lascurain77

Epoxy the inner and outer wing panels with the wires in place but do not epoxy the wires, after the epoxy has cured stand the wing on it's leading edge, hold the wires in place with some pins and epoxy them. It may take some time to get a good fit but you will get there.

You are building very quickly and are almost done with the most time consuming part of the build, what are you going to use to cover it?

Jaime

WIbowhunter

If and when I get to the covering (Turkey season is just around the corner) I somewhat think I will use some neon yellow on the front of the wings and fuselage. The rest will be translucent red from monacote. I mite try to do some other trim. As I said before I am an elderly rookie in this business. I used to fly my J3 cub and my two children gave me a Goldberg Anniversary J3 30 or so years ago and It set on a shelf in the basement until a year ago when I saw and decided to build it. Somehow the guys at the local RC club found out about and invited me down and one of the guys flew it for me. I tried to fly it, but it kept trying to roll on me so I gave that up. I liked building that and I wanted a plane to learn on so I built Sig LT-40. I jot that done last fall and deer season came and the nasty cold, snow so flying has been out here scence. I then needed something to do so I built a Sig Something Extra. I set around for a couple of weeks when that was done and thinking I needed something to do I ordered a Sig Hog Bipe. You won't believe be;eove me but that is also done and waiting for some warmer weather. The only one I will fly will properly be the LT 40 until I can fly it. I have a couple mentors at the club trying to teach me. They tell me that a regular pilot and elderly is the hardest person to teach. I'm doing a lot of flying on my Phoenix 5.5 quite a bit. At least 4 or 5 5 minute flights most every day. Any way I like airplanes. My first flying was u control back in 1950. The last time I flew one of those I ended my flight by running it into the front end of my bosses pickup.
Thanks for your info to both of you that answered my request.
Enough!
Tom

lascurain77

Wow Tom, You build super fast, at that speed you will finish it in no time, I been trying to finish my sig something extra for the las 2 years, I have a little one an a half year old girl that has all my attention at the moment, so far I have a pair of wings ready for the final sanding and no place to finish the rest, In think you will enjoy the gentle manners of the butterfly, I'm a regular pilot and I didn't knew anyone to teach me when I was starting in the hobby, my only experience was in the real flight simulator and a I was able to take off and land (after a few go arounds) in one piece, it was a few months later that I grew careless and got distracted and I let my butterfly fly into the only tree in the field, mine was orange fuselage with transparent orange on the wings and tail feathers, it was powered with a used OS .15 FP.

Jaime

DGrant

My Feedback: (4)

Here's a pic of that wing joint(inboard to outboard).. and also a pic of the center section area and joiner tubes. I resined (just 30min epoxy) these areas once they were firmly joined(again 30min epoxy).. to shore them up a bit.

I also did what I think Jaime did, which was inserting the joiner wires, then gluing the wing sections(inboard/outboard), then following up with the epoxy resin as you see in the first pic to "set" those wires....

Something I've always done is to make sure everything fits very well before laying down any glue/epoxy... same with joining those wing assembly's. I dry-fit all of it several times before gluing. That's one of the cool things about the Butterfly, is everything will fit... it's the "puzzle" aspect that made it interesting to me I think... haha... as to how well I could make it fit... that was the challenge that really took me back to the craft.

It sounds like you've got some building under your belt too... Those planes you mentioned are some really nice kits... The fact that you've taken those on says you'll do just fine with the Butterfly... Matter of fact, the Butterfly is probably somewhat easy for you I bet...LOL.. The cool thing is though, we learn something from every build, as well as eachother... Here's a few pics for you..

2walla

My Feedback: (10)

i had my butterfly out the other day. i like shooting slomo touch and gos with it.. only mod i would male would be to extend the nose 4-5 inches as mine has a bunch of lead on the nose to balance

WIbowhunter

Some how I am a little confused at this time of day. I get a e mail that some one posted here on the thread and I answer it. I then check here and my answer is not here. What Am I doing wrong. Anyway here goes here and see what happens.
Hey there 2walla. nice hearing from you. It is nice to know that some one is flying now. I could have but I went to Madison to the deer and turkey classic. Spent the whole day down there and walked and walked looking at tons of deer and turkey stuff. By the time I got back home I was beat. I did stop in town and bought some 5 min and 30 min epoxy. Was very disappointed that I didn't have enough strength to go down into the basement and glue one side of the wings together. Oh there is always tomorrow.
2walla I have read quite a bit on extending the nose on the fuselage. After I get the wings done then I will concentrate on that. Thanks for the info.
Tom

lascurain77

About extending the nose:

What I did on my las two butterfly kits was to get a lighter balsa for the tail feathers and a heavier engine, also I moved the servos and battery to get the correct CG.

