jrcaster

Ok, I decided to start a new thread on the Great Planes Super Sportster 40 MKII kit. Here are the pictures that I have so far.

Images 1 and 2 are self explanitory
3 is all the die cut plywood
4 is all the die cut balsa
5 is of all the die cut parts
6 is all of the wood in the box
7 is the new style leading edge
8 horizontal stab being sanded
9 horizontal stab being fit
10 vertical fin being sanded
11 the glue up
12 improvised wedge clamp

jrcaster

The wood glue that I ended up with is Elmers Professional Wood Glue. It seems to be very similar to Tite Bond 2.

I am planning on using the wood glue any place that may need sanding. I also plan to use CyA, and Epoxy where appropriate.

The improvised wedge clamps are clothes pins. I wanted to do something different here.

The weights are 1 pound ingots made from melted wheel weights.

jship

My Feedback: (4)

Looks good.

Is there a reasion that You went with the 40 size. My eyes are not what they used to be. The 60 size would work better for Me. At least I could see it.

Keep up the good work.

john

jrcaster

I like the 40 sized because they are easier to store, and I already have the engines. I have an ASP .61 but usually that ends up on the low end of the power range. The .46 engines usually end up on the high end.

I did the rest of the tail as in the manual. I am not the straightest with a hand drill so I am going to have some patching to do later. Where I am going to change from the manual is in the rudder so I didn't do anything else to it now.

1. This is the Horizontal stab and elevator after setup. I marked the center-line off the plans onto the leading and trailing edge on the stab. The leading edge is not centered right. I will have to adjust this before it gets glued up.

2. Sorry so blurry, this shows the connecting wire as it is hooked up to the elevator halves.

3. The hole and slot in the LE of one rudder half. I used the 1/8" bit on it's side to dig out the slot. It pulls itself off center so this method is not good. I don't have any 1/8" tubing on hand, but will have it before I get to ailerons.

4. About 90 percent of the wing wood.

5. This is the pile of parts after they are separated from the die cut sheets. The balsa released easy and didn't need to be cut. The plywood parts released ok, but I had to sand the back sides to get the small holes out.

6. Here are the center ribs getting setup for landing gear blocks. As you can see these are set up for either trike or tail dragger.

7. Glued up with 30 minute epoxy

jship

My Feedback: (4)

I didn't understand picture #7 from Your first post is this the new style leading edge? Are they alying on a flat board? Hadn't seen it done that way before.

john

jrcaster

Yes it is the new style when they updated the kit. it is sitting on a 4 foot fold up table. When I started with the glue-ups I put a piece of drywall on the top of it. I haven't checked it for flat yet. I will before I start on the wings.

mnrcaerobat

My Feedback: (197)

It is also the trailing edge.

jrcaster

Yes it is both the leading edges and trailing edges, sorry I didn't mention that. Trailing edges are on the outside, and the leading edges are in the middle.

No new pictures to post yet, I just removed the weights from ribs 2 and 3 sets, and broke out the wing jig. It has never been used so I had to put it together. The rods are not straight. This may be a little setback.

Checked the holes in the ribs and they are loose. Also the holes in the plywood landing gear doublers are too small. I will have to use a forstner bit to resize them.

First I need to check the size of the rods to order replacements. I still haven't decided if I am going to use the jig to build the wings or build them on the board, but I was planning on stringing the ribs on the jig to sand them. That way they will all be sized and matched, then lay it out on the jig to see if it has any advantages. Going through the manual, I noticed that the landing gear blocks are installed before the leading edge sheeting goes on so I can't use the jig after that point.

Anywho, time to go shopping.

piercedb

My Feedback: (18)

Here is my completed SS 40. I used a OS Max 46AX, I really love this engine. Much better than the 46LA, which is still good, but the AX is awesome. It takes the SS40 straight up as far as I want. I was able to do square loops even. This is my first low wing and is quite easy to fly. As far as construction, I bought an original kit off of ebay. I learned that when someone says, "It looks complete, but selling as is", that means there are no plans!!!!! However, the only difficult part was the CG. The spars already had grooves for the ribs and everything was easy. CG, I had to guess from the manual which was present, thank goodness. I think the original has CG slightly forward of the MK II location. It is slightly behind plan, and performs very well. I did not try to build the entire "cowl" the engine was too big for it to fit very well. So I only put the sides on. I also used a single servo for the ailerons. This plane doesn;t seem to have a fast roll rate, not sure if the single servo is the reason. I will likely try to add some throw and see if it can go faster.

