Its a good idea to, instead of one screw to hold the top hatch on, that you put two in the corners. placing them directly into the top of the triangle stock. Chances of having one loose screw let the hatch lift and jettison is greater than one out of two, or as I did, after being told by an experienced builder, just left the one in the center and put the two on the corners, thus having three! (no, it won't start affecting your CG unless you use half a dozen........)

Hog Head,
I've never had a problem with the copies size. The staff at my local Office Depot are really good and they realize that I need a good accurate copy, so they make sure they are correct. If you are worried about your copy being off, put the two copies together and hold them up to light and see if they are the same.

Ken

There are also some drafting companies around that can copy them for you. Scan and print and even put on disk. I would imagine there are some that could even convert into a CAD format for you so you could make changes in the drawing and then have it re-printed with the changes. Not sure how well that would work with copyrighted materials, may depend on your relationship with the copy company.

Thanks for the info, HogHead! Your covering job is sweet.

somegeek

some geek,

Thanks. If you are going to hand cut the checkerboard, yours should definitely be one of the sweetest looking LT-40's out there.

Gene

Ken,

Thats a good idea. I already cut the plans for the 4*60 I am working on, but I'll definitely look into copying the plans on my next plane. If you don't mind, what does Office Depot Charge for the copy?

Gene

Shhhhhh, don't tell anybody what I pay. It's a huge secret. I usually don't pay anything for my copies. I own a computer shop and we are always sending business to each other, so I get a freebie every now and then when I go over there to get a copy made. Sorry that I can't give you a better idea.

Ken

I was going to post earlier that getting plans copied at Kinkos was about $14 for two 36" x 48" sheets. But I am extremly annoyed now I had taken some measurements to compare the 2 sets and they looked okay, but apparently i should have measured greater distances. I just started framing up the first wing panel on my 4*60 on these crappy copies, and they are off by about 1/32" every 3-4". With the 4*60, everything is interlocking, so, I measured the part of the wing that I had layed out and then measured the original hanging on the wall, lo and behold it matches, grrrr. The other thing is that the plans don't seem to be consistently shrunk. The spars are right on the money, of course they are close enough that you might need a caliper to tell for sure.

Looks like I am going to have to wait some more to get anything done on this thing.

Anyhow, I would not asume that all copy shops are created equal, even among the same franchise, but I guess I will be going to Office Depot so I can get this build under way.

Be certain you check very carefully, lest you get stalled like me or worse, not realize till it is too late (Don't no how you could unless you were very careless).

Patrick

Got to covering the wing tonight. The middle had a lot of dark markings, some of which were covered by epoxy so I put a layer of covering on the top middle sheeted section...


Covering the bottom of the wing...



Bottom covering completed...



Covered wing completed and shrunk...



Top of the wing...



Trial fitting and inspection by ground crew chief Dexter...



Further inspection...



Still have a few hours of work before this is ready for engine break-in and then it's maiden but it's getting there.

One thing to note regarding the covering of the wing is the epoxied 3" fiberglass strip that was installed over the sheeting and not perfectly flat with the sheeting so it is visible as a rough surface below the covering. Kinda bothers me since the rest of the plane is finished smoothly and then there is this rough area in plain view. I guess the rubber bands will conceal a bit of it but still. Not sure what I can do at this point though.

Total build time: 84 hours

somegeek

thats one beautiful LT-40 i also have one that is a taildragger i had bought off a guy for $50 except mine seems to be the older version for the elevator stabilizer seems to be bolted i just recently broke in my engine and was having fun driving it around in the back yard without the wings on i hope to maiden mine on thursday if the weather will permit me to. here's a pic of mine

Thanks, Mr. Canadian - cool to see another LT-40 as a taildragger.

Maybe I'll work on breaking in the engine after the bench break-in with a spin around the backyard to get used to the throttle and rudder controls a little.

somegeek

Covering looks better than some of mine. That center area is just hard to get smooth and often just something you have to live with if you want strength.IMO

Anyone else got ideas on that?

