sebo

CONSTRUCTION BUD NOSEN GIANT AERONCA

DAY 1.
Day one on eBay. Wow, a Nosen Aeronca and the bid is only $25 with no reserve.
Bid on that baby. Next day the bid is $125.
I sure would like to have this kit. I’ve wanted one for almost 20 years now.
I bid $150, $175, $190. I hope nobody else keeps raising the bid.
I wait and sure enough I win.
I pay through Pay Pal and the kit arrives in excellent condition 4 days later.
I open the box and notice that the construction booklet is only 3 pages.
The plans are in excellent condition and I find the plastic for the windshield rolled up in them. It is a bronze yellow and has been coiled so long it springs back into a roll when I attempt to unroll it. So I trash the plastic.
The wood looks good, and is die cut. Most of it is good but some pieces are in need of a little work.

sebo

DAYS 3 THRU 6
It took 3 evenings to cut out the pieces and sand the rough edges off.
It looks like everything is there even the wires for the landing gear.
There is no cowl but instructions are there for forming one out of wood.
I elected to purchase a fiberglass one on eBay for $24 plus shipping.
Construction begins.
I unroll the plans and pin them to the work bench then tape wax paper over them to protect against glue dripping.

sebo

DAY 7
I get out the needed ¼ inch sticks and start cutting and gluing. Just like the good old days of building the old Comet kits.
This is the result of one short evening of work.

sebo

DAY 8

I took a day away from building.
Each side of the fuse has to be built separately. As I had mentioned earlier, be sure that you don’t build 2 left sides or 2 right sides.
I ordered some 21st Century fabric from Tower so that I’m ready when the time comes to cover it. Got matching paint too.

sebo

DAY 9 AND 10
Today I added the light ply reinforcements to the inside of the cockpit area.
The pieces were labeled incorrectly, so it was necessary to lay them in their respective places and label them correctly prior to gluing into place.
I messed up and glued a piece in the wrong place. After removing the piece it was only suitable for the trash can so I used ¼ inch sticks to create a new part. No problem. It will probably be stronger than the original.
UUGH. I thought I was done re-cutting die cut pieces. Formers 1 and 2 are ¼ inch ply. Well, not really. Each is a combination of two 1/8 pieces that have to be cut and released from their respective die cut boards. They then have to be glued together to form those ¼ inch formers (see photo on Day 11). Actually, the die-cutting was pretty good here.
While waiting for the epoxy to dry on the ¼ inch formers I decided it might be a good idea to put gussets on the joints that are butted. I used 1/32 plywood. These are added on the inside of the fuselage. Not much weight is added by doing this but it definitely insures joint strength.
I only hope that these gussets don’t interfere with the bending of the fuselage sides when I lay it over the top view. (The gussets had no effect on the bending.) Next, F2 former was glued into place. It’s not in the instructions to do that now but I’m doing it to insure that I have a 90 degree angle.
I found out that the 90 degree angle could have been achieved by waiting until both sides were finished. Had I waited, it would have been less cumbersome sanding both sides. (However, I did end up with 90 degree angles and a very straight fuselage.)

sebo

DAY 11
One side is pretty much completed.
Waxed paper and sticks are prepared for other side.

sebo

DAY 12
Tonight I finished the second side and gave it a good sanding.
The pieces in the first photo aren’t used unless you are going to build up the cowl rather than purchase a glass one.
Four sheets of ¼ inch balsa siding are included in the kit.
Two pieces are somewhat hard balsa and 2 are pretty soft. I elected to use the hard stuff just below the window so that it would provide strength for securing the firewall.

sebo

DAY 13.
While I was waiting for the airplane fairy (the guy in the Brown truck) I did a little more work on the fuselage.
It’s starting to look like something now.
So far the build is going quite well.

