Gravityisnotmyfriend

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I finally got away from SPADS and ARFS and decided to jump into a kit. This was supposed to be a winter project, but at this rate it will be ready to fly before the weather is. I've never built a kit before, but I just can't stop working on it. I really hope this turns out well, our club is full of ARF's and I'd like to show up with this bird. So far, I've learned one hard lesson. I need to measure the pieces before I go and cut them. On the tail feathers and control surfaces, it said to use 1x1/4x24 inch balsa to cut for the gussets. I grabbed a piece that looked right and cut all the gussets from it. Then on the ailerons there is a part that also calls for 1x1/4x24 inch balsa. I took the piece that I had been using and it turned out to be to big. I was using balsa that was 1-1/8" wide instead of 1". It worked fine for the gussets, but now I might not have enough of the 1-1/8" stock left to make the TE of the wings. I guess that's why the LHS sells balsa. Well, here's some pics. I got a long way to go, but I'll keep updating on my progress. Any advice for a kit newbie is encouraged.

Gravityisnotmyfriend

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Oh, I meant to put in my progress. So far I have the horizontal and vertical stabilizors, rudder and elevators, and ailerons done. I've started on the fuse, but I need to use parts left over from the wing construction. So, if I get time, I'll start the wings tomorrow.

Gray Beard

My Feedback: (-1)

So far so good and that little mistake is just about normal, that's why we all keep A stock of balsa handy in the shop. I never built the Dazzler but have got to fly one quite often and it's A good one. It will do almost anything you want it to. Keep up the good work, I will be jumping on every now and then to see how it's going.

Gravityisnotmyfriend

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Thanks for the reply Graybeard. I haven't got a collection of balsa, but luckily it doesn't seem like I'll need it yet. I got the wings framed up. I still have to do some shaping and sheeting, but that's it for tonight. It turns out that the balsa that I misused was for the intended for the leading edge. I got two 30" pieces with the kit and I only needed two 24" pieces. Luckily I didn't use more than 6" of one piece before I caught my mistake. Well, here's the latest progress: (I really need a real digital camera, but the webcam will have to do for now)

Gravityisnotmyfriend

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I just got a glimsp of what my new plane is going to look like. Pretty exciting stuff! I can really see the draw to kit building. It's pretty cool to see an airplane start to emerge from a pile of sticks! I still got a ways to go, but I'm getting there.

DVI

I built the Dazzler early 2003. I have been flying it since, and I think you are going to really enjoy that little airplane!
I put a OS 46 FX on mine and had to add 4oz of lead weight under the horizontal stablizer for balance. But the airplane will go vertical right after take off. It is a very stable airplane and you can fly it very slow and still have solid control. The airplane does great snaps and tumbles. Just make sure you add colors that you can see well due to it is easy to get disoriented due to the small size and low fuselage side area.
Also if you turn the engine on its side with the exhaust muffler pointed down under the airplane you will have a lot less mess to clean up after flying. Oh yea the canpoy will dye well using Rit-Cloth Dye.

Gravityisnotmyfriend

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Thanks for the tips, I was wondering what to do with the canopy. Its funny though, the one consitent tip I've gotten for this kit is to mount the engine on its side, so that's already in the plans. I'm planning on putting a Th .46 on for power which weighs half an ounce more than the .46FX. I hate adding weight to a plane to balance it so I'll try to mount the movable parts as far back as possible. Do you think I'll be able to move the battery and reciever far enough back to balance it?

DVI

It cant hurt to try. Due to very little room and the elevator & rudder servo's mounted in the back of the radio compartment the only place I found to mount the battery was at the front of the radio compartment just behind the fuel tank compartment.
If I had to build another one I would make a access hatch toward the tail that I could put weight or the battery in.
Good luck with your project!

Gravityisnotmyfriend

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Made alot of progress today. My to do list is getting much shorter. I just have to put the rest of the cap strips on the ribs and build the hatch covers for the radio and gas tank compartments. Im almost ready to cover. I think I will go ahead and build another access hatch toward the tail of the plane to put the battery and/or the receiver. I put all the engine and all the radio gear in and temporarily attached the control surfaces and its considerably nose heavy. This is without the gas tank or main gear attached. I realize that the CG will change with the covering, but I thought that this would give a fairly good estimation of what I'll need to balance it. I'll have to put this on the back burner until after finals, but then I'll have all of Christmas break to finish it.

Gravityisnotmyfriend

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I was messing with some color schemes on G2 and I think this is what I'll go with. If I decide to put the flames on, they will be on both wings. I found that the red and white top and bottom make it easiest to tell what its doing. Its a very simple design, but for my first one I think that is good. I did put flames on a different plane with monokote. It looked good, but it was time consuming. I guess if the Dazzler looks to boring I'll add them.

Gravityisnotmyfriend

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AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!
I started doing some covering on the dazzler. I've got the rudder elevator and ailerons (the easy parts) done. The rudder was the easiest because I covered both sides with the same color. On the elevator, the top is red and the bottom is white. I was having a heck of a time getting the seams straight. Every seam I cut, I get it to look a little better. I just finished the second aileron. The seams were almost perfect. I went back over it with a heat gun to tighten it up and take out the wrinkles. As it turns out, the heat gun will burn a hole right through the covering! (refer to line #1). I put a dime-sized hole right in the top of the aileron. Since I still had everything heated up, I took a piece of scrap covering and patched the hole. It's barely noticeable now, but I think I should remove the covering and start over. What a PITA! Since this is my first covering job, I know it won't look perfect so I might leave it. But then again, it'll be alot easier to do the covering right before the aileron is attached to the plane. What do you guys think? Will the patch affect how the plane flys at all? Is there a chance it could come off in the air? I'm really just looking for someone to tell my that if I leave the aileron patched that my plane will spontaneously combust as soon as it leaves the ground so I won't be inclined to take the lazy way out.