If you want the fiberglass tape to not show you have to take care of it before you put the covering on. What you need to do is first fill the weave off the fiberglass tape with either resin or wood filler and sand it smooth. To hide the fiberglass tape completely you need to use resin or wood filler and spread it out from the edge of the fiberglass tape out for about 2"-3", then you need to sand this down and feather it in so that there is a smooth slope up to the tape. Depending on the wing you may have to go out further than 3", but you get the idea.

Hope this helps

Ken

Thanks Bruce & Ken... once again I am thinking this is a trainer in the sense of building just as much as flying. Glad to hear that that rough area can be a common result of glassing the joint.

somegeek

Somegeek if that is the biggest problem you have with the plane your laughing. It looks awesome. I also really like the seethru look of hogheads covering scheme. Good luck with your maiden. She is sure to fly beautifully. Did you give her a name?

FlyBoy76

Thanks, Flyboy76. Not sure about a name yet.

I call mine the BIG RED ******* simply because its a pain in the butt to get in the car. I have to put the front seat down and put the wings from front to back and then put the fuselage on the backseat.

Flyboy76,

Thanks. I was happy to finish it. I love making sawdust, but I find covering very tedious.

Gene

Fired up Paint Shop Pro to see what different sized tiles would look like. Think I will go with three rows for larger tiles vs the four rows... Read in another thread that larger checkers are more visible from the ground and I like the look of the larger tiles I am thinkin.



somegeek

Got my lower wing checkers applied tonight...



Used windex to get them into position and then tacked down the edges after squegeeing out the windex. Heating the middle of the piece only seemed to cause a steam bubble to form so I just stuck with tacking down the edge of the tiles.

Next plane I do I will do the primary covering in Ultracoat and then the graphics in Monokote as I have read it's easier to deal with.

Ultracote over Ultracote sucks for this newb. All of my covering has went well but in the places where I have ultra over ultra it's been less than pretty.

Total build time: 86 hours

somegeek

DOH - wish I woulda read this thread earlier... guess I'll know for the next plane or any repairs that I do on this one.

somegeek

Got to break-in my engine tonight...

Started on the work bench in the garage. Tied the end of the plane off to the vice so it'd be anchored for safety, fueled up, adjusted the mixture, verified the radio throttle setting, put the glow charger on and fired it up. Fired up on the third flick! Ran for 1 minute and noticed that the propwash blew everything not weighing over a few pounds off my bench and sprayed my radio with oil... killed the engine and took my stuff out to the back patio to finish the break-in.

Running that rich sure blows a lot of oil outta the exhaust and the propwash helped distribute it on the side of the plane (check out the curtains below the windows.



Got Windex?

After I ran the tank dry, I cleaned up most of the big drips and filled up about 1/4 tank and adjusted the mixture to slightly rich and did some figure 8s around the back yard. I am blown away by the wind this thing produces. Can't wait til the maiden flight!!

After a few more decals I need to get my fiance to hold my plane for a final construction pic.

somegeek

your going to love the LT-40 i took mine for the maiden today and fell in love with it. I could keep it gliding at idle for ever.

After fitting the wing and throwing on the rubber bands, with an empty tank, the final build flight-ready weight is 6.5lbs.

After starting with this...



My lovely fiance holding my plane...





Few more on the ground...






CG was spot on without any weight shifting so I measured and lifted on my fingers again and measured and lifted again and it's balanced on both axis. Is this odd?

During the build I noticed that The left wing was a little heavy but seems the muffler on the right side of the plane helped balance out the plane on the lengthwise axis.

A big hearty thanks to Bruce and Ken and the others that helped me by posting in this thread with answers, suggestions and words of encouragement! Without your help this build would not have gone as well as it did.

Final total build time: 89 hours

Hope this thread helps another first time builder.

Time to get prepped for the maiden!

somegeek

Man oh man, now that is one beautiful plane!!! Take your arm, bend it around, and pat yourself on the back. You did a great job on it. If it flies half as good as it looks she's going to be a dream to fly!!!! Keep us posted on the maiden flight.

Once again, great job.

Ken