I added a couple pictures. Notice the name and pilot! My family thought it was a dumb idea but they have warmed up to it.

jrcaster

PierceDB, Nice looking SS. Since you covered that one with racing stripes, are you leaning toward going into pylon? I see you have two build projects going on. So what are those fuselages to sitting in the background of that last pic?

I haven't decided on a covering layout yet so keep posting pics to give me some ideas. I am thinking on something with the Nike swoosh.

Now into the build, I have made a lot of progress. I gave up on the wing jig, it is a piece of ah... junk. I enlarged the holes in the plywood rib doublers for ribs #2 and #3. Then I installed the ribs on the rods. First problem, the holes are so far apart that they wouldn't stay on the ledge. Second, the holes were not lined up right so I couldn't fit the spars on. At this point I pulled the ribs off the jig and dissassembled it and threw it back in the closet. All this after I spent a couple of hours last night straightening the rods. Anyway.

To the pics.

1. and 2. I put the ribs on the spars to line everything up, At this point I tried looking through the jig holes and they were not even close.

3. and 4. I then clamped the ribs as a module to sand them.

5. I then cut out the balsa on ribs #2 and #3 to fit in the Landing gear block.

6. and 7. Here are the #2 and #3 ribs ready to be installed.

8. and 9. Here is what the leading and trailing edge block looks like. I cut one LE and TE from the block, cutting first in the middle between each, and then I was able to fine cut them to shape.

10. and 11. This shows the warping of the LE and TE after they are separated. Luckily they are warped fore to aft so when the LE and TE sheet go on it should straighten every thing out.

jrcaster

Now we are ready to start building wing panels. According to the manual they are built up-side-down to get to the landing gear block.

1. and 2. Here we have the spar after some carefull pinning. I started by staggering vertical pins in front of and behind the spar to line it up. Then I started the cross pinning as in the manual.

3. Here is everything ready for glue-up.

4. I couldn't fit the square between the ribs so I had to install the top spar for a flat surface, then use a block layed beside the rib to square up to. I used thin CyA to glue the TE first, then the LE, bottom spar, and last the top spar.

5. This is the dihedral guage set up against the root rib, #1. As you can see the top is angled out for up-side-down building. This is different than the old style SS series.

6. and 7. As rib#1 is being glued in (medium CyA) The fore and aft wing dowel blocks are glued in.

8. and 9. So, here is the wing so far.

jrcaster

Last night after I posted the pics, I went back and added a fillet on every joint with wood glue. When I got up this morning I checked the ribs, The tip rib wasn't square. I had to dig out the wood glue in that rib, and use debonder to loosen the CyA. I ended up breaking the front section of the rib, and broke the tab off. I used medium CyA and kicker to the tab, and I will have to wait till all the debonder evaporates before I can continue. I will give it a couple of hours to be sure.

1. This is the fillets of wood glue

2. broked rib, That is as far as I had to go, the bottom spar joint was square, and so were the LE and TE joints.

sean444

JR
Love these build threads. Looks like your making good progres. Thought Id send a few pics of my SS40 MK1. Built it last winter and flys great. I also ended up with a modified swoosh. Keep up the good work and have fun.
Sean

jship

My Feedback: (4)

jrcaster
Looks great, keep the pictures comeing.
john

jrcaster

1. After waiting a few hours, I CyAed the top of the rib back on and gave the joints a wood glue fillet. We are back in business

2. I can't remember where I picked this saw up but without the spine it is great for flush cutting. just lay a finger on the side of it and it cuts straight. very little sanding to flush things up.

3. and 4. Flush cut spars, TE, and LE on inside only. outside is to support the wing tip

5. 6. and 7. The next step is to add the shear webbing, this kit gets it all the way out to the tip rib and a double web on bay 2. The dihedral brace will fill in bay 1.

8. Now it is time to drill out for the alignment pin. The older kit used 3 or 4 nylon bolts to hold down the wing, this one gets only 2.

9. and 10. Now we get to epoxy in the Landing gear blocks. I made sure to add a good fillet on this.

I used 30 minute epoxy so now it is time to let it set up.

I keep using the fast reply and when I go to add images, the link is not there. Good thing this lets you cut and paste.

jrcaster

Sean, I like that. That stripe also hides the switch too. An arrow in that style would look nice to.

piercedb

My Feedback: (18)

I do have TWO, yes two Ziroli Stukas in build. I was afraid I would crash the first! A second one really doesn;t take that much longer. The racing stripes are for visibility. I should have used one larger stripe, the two smaller ones are a little too small.