The butterfly has a very long tail thus a big momentum, saving a gram on the tail will make a big difference in getting the CG in the right spot later on, having said that, the tail feathers are the first parts that get built and doing those again it's almost the same work as extending the nose, on my first kit I used the supplied wood and a light engine, I added 6.5 oz of lead to the back of the firewall and it flew beautifully, so adding weight to the nose is not an issue, that wing has some serious lift!!

Jaime

WIbowhunter

If one, two, three, or more of you people could give some information on how to put pictures on here I would try to show you some of my efforts on building my planes and also picture of them .
The info on trying to lighten up the tail section is great. Somehow I will work on that when I get the wings finished.
Thanks!! Tom

WIbowhunter

After church today we came home and I cooked dinner. After that I felt good enough to go down and work on getting one of the wings together. After trying several of the things offered here I got it together so it looked really nice. I will have to do little sanding to get it where I want it. Then came the new 30 min epoxy. That has set for four hours so decided to try for the other one. I had to do a little sanding to get them to fit. That done they again fit nicely. I epoxied them and then I epoxied little wires on the other one. Tomorrow morning I will epoxy those little wires and then the final sanding. The wings then will be ready to cover. I suppose then I will have to get on with the fuselage
Tom.

DGrant

My Feedback: (4)

I'll try to briefly guide posting a pic... at least a few steps in the right direction.. First thing is, you go into the "Go Advanced" prompt... which is found on bottom right of the "Quick Reply" box near the bottom area of page(probably where you've been posting).. The text box comes up, where you enter your message, and there's an "Additional Options" box below that. There you will find the "Manage Attachments". Click on that, and a window comes up. In that window at #1. Click Add Files(far right of #1 line)... Another window comes up that is the browse window for your comp.. which is where you choose your file to upload to the other window... Once you get those uploaded to the Manage Attachment window... just select the pic you want to post.

It will take a little to figure out... It's not been real easy here for some..and it's not always been like this.. but it seems to work for many people... I'm not a fan of how they have it set up... but I get by somehow myself.. I'm not a computer guru by any stretch... but I'm pretty sure you'll get the hang of it.... at least the info is a step in the right direction... bottom line really is, anything other then posting text is done in the "Go Advanced" window.

So we'll start with that and see if anyone else can throw up some more info to help.

It does sound like you're just whizzing away on that Butterfly... that's great! I think I took about 3 months of off and on work to fully complete mine... I had a job back then too... and I'm also very leisure when working... I'm not known for fast in any case.

WIbowhunter

My J3 cub on it's maiden voyage. The guy that flew it said it was the best of this size he has flown. I took that with a grain of salt but several other people said he has told them that also. This is a Carl Gold anniversary kit.
Tom

DGrant

My Feedback: (4)

Hey.... That Cub looks great!!! ... and you got your first picture up... Congrats on the Cub and the pic!

WIbowhunter

The LT-40, Sig Something Extra and the Sig Hog Bipe

Pork Chop

My Feedback: (5)

Nice looking models Tom

WIbowhunter

Thank you Pork Chop. The work on the Butterfly is progressing. The wing is ready for sanding along with the tail section. I started the fus. yesterday. I got a little confused on placing parts but I do believe I have it straightened out. Not sure where all the parts go as I stop to think about it. One mistake I made was I didn't do the motor mount right as I put the blind nut on in the wrong direction. I did get that corrected though.
Tom

WIbowhunter

The fus is coming along very nicely. To me a lot of the features weren't very clear, but a lot I finally figured out. I do have a lot of small pieces of small plywood that I haven't found a place for. Any help here? Thank you in advance. I think I will try putting every thing together just to see it in person. I will have to remove the Sig Hog Bipe of the table in the utility room so I will have a place to do this.
Later!
Tom

DGrant

My Feedback: (4)

hmm.. small pieces of plywood..? Servo rails... and/or if there's triangle type shapes.. that's the landing gear formers that go on the fuselage sides, and lock in the gear wire(along with some rectangle shape stock as well I think..).. I think I made my own tank shelf.. but the landing gear ass'ly does have it's own pieces if memory serves. I found the stock wire gear, along with the ply stock glued in precisely(again.. dry fit before glue).. fit very well.. and I was able to resin/epoxy in the gear wire to literally lock the whole assembly forever. I've got pics if you need.

