Thanks Jim!!

Chashint, My bipe came out at 7 lbs even. I had a Saito 72 and I was supprised because I like glue. Only thing I did was to sand the tail a good bit because I read in Hook's thread where lots were coming out tail heavy and I didn't want to have to add weight. Mine balanced perfectly and flew great. Hope to build another soon as I miss it. It flew off into the woods and never could figure out how I lost reception. I guess I should have called in the NTSB. I then built an Astro Hog and have only flown it once. I guess I'm nervous it might escape too.

I'm back at it ...

When I last posted, I was finishing up the wingtip sheeting and attaching the trailing edge centerpiece. Both of these steps are represented in Pictures1 and 2.

The next step is to shape the top wing alierons into the wingtips. Since the centerpiece is curing, I decided to move on to the lower wings. I'll re-visit the ailerons on the upper wing when I have to do so on the lower wing.

TaDa! Milestone moment in the build - changing out the plans (Picture3). For whatever reason, I feel like the bottom wing is going to go faster. Probably because I've already done most of this once on the top wing and I think I know what to expect. We'll see - if today's build is any indication, the bottom wing will be mostly complete in a couple of days.

I decided to build both halves of the bottom wing at the same time. The manual advises against this, but with some care, I think I can handle it

So I started by punching out the die-cut holes in the ribs and marked the main spar where each rib gets securred. I used CA to affix the ribs to the main spar. In 15 minutes I had what you see in Picture4. The only part that needs extra attention is the wing root rib (W-1B). This has to go in at the proper dihedral or the bottom wing's going to be all out of wack (technical term). I'd prefer not to mess around when joining the wing halves so I took my time and made sure the W-1B ribs had the proper angle on them (Picture5).

Next came the placement of the Top Spar and leading edges (Picture6) - since we've covered most of this earlier in the thread, I won't re-hash the techniques.

The wing dowel blocks are next. They are purposely oversized and need to be sanded down. Remember, the W-1B rib is NOT perpendicular to the building board and you'll have to take that into account when sanding/shaping it to fit between the ribs. I got a bit too aggressive on the sander and made the second block too small - fortunately by 1/16". I CA'd some scrap 1/16" sheeting to the end, and was back in business . As you can see in Picture7, both blocks fit well.

Finally I trued up the trailing edge sheeting and glued the bottom sheeting on using the technique I talked about earlier. It's curing as I type this. I will likely do the trailing edge sheeting on the top this evening and call it a day.

Not bad progress, even if I do say so myself [sm=shades_smile.gif]

Picture1 - Top Wingtip sheeting rought sanded
Picture2 - Trailing edge centerpiece, shaped and curing
Picture3 - Here are the bottom wing plans before I cut them out and placed them side by side
Picture4 - All W-2 Ribs in place on each bottom wing half (W-1B are not yet in place)
Picture5 - W-1B at proper angle for dihedral - note for illustration I am showing this against the Triangle - to insure proper angle, I used the supplied Dihedral Gauge
Picture6 - Top Spar in place, leading edges getting clamped and curing
Picture7 - Balsa Wing Dowel Blocks in place and curing

Lookin' good MA - keep it up!

My Hog is in the "buff" right now. Just a few more details to iron out along with a bunch of sanding, and this pig will be ready to cover! I'm having a blast with this build. It's my first bipe, and it's already a whole new world!

Sweet! Love the naked look JCB!

I am so jealous of you !!!

Looks like a nice clean build so far MasterAlex.
Its always easier to sand if the glue is under the sheeting instead of being on top of it.

There have always been reports that the Hog Bipe tended to nose over, but I have not had any issues with that and I fly at a grass field.
The rudder and elevator are very powerful as designed, it is easy to give it to much rudder and climb right out of a knife-edge. Not sure what kind of flying would need a larger rudder or elevator.

Just curious is you get any roll or pitch coupling in knife edge?

Jim

Ain't that the truth!! I am trying to be careful to keep things neat and tidy - part of the by-product of doing a build thread

I am currently putting in the servo rails on the bottom wings - I'll likely post some progress pics later this evening. Getting close to putting the wings together.

