Yeah, right! As soon as I rented this garage, my wife started parking in it- so I can only get work done when she's at school, or on Saturdays [&o]

Besides, next winter begins my full-scale kit build (RV-7), so I gotta save some space (not to mention $ [X(]) for that. Tools alone minimum $2k; I'm figuring approx $80k over 5-6 years with a mid-time Lycoming. Then you will see an awesome shop!

OK, finally some progress! Sorry for the long wait, everyone. I got the top wing spars glued and all the ribs prepped. The die-cutting, while certainly not as good as a laser, was nevertheless nice and easy to separate from the sheets, with minimal trimming.

One thing that I had to improve upon were the spar glue joints. The wing spars are butt-joined together in the center of the wing, and the instructions say to simply epoxy them. I plan on putting this bird through its paces in the air, so I reinforced the spars with medium-weave fiberglass tape, wrapped around the spar joints and glued securely. Very strong!

Thin CA was used here, soaked thoroughly into the tape. [&:]

Probably overkill, especially if that is a balsa spar. The wings are so short it probably doesn't need much of a spar. Good luck.

its good to see you making progress! hopefully more to come next week

Oh, well... its just the engineer in me[sm=bananahead.gif]


Andrew- yeah, I've been really jonesing to get some work done. The plan is to come home on Friday and lock myself in to the workshop. Will post good progress on Sunday.

Yesterday morning I went to fly my Smith, I had to add 200 gr. in the front, for firt time I enyjoyed this plane, the landing was very slow and soft, this plane is great but be careful with CG, is in the front od the botton wing.



My regard from Chile

Thanks, MP3- I'll be sure to check it. Nice looking plane! One question for you- was there much shaping of the nose portion necessary in order to get a good cowl fit? Some of the instructions are vague.

I did a Liberty Sport and this model have the same problem with the cowling, while I was building I trimmed the nose.
You can see my building there

http://cach.cl/foroSMF/index.php?topic=146.0

Well guys, looks like this thread is going to disappear for a while. My digital camera is broken! I sent it in for warrantee service, but who knows how long that will take. Sorry!

oh well, i guess that means one heck of a progress report later on! depending on where you bought it or if you are sending directly to the mfg it could take at least 3-4 weeks.

Yeah, I'm not planning on seeing it anytime soon; will count myself lucky if its back in my hands before Christmas.

The good news is that the top wing came off the building board last night. [&:]

You waited. Then you waited some more. Well, my digicam is back, so here we go again!

Funny story behind the digital camera- I sat on it by mistake, and the little display screen broke. I was literally on the last day of the warrantee period! Well, I called Kodak and they said to send it in, and the short ending is that they fixed my camera for free! Thanks, Kodak.

Back to the Miniplane- the top wing is fully mounted. Trim needs to be completed, but otherwise done with the top one. I have the bottom wing taped on just to show you guys; it still needs the ailerons cut out and servo hatches installed for dual servos.

I'm using hinge points for all the control surfaces, and the rudder will be a pull-pull setup. She's really starting to take shape!

My beautiful, loving wife also got me a new toy for Christmas (you can see her new toy on the table by the empennage [8D]). I've been really curious about getting into the electric side of this hobby, so I'm looking forward to getting this one up in the air.

One more pic, a side view...along with a shot of my supervisor for the evening.

Guauuu, my wife gift me this plane



I have a cat too.

This is one of my favorite bipes! I've built a couple of them now. What is nice is to save the plans. Everything is there for you to cut new pieces and build more!

Here is my plans built Mini:
[img] [/img]

I went so far as to scan the plans and save them to CD... I'm starting to build a plans collection!

Hey Ilikebipes, excellent job on the plans-built Mini, by the way. Couple of questions for you:

What size Saito is that, and

how did you do the cowl cutouts for the valve covers?

The reason i ask is I'll be installing an O.S. 52 Surp in my Mini, and was figuring that I'd have to remove the valve cover in order to get the engine inside the cowl for initial measurements- you know, to get the correct drive washer clearance. Any tips or even just a description of your engine/cowl experience would be appreciated.

Thank you very much.

I'm running the Saito .56. It gives me all the power "I" want. Enough to pull through loops. Definitely not unlimited vertical, but that is not why we would want a Mini. I've run the OS .52 surpass on a Mini, and I felt it was underpowered. (Sorry) For some reason the saito puts out a bit more "gumption." I'm interrested in mounting a Magnum .52. I think that ought to do well also.

Be prepared for some "schooling" on take-offs. She is a ground looping queen. But once in the air, she is amazing. Snaps, spins, lomcevaks, etc. It does not like large round loops. I think it has to do with the flat bottom wing. I'm actually considering building a semi-or fully symetrical wing to see how aerobatics improve. Even still, she flies like she is on rails. Pretty quick for a bipe too-IMHO.

You will love landing this bipe. She comes in very slow. Trainer speed slow.

I mounted the moter on the firewall and installed the cowl by lining up the spinner ring on the cowl with the back plate of the spinner with an 1/8 inch gap. Yes, I did have to pull the valve covers off to put the cowl on to start, And you might find there will be more sanding to mount the cowl.

Once the cowl was initially mounted, I pulled the cowl back off and put my valve covers back on.

Then I taped a piece of 8 1/2 x 11 white or tracing paper, length way, from behind the the cowl towards the front of where the cowl would be. Trace the outline of the valve cover or cylinder heads that will protrude out of the cowl onto the paper how you would like to see it fit. Cut the necessary holes out of the paper and line it up with the engine to ensure it lines up properly, and fits over the valve covers or cylinder head.

Do not remove the taped paper from the fuse. Remount the cowl with the valve covers removed. With a finetipped felt permanant marker, trace the hole you cut out of the paper onto your cowl.

Remove your cowl and do not cut to the lines you traced with a rotary tool. Rather cut inside the traced line.

Re-install the cowl, try fit the cutout of the hole over the valves. More than likely you will not have perfectly placed the hole where it needs to be. This is okay, and the reason you do not want to cut all the way to the lines you traced out, but it puts you in the right place geographicly Cut only little bits at a time, eyeballing it, and keep refitting the cowl to make sure you don't go too far. Be patient, and you'll get it perfect.

Re-install the cowl and enjoy your handiwork. Use sandpaper to clean up the holes you've cut out. That's how I do it.

Good Luck! I'll gladly answer any other questions you may have.

-Bipes

MP3,
Hope you decide to do a building thread on the Se5a. I have that kit as well and it seems to be a very nice sport kit and the parts are of high quality. I have a few more in front of the Se5a though.
JEB

Now I'm building Goldberg J-3 for my son (and my self) but my next proyect is SE5a, this plane will be red like this...



Most of SE5a are olive but the red one is very nice, maybe it look like DR1 but the red one is different.

To day I asked to my hobby store a new kit fron Smith Miniplane, actualy TowerHobbies doesn't have this plane and I afraid this model will disappear soon[&o].
That happened with Liberty Sport and many models, I feel the modelist will do the same. []