" x 3/4" maple for the landing gear to mount to with 4/40 bolts and blind nuts.

You can bend the copper wire in the solder gun to be flat about 2" wide to scoop the foam out of the cuts.

I put a 1/4" small tube in for the air lines to slip into later. To make these I just use the clear plastic tube the I had left over, they came from a piano wire package. I heat it with my monokote heat gun, twisting it in my fingers to heat it evenly, when it is hot enough it will bend, rotate it so it doesn't kink, remove the heat and it is hard in a second. Now I have a nice tube with a 90 degree bend in it. I used this to go to the center top of the wing from th retract compartment.

RE: BUILDING A PHOENIX 8
 

I make the cores of this plane feather cut. And the ailerons are cut after it is sheeted. I cap them with 3/8" balsa where the hinges go and cap the trailing edge with 1'/4" balsa. The leading edge of the wig is capped with 1/2" balsa.

I glass the sheeting on the cores with 1/2 oz cloth and very little epoxy . I spay the sheeting with 3M 77 contact glue, a very quick light pass is all you need. lay the cloth over the wing and smooth it out with a credit card and a light touch. I do this because it totally elements to bubbles and wrinkles I used to get in the cloth. 1/2oz cloth is so thin it pulls and wrinkles to easy when sliding the epoxy around with a credit card or squeegee .

I built a couple of bulkhead to mount the Air tank and the servo tray and glassed them in. The are 1/8" light ply.

RE: BUILDING A PHOENIX 8
 

Applied primer and sanded for a couple of hours. It is soo smooth now! Well that's ten days working on the P8. more tomorrow. Hope your'e enjoying the build thread. There isn't that many build threads going on these days so I thought I'd do one.

RE: BUILDING A PHOENIX 8
 

You're an animal!! I like your methodology for the ailerons. Then they match the wing.
-Robert

RE: BUILDING A PHOENIX 8
 

Did you finish the Wild Beat? Great looking P-8 so far!! What engine?
-Will

RE: BUILDING A PHOENIX 8
 

Hey Freq. You sure do allot of AWESOME work in ten days. I'd still be putting the bulkheads in the fuselage on the tenth day..................LOL.

Oh BTW, What happened to Homer? ? ? ? ? ?[X(]

RE: BUILDING A PHOENIX 8
 

I miss Homer as well. thought it was a different frequent flyer. [X(] Just because I didn't comment yet doesn't mean I didn't examine the thread in detail. So..... It looks great, please keep us updated.

RE: BUILDING A PHOENIX 8
 

That's funny I have had dozens of emails asking "what happened to Homer" I quess I can revive him if he makes you happy.

RE: BUILDING A PHOENIX 8
 

Did you paint that thing tonight?
Chris...

RE: BUILDING A PHOENIX 8
 

Still working on the Wild Beat. Almost ready to glass it or monokote it. I haven't decided which way to go yet. I want it light. Do you know what the weight should be on it?

The p8 has an OS SF 61

RE: BUILDING A PHOENIX 8
 

I'll guess but David (dhal22) will know. 10 lbs.

David

RE: BUILDING A PHOENIX 8
 

I was making a notch in the bottom for the wheel to go into the wing pan. It's getting close. What's the weight of your Tiporare?

RE: BUILDING A PHOENIX 8
 

9 lbs... :D

Sorry, keeping track of these details recently posted elsewhere.

Tipo 720's ideally like to be at 8.5 lbs max according to Dick Hanson but I doubt Chris' plane won't fly beautifully!

David.

RE: BUILDING A PHOENIX 8
 

David's right, Don. 9 lbs on the bathroom scale. I need a bigger capacity digital scale.
Chris...

RE: BUILDING A PHOENIX 8
 

There are a ton of really nice postal type scales on Ebay. Check the resolution though.

RE: BUILDING A PHOENIX 8
 

I will find that info. Gotta dust off my plans though.:eek:

RE: BUILDING A PHOENIX 8
 

The plans call for 9.6 - 10 lbs.

RE: BUILDING A PHOENIX 8
 

Oh, really, that much. wow

On my Phoenix-8 I am at 8.7 and I still have to do the finish coats. All the sanding, primer, fills, are finished. I thought that it may be getting heavy. I may have to put a smaller battery pack (4 AA'S) I weighed it with (4 A's) it might make a little difference.

RE: BUILDING A PHOENIX 8
 

How many squares does a P8 have?

BTW, is there such a thing as a plan for the P7 & P8?

David.

RE: BUILDING A PHOENIX 8
 

Lets say I was off by 0.2 lbs... :D

I bet the Wild Beat has a bunch more squares than either a Tipo or a P8. Let's have a look..., right, 1077 sq in vs 700 to 750 tops. I'd be surprised if the P8 has a larger wing than the Tipo 720.

That's a difference of about 25%. If one considers that your average 60 size pattern ship can weigh on the order of 130 oz while the WB weighs 160 oz all up, it is clear that the WB will be a much lighter loaded model.

Wing Loading Wild Beat: 160/7.48 = 21.4 oz/sq ft

Average classic pattern model: 130/5.21 = 24.95 oz/sq ft

That classic is a tad over 8 lbs and has 750 squares.

Interesting how these much larger 120 class models are lighter on the wing. The Wild Beat's you guys are building also have 2.33 times more engine displacement! (OS 140 RX's). The current F3A models must be similar or even lower.

David.

RE: BUILDING A PHOENIX 8
 

As long as mine stays unfinished it's even lighter.[X(] Sorry, back to the P-8 build.