-MA

Yeah, right. Well, I did say mostly

I have taken the bottom wings off the building board at this point. The solid block trailing egde has been glued on and is curing. Only a few small steps remain before joining the lower wings - a major milestone in the build. I need to start thinking about ordering the Saito 100 since that's needed for the first step in the Fuselage assembly. By the way, I was at the LHS the other day and I picked up the Dubro composite landing gear that was suggested earlier in the thread. When I get around to it, I'll snap a picture of the kit supplied gear next to Dubro's. The new gear is significantly less flimsy.

A few comments on the Dual Servo Setup. For whatever reason the diagram that accompanies the manual addendum just didn't register with me. Maybe I enhaled too many CA fumes or something ... who knows. The pictures that accompanied the addendum didn't really help. The directions talked about putting the capstrips on the servo bay flush with the "inside" W-2 rib. Inside from which perspective? I finally just got out the pieces and the light went on - I snapped a few pictures so others won't suffer the same Brain Fart as I [sm=bananahead.gif].

Instead of cap stripping the servo bay, I decided to first apply the 1/4"x1/2" hatch rails. These have to be cut to shape - note the addendum's diagram is not to scale - don't cut the pieces off the sheet, use the physical wing. Picture1 shows the rails clamped in place. Once the hatch rails are cured, I added the cap strips - which to me were on the "outside" of the W-2 ribs that make up the servo bay (picture3).

The rest of the servo hatch build takes place just prior to joining the lower wing halves.

Next I added the trailing edge block, taped and snapped Picture4.

Looking back at my pictures, here's a couple that I took during the lower wing build that never got posted here...

Picture1&2 - Servo hatch rails glued in, clamped, and curing
Picture3 - Cap strips added to "outside" of hatch rails.
Picture4 - Trailing edge
Picture5&6 - Sheer webbing
Picture7 - Front 1/2 done...

Oh heck yeah LOL there is quite a bit of coupling on the knife edge.
One of my club buddies wanted me to demo it for him today so I was showing him how axial the rolls are and how it stalls and I tried some knife edge flying too.
I only did it using right rudder today, it will hold the knife edge easily but I couldn't really hold it on a straight line, it moved towards the bottom of the plane. I am not the greatest RC pilot and I am sure one of the better fliers could make it look real sweet. At about 1/2 throttle it will still turn right out of the knife edge if I give it full rudder. Maybe I need to reduce the throw on the rudder, right now it is set so it has maximum deflection but it does not touch the elevator. The ailerons and elevator are set per the recommended high rate settings.

I've got both roll and pitch coupling on mine. I can mix out the pitch coupling, but not the roll coupling with my 6XAS radio.

Jim

Another mistake I made on the bottom wing was the center section trailing edge (Yeah I make plenty of errors). It can be installed upside down so eyeball it and make sure the top side looks right to follow the contour of the wing.
Also if it is thicker than the wing align the top edges so you will be removing material from the bottom side.
This will make fitting it in the wing saddle much easier.

Thanks Charlie! I am about to join the wings, so this is timely advice.

-MA

Alright I'm back with another posting. This one promisses to be a juicy installment [sm=wink_smile.gif].

Anyone out there superstitious? Me? Naw, not me - I wore the same pair of socks to every football game in high school - didn't "feel" right playing without that particular pair. Tore my ACL the game I didn't wear em ... No, I'm not superstitious. No black cats in the shop ... ever (but that's a different thread here on RCU ). Anyway, according to the date stamping on my camera, this is the 13th day of the build - cue spooky music.

Today, I start by shaping the trailing edge of the wings like I did on the Top wing. Once again, my trusty razor plane makes quick work of it (picture1). From here, I goto the I-strut mounting also like the top wing. I had a bit of trouble here as some glue had squeezed down into the space between the 2 W-2 ribs - I shot a picture (picture2), but you can't really see the glue in there - trust me, it was there. I used a small file to get rid of the glue and made room for the I-Strut. This is where the "building gods" were trying to get my attention - saying, "Alex, look at the plans ... this is important ... we're making this difficult so you'll pause, re-read the directions, and not go down the path you're clearly on ..." Unfortunately, I disregarded the signs and plodded along, epoxied the struts and clamped (picture3).