sebo

DAY 14 – 18
Ran ¼ inch square strips down the bottom and put the ¼ inch dowel rods on the side.
Trying to get F1 to fit without alterations can’t be done….at least not by me. So, I built up the sides on the inside until they were a match to F1. You may consider buying a couple of sheets of 3 x ¼ x 36 or maybe 4 x ¼ x 36 balsa to build up this area.
I’ll have to sand the cowl area to shape. I also put ¼ inch square hardwood to reinforce the attachment of F1. This hopefully will give me the structure that I need when I put my Super Tiger 3000 on it. I have the engine so why not use it? I don’t have to run all out.
I went to my LHS and bought a main landing gear. I’m no good at soldering so this is a much better alternative for me.
The gear I bought is too wide but the other dimensions are correct so I’ll cut it down with my Dremel and file it of smooth.

sebo

Day 19
Sanding the cowl area was easily done with my Black and Decker mouse.
After getting the fiberglass cowl to fit I then sanded the tail section of the fuselage to shape.

sebo

Day 20 - 25
Mounted the engine and cut out the holes in the cowl.
Cutting the landing gear down to size has turned out to be more difficult than I had envisioned. Tomorrow I hope to finish it up.
The progress is starting to slow down.

sebo

Day 26 – 30
Working only a half hour or so each day accomplished the following.
I decided to use plastic control horns for the wing strut fastening points on the fuselage. I never did this before so I hope it is a wise move.
The landing gear was mounted and the underside of the plane was sheeted.

sebo

Day 31.
It will take a few days to complete more building.
Please bear with me.

[email protected]

Hi,

I'm a fellow flyer from "down under" , and have recently bought second hand a build 1/4 scale Bud Nosen Aeronca champ, which I intend to set up for aerotowing, and for sky diver transport.

Could anyone give me a idea about the deflections setup for the control surfaces, and where the balance point is.

cheers.

sebo

Here is the CG right on the plans.
It is just below the front side window.
Hope this helps.

I am unable to find any reference to control throws on either the plans or in the instructions.

[email protected]

Thanks for that !
Sorry it took long to reply, computer problems.......
It''''s a bit hard however to measure accurately from my screen, could you give me the measurements sideways and down from the forward bottom corner of the forward side window?
I also keenly await the deflection amounts.

cheers from down-under!

sebo

Here it is.

sebo

I''m sorry about the deflection amounts. They are neither on the plans or in the construction manual. If they are there somewhere, I am unable to locate them.
Maybe someone else with a kit has them.

[email protected]

Thank you very much Sebo for your help, you''ve put me on the right track, now only the reflections needed.
So if someone can help me there ,I would greatly appreciate it .

Kind regards ,

Mark

FokkerAce

sebo.....plane looks great.

deflections should probably be an inch or so.....surfaces are large.

not listed on my directions either.

my Nosen/A&A Champ is waiting on covering.

FA[8D]

Mode One

Been about 20 years since mine crashed when my best friend turned on and shot mine down. Was a fun, long build. Actually mine was a Nosen A&A Industries Citabria, converted to a Champion 7 GCBC. I powered mine with an O.S 1.20 four stroke which flew it nicely. True, you could not hover it; however, I haven''t seen many full scale Champs that could hover, either.

sebo

Thanks!
I finished the tail feathers and took pictures but I don''t want to spend the money to develope just a couple of pictures to post.
Starting the wing tonight. I should have something to post before the week is up.
What color scheme are you going to use?
I''ve picked this one.
Ron

ronwc

My Feedback: (404)

I just bought this one from a guy, it''s old and needs a little work (like trim), but I''ll get it going. It''s big and a little on the heavy side, it has a ST 3000.

sebo

I''m going with the st3000 too.
Let me know how it flies.
I know it is way more power than is needed but that is what I have and I''m gonna use it. Besides that, it is a perfect fit for the cowl.

EF

Nice build!
The Aeronca is a great model.
Mine is the same size (108" span) and built from the Precedent (Hobby Lobby) kit.
Weighs 10 lb ready, powered very well with an old OS 61 FSR using an APC 13-5.