WIbowhunter

Thanks DGrant. This are smaller pieces like a inch and half long. If they are from the landing gear I won't be using them, I am using the gear off the Hog Bipe as it is taller. We fly off grass and it does not always get trimmed right as of the rainy weather. I looked at one of your other sites that had the covering of the plane with that beautiful American flag on the wing. I learned a ton on covering there. I hope to use some of that on covering the Butterfly. I Think I will try some trimming on it.
Tom

DGrant

My Feedback: (4)

Something jogged my memory, not to mention I looked back at the plans and sure enough the landing gear formers are small rectangular pieces.. about an inch or so.. there's 2 each of 2 sizes... about 3/32" ply I think(not sure on that.. but its close)..... anyway.. look at the fuselage side view on the plans, at the landing gear formers.. I think that's what those pieces are... I was thinking they were some triangle pieces for some reason.... ha.. I don't know what I was thinking.. but there you go..

WIbowhunter

That is what they are so I guess you have solved my problem. I put everything together and set it on work table. My wife took pictures and when she puts them on the comp, I will again try to post a picture of the Butterfly.
Tom

WIbowhunter

The time has come to let you in on my bobo. Somehow and I am not sure how it happened but here is what has happened. I saw where the front of the fuselage was to be tapered to the right. I cut off what I thought was the correct side of the fuselage and of course it was BUT. I somehow thought I had cut off the wrong side so I cut off the other side and glued the cut off piece to the other side. While sanding I notice that the direction of the engine pulling was to the left. Of course as you know the torke of the engine will always pull to the left and the engine should pull to the right. I think that is right. With The slope to the left I do believe i need to make some changes.
Please if you can make it easy on me in making the changes. I know that is not possible but I diffidently need some help in deciding what must be done.
Tom

DGrant

My Feedback: (4)

Some people end up extending the nose section so they don't have to add tail weight... You just might have to do that for a different reason...I'm not a fan of extending the nose.. but that's just me... So.. it's either that, or cut the one side (that would be the right side) down enough to create the firewall offset to get your right thrust... or... yes another or... you could make the firewall even and straight, and simply shim the engine mount out using shims...

Just take your time and figure the best way to splice it together.... and keep posting up here, as those that have done it might chime in too. Also, look back at the pics in the thread, as there's possibly pictures of how others have done it as well..

Don't forget there's also down-thrust there too... you definitely have to keep that in there too. How far are you into the fuselage, as either side is interchangeable until you get stringers on there. Can you simply sand off the stringers, replace those on the other side, thereby and effectively swapping the fuselage sides?... There's not much material there when it comes to those triangle stringers... and they're easily replaceable from the hobby shop... the only thing you'd have to do is sand off the existing stringers(that's even if they're installed yet)... but yeah.. in a nut-shell... can you swap the sides out somehow.?. that would be the first thing I'd look at...

Even with that... I wouldn't sweat it if the fuse ends up a 1/4" to 1/2" short in any case.... If the fuse ends up being a tad short... I'd call it good and make the thrust angles what they call for and continue on.... That's what I would do... matter of fact, I seem to recall my fuse was about 1/2" short compared to the plans I had... I just made sure the angles were right....My plane only took about 3/4oz of weight up there to balance with a .25 on it. I probably wouldn't have needed anything if I could have put the .30 four-stroke on it.. that engine broke early on though as I was setting it up.

Hang in there..there will be other ideas come up as well... but that's about all I have at the moment...
"

modeltronics

My Feedback: (27)

I would vote for extending the nose. If I had it to do over again on the two I built I would do that. What I had to do is use a long engine mount that was intended for a rear intake engine then push the engine way forward in the mount. The little Thunder Tiger 18 engines that I used were light. If I remember right the plans show a HB 15 and that is a very light engine and could never balance without adding weight to the nose.

Also with extending the nose it might give you more tank area for a larger tank for even longer flights

WIbowhunter

Thanks Guys. The nose is off so now I have to see what I have here to work with in rebuilding it. The red translucent monocote is ordered along with the servos and receiver. I did forget to order fuel line and clamps but will get that done. The nose first and then the covering.
Tom

WIbowhunter

I have decided to cover the Butterfly with translucent red on the fuselage and part of the wings. In a way I am copying DGrant but not fully. The front of the wings will be neon yellow. I have started with the right wing using monocote and the red went great. The neon yellow is going ok somewhat but in places it wont tighten up. I have tried everything that I know how to do. I'm thinking I may have to remove the yellow and try something else but hate to as I like the color combination. Please give some help on this!
Tom