Here are pictures of the finished wing tip. Cut out the ailerons just like you did for the elevator and rudder. Use the same beveling technique. I just set the incidence for the second wing. My foam cheeks are ready to sheet. Here are some pictures of my progress.

Brent

Landing Gear brace.

Cut 2 peices of 1 to 1 1/2" aluminum angle to 2" lengths. Clamp them down inside the fuse to the Gear brace plate and the bottom of the fuse. Drill 2 holes through the side of the fuse. I use 10-32 x 3/4" socket head bolts to hold the angle in place. Drill the holes 3/8" from each side of the angle centered horizontly in the angle. Once you have drilled the holes for the bolts drill the holes through the fuse side over sized for blind nuts. Use a little glue to help hold the blind nuts. Install the bolts with lock tight then trim them to length if you want.

Drill a small hole in the fuse side a little above the switch mount. The will have to be drilled off center of each switch. You will have to measure your switch location to determine how far above the plate and how much to each side. The supplied switch mount is cut and drilled for MPI switches with charging jack.

Cheeks

Start by cutting out the wing saddle from the cheeks. Sand the sheeting smooth to the inside of the saddle. Test fit the cheek in the fuse side. It may be necessary to sand down the foam on the back side to get it to fit in the fuse side with only about 1/16 to 1/32 inch of the sheeting protruding beyond the top and bottom of the fuse. Mark the where the lightning holes in the fuse meet the cheeks. Sand down the area at the front of the cheek where the blind nuts meet the cheek.

To make the wing fit into the saddle I trim off the leading edge square to the root cap. Tape the cheek in place and slide the wing into the saddle. It will be necessary to fit the saddle a little bit. For planes with 3/32 sheeting on the wings you can sand the sheeting at the root to help make it fit. Once you have the saddle fitting good it is time to glue the cheek in place. Use either tight bond or urithane to glue the cheeks in. I prefer tight bond for this. Spread the glue on the inside of the cheek. I use the marks for the lightning holes for a guide. Don't spread glue over the whole cheek. It will just add weight. I only apply the glue to where it meets the fuse. Slide the cheek in place and install the wing to make sure the alignment is right. Tape the cheek in place.

Lay the fuse on it's side and place the shuck that the cheek came in on top of the cheek. Use clamps and weight to hold the cheek in place until the glue dries.

repeat for the other side.

I thought about it and decided you were right, the hatch was going to bother me. So I reworked it. I figured the canopy probably glues on, which would leave me looking at something I could have fixed before the canopy went on.

I went a little overboard, I hope I didn't add too much weight. The lower decking is just 1/32 balsa sheet and the piece on the rear hatch former is 1/16 contest grade. I'm trying to make a dash panel, this one is my first try and doesn't quite fit right. Making another one to try again tomorrow.

I've got the wing root caps on, leading and trailing edges on (need to work them down to shape) then I can cap them and start on the ailerons.

The cheeks are fitted pretty good but no wing holes yet, landing gear holes in the wood. Need to finish my brackets and I will clamp them and drill them in the plane.

My goal is to have the airframe ready by next month, so far that looks easy enough to do.

First time building? Pretty impressive if you ask me. Controll arms are in the mail. You should have them very soon. Have you gotten your landing gear and wing tubes?

I can't remember if I showed glueing in the tail wheel doubler? It is a triangluar shaped peice that gets glued into the fuse at the back for the blind nuts to go into. I will get pictures of it pretty soon. The weather has turned cold so buiilding has been a little slow. I have one cheek installed and have filled the rear section with laminanting epoxy and micro-balloons. This is the area from where the cheek ends to where the fuse starts to taper towards the tail. The reason I did it this way is if you fill it with balsa you end up trying to blend the balsa to nothing and the glue seam is hard to hide. I found it easier to just use a filler for the last few inches.

Brent

Here is a picture of the cheek with the aft end filled.

Brent

Brent,

What is your fill mixture on the aft?

Greg

Stick Bender,

What did you use to coat the canopy base? It looks good!

Greg

It is medium cure time laminating epoxy and micro-balloons from US Composits.

It's grey auto trunk spatter paint, when I tested with it it took quite a bit to cover the wood, so I put a light coat of grey primer on first, then a light coat of the spatter paint. The primer probably isn't necessary but it seemed like I could use less of the spatter paint once the wood was already colored. (so far no compatability issues with the primer, but only time will tell.) I just covered the sheeting with newspaper and taped off where I'm going to cover and/or paint the wood.

I'm happy with it, it looks pretty good.

I have a cross brace in the rear that I didn't need, I was trying to go by memory of a picture Brent sent me. I should have taken another look

Tonight I am very happy with your work on the wings, I kinda fudged checking the incidence. I just checked to make sure it was pretty close when the root caps were straight. Then I just glued the root caps on with the wings off the plane just making sure the root cap was as straight as possible. Tonight I mocked it all up and checked the incidence and I'm within 0.1-0.2 degrees on both wings measured in 2 places on each wing.

