mattnew

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Got a Great Planes RV-4 for X-mas, thought I'd post some pictures

This plane built quickly. Really quickly, I probably spent an hour or two a night on it.. and had things close to ready for coverring in under 2 weeks. Some things I liked, some things I didn't.. but overall its been a decent kit to build

Tail went together nicely




Body was a bit more trouble.... all the ply in the kit was fairly warped. Too add to it,,, things like the top plywood deck are built out of 4 pieces of ply that get butt jointed together. I ended up having to brace each one of these....


The wood for sheeting was fairly hard as well.. made making the compound curves here a bit difficult and some fudging and sanding/filling had to be done....


The wing itself is a jig, meaning after you get through the first few steps, they have you take it off the building board for sheeting. A couple things here....
- Don't re-pin the wing to the board upside down when sheeting the bottom, the jig is not symmetrical.. you WILL glue in a warp.... ask me how I know this.
- Even though the instructions show the wing floating in midair for subsequent steps, you really need to have the wing on a flat board. It will build flat as long as you keep it pinned down and right side up. It would have been good for the instructions to mention this
- Big negative on having a wing with dihedral yet no dihedral templates in the plans. The jig isn't perfect here.. relying on the hope that your laser cut parts came out perfectly, most laser cut parts in this kit had to be cut out with an xacto... which added a bit of uncertainty here. I'm not really sure how your expected to get this right.




I was surprised the instructions don't tell you to fiberglass teh center section. I did anyway....





This is pretty much where I am today. I've got the cowl together and am working on mounting the servos currently. I'm going to be putting the Evolution 10GX 10cc gas engine in it, i'm unsure on the radio as of yet, I've been away from the hobby for a bit and my two current radios are T6NFK's from Futaba. Right now I'm deciding between teh Airtronics sd-10g and futabas 8fgs



Overall I liked the build.. the wood could have been a bit better, and the instructions need updating since the plans and kit contents have changed a bit.. but I think the speed at which things go together definitely makes up for quite a bit of that.. i hope to be flying it by april, we'll see how much time I get to get things squared off...

mattnew

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hattend

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Subscribed because I want one of these kits.

Looks good!

Don

mattnew

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Thanks! feel free to ask questions.. quite honestly though you shake the box and out falls an airplane.  few hiccups I warned about above... but if it flies straight in the end I can't complain.

scale buff

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Nice build you have going. Brings back some fond memories. I built the kit about five years ago and am still flying it. I used a OS .48 FS, barely enough power, flies it in a scale manner. The .48 fits the cowl so nicely, looks kind of scale (picture attached). Flaps are a lot of fun, be aware that it will balloon some so be ready with down elevator. Even five years ago, the wood wasn't the choicest, but it did build well. I've included a few more pictures.

Frank T.

mattnew

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beautiful build!I've decided on my paint scheme as well... Going with a copy of this full size RV-4...

scale buff

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Thank you! No, I didn't use the ABS supplied tips, didn't like the way they fit so I just glued balsa blocks to the wings and carved and sanded the tips.

Looking forward to seeing your finished model, the full size you're copying is beautiful.


Frank T.

LawnDartMike

Subscribed!

I have a friend that has a full sized RV-6 and I think it would be neat to cover the RV-4 the same and get some pictures. Here are a few shots of his plane:


I forgot to ask what is the largest prop that should be used? I will be doing an electric build so I need the prop info to size the motor.

mattnew

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Got the plane mocked up and hinged last night.....




I'm a bit unhappy with the fit of the wingtips... like someone had posted above... further complicating things I'm not quite sure how to neatly cover the end of the wings with the wingtips the way they are... There is a good chance those will be coming off and I'll be making balsa block tips....


I went with dubro easy hinges and stuck the sheet of great planes CA hinge paper in a drawer. Why? I've had CA hinges fail on multiple planes... fortunately never in the air. I know they are supposed to work well but I just haven't had good luck with them... usually finding the failure during a range check.

The hinge locations coincided with where the stringers in the tail section joined with the trailing and leading edges of the rudder and elevator. I moved those as well to be in between....Not wanting to weaken the joint there where multiple sticks are already butt-jointed.




question time... what do people use for filler on abs plastic? I have some west systems epoxy and filler ...I'm finding its a bit difficult to sand, I also have tried microballoons and epoxy... again works well but hard to sand. Other suggestions?

mattnew

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The prop is going to be motor dependent... so go by your selection of motor and it will spec what prop you'd use.

that being said I can measure tonight the clearance between the nose and the ground if you wish....

Since I'm using the 10gx, once broken in I'll likely be flying with a 12x6 APC... starting with a 10x6

maukaonyx

Hobbico Hobbylite balsa filler works well...sticks good, sands easy, very light. I have an ABS cowl on an old CG Ultimate. While it still works, it cracks pretty easily. Suggest you look at Fiberglass Specialties to see if they have the cowl for your plane. Worth it to get a good FG cowl and just do the work once. Might be heavier though, which works fine if you need some nose weight to balance. Just an option, as the ABS can be made to work and last. Nice build ya got going, by the way! I am too lazy so I am assembling a H9 RV-8 right now, haha. Jon

LawnDartMike

If you could measure it that would be great. I need the prop size since it is the third part of the electric motor+battery+prop=thrust equation. The motor I have in mind would need a 14x7 and 4s battery to get around 110 oz of thrust. I could drop a 5s and 12 inch prop and get about the same but then you start gaining weight.

mattnew

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I see.. I'm an electric newb... and apparently one of the few who still like glow and gas engines... so I didn't understand that too well....