When the epoxy cured, I came back and added the wingtip sheeting like I had on the Top Wing (picture4). While the sheeting dried out from its shower, I started on the aileron hatches. Pretty straightforward stuff here. One neat device I picked up at one of Hobby Lobby's "crash sales" last year was this neat little device that plugs into a battery and allows you to work/center servos without a radio - nice. I used this (picture6) to make sure my servo was centered before epoxying to the hatch. Also, when I drilled out the servo mounts, I used a pin drill - very handy as well (picture7)

... continued in next message.


Picture1 - This is after about 5 minutes of plane work. Imagine how long that would have taken to sand off - not to mention the balsa dust.
Picture2 - Glue seeped into this area where the I-Strut gets inserted. I used a file to get it out and inserted the I-Strut.
Picture3 - I-Strut epoxied into place, clamped, and curing - you Hog experts are laughing/crying at this picture...
Picture4 - Wingtip sheeting - the sheeting is wet, which is why its darker in color.
Picture5 - Dubro langing gear I picked up at the LHS
Picture6 - New gear compared to the Kit Supplied gear - slightly taller and wider.
Picture7 - Servo centering device.
Picture8 - I liked this so much I posted it twice!
Picture9 - Drilling the servo mounts.

Day 14 of the build - made it through unlucky 13 unscathed ... oh how wrong I was [:@]

After sanding down the wingtip sheeting and ensuring the center ribs were as straight as possible, I started the process of joining the wings. Now several of you guys have me a bit nervous about this step, since you've posted that your lower wind dihedral was not what it should have been. I really slowed down and became quite careful in these next few steps. Looking at the plans, the dihedral of the wing should be 2 3/8" high when one wing is flat to the board - when measured to the last Rib, not the wingtip. Okay, fair enough. I built a jig to 2 3/8" high so I can make darn sure that wing is at the correct height (picture1). Next, I get to remove the area on the W-1B ribs for the dihedral brace. When I first started building the bottom wings, I scored the W-1B ribs to make it easier to cut during this step. Picture2 tries to show this scoring. I also marked the center of the dihedral brace so I could get an indication of proper fit (picture3). You can see from picture4 that the brace didn't seat all the way into the wing. I started with some small files, trying to file down the glue - one of the areas was CA and as we all know, that's a bear to sand (you end up sanding surrounding wood, not the CA). It then dawned on me to sand a small angle at the very tip of the dihedral brace (not effecting it's purpose) in order to "get over" the little CA ridge of glue next to the rib - worked like a champ.

Okay, now I'm ready for some dry fitting. I fit the dihedral brace onto the wings, tape the leading edges together and clamp them in the center. Not the best fitting wings I've ever seen, but definitely better than my worst effort - it's mostly sheeting work related (I hate sheeting). Now, to test fit my little jig I made earlier. So how do I position the wing, so the I-Strut doesn't interfere with the height? I mean, this thing sticks out the bottom of the wing and is going to make it harder to measure my 2 3/8" dihedral. I hope you guys are grinning about now .

So I figure out how I'm going to position the wing so it hangs off the table and I can then dry fit all this together. One last look at the plans, to re-verify the height of the dihedral ... "hey what's that sticking up on the plan?" "how is Sig showing the wing lying flat on this plan and not showing how to deal with this I-Strut protruding down ..." Gasp! Primal Scream! [sm=cry_smile.gif]

Yep, for those of you that didn't see this coming, I epoxied the I-Structs (on the 13th day of the build), facing the WRONG DIRECTION! Now what?!? Ever seen a grown man cry? [&o]

Well, I took a break and retired to my "thinking room" - you guys know where that is, right? Some of my greatest inspirations come in there.

Well, there's no way I am going to simply pop those guys loose with all the epoxy in there. I could have heated the area with a heat gun in hopes of removing, but no dice there. My next thought was to live with the servos on the "top" part of the bottom wing and reverse the dihedral, do some major surgery to the dihedral angles in the center, and hope for the best (that thought quickly went away). No, for me, there was only one choice (and its too late to go back now - its done). It was ... those who are squeemish are incouraged to look away - you've been warned.

I removed the ribs with the I-Strut from the wing entirely - GASP. (Picture6) Honestly, this came after careful consideration. I had a plan on how to "fix" this...