I used 5 miniute epoxy on the landing gear blocks and joining the wing halves, but 30 minute when I fiberglassed the wing center. I bought fiberglass cloth at the boat store and used West Marine small patch epoxy. It came in large ketchup like packets. One set did the top and one the bottom with plenty left over. to buy a better solution for glassing the Stukas, need more materials.

jrcaster

Just curious, why doesn't anyone show off the bottom of their airplanes?

jrcaster

Well I just spent the last hour removing the landing gear block. I put the vertical block on the wrong rib.[:@] Anyway I carved all the fillets off, tried just removing the vertical and found that to be the strongest joint. so I had to remove the main block, carving into the rib joints carefully as not to dammage the wing. I used a pair of channel lock pliers to twist it loose, then I could snap the vertical loose. I cut out all the epoxy and re-glued the blocks. Correctly. Sorry no pics.

jrcaster

And we finally move forward.

1. Here is the landing gear block, finally, with the mess-ups. They won't show after the landing gear go on.

2. I test fit the landing gear, it is very tight.

I let that cure for a few hours, and when I removed the clamps and set the wing back down on the board, I noticed that the wing was twisted. There was almost a 1/4" gap under the left side, so I pinned the corners down.

This afternoon, I pulled the pins out to see if there was a difference, the left side lifted but no where as bad as before. I pinned it back down and here is glueing the TE sheeting. I used wood glue so any edges are easier to sand. I first set the piece on TE and pinned the rib to give the sheeting something to lay against, then put my straight edge/yard stick against them to pin a center rib.

3. and 4. Here is the glue-down of the sheeting.

5. and 6. Next step is to cut a 3/8" deep groove in the root rib for the dihedral block.

7. Then I had to sand an angle on the LE of the LE sheeting (not in the manual but for better glue joint) and press down on the landing gear block to imprint it for cutting. here is the final result.

When I did the glue up on the LE sheeting, something told me to check the incedence. it was 1/4 degree low on the tip. I removed the pins from the spar side of the LE sheeting and wedged a piece of balsa under the TE at the tip rib, and re-pinned.

8. 9. and 10. Here is the wing with the sheeting done.


If this didn't fix it I might have to overflex the LE sheeting on the opposite side of the wing.

jrcaster

1. After a few hours drying I pulled out all pins. I still had 1/4 degree difference in incedence so I pinned down the spars and trailing edge, and shimmed the low side.

2. and 3. I flipped over the wing, cut off the tabs, and sanded the trailing edge to get ready for the top sheeting.

4. Here is the wing after the sheeting. I shimmed the incedence of 1/2 degree to see if that will pull the wing straight.

Gray Beard

My Feedback: (-1)

I can see A major flaw in your building and know why the mistake happened, your building board and area are way too clean. If my wife sees these photos she will be at me to clean up my shop so at least my chairs will roll again.
Nice build you have going on. Where did you get the kit from???

jrcaster

Now Grey Beard, Where did you accuse me of shopping? Tower Hobbies.

As far as the neat area, I keep the pictures close cropped for a reason. If I showed the rest of the room, your wife would never complain again. []

jrcaster

On with the build. I checked the incedence and it was right on. I think it was the glue up more than the wedging that brought it back in. I forgot to cut the slot in the root rib to match the one in picture 6 of post 20, so I had to cut it in using my exacto. I broke that section between the spars and the servo mount off and re-attached it using thin CyA.

I am starting on the right wing at this point till I get them both up to this point. Anyways here are the pics.

1. Here is the wing after all the pins are removed.

2. Here is the slot after I finnished cutting it in. It gets 2 plywood dihedral braces shoved in here. The larger one gets wedged between the spars and the plywood wing dowel brace. The second brace goes between the spars and against the first brace.

3. All tabs have been removed and ribs shaped for cap strips.

4. and 5. Both ends after sheeting has been cut and sanded flat.

6. Looks like I have a lot of sanding to do. Good, I thought the wing tips were rather blunt.

One of the remaining spars was warped pretty bad. I used a wet wash-rag and wiped water on the concave side, and used my sealing iron to steam it as straight as I could. is still has a liit curvature to it but not too bad. It had about 1/2" warp when I started, and now is close to 1/8".

7. and 8. And now on to the second wing. I hope I don't have as many problems as on the first wing.

This build is going faster than I would have hoped. I hope I can make it last.

Alex7403

Looks good so far.
tell me please when do you use that long sanding bar?
i have 11" and 5.5" , does bigger then that needed?
Thanks
Alex