Thank you very much. I will be building this nice plane the next weeks.

Regards

It's been awhile since I've had time to post anything, but let me give you an update.

Last night, I finished notching the leading edge and cutting a slot in the bottom of the ailerons. Then, I trimmed the aileron control horns and glued them to the ailerons using epoxy. They turned out OK, although I don't think the hardener for the epoxy is working as well as it used to. Has anyone heard if hardener can go bad?

I also glued the front edge to the leading edge of the wing. Hopefully, I can glue the wingtips in place tonight and then start shaping the leading edge and the wingtips. I'm expecting that to be quite a challenge!

Have you mixed the epoxy 50/50 ?

Yes, I did. However, when it cured it was not rock-hard.

As I remember, Nashville can get pretty humid in the summer. Drying time on epoxy can depend on humidity and temperture. Give it a while. Finishing resins sometimes take a few days to harden. As far as I know, epoxy doesn't get old.

Senrak, thanks for your advice.

Well, I finally got around to taking the pictures of the aileron control horns. You can see them below.

I've also glued on the wingtips. You can see that the wingtip blocks require a lot of trimming and shaping. The first thing I did was carve them down quite a bit so I didn't have to do so much sanding. Then, I sanded the top and bottom of the block to make it even with the surface of the wing using 60 grit sandpaper. I used really course stuff since there was so much sanding to do. I'll use a finer grit later to make it nice and smooth. Next, I extended the contour of the ribs along the leading edge. That's where I'm at now. My next step will be to round off the front-most portion of the leading edge.

I used a palm sander to sand the wingtips down, which worked pretty good as long as you are very careful!

Just got off holidays so I have had zero progress on rebuilding my engine mount.  Maybe I will get to it in a couple weeks!

Is the windshield still flat plastic material? I have always, since this kit came out in the late 60s/early 70s (don't remember exactly) wanted to build it, just don't like having to make the windshield. I know, probably not a big deal. I'll, be following your thread for the windshield installation/Thanks/cp

The windshield is flat plastic, but has a template in the instructions. It's not a big deal at all to do. Here's mine.

Wow, I don't want to click on fullsize for that picture. The monitor would explode!

I had heard that there was a problem on this website that enlarged pictures from time to time. I guess my number was up! If I had known that every detail was going to be exposed, I would have done a better job.

Looks great, Thanks!

Actually, the picture is full size. Click on the picture and it will shrink it down to forum size.

Great looking Citabria by the way. Whats under the hatch?

Bob

The hatch has fuel, charge and on/off switch. Hope this photo is more to 'scale'.

Hi Yel914,
Nice job with the Citabria. I like how you've incorporated the hatch into the fuselage. I'll have to try that.

I just got back from visiting my parents in MN. Unfortunately, it was just as hot there as here in TN. I guess that's payback as when my parents visited here last winter, TN was just as cold as MN!

@Yel

What kind of engine do you have in your plane?  I am trying to use an older Thunder Tigre 46 2stroke and its being a huge pain in the ass.  Pretty  much butchered my cowling and am thinking about getting a new one with a different engine.

Thanks guys. I have a Saito 56 in it with a 90' bend in the header for the muffler. A very tight fit.

Sketchin,Starwolf2, anymore progress? Plane is looking great.I just aquired this kit.
stefanP

Hi Stefanp,

Unfortunately, I've been really busy and am barely keeping my head above water. Just too many irons in the proverbial fire. I haven't even touched the plane for a month or so. I hope to make some progress later this month though!

Well, I have managed to get my wing covered, with the aileron servo mounted.  Now I am on to covering the ailerons, mounting the ailerons and then painting the trim on the wing.

I have decided to try painting the red on to my white Ultracote.  I saw a few posts on here that claim this can be done, so I am going to give it a try as I think it would be much easier than covering.

Its a great flying plane. I have owned mine for at least ten years now. OS .48 Surpass flies it just fine. I had tried a Saito .65 and, besides being a lot heavier and faster, it just didn't fly right so the old .48 is going back in. I will need to recover it this season though.

Mine has the bell cranks in the wings. Many, MANY flights with no issues at all.

Bill S.

Thats sure good to hear that the bell cranks work just fine.  Alot of people seem to think you will have problems, but mine seem to move quite freely!

Also good to hear its a good flying plane, its my first real plane after a couple trainers and a rather long hiatus (14 yrs!) from the hobby.

After all the work put into it, I will surely be flying my crappy old trainer a bunch of times to get back into the groove.

Cheers

My fingers are getting really itchy! I haven't been able to work very much on my plane for a couple of months. I've made some progress sanding the wings, but that's about it.

Glad to hear the bell cranks work OK as that's what my plane will have. The ailerons aren't attached yet, but so far things seem to move easily.

Got my wing totally covered and decided that rather than trim in Ultracote, I am going to try my hand at masking and painting with that monokote paint.  With the exception of the top of the fuselage, which can be easily covered in red.  Other than that, I am still rebuilding my firewall/motor mount assembly after screwing it up the first time and have been working on running my pushrods.

Cheers

Sketchin, how's the painting going? Do you have any pics?

I was actually able to do a bit of work on my plane during spring break. I finished shaping the wingtips as well as the leading edge on each side of the wings. Then, I installed the mounting plates for the struts. I may even be able to get a little work done this evening.

On a different note, I also managed to stain 2 sets of french doors, and the hand rails for the basement stairway. Then, I installed the last 5 panels of the drop-down ceiling! All I have left is to finish up a few of the baseboards and then paint the baseboards and the remaining four doors. I am so excited that the end of the tunnel of this basement project is finally approaching.