vupilot

hawkpilot,

I just noticed you are located in Concord, NC. I was just there last tuesday the 23rd. I should have asked you where the good hobby shop in town was.

hawkpilot

My Feedback: (7)

I could have shown you a decent one not too far from the airport, if you are here again for a little while and need a ride let me know.

vupilot

Yesterday I got back to work on the LJ. I installed all the lower fuselage formers, hatch and wing saddle triplers, and installed and shaped/sanded the rear aft lower fin blocks. I also built the lower fuselage servo bay hatch. No pics, as hawkpilot already posted great pics of these steps.

hawkpilot

My Feedback: (7)

VU, we have to see your pics too!!

vupilot

I didnt even take any yet, still need to do some final sanding and fitting. Its tough to make everything a smooth transition in the area between the hatch and the fuse and the hatch and the lower aft fin blocks. Once I have it all looking nice and smooth I may take some pics then.

benfisherone

WOW A Learjet 40. I had one years ago. Take offs were tricky, but flying and landing was easy. Nice plane. I used a webra 50 speed. Had retracts, but had to remove them and go to lighter fixed gear. With the extra wood, servo, and retract it was just too heavy. Tip stalling on most take offs were expected. you will like this plane.

hawkpilot

My Feedback: (7)

That was a fun part to shape, Wait till you reach the bottom nose section.....that was even more fun!! I have the retracts in the wing, roughed in the bottom nose section (everything still needs filling of gaps and final sanding), installed the throttle pushrod. I also finished my dust collecting sanding board, I will post some pics in a little while as I do not have any taken also. Now that the holidays are out of the way hopefully there will be more time for the lj's.

hawkpilot

My Feedback: (7)

Here are some pice of the sanding box and LJ progress. I built the box from an article on here, I will try it out tonight.

vupilot

Very nice. Looks like your lower forward fuse section came out great. I saw that sanding box article, cool idea.

What filler is your favorite for filling the seams in the sheeting? I'm using the Jet brand and I dont know if it just sat on the hobby shop shelf too long or what but I dont like it. It does not stick to the wood very well when I apply it. I've used drywall spackle before and it is easier to apply but I didnt want the extra weight with this model.

hawkpilot

My Feedback: (7)

Thanks... I am using hobbylite by hobbico, it works well for me. I tried out the box with a 5hp craftsman shop vac for suction, collects dust very well, no more balsa dust in the lungs or sneezing!!!!!!

hawkpilot

My Feedback: (7)

I have made a little more progress, the canopy is ready ( I had to make a wedge shaped filler peice between f2 and the canopy, as I pushed the canopy former in too far when gluing by mistake), installed the ventral fin, rough sanded the fuse and started to fill any gaps. The tip tanks are getting close to being ready for the paint shop, the nacelles are almost ready for primer. I only have a few more parts to install and then it will be time for ALOT of sanding and blending.

hawkpilot

My Feedback: (7)

VU how is your progress going? I would like to see some pics. Do you know if you will be flying into Concord again?

vupilot

Slow progress here. I've actually been removing the covering from my Uproar all day to recover it sometime this winter. I'll recover the Uproar as practice before covering the LJ. I'm worried I may not get these done before the weather turns warm again. I still need to buy a new radio. All mine are in use with the memories full.

Im about to cut the slots for the nacelle pylons. Might get to that tonight. I still have not glassed my wing joint, I want to trial fit it first incase i need to sand a litte from the trailing edge so I will put that off until nearly last.

Luckily I dont work much this week so I should get some work done on it. I still cant get over how fast yours is coming along.

vupilot

Here is my fuse. I added some 1/8 inch strips to fill the gaps between the hatch and the fuselage sides. When its held shut with screws as my hand is in the picture it should be a seamless fit. Im going to do my best to make the seams invisible on the cockpit when I get to that point as well.

hawkpilot

My Feedback: (7)

Lookin pretty good! Did you have a couple blocks on the rear that just did not shape well (low quality wood)? I had one that just did not like the razor plane. Every pass just tore off the wood instead of making clean passes.

vupilot

I just sawed off the big parts with my mini hand saw then widdled it down with the xacto knife and sanded with 80 grit to get the basic shape, it seemed to all be consistent and of good quality.

Got the slots for the pylons cut tonight. Worked on finishing up the last lower section sheeting behind the wing saddle, just needs final sanding.

vupilot

I just bought a NIB OS .55AX engine on ebay for the Learjet. Decided to put the .46 back in the Uproar when its recovered

vupilot

Getting there...

tailskid

My Feedback: (34)

Just a note that when I built mine I had to solder the flex pushrods at the elevator junction as they would flex when "UP" elevator was used.

vupilot

Thanks Tailskid, I had been wondering how well the elevator pushrod design on this would work. Not easy with a r/c T-tail. Seperate dual elevators have always given me problems in the past by not traveling the exact same amount on each side so I am wondering how troublesome this setup will be. I much prefer to join the two halves with a rod to ensure equal movement which I may infact still try to do if I can do it without it being visible.

vupilot

My OS .55AX came in today, just had to mount it up. Then I decided to put the wing and tail on and see how it all looks together. My vertical fin is not quite vertical, that will be a tough fix but I think a little time with a file in the fin slot will fix that.

HawkPilot,

That lower forward fuselage is a bear, how did you fit the large center balsa slab, yours came out very nice. I think I may trace the void between the side pieces with paper and crayon to make a template then cut the center section to fit that template. What do you think?

vupilot

more

hawkpilot

My Feedback: (7)

When I did that section I trimmed the side pieces down (just a 1/2 inch nice and level "notch" ) to match the step on the firewall, the top of f2, and the step on f3, just at these locations!! I then used my straight edge to draw a line on the side pieces from the firewall to f2, then a line from f2 to f3 using the notches as reference. After the lines were drawn I carefully trimmed the side pieces down to match the steps and the top of f2. I then used a sanding bar to square it up and glued the slab to the tops of the side pieces, hit it with a little bit of kicker, and then rough trimmed the slab and got out my favorite tool, the razor plane. Once I planed it down to shape I used 80,150, and 220 on easy touch sanders going from side to side (not front to back, if you sand from front to back it will yield flat spots on the curves, yes you are usually supposed to sand with the grain, but not in this case) to match the curves. After that I used filler to fix any gaps. I hope this helps and is not too long winded.

vupilot

Nope thanks, i was wondering if you followed the instructions on this step or found a better way.

hawkpilot

My Feedback: (7)

Now that you mentioned it I only remember reading about the 4 side pieces and then just went out on my own.