Well if anyone looked at the Vegas contest thread here, you'll see I lost my Eclipse due to what appears to be this.....

Right aileron linkage came apart (titanium insert JB Welded into carbon fiber rod).

Upon crash inspection I noticed the left aileron has started to pull apart also.......

I suspect this is what happened......Right linkage broke, causing flutter.........left linkage came loose from the vibration and force of trying to use one wind, then the rudder came loose from vibration and was thus ineffective.

This would explain the inablity to turn.....but its only a guess, all I know for sure is that the right aileron was fluttering because I saw it.



As for the rebuild.........I gutted the whole plane.

-Firewall broke out cleanly (though the wood is too damaged use again (but it'll make a good template)
-Wing pheonilc broke out of the fuse.......little bit of fiberglass damage but not excessive.
-My new improved gear plate broke in half and caused some fiberglass-foam damage on the inside of the plane. (but it was a better plate than the orginal)
-Front of fuse had about 3-4 severe cracks in it around the nose.
-Rudder wood block in fuse cracked in half (thus letting all the hinges out)
-Right wing had wingroot damage
-left wing had nylon bolt break out
-both wings minor wood scratches
-chin cowl was destroyed (will need a new one or used one)
-Crank case of motor broke the mounting tabs off.

So far I've glued the cracks back together, Refiberglassed the inside for strength with some thin fiberglass. I've sealed up the gear exit holes with fiberglass and fiberglass bondo(to be recut later). I've fixed the wing tube exit holes. I've glued in a new piece of Balsa for the rudder to hinge to(still need to bevel it though).

Lastly I stripped the whole plane of paint! Not fun. I'm going to do a whole new scheme on it. I'm now in the process of sanding and filling all the small pinholes left in the fiberglass form the stripping process.

Does anybody have any expierence with this? I have mainly started on the canopy hatch. There were a ton of small holes in it. I started with 220 grit dry to get any paint or chemical residue off. I then cleaned it with mineral spirits and shot it with grey sandable primer. (i'm going to use white from now on so it won't show through the inside of the fuse like it did on the hatch). I then used 400-320 wet sanding to smooth out the holes. Most are gone I think, but I'll have to spray another coat of primer to know how many are still there and then resand.

Is there a better way to fill in all these holes? There's too many to use fiberglass bondo in my impression. Rember weight is an issue......I've weighed the plane with paint, and after the stripping. I'm trying to cut back on the orginal weight of 10.9

I'll post some pics later tonite.

I also have a new fuse coming (unfinished) but I think this one is salvagable also, and it would be nice to have a spare.

Just wanted to comment on your carbon rod with JB weld. I use a similar setup with carbon rods and all thread but follow the advice of Darrol Cady who sells rods for the pylon crowd. His method has been foolproof and I've used it for many years. You might want to take a look at his web site and check out how he reccomends installing threaded rods into carbon tubes. It's very informative.

He also has a very good article on painting fiberglass and filling pin holes.

http://www.darrolcady.com

Hope this helps.

Everytime I try to go to that site my browser shuts down...........don't know what's going on.......


I didn't use threaded inserts.....I used the central hobbies inserts that you glue in.........Never again!

The white finish that comes on the fuselage is a paint primer, not a gel coat. If you use paint stripper on the canopy, you will remove the paint and the primer, and be left w/ just raw fiberglass with a ton of pinholes. I know this because I did the same thing w/ an Eclipse canopy and it ended up in the trash can. Had to order a new one. If I stripped one again, it would be all sandpaper. Not fun.
Never had a problem w/ the Central rod fittings, but I always glue a short piece (3/4 ") of aluminum tube on the outside of the carbon rod to keep any side loads from splitting the rod. This also keeps a constant pressure on the fitting to keep in locked inside the carbon tube.

I'm in that boat with the pinholes on the canopy.......the fuse isn't too bad.....just a couple of spots. I've got most of the canopy fixed......just had to spray primer, sand, spray primer, sand........not fun, but cheaper than a new canopy. I'll see what it weighs when I'm through painting. I'm doing everything real light so hopefully it won't weigh too bad.

Check Don Ramsey's or Aerobob's site in the tips page. Links to both of these from the NSRCA page not sure where I saw it.
An idea I saw there is to thin some light weight spackle with water and coat the whole fuse. Then primer to seal. Never tried it but sounds like it could work.

Right now I'm trying this on the canopy.

Sand with 200......then 600.

Spray and clean,,,,,,,,,then use thin coat of Evercoat......Sand with 400 and then light coat of primer......any holes left after I put a dab of primer in that hole. Then I'll go back with like 800grit before I paint main color.

I have good luck using DAP vinyl spackle (not the light stuff). I simply smear in the dap on all of the pinholes and sand off. DAP shrinks when it dires, so it doesn't work too well for large craters. Then I use a cheap primer such as 30s and spray a light coat to see if I have any imprefections left. I repeat the process until all pin holes are filled in. If you have a glow engine, you need to sand off all the 30s primer as it is not fuel proof. After that I use the PPG primer.