Now this wasn't as simple as flipping over these pieces, remember that the blind nuts have to face the inside of the wing in order to match the top wing. This meant flipping and swapping wings. I carefully cut the second assembly out, using the first as a guide. They went back in each other's spaces with minimal gaps. So, what did I do to re-attach? Lot's of epoxy .

Well the last 4 pictures tell most of the story. I made an extension to fit between the ribs with some scrap the same width as P-3. I shaped this to match the contour of the ribs (picture7). I also figured two popsicle sticks on either side (like a splint on a broken finger), running the legnth of the rib from under the trailing edge sheeting to the sheer webbing would be more than enough for stregnth. Picture8 shows the dry fit of this "fix". Pictures9 and 10, are of the entire setup curing after liberal applications of epoxy. I got these pieces back in place as close as I could ... will it be close enough -- what do you all think?

Sorry - somehow the order of the pictures got messed up when I wrote this - appropriate eh?

Picture1 - I crafted this to make sure the wing had the proper dihedral
Picture2 - I scored W-1B to make it easier to remove this section for the dihedral brace
Picture3 - Center of dihedral brace marked
Picture4 - brace is hitting some glue on the second rib and not seating all the way in
-- pictures out of order, I don't know how to fix, sorry guys --
Picture7 - Making an extension to fit between the ribs
Picture8 - Dry fitting the assembly onto the proper wing - popsicle sticks re-inforcing either side of the ribs and extending up to sheer webbing
Picture9 - Epoxied and clamped
Picture10 - Looks like it's straight

Picture5 - Razor saw through the back end of the ribs
Picture6 - Entire assembly removed from the wing

WOW!! what a blunder with a great follow up recovery!! I commend you for hacking up the ribs like that. I'm not sure i could have ever done that without losing my mind! When i glued in the I-strut brace things, i quintuple checked everything to make sure as i didn't want to be left in a pickle.

As far as the dihedral, i put a 1-3/16" block under each wing tip. For some reason that made me feel more "balanced" if you know what i'm getting at. When gluing, i put a weight on each wing tip as well as a weight in the center of the wing. I haven't gone back to check the dihedral for certain, but it seems ok. I have to go check the i-struts as that will be the "end all be all" as the whether the angle is correct or not.

Thanks! Believe me, I am still kicking myself for this one. I think it was saved, however. I will know better when I get to the point in the build where I mount the wings to the fuselage. Talk about a major brain fade [:@]

-MA

If all else fails, you can always cut some slightly larger i-struts. As long as both sides are equal in size, you can't really go wrong...

My bottom wing mounted up straight and true on the first try. It appears as if the top wing is tweaked a little. I will have to work it out when i go to drill the i-struts for the top wing connection. It seems like i have the dihedral pretty close. I just went and checked it out and without any extensive measuring or anything, it looks like everything fits just right. I'll know for sure when i break out the measuring tape tomorrow [&:]

Well I went down to the shop this morning before work, in order to get a look at this "the morning after". I am satisfied with the surgery. I'll snap a few close ups later today to illustrate the results. To JCB's point above, the next step - should there need further adjustment - will be the I-Struts themselves. Man, I hope I don't have to go there. [&:]

Well hopefully this "blunder", forever documented here on RCU, stands as a reminder to everyone to make sure every step in a build is done properly.

Hey, not everyone's thread is "perfect"!

-MA

Good save MA

My apologies but I had to throw this statement out there once more! As I was reading that, I couldn't help but hope you didn't jinx yourself. If you only knew how many infamous statements I have made, to find out I should have listened to begin with. Just jerking your chain, I'm sure we can all think back to these mistakes that are made and laugh at ourselves. Bottom line, nice save on an easily made mistake. I am envious with your creativity to correct it. Nice Work!

Oh man ... I knew that was gonna haunt me when I wrote it! I am laughing now ... sort of. The more I think about this, the more I am happy with my "reaction" to this mistake. Heck if every build were perfect, they'd be boring! Anyone can follow directions, it what we do with the mistakes that makes us builders.

Thanks for the words of encouragement guys!!

-MA

Looked what arrived at my doorstep yestarday. Ordered on Monday, delivered on Tuesday - thanks Advantage Hobby!

-MA

Man that’s a beautiful thing. I love opening up a new engine.