RE: Bluejay XLT question
 

The hardest part was making that first cut, but once that was over I just let the balsa fly. . .
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I decided to use the same technique to strengthen the sides as I did when sheeting the wings. A thin misting of 3M 77 to hold some carbon veil on 1/16" contest balsa. The balsa/veil is installed cross grain to the fuse side. Then wet down the veil with polyurethane glue and clamp it all together. This is going to be slow since I don't have alot of room to work and space for the clamps is limited.
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Obviously, this would have been MUCHeasier about 30 posts ago. . .

RE: Bluejay XLT question
 

Tough going Keith.

Hats off though for taking that hacksaw and making it right. She will end up the better for it.

David.

RE: Bluejay XLT question
 

I've recovered from worse!!

RE: Bluejay XLT question
 

Nothing that a beer can't handle :D It will be great CPA - Classic Pattern Association plane.... looking forward to seeing it fly.

Scott

RE: Bluejay XLT question
 

Keith,

are you using low profile aileron servos to get them that far back near the TE? I would assume regular height servos would have gone through the top at that location. Or is the wing that thick?

David.

RE: Bluejay XLT question
 

I'm using Futaba S9650's (digital mini's) on their side sunk about half-way into the elevator halves. I'm using full-size servos on the ailerons. I really like having the shortest possible pushrods, even though I have used DEPS before and liked that.
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My only concern about having the servos in the tail is possibly making the plane tail-heavy. Hopefully the extra weight of the Hyde mount will make up.

RE: Bluejay XLT question
 

Spent most of today installing the cross-grain supports in the tail. . . it was slow going as I predicted due to the limited space. As a consolation, I was able to start installing the guts of the plane as well as begin work on the wing mounting supports.
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I'm actually pretty happy with how the bracing turned out. I couldn't believe how stiff the fuse sides are now. . . I'm talking "more than 4 hours and call the doctor". As you can see from the photos, once I got the cross-grain balsa / carbon veil patches in there the fuse sides are back to their original thickness but much, much stronger. I didn't take a weight reading before and after, but I can't imagine that I added more than and ounce over the original fuse sides. .
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This is definately going to be a technique I keep in my back pocket for future projects. If you laid in the wood using a vacuum bag prior to assembling the fuselage, this would be a trivial task that would add a great amount of strength to the tail of your airplane. In the photos it looks like a mess because I had limited working space and had to install one piece at a time.. .

RE: Bluejay XLT question
 

Is there a pdf of the plane available?

RE: Bluejay XLT question
 

I don't know. . . Once I'm done with building I guess I could ship the plans if anybody is interested and you don't think Bluejay / Bridi will send their attack dog lawyers (or other RCU members) after us.
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They are pretty beat up, though. . .

RE: Bluejay XLT question
 

Finished installing the wing hold-down plates this morning. I replaced the plywood plates with two layers of composite honeycomb CA'd together. I still backed each up with the 3/8" balsa triangle stock. Over 50% weight savings.
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Once I got the wing hold-down plates in, I started mounting the wing. The kit comes with two massive 3/4" dowels that need to go thru the leading edge of the wing. Earlier I had drilled the 1/4" holes thru the dowels for the nylon bolts. If anyone has a good technique or jig to do this accurately I'd like to hear about it. I can never seem to get the holes accurately thru a dowel even using a drill press. Anyway, to get the holes vertical in the wing, I taped it back in the shucks. Even though the photo shows me starting the holes with a sharpened brass tube, I quickly realized that there was no way that even if I had a 3/4" diameter piece of brass tubing that it would fit in my drill press. So I ended up drilling the holes with a 3/4" Forestner bit. I proceeded very, very slowly since Very Bad Things can happen when drilling into balsa and foam with anything other than a sharpened brass tube. Fortunately, the Building Gods decided to smile upon me and I'm not posting pictures of How to Build a New Wing. . .
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After I got the holes drilled, I installed the 3/4" dowels. I was trying to get the holes back as far as I could since I'm going to have to relieve the forward hold-down plate to allow the fuel tank to go back in. The down side of moving the holes back is that the dowels are now in a thicker part of the wing. I still had some contact with the wing sheeting so I went with it.
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Next, I made sure that the wing was square with the fuse. I used the same technique as I did with the stab, just using the rudder post and the wing tips. Once I knew the wing was square I drilled the hold-down plate with a 1/4" bit thru the nylon bolt holes. Then I removed the wing, opened up the holes in the hold-down plate to accomodate the blind nuts and installed the 1/4-20 blind nuts under the plate.

RE: Bluejay XLT question
 

Once I got the forward bolts in, I rechecked the wing to make sure it was still square with the fuse and drilled the hole for the aft bolt with a 1/4" bit. Then I removed the wing and opened up the hole in the plate to accept the 1/4-20 blind nut.
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Due to the difference in angle from the bottom of the wing vs. the hold-down plate I had to make an angled shim for the blind nut so it would be at the correct angle to accept the nylon bolt without binding.
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Its finally starting to look like an airplane. . . hopefully the engine will get here soon so I can start work on the nose. . .

RE: Bluejay XLT question
 

Worked on the belly pan a little. . . nothing too exciting here, except when I came home from my trip and found a box from Houston, TX.

RE: Bluejay XLT question
 

Keith,

Don't you love it when surprises like that show up at your door?...:) That engine is absolutely gorgous. Can't you see it now? Your XLT just screaming down the flight line at your field. I bet you're gonna turn everybody's head at your club when you fly that rocket....:D:D

OK, enough daydreaming. Time to get back to work. BTW, your plane is looking awesome.