Well I got the canopy about 75% done with sanding and Evercoat. It only weighs about .1oz heavier. That is with primer. The worst parts are right on top where the seam is, and all along the bottom there are lots of large holes. Not too bad (there was a crack in the side I fixed from an earlier flip over also). I also glued back up the chin cowl......its pretty beat up and I weighed it before so I can see if its gonna be worth using. It's gonna need a lot of sanding and filler, but so far no one has an extra chin cowl in stock..or is willing to sell me a used one(I'm still looking though)....and won't for a couple of months. It might be good enough to use as a spare.

I ordered some BVM pinhole filler (it was like $6 so I figured I'd give it a try on part of the fuse and see how it works).

I got my paint and monokote ordered for my design. I also ordered the new crankcase, header, and spinner.


Lastly my new fuse is having shipping problems. Seems UPS wants close to $100 to ship so I'm having to wait for my buddy to make it to Greyhound(could take him awhile). But a bit of good news......in the box where elevators and a rudder! There is some damage to the canopy and part of the horizontal (I've seen the damage and its fixable). I also think its a Fantasy fuse and parts so now I'll have an eclipse and a fantasy. I've also looked into ordering a Genesis set of wings and elevator........to see how that works out.

I may make this new plane an electric. Since I don't have a second motor anyway...

Pics will be posted tomorrow of my progress.

Go to BVMJETS.com, they have a great pin hole filler. You can order it online and it will ship the same day. Good service. and the stuff works great.

Pete

See above......I already ordered it.

Automotive glazing compound, costs $2 a tube and sands easily with 220 grit. I have been using it on fiberglass fuses for years.

Way to go. I've found over the years in RC that everything someone sells in the RC field is a derivitave or compound commercialling available at a much lower cost than hobby dealers sell it for. If it's good enough for your car then surely it will work on a model airplane.

Pics as promised. I still have alot of sanding to do to even out the patches. And I still need to redrill the holes for the gear.

The chin cowl is the most beat up piece......I'm attempting to fix it, but I doubt it will be light

You can see below the damage to the wingroots.....Not bad, but I have to put new wingbolts in as they both broke.

Allright........supplies showed up today......monokote, paint, new header, new crankcase, lighter wheels, spinner, props, Pinhole filler, brushes.......I can start working tomorrow night. I'm going to finish up the canopy first.....painted and cleared. Then I'm going to work on the wings/stabs/rudder and get them ready to be recovered. Then I'll finish up the fuse while that is happening.


Lastly......it looks like my new CA Fantasy (minus wings) is headed my way by Greyhound, I should have it in the next few days.

I've sprayed the hatch.......New silver top with tomorrow I'll do the Yellow sides. ( I haven't cleared it yet, I'm going to wait to do that at the end and do the whole plane at once). Also come up with the new scheme, I hope I can pull it off without adding too much weight.

I've also glassed a new motor mount (traced the old one). Hopefully the fuse will be a little more forgiving on the pinholes

Finsihed the Hatch (except clear coat, it was too windy today to do it.....)

Sanded down the chincowl and added puddy. letting it sit overnight and I'll sand it down tomorrow.

Got my new wheelpants. They are thinner and longer and weigh over 4oz lighter.

well I'm stuck at work the rest of the week......so no more building.

My new fuse/stabs/gear/rudder (everything but wings) will be here this week.

Its coming greyhound and was shipped out Saturday, so now i'll have a backup plane.

Here's the new plane......CA models Fantasy. Damage was minor, worth the little I paid and long wait to get it. Now I just need a set of Fantasy Wings! Anyone got some?

finished the deck inside the fuse, but haven't glued it in yet.
finished re-covering the rudder
finished sanding the bevel in the rudder post on the fuse


Tomorrow I'll sand the fuse and hopefully prime it.

Well covered one elevator half today. All the other pieces have glue drying for the repair work where the hinges were.

Also primed the front half of the fuse and started priming the back half, but there's alot of pinholes back there and I ran out of primer.

Hope to have it all primed up by the weekend and start putting the guts back in!

got alot more done today........finished sanding the fuse down and built a small paint booth in the garage.

Primed the whole plane. Noticed a couple of pinhole spots so I filled those and will just need to sand and prime those again.

I also painted the nose of the plane to go with my scheme. I then sanded down the wheel pants (they were red) and painted the first color on those. Of course one decided to run, so I'll have to sand and repaint that one.

I put in the floor and the motor mount pieces of wood also.

I'll put up some pics here shortly.

Pics

Sweetpea;

Thanks for the work on the thread. I have done my share of FG repair so i feel your pain and breath your dust.

Could you tell me what kind of paint you are using and how you are applying it?

Thanks
Kirby