A 14" prop on a .40 sized plane is probably going to be pushing it... if you have a paved runway your probably ok.... but a grass field and you'll be weed whackin all the way down  the field without longer legs.

I'll measure and post tonight when I'm home

mattnew

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Fiberglass specialties does have a cowl for the rv-4 .... really wish they had some pictures on their page though...

mattnew

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Starting the covering....







and the engine arrived... mounted it in my guinea pig phaeton II to break it in and see how it runs...


so before you say... "my thats a lot of lead weight in the nose.... " yes... yes it is... this plane was built in 1994 when I was about 15., it has several thousand flights on it... its been crashed more than many planes have been ever been flown.... the super glue and bracing through the body has over the years made the plane a bit tail heavy.. hence the need for the weights. This is one of my all time favorite planes.... such a great great flyer I would strongly encourage anyone looking for a .40 sized bipe to build a phaeton. Wonderful plane.

tobydogs

hello matt,i also built the rv4-40 and the fuse is a solid build all around....but man o man i had the worst warp in the first wing i built and then ordered a second kit to rebuild the wing. it came out better but the tips were at different angles again and i wound up using weight to straighten them out. the design of the wing is what i hate about the kit.

anyway,i'd think having so many issues and then a maiden crash after rebuilding the wing[had a bunch of flights on the first wing }i'd give up...lol,but the rv sure does look great in the air and now finding your build thread has me longing to replace this bird back in the hanger.

i did a build thread on wattflyer and made many point to the poor wing design. i much prefer building on a table pining the wing down like most build are done. here's a few pictures of what once was,the power equipment i regret using.the first wing had the flaps,the second went with full legth ailerons....i built it electric and reinstalled all turnigy electrics.this was the cause of the crash due to the esc being very poor and i believe it cut power to everything. now i only use eflight motors with castle escs. live and learn. looking forward to watching your progress. stu

chadxp1

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here was mine. I think I lost it by them means of a high speed stall. the plane came in on the heavy side after the build. I really loved that plane and the way it looked. Only had the opertunity to fly it twice.

Yours is looking good. Good Luck. FYI, I ended up painting the wing tips. I used hot glue to glue them to the outer rib. worked out good.

mattnew

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@tobydogs:

mattnew

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tobydogs

looking good matt,what would you say is the biggest issues with the wing and exactly what should we do to build it straight. i have the fuse pieces in the box still and would need to replace some pc's for the fuse assembly. the temptation to buy another kit and hope the 3rd wings a charm is great, i'm just glad i have the bird of time kit on the table and another mod to fit 7cells in the greatplanes extra 300s.

hattend

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Tower sent me a notification that this kit was removed from my wish lish.

Guess that means the kit run is over. Now I'll have to scour hobby shops to find one.

Don

Bill Diedrich

They are showing it in stock: http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXAEY0&P=0

hattend

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You are right... The one that got removed was the larger 70" span ARF. My mistake! Whew!

Don

rye

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http://www.greatplanes.com/techsuppo...a0180tech.html

i build one years ago great plane now we have the gaints and they are better flying ones,rye

tobydogs

hello gang.....ya got me now! i took the old rv 4-40box with fuse pc's out from behind the furnace and popped all the pc outto start assembly of the rv. problem is the one ply side is sevierly warped and wouldn't flaten out. i had also taken all the sheeting and sticks out of the box to build the wing and use on other projects so i couldn't go anywhere with the assembly today. i do have the drawing under plastic protection and wax paper. the other thing i have is a new kiton it's waythat i ordered last night. should be here this week.

amazon had a dealerthat is a hobby shop with 99%rating ,the price was $99 and free shipping. can't beat the price.

i really want this wing to turn out perfect and need to find the reason for it warping. i will take any advise and may even call greatplanes again and ask if they have read any other build forums other than mine complaining about the designe. i don't see many build threads on the rv,but i will say this for the overall looks of the rv....she rocks!!!!!! when i brought it to the field,the gang surounded it and lots of compliments. i am very glad it'll be back in the hanger.

one more thing....no cheap china electrics that caused the wreck of the rv #1. its going ep with eflite power60,castle creations 100amp ice esc,zippy 7cell 4000mah 40c lipos,new hitec standard servos,aux battery for the rx,and an arming plug since the battery will be bottom fed into the nose of the fuse and i want easy power up with a deans arming plugsame as i did to the gp extra 300s,and hog bipe]. i also plan on full length ailerons as i don't need flaps to land and a high roll rate is more desireable. i won't be posting a build thread as i did that already for rv#1 and the second wings assembly. i will share any issues i run into so others can share solutions or learn from our builds.

matt ,i won't hijack your build and am looking forward to seeing further results. stu