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Telmaster wing struts
I am looking for some suggestions on how to make wing struts for a Senior Telmaster kit built plane. What material should I use pre shaped metal or wood?Also how do you fasten the struts to the wing and fuse.Is there hardware avilable in kit form to fasten the struts.
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RE: Telmaster wing struts
Others may disagree with me but I think the struts on the Telemaster are quite important. The wing does not have a D leading edge sheeting so is quite flexible and easily warped with changes in temperature and/or time. Properly installed struts tend to keep things in alignment. That means that you must have good solid attach points in both the wing and the fuselage, something not well covered in the plans. This means you must use a little ingenuity of your own and make sure the anchor points in the wing are well tied into the spars and can be repeatedly and accurately attached each time you assemble it. There are several good ways of doing this but you have to devise your own from what ever is available to you. Just wood screws into a piece of hardwood will not suffice as that will soon deteriorate and fail to work well. I use wooden struts made from spruce or basswood as that is less expensive than the metal ones (which work well if you want to pay the price).
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RE: Telmaster wing struts
Well, I have seen a lot of telemasters, and I didn't even know they HAD wing struts.
The way I like to attach struts is to use a hinge at the wing attachment so they can fold up for transport. |
RE: Telmaster wing struts
I've recently completed a Senior Telemaster... (needs covering)
I opted for a 2-piece wing, so I needed struts... For anchor points. I used a strip of 1/8" x 3/4" aluminum. On the wings, 1-1/2" long, with a bend. I attached it directly to the wing spar. I reinforced the spar with some light ply, than added a blind nut. On the fuselage, band extends the width of the fuselage... and beyond. With one piece on the fuselage instead of two, the fuselage would not be pulled apart. The only stress the fuselage would be under would be compression. For connection, I bought some 1/4" clevace pins, cut them down, etc... For the struts, 1/4" x 1/2" spruce. On each tip, I epoxied some fiberglass cloth to reinforce the ends. Maybe I didn't explain too well, I will post pictures tonight when I get home. If I can remember. |
RE: Telmaster wing struts
The ARF comes with wood struts. They are oval shaped, not airfoil shaped, which is fine. In the very sparse instructions, they show a really hair brained idea about how to install the struts! I looked this over, installed some of the parts into the fuselage and the more I looked at how they were showing to do it, the more I was convinced I would do it a far simpler and stronger way. I cut a saw kerf in th ends of the struts after determining how long they should be, made up some aluminum strut ends, fitted these into the saw kerfs. Drilled holes through the aluminum parts, where they would be buried in the struts and epoxied the aluminum parts into the struts. The holes become filled with the epoxy and effectively nail the aluminum strut ends to the struts. The strut ends were bent to fit flat against both the bottom of the fuselage and the bottom of the wing. I have simply used screws to hold the struts on and will atleast replace the screw in the wing with a blind nut and bolt. The screw in the fuselage is completely buried in wood so I think I'll be good there. Simple and strong.
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RE: Telmaster wing struts
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Sorry I forgot about uploading photos.
Here's a few. #1. The strut mount on the bottom of the fuselage. It is a 1 piece affair. If I had put two pieces, the fuselage could have been pulled apart.. sideways. #2. The wing end. I inlaid 1/16" plywood onto the bottom of the spar, and added another to the top betwen the ribs. A t-nut on top makes it removeable. Hope this helps. |
RE: Telmaster wing struts
There were two versions of the Senior Telemaster kit series. The original was patterned after the original German kit and did not use a D-tube wing type of construction (sheeted leading edge). These versions really do need the wing struts for additional strength.