I'm really happy!, it got me fired up to see it together. Some ailerons,a couple servo pockets,hard points/horns,motor box,pull pull tray,cheeks...

I'll be covering this sucker before ya know it

Yeah, the place is a mess. I'm building a plane! I don't have time to be houskeeper

Wow!

Your Control Horns are in the mail...

Well the ailerons proved to be quite a bit of work. I don't work on it constantly, but all my build time yesterday was spent on the wings. And I still need to sand to fit in the cheeks, the leading edge is still square and the hinge lines need a little more work before I'll be happy with the fit. But we have ailerons, so that's one less thing to do...

So Basically some finish sanding, servo pockets, and hard points for the horns and the wings will be ARC.

I was so worried about cutting the lines straight, this is what I did. I took a 1/2"x1/2"x1/16" aluminum angle, I cut 4 wood blocks from 1/2"x1/2" balsa, one each 1",3/4",1/2",1/4"
I put the one inch at the tip of the aileron taped it to the aluminum angle,no spacer at the root, the 1/2" in the middle, and the 1/4 and 3/4 between the middle and the ends. I taped the whole thing to the trailing edge of the wing, set the fence to about 5 1/16" from the blade, Viola one nice straight cut that is 5" in at one end and 4" in on the other, then I just set the fence 1" away and ripped the hinge line scrap from the aileron. The hinge lines were bowed a little (tight in the middle) but a little fit sanding and the lines will be great.

I'm happy with the results.

Scott

That looks real nice!!! I spent yesterday finishing up the other cheek and aileron. We had snow yesterday and it is cold today. My little electric heater in my garage can only get it to about 42 degrees. I like the way you set up to cut the ailerons. Once you get more comfortable cutting with the bandsaw you won't be affraid to cut them free hand. I might use your idea in the future when I cut out ail on my 35% plane. That size wing is a little tougher to hold flat and straight. My landing gear and controll links sould be here on Tuesday. You should be getting you controll horns pretty soon. I am starting the hatch sheeting and hope to have that completed today. I just have a couple of control horn hard points to install then I am down to the finish sanding and covering. Which of the throttle servo mounts will you be using? The one with all the lightning holes needs to be reinforced with a little 1/4" spruce hard stock if you end up mounting batteries up there. O one more thing I will be showing how I lighten up the controll surfaces very soon using a hole saw.

Keep up the great work. I can't wait to here what you thing about how she flies!!!!

Brent

Yeah, I'm going to use the plate for the small servos. Manual choke and a tiny throttle servo. I can bulk it up later if I need too, It's not glued in yet. With my heavy hatch and plywood rail on the tail I may be tail heavy. The batteries might wind up in the motor box. Way too early to tell, once I start putting it together I'll set the batteries and receiver and see where they wind up. I think I should go ahead and put my rudder servo tray as far forward as possible.

I got one cheek pretty close, going to fit the wing to it from here pretty much, the other just has a rough cut hole for now. I'm going to take a break. Been working on it pretty much all morning.

And a question, Did you say 2 1/2" standoffs?

Oh and here is a pick of my dash and my tubes, It's green painters tape and the tubes fit great with it on there. I may try the tape and see if it holds up in flight. The dash is a picture on dull sticky paper with clear fingernail polish on the guages so they look like they have glass lenses . It looks pretty darn good.

The stock 2 1/2" standoffs are what you should use. If needed to help with the balance you can always put in a 1/4" spacer to move the enging forwad a little.

Keep up the good work.

Brent

Hatch

After you have sanded the top of the fuse and the hatch to the conture of the cheeks. I use a little wax paper at the front and rear of the hatch to keep any glue from sticking. Glue in the rear hatch former. Cut 2 side rails for the hatch 1/2" x 3/4" x 14" long. mark the area that needs to be cut out for the rear hatch retainers. Cut the angle at the rear of the rails. Leave a tab on each rail to lock into the rear former. Make sure that the hatch is sitting flat with the top of the fuse, glue and clamp the side rails in place. Glue some 3/32" sheeting together for the hatch sheeting. Once the glue has dried I wet the top side of the sheeting and use velcro straps to hold the sheeting to shape while it dries. Slide the sheeting forward over the front former and sand the sheeting flush. Move the sheeting back and mark the sheeting at the rear former and trim to fit. Sand a bevel on one side of the sheeting and glue the sheeting on one side of the hatch. Once the glue is dry trim the other side of the sheeting to meet the top of the hatch. Apply glue along the front and rear former and along the top of the hatch where the sheeting will end. Pull the sheeting down flush with the front and rear formers and the top of the hatch. Use velcro and tape to hold it in place while the glue dries. I add a small peice of triangle where the rear hatch former meets the hatch just to add a little striength. Once the glue has dried from the back side use a little CA to glue the stringers to the sheeting. Sand the sheeting to the shape of the cowl ring, sand the side rails to the shape of the fuse, then sand the rear former to match the turtledeck.

