I am in the middle of building a SSE. I was wondering if anyone had any tips on mounting the top tank sheeting?

THanks,

Victor

make a separate hatch "cover" for it instead of a permanent fixture. Saved me on my first flight. Clunk fell forward and I had to take the tank out/apart to fix it.

My tank sheeting job sucked. If I had more patience, I'd soak the sheet in water, tape it to the formers, let it dry and use carpenter's glue with plenty of masking tape.

Since I'm impatient, I used CA and managed to stick it on there out of place. The wood cracked after bending it too quickly, and some filler came in handy.

Rather than use water to bend the balsa, I have started using pure ammonia in a spray bottle. It seems to work much better, and the wood holds it shape real well afer it dries. It smells like h*ll, but it seems to work much better than just plain water. I too had problems with the sheeting on my SE, and on the canopy hatch, I ended up going to the LHS and finding a sheet of more flexible balsa than was supplied in the kit. You can see pics of my "mess" on the thread below, and how it looked after it was finished. Took a lot of sanding, but came out ok in the end. (It's post #7)

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_19...tm.htm#1914644

I used alcohol and had no trouble with the tank sheeting. I held it in place with a couple of rubber bands while it dried and then I glued it.

You only have to wet the top - not the bottom, move slowly and give whatever you're using to wet the top of the sheeting time to get into the sheet.

I'm surprised to hear that someone is building such a rare kit...

Anyone want to buy mine? It's just not my style...

I made a removable hatch too. Much easier to get the tank in and out. Let me know if you need help and i will take some pics of it and send them to you.

Can you post them for the rest of us building SSE's as well?
Thanks,

I did a bigger rudder because for my opinion....it was to small....I dont have the knife edge capabilities so far

julien

I've also added 1" to the rudder and modified the tail feathers to incorporate counterbalances.

I added an inch to the rudder too. That is really the only mod i did to this point. Once I finish the fuse, I need to square off the wings to get a good fit. Thought about using epoxy with micro balloons.

Build is progressing slowly, at this point. I am trying to finish this plane and a Burrito at the same time. Am bouncing between work benches

On a somewhat unrelated topic, does anyone have a good source for a pilot bust for this plan?

Thanks,

Victor

Hey FLYBOY,

I would like to see your removable hatch also. I am to that stage and I am putting in a bigger tank (10oz) for my OS 70II FS. I think I will need a removable hatch, because I think I have a fuel line air leak in my current SSE, and I am dreading tearing the top hatch off.
Can you post it here, or you can send it to [email protected] .

I will try to upload the pics that FLYBOY sent me.


Victor

Looks like it worked

Heres a couple others.

I used a 1/8th in ply plate in front of the removable hatch on the plans. Shortened it 1/8th inch and put the plate in on the back side of the bulkhead as I remember. You could also re-build the bulkhead to include it and not shorten the hatch. Then I made the hatch over the tank out of solid balsa instead of trying to build it up. You could do that and hollow it, but I didn't. Just used a solid piece and sanded it to shape. Lip in the front goes under the front sheeting, and a screw in the back. You could also use smaller plates front and back and use 4 screws to hold it on instead of the lip.

Hope that helps.

I ended up doing the tank top sheeting just like the hatch top sheeting ie. by using some 3/16 square stock to make up for the bend that the sheeting didn't want to make.
BTW the manual suggests that making the tank top into a removable hatch will compromise the strength of tzhe front end of the craft ... up to you.

Also, consider that if you want a tank hatch, try putting one on the bottom of the fuse behind the landing gear. On my modified SSE this would work (though I didn't bother) but I checked before the fuse bottom was installed!)
I. F.

I read (awhile ago) someone recommended not gluing the cardboard tube inside the fuse. This way you can remove the tube and pull the tank out. I just finished building the wing panels myself. Will be starting on the fuse soon. I may look closer at the tube idea myself. A guy could even use elastic bands on the female tube and then just push them out to either side touching inside the fuse sides. Interesting idea, may take more strength away then the hatch though!

What I did on mine was to dremel out the arc'd part of the tank shelf. I had already glued the cardboard tube in place. I was able to take enough off of the back side of the shelf that the tank drops down just as it reaches the carboard tube. Then it is just a simple task to tilt the back of the tank upward and pull it out. I made it easier by making a duct tape handle on the rear portion of the tank. That way I have something to pull on. It works great.

Did everybody use the recomended tank size or did anybody put a bigger one in?

I used the recommended one. With an OS46FX and the light weight, I get plenty of flight time without trying to extend it.

I was given a SE that had crashed from a hover. Wing tip crushed, aileron cracked, and some fuselage cracks. I saw some heavy epoxy from old repairs around the firewall and decided to cut the nose off and rebuild that too with a new firewall. I replaced the bottom sheeting back to the main gear, and used pine blocks and nylon bolts for the gear. I made some new cheeks out of 1/4" sheet, and sheeted the bottom under the engine too. The original top hatch was not used. I took all of the sheeting off of the top, cut the formers down, and made a single flat sheet to run from the firewall to turtle deck. I ordered a new canopy from Sig. The top hatch is now flat and is held by 2 screws into hardened tri stock at the firewall. I've probably put around 80 flights on it so far. The hatch exposes the entire front of the plane, so you can work on everything. I had a fuel leak on one of the first flights, so I'm glad that I have the longer hatch. I also made a new aileron.

I have an Evo .46 NT and it will hover fine. It knife edges, but that isn't something that I do often or am proficient at. The original owner cut an aluminum fin to screw into the main gear. It is about an inch long and tapered slightly. He says that this improves knife edge performance a lot. While the Evo has tons of power, I have a Tower Hobbies muffler on order for a little extra. I've used a variety of 11" props, and the 11x4 APC seems to suit the plane best.

By the way, I had a midair with this plane and another SE. I was coming down and hit him hard, my right wing to his left wing. My wing went across his after crushing his leading edge, hit his aileron, and left a 5" piece of my leading edge in the side of his fuselage. Both planes flew quite well and we landed without any problems. I had another crushed wing tip, leading edge, ribs, and sheeting. He had the same, aileron cracks, and a lot of cracked formers and fuselage side cracks.