For several years, Hobby Lobby had a D-tube wing Senior Telemaster kit built by Joe Bridi's company that did not need functional, load bearing wing struts if proper construction techniques were followed. While I favor this kit the most for hotrodding and sport flying, the aerodynamic characteristics of the non D-tube constructed wing favors lifting heavier payloads, even though the wing struts are then needed for safe flying. Ed Cregger |
RE: Telmaster wing struts
Thanks for your replies on wing struts.I tried to upload images of what I did to make the struts but was not able to up load images. Basically I used Great Planes wing strut fittings mounted at the wing to a block I epoxied to the wing spar & drilled and taped the block to accept a nylon screw.On the fuse I used a metal plate and attatched the Great Planes fitting to the plate with a clevis pin made from a machine screw. The strut fitting # is gpmq 4258.The strut is maple app. quarter inch square.Again thanks for everyones input.
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RE: Telmaster wing struts
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I spoke with Jay at Hobby Lobby about this, he sent me this link: http://forums.hobby-lobby.com/viewto...f=46&t=532
Here are pictures of my struts. |
RE: Telmaster wing struts
My Telemaster I wrote about struts in 2009 is still flying in its second year now with no problems with struts.If of any interest to other forum members I recently purchased a telemaster wing plan from a hobby seller in the UK called "Telemaster Sales UK".The plan calls for barn door ailerons and uses two set of spars on each wing panel also it provides two 1/8 ply hard points per wing panel for strut mounting.I plan to build this wing per plan over winter.The plan does not provide any instruction on making the struts.Their web site has pic. of wing under construction also Hobby Lobby has a forum on Telemasters with some info. on this wing.
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RE: Telmaster wing struts
[i][Hobby Lobby has a forum on Telemasters with some info. on this wing. /i]
do you have a link to that? |
RE: Telmaster wing struts
http://forums.hobby-lobby.com/viewforum.php?f=46 should take you to forums for Telemaster there are two pages of write ups on different subjects in relation to Telemaster arf and kit built models.
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RE: Telmaster wing struts
Thanks for the link, never knew about that
I did mine with CF tube and 440 clevises on the ends The threaded 440 rod was JB welded into the CF tube on both ends I had the SRTele ARF which had threaded brass fittings already installed in the wing which made it easy |
RE: Telmaster wing struts
I have used snaps working at 90 degrees from the way they snap in and out.
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RE: Telmaster wing struts
Hi Everybody, Dave Davis, Telemaster Sales UK.
Overbuild and I are building the original German-designed Senior Telemaster wing. I had a plan of this wing drawn up by a lad in my club who's ace with CAD. He drew it from the wreckage of a Telemaster I had bought years ago as a basket case. It was just the wings, tail surfaces and the fuselage from the nose to the trailing edge and even the wings were slightly damaged. It cost me £10 or about $15US! I bought some 5/16" pine from a builders' merchant for £5, worked out the dimensions from a photograph, made up a fuselage from the pine strip, fitted an old Merco 61 and flew it for years until it went in with radio failure. Actually it was pilot error: the pilot had forgotten to charge the receiver battery! Real aeromodelling! This wing had two stut attachment points and I made up struts out of pine dowel with brass tube strut ends. These were flattened and bolted to the underside of the wing and to a single attachment point on the fuselage, thus forming a V shape like a Piper Cub. As Overbuild has said you may see my current wing on my website: www.telemastersalesuk.co.uk. Go to "Your Telemasters" and click on "Original Design." To return to the question of struts. In my opinion struts are essential on any Senior Telemaster with two piece wings especially if you plan to over-power your model with a view to aerobatics or glider towing. With a one-piece wing, if you fly the model gently you'll get away without the struts. The Senior Telemaster builder's kit features a one piece wing without struts and two of my customers have built their Telemasters with one-piece wings and still managed to get them into their cars which are typical European four-door estate cars, (station wagons) a SAAB and a Skoda Octavia, which are about the same size as a Honda Accord. Happy Landings Dave Davis TSUK |
RE: Telmaster wing struts