David

RE: Bluejay XLT question
 

I have been over to Dub's shop. That engine began life as a five or six inch piece of aluminum round. Onced chucked in the CNC the outer dimensions of the case are machined all in one step, even the "Jett" logo engraving. Amazing. I love my SE .90 LX. Tick over idle and perfect linear transition to full throttle. Jett engines will be the new rare collector engines for MECA members in 50 years. I run mine on 10% nitro, 20% all castor.... my own brand.

RE: Bluejay XLT question
 

Yes, the Jett engine is definately beautiful to look at. . . you can easily see all of the machining marks on the outside so you know this ain't no mass produced engine. And Dub has been great answering all of my questions via e-mail. . I can't wait to get this thing on the engine stand and fire it up. The instructions say 13000-15000 RPM and the more RPM the better. . . Hoo-Rah, Baby!! Unfortunately I was only home one day to admire this engine
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I don't know if you can see it in that photo, but Dub machined me a little 2 degree shim for the header so the pipe can run straight down the fuselage. . ..
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I've updated my weight worksheet and attached the PDFto this post. I was amazed that everything you see in the picture above (Engine / header / spinner) comes out to only 22 oz. My next major assembly is the cowl now that I have the engine to work with, then its on to covering and finishing. . .

RE: Bluejay XLT question
 

I started work on the nose section today. This part of the build took much, much longer than I expected due to the large amount of "custom" work I had to do. As you can see in the photos, the combination of the Hyde mount and engine was about 1.5" longer than the included cowl blocks.
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The first operation was to re-drill the Hyde mount and move the engine as far back as I could. That bought me about 1/2". Even though the photo shows the header touching, there is about 1/8" clearance. The next step was to build up around the firewall to put the original blocks up to the spinner. For all of these operations I tack glued the plywood ring to the back of the spinner with thin CA and 1/16" balsa. Once I got the spacers installed, I glued in the bottom blocks of the cowl. After removing the engine, I then shaped the bottom blocks. Once those were done, I added the top blocks and started shaving again.
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If I had it to do over again, I'd call my local balsa pusher and get some custom contest grade blocks made instead of going thru all this hassle.

RE: Bluejay XLT question
 

Once the cowl was finished on the outside, I spent some time trying to clean up the inside. Test fit of the engine went well. . . the Hyde mount is a little tight getting in, but hopefully I won't be taking that out alot.
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Since I had been working on the bottom of the fuse, I decided to start shaping the top. I made a small template from the plans with a piece of scrap balsa. Next I made several cuts 6 inches apart to use as guides for the rest of the fuse. Then I just went to work connecting the cuts. .

RE: Bluejay XLT question
 

Keith,

as the saying goes... "it always takes longer"

Nice work!

David.

RE: Bluejay XLT question
 

That Jett Bar Stock engine is Awesome!!

It's almost ashame that you gotta put that cowling around it...I'd be half tempted to just leave the engine hanging out there and throw the cowl blocks away... ;)

BTW..Nice build thread and your plane is looking great..

RE: Bluejay XLT question
 

Looking great Keith!!!!

RE: Bluejay XLT question
 

Thanks for all of the positive comments guys. . . it's a good thing I don't do this to feed my family. Between the sale of one plane a year and all of my pattern winnings, they would starve!! I haven't built a plane in a few years and have forgotten how much time and sanding this takes, but I have wandered "off the reservation" a few times on this project. . .
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I don't know why those pictures are showing up so large in my last post, I resized them to 800 x 600 before uploading just like I did all of the other pics. . . tried deleting and re-uploading, no help. . .maybe a moderator can notify the appropriate folks..
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After the demise of my first Escape, I mounted the Hanno .60 on a Tower Hobbies 40 size Stick, running the pipe down the side of the fuse. Talk about intimidating. . . wish I still had that plane when the runway is covered with hovering little buzzing profiles. . . (no offense toward any members of the Profile Brotherhood who may be reading this post. . .you know who you are!!!)
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RE: Bluejay XLT question
 

Got alot of work done today. . . I decided to start on the rudder since the bottom of the fuse was still open from my earlier escapades. I began by working out where the rudder cables need to exit the fuselage. To figure out how far back to cut the exit holes, I measured the distance between the holes in the servo arms I will use. I locked down the calipers and used them to determine where the fuselage is the same width and made a vertical mark. Now I needed to figure out where along the vertical mark the cables will exit. To do that, I measured how deep the servo arms are in the fuse and tranferred this to the outside of the fuse and made a dot. Using a straight-edge, I then connected the dot (where the cables start), to where they are going (rudder control arm) and made a horizontal line. Where the two lines intersect is where the cables want to exit the fuse. . .

RE: Bluejay XLT question
 

Next, I installed the hard point for the rudder. To ensure that the control horn will be over the hinge line, I measured the distance from the attachment point to the rod. Then I marked the center of the 1/2" balsa square and notched the rudder so that its center point is set back that same distance. Once the balsa is glued in with poly glue, I drilled a hole using a brass tube the same diameter as the dowel. Then I glued the dowel into the hole with poly glue. . .

RE: Bluejay XLT question
 

Time to close up the bottom of the fuse and start sanding again. . . and again. . . and again. . . finally it's looking like a plane!!!

RE: Bluejay XLT question
 

And finally, a hastily thrown together engine stand. Gotta go get a prop tomorrow and see what this thing's got.