CAPtain232

My Feedback: (40)

Go ahead and recover it... This is the time to redo it, plus it will make you feel better about the job you have done. It is one thing to poke a hole in it some time down the road and patch it, but to do it now........besides, if you take a BRAND NEW BIRD to the field and your friends see the patch you can only imagine what they will say.


BTW, LOOKING GOOD.

Gravityisnotmyfriend

My Feedback: (2)

CAPtain 232, thanks for the remarks.
It was painful, but I pulled the covering off. I was hoping that I could keep the bottom covering on, but apparently monokote sticks to monokote better that it sticks to wood. I couldn't get the top layer off without pulling the bottom off with it. On a happier note, at least I don't have to worry about my covering job. I had a heck of a time pulling the covering off the wood, there's no way it'll come off in the air. I still got alotta covering to do, so this probably won't be my only wasted monokote, but I can hope.

Gray Beard

My Feedback: (-1)

The patch wouldn't have made any difference at all and it would have stayed there forever. It would have just showed up better over time with engine snot and dirt . Speaking of engine snot, that's the reason most guys mount the engine on it's side, look were your muffler would have ended up if you mounted it any other way. Your plane will spin like A bit in A drill so just make sure you can tell the top from the bottom. On my Up-Roar I have one side white and the other side red on the bottom of the wing and that helped A lot. Looks like you have done A great job on the frame up.

Fubar-One

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I have a small 6" plastic ruler that I bought at my LHS and it has notches all along one side in various sizes, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, and many sizes in between. Pretty much any size up to a half that you might come across. Comes in VERY handy for measuring balsa thickness'!

Fubar-One

My Feedback: (1)

[X(]
Oh my god, didnt you know that if you maiden flight a plane with a patched aileron, it will burst into flame spontaineously????
Re-cover that aileron immediately!!!
Seriously tho, covering a plane is the absolute LEAST favorite part of kit building for me. I have had fully built kits sitting around for months just because I cant bring myself to start covering em.[:-]
I am my own worst critic (hard as that might be to believe) when it comes to my covering jobs. Have you ever been told the 5' rule? If it looks good from 5' away, you did it right.
Just wait till you fly that sucker for the first time. Its quite a feeling flying something you built from a kit!

Gravityisnotmyfriend

My Feedback: (2)

Fubar,
Three books? No one said anything about three books!
I've already re-covered it. I'm kinda bummed because the seams turned out better the first time. I guess it doesn't really matter though. I'm sticking to the 5' rule.

DVI or anyone else,
I'm going to put an acess hatch toward the rear of the plane to have room to move things around if I need to for balance. I can either put it right behind the wing to access the area between F3 and F4 fuse formers, or I can put one behind the F4 former to acess the area between that and the tail. Where should I put it? I'm afraid that if I put it in the first place, I won't be able to move stuff far enough back. But if I put it in the secong place, it might be too tail heavy if I put anything there. There is a hole in the middle of the F4 former, but it isn't big enough to fit the reciever or the battery through it. Any thoughts? I'll probably put it right behind the wing, unless someone thinks otherwise.

Fubar-One

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3 books?

Gravityisnotmyfriend

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Army of Darkness reference. I figured you were a fan judging by your Necktie, Nectar, Nickel... Definitely an N word...

DVI

I think that just behind the wing would be a good place if you can fit your reciever battery there without interference with the rudder and elevator control rods.
If not make a hatch as close to the tail as possible to put weight if you do not want to stick it to the under side of the horizontal stablizer which is what I had to do.

Fubar-One

My Feedback: (1)

Duh!!![sm=bananahead.gif]
Had that up there so long I dont even think about it anymore. I kept looking for some kind of hidden message that turned up in my posting or something!
I am ashamed that I didnt catch the reference, especially how often I watch that movie, how often my friends and I quote the movie, and the fact that I have a McFarlane action figure of Ash (complete with chainsaw, boomstick in back holster, Necromaniacon, metal hand, fork and mini Ash) sitting on my entertainment center.

Gravityisnotmyfriend

My Feedback: (2)

Fubar, don't worry about it. I had a guy make a reference like that to my avatar on a different site. I had the picture up so long that I didn't catch on right away either. Sounds like you're a big fan too, the last pic is of my living room.

Back on subject though. I got alot done again today. I'm finished with all the construction and sanding. I got a good start on the covering, my first wing turned out better than I could have hoped. I could probably have this done this week, but I gotta wait until next month when funds allow for me to buy the rest of the stuff I need.

Gravityisnotmyfriend

My Feedback: (2)

Made some more progress today. I could've finished the base covering, but I ran out of white for the bottom. On the second pic you can see the hatch I put in behind the wing in case I have balance issues. I haven't covered the vertical fin yet because I can't decide on the color. I made the rest of the top of the plane red, but the rudder is white. Should I make the vertical fin red or white? I considered making the fin red and then adding red to the top part of the rudder so the top matches the fin and the bottom matches the rest of the bottom of the plane. I won't be able to get more covering until after this weekend, so any suggestions are welcome.

DVI

My vote is to cover the vertical stab Red.
After covering dont forget cool stickers placed around airframe.

Gravityisnotmyfriend

My Feedback: (2)

Red would make the most sense, except that the rudder is all white. I'll probably try that and if it looks bad I'll cover the top part of the rudder to match the vert fin before I glue in the hinges.