ORIGINAL: Telemaster Sales UK Hi Everybody, Dave Davis, Telemaster Sales UK. Overbuild and I are building the original German-designed Senior Telemaster wing. I had a plan of this wing drawn up by a lad in my club who's ace with CAD. He drew it from the wreckage of a Telemaster I had bought years ago as a basket case. It was just the wings, tail surfaces and the fuselage from the nose to the trailing edge and even the wings were slightly damaged. It cost me £10 or about $15US! I bought some 5/16'' pine from a builders' merchant for £5, worked out the dimensions from a photograph, made up a fuselage from the pine strip, fitted an old Merco 61 and flew it for years until it went in with radio failure. Actually it was pilot error: the pilot had forgotten to charge the receiver battery! Real aeromodelling! This wing had two stut attachment points and I made up struts out of pine dowel with brass tube strut ends. These were flattened and bolted to the underside of the wing and to a single attachment point on the fuselage, thus forming a V shape like a Piper Cub. As Overbuild has said you may see my current wing on my website: www.telemastersalesuk.co.uk. Go to ''Your Telemasters'' and click on ''Original Design.'' To return to the question of struts. In my opinion struts are essential on any Senior Telemaster with two piece wings especially if you plan to over-power your model with a view to aerobatics or glider towing. With a one-piece wing, if you fly the model gently you'll get away without the struts. The Senior Telemaster builder's kit features a one piece wing without struts and two of my customers have built their Telemasters with one-piece wings and still managed to get them into their cars which are typical European four-door estate cars, (station wagons) a SAAB and a Skoda Octavia, which are about the same size as a Honda Accord. Happy Landings Dave Davis TSUK I admire your stalwart support of the Telemaster series of models. I too think of them similarly. Or something like that. I'm on my first cup of coffee. Ed Cregger |
RE: Telmaster wing struts
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I thought I'd add my $0.02 with reguards to struts.
Others have pretty much summed it up. Struts are probably a good idea, and heck, they can't hurt. If you opt for a two-piece wing, probably a darn good idea. Here's what I settled on. I originally thought of using sticks of spruce, but found some aluminum tubing instead. I pulled out my electrical plyers (sometimes called lineman's pliers) They much heavier then regular pliers, and you'll often seeing electricians use them almost exclusively. Anyhoo, The pliers were big/strong enough to squeeze the end of the tubing flat, then folded it over for a little more strength, and then drilled holes. On the mount point, I drilled an extra hole in the pin, and used an extra spring clip to hold the pin in place. Now, it's really easy; pull one clip at each end of the strut, and it comes away quickly. And I don't run the risk of loosing the pin. Plus the aluminum is a little thinner and cleaner looking than the wood struts would've been. |
RE: Telmaster wing struts
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To explain the idea I previously posted.
No need for cutter pins, screws or bolts. Snap in and snap out. Zor |
RE: Telmaster wing struts
Very clever.
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RE: Telmaster wing struts
ORIGINAL: Telemaster Sales UK Very clever. The big snaps cannot possibly snap out on their own when the strut forces are acting. A bit of imagination to fasten the snaps depending on the wing and fuselage structure is not the end of the world . . . LOL. The lower end should snap into a piece that goes across the fuselage bottom all in one piece (like a strip of aluminum screwed into the fuselage) so that the pull of the struts does not force the fuse to open. Zor |
RE: Telmaster wing struts
Anybody ever tried bracing wires instead of struts on an STM?
I'm tempted. |
RE: Telmaster wing struts
ORIGINAL: Telemaster Sales UK Anybody ever tried bracing wires instead of struts on an STM? I'm tempted. Those that perform occasional aerobatics with their Telemasters would be wise not to adapt their models to using flying wires. Wires offer zero support for the wing during negative gee maneuvers. Ed Cregger |
RE: Telmaster wing struts
Many airplanes in early times had flying wires on top of the wings with pylons. It would make a different looking Telemaster. Hee Hee !!!
Cables or wires makes the best strength to weight ratio. Zor |
RE: Telmaster wing struts
Just be sure to use Kevlar thread instead of metal wires, or you just might drive your radio nuts.
Ed Cregger |
RE: Telmaster wing struts
ORIGINAL: NM2K Just be sure to use Kevlar thread instead of metal wires, or you just might drive your radio nuts. Ed Cregger 73 de Zor. |
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