I'm in St. Louis all week for Ford Motor Company training (Diesel Performance), so... no updates from me until the weekend. But I did just make an order from TBM, 23x8 PT Planes carbon fiber prop, Servo arms, titanium links, ball links,etc... Still trying to decide if I'm going with HS-5985's or wait until the HS-7985's are readily available.

I don't have my engine ordered yet, I'm not that close (I am probably going to use a DL-50, I would rather have a DA but the DL is just as strong for about half the price)

Scott

Have a good trip.

On the throttle servo mount I recomend that you reinforce the bottom with either triangle stock or 1/4" spruce sticks. If you install the batteries on the servo mount a hard landing can break the mount. I also use hard wood sticks to reinforce the front of the fire box at the firewall. Here are a couple of pictures. I have also included a picture of how I lighten up the control surfaces. I use a hole saw to cut the holes. If you do this be sure that you dril a hole into the lightning hole through the hinge line if you don't have a hinge going into the hole. The problem comes when you cover the plane. If you don't have a place for the hot air to get out when you shrink the covering you will end up with wrinkles that you can't get rid of.


Brent

I might need more clamps for my motor box. I don't have any long clamps.(bar clamps)

I got my stuff from TBM and my graphics from Kirby's, I still need covering,batteries,switches, extensions, gas tank, an engine and servos. I'm still kicking aroung pulling the stuff out of my Extra for now and maybe buy the stuff to get it going again later. I was just going to have one 50cc plane but I'm now thinking I need 2. I'm just not flying anything else... Not even my foamies!!! I'm so spoiled with the power to weight and how nice the Extra flies I just have no desire to fly a floppy foamy or a slimer (Showtime 50 w/Saito 82a) it's sad when you have a plane that makes a 6 pound plane with a Saito 82 on 30% nitro seem like a turdbox.

I'm blending the tail end of my cheeks, I just used a piece of balsa sheet with some wood filler at the tail edge. I'm close to taking a picture but they need a little more sanding and I'm being lazy this week. Going back to work really let the air out of my sails

I can't wait to see how you cover it, I'm thinking about covering the bottom first then run everything over the top with their seems just overlapping the bottom where you can't see them when it's sitting on the ground. But I have never covered a plane, so I will wait and see what techniques you have learned after covering a few of these.

And a quick question, where did you get the brass tubing and what size is it? They may have it at a home center, I just don't recall ever seeing it.

The brass tubing is 1/2". I think I picked the tubeing up at homedepot or lowes.

I am jumping around a little on the next set of pictures. I have a few things to finish up so it is ready to cover.

The first pictures are for the switch holes in the side of the fuse. Push a wire through the holes that you drilled above the switch mounting plate. This is where the wire exits the fuse that hooks into the switch. Use a peice of 3/8 x 3/8 x 3/4 balsa for the wire to run through. Drill a small hole in the block. Slide a drill bit or a small allen wrench through the block and through the side of the fuse and mark where it will fit into the foam fuse side. Cut out the hole and remove the foam. With the block still on the wire glue it into place leaving some excess sticking out to sand flush with the fuse. After it is glued inplace and sanded smooth harden the hole with a little ca. A light peice of piano wire gets slid through the hole with a 90 degree bend on one end. The bent end goes through a small hole that you will drill in the switch. I use a bead or a peice of dowl over the end of the wire for a knob.

Glue on a scrap peice of 1/8" light ply to the bottom of the rudder and sand to shape. I then cut off the very tip of the rudder and add a peice of balsa and sand a radius.

Brent

I've got the firewall epoxied to the side rails, the top and bottom are just sitting on there. I will glue them after I get the throttle linkage setup and figure out where my batteries are going to end up. The 1/4" birch square stock will come after that.

The gas tank is ready and tied where I think the CG will be, it just needs a fuel and vent line. The throttle servo is mounted.

I put the pull/pull tray where I think I want it, I just want to make sure I'm forward of what's recommended. (I have some extra weight on my tail)

Some pictures of the bevel/taper at the rear of the cheek.

And I got a hole saw set Saturday, it's got 5",4",3.5",3" all the way down to 3/4"

Tonight I put the servo pockets in the wings, I will bring my propane torch home with me tomorrow to bore the servo lead holes.

Scott

Wait on glueing in the pull pull tray until you balance the plane. You can finish every thing and install the cables and ends and balance it. Leave extra cable incase you end up sliding the tray forward. Mine balances with the tray in the middle of the two formers. The plane looks great.

Brent