That looks great 8178. I'm amazed at how little you had to cut away for the engine. I'm guessing you have to take the carb off to shoehorn it in, especially with the pump potruding out the back. I'm a bit annoyed at how much I had to cut away on my UFO's nose last night to get my engine in and out. Even more so seeing the awesome job you did!

Thanks rainedav! Interesting that you would mention the engine opening in the fuselage. When I first started building I’d just hack out what ever I needed to get the engine in. Then I started building Howard Engineering fiberglass and foam kits and looking at Tony’s work. I realized that the opening around the engine really impacts the overall look of the aircraft. Fiberglass fuselages are especially nice to work with because the fiberglass construction provides a lot more space inside the engine compartment.

Some close-ups of the engine area.

To be continued…

Cool 8178. The first thing that strikes me is by side mounting the engine you get a wider, somewhat flatter surface in which to make the opening. I mounted my engine upright, as shown on the plans, and this meant cutting into a rounder and narrower surface of the fuselage and the necessary width of the opening ate into the vertical surface of the nose a bit. That makes the opening appear larger. On the other hand, the front side, or cheek, of the UFO is almost flat for a good 2 1/2" to 2 3/4" and would have allowed me to keep more wood intact. Theoretically, every model built should be an improvement on the last, but there's always some new problem or decision to be worked out. But, that's one of the things that keeps building fresh and interesting!

As you know I’m a big fan of side mounted or forty-five degree mounted engines. I think the key is to cut away little a possible but enough room to get the engine in without too much fuss.

I did some more trimming and fitting of the canopy. From its current rough cut state I taped it down in position with a short piece of masking tape on both sides. I then used masking tape along the lower edge of the canopy to mark the edge where I needed to trim. I put the masking tape on the canopy so that the top edge would be the trim line and of course I could see through the canopy to see the wood to know the trim location. The masking tape overlapped on to the fuselage. When I was done I cut the masking tape loose along the bottom edge of the canopy so I could remove it from the fuselage. Then I cut along the top edge of the remaining masking tape to trim the canopy.

To be continued…

I started work on the wing with planning for the landing gear position. The position of the main gear in relationship to the projected aircraft center of gravity (CG) is really important to optimize ground handling and aircraft rotation on take off and landing. I like my aircraft to be fairly light on the nose gear but not so light that it is hard to taxi in cross winds or if you hit a bump on the tarmac the aircraft with rotate and the tail hits the ground. On the plans the main gear wheel strut angle is drawn very close to 90 degrees in relationship to the ground line making the wheel too close to the CG point for my liking. I’m not sure why it is drawn that way because by default the gear strut will be 90 degrees to the mounting area on the bottom of the wing making the gear strut angle back. This moves the wheel position back about 3/8” to an acceptable position.

By using a straight edge and a square you can project the rotation point that the CG will pass over the wheel contact point on the ground. See image below.

To be continued…

I should mention that back in the days when the Blue Angel was wining the world championships the landing gear setup was very important and trike retractable landing gear was a key element of all pattern designs. The gear setup often included a wheel brake. In those days, take off (this required a timed engine start up, taxing to the end of the runway, line up for take off and make a full stop. The scoring including part of the departure), landing pattern approach, landing and roll out to a procedure stop were all scored. I don’t remember if taxi back to the hanger was still scored by 1973. The top pilots consistently and coolly made these maneuvers look simple and that’s why none of the top pattern aircraft were tail draggers. I’m building my Blue Angel with trike gear the way Kato intended it to be and the way it deserves to be built. To me it is painful to see one of these beautiful classics built any other way because the stance and look of these designs sitting and moving on the tarmac is such a large part of their beauty.

It always amused me that some of the local club “hot dog” pattern flyers spent all their time practicing rolling circles, top hats, etc. and would totally blow their points on take off and landing. I’m sure you’ve all known at least one “hot dog”, most every club usually had at least one. It seems like when the pressure was on these were the maneuvers that separated the top flyers from the “hot dogs”. The funniest part is that the “hot dogs” always argued that these maneuvers were not acrobatic maneuvers and should not be scored because they took up too much time, my engine wont idle, my aircraft wont stop, the runway is too short, I normally don’t fly off tarmac and my aircraft is bouncing, it’s too windy, the judges aren’t fair, etc. Those maneuvers were done very close to the judges so it was pretty hard to hide a poor landing.

Our local top pilot and world champ was Ralph Brooke. See image below. I remember watching him fly his Crusader and then later on his Gladiator. His take off and landings were spectacular, almost like the aircraft was being guided on invisible rails.

OK, so much for the nostalgia, back to the Blue Angel build.

To be continued…

I transferred the gear mounting position from the plans to the foam wing and marked the center line and the outside mounting point for the retract unit. I’m using ¼” plywood for the gear mounts with 4 - 40 blind nuts for the 4 – 40 nylon bolts that I like to use for my gear attachment. I’ll cover the bottom of the blind nuts with a round piece of masking tape before I epoxy the mounts into the wing. I will be cutting part of the inner gear mount off because it is too long to be mounted crossways along the curved part of the wing. The gear mount must be set at an angle because of the wing sweep back.

In the first image, the camera distorted the lines a little. The line marking the outside edge of the retract unit is actually parallel with the root line of the wing.

To be continued…

After cutting off some of the gear mount and marking the wing I did my usual foam cutout using a bent #14 copper wire and my soldering gun. The balsa strips taped to the wing help guide the wire. I always end up needing to bend new wires for each aircraft I build!

To be continued…

Very neat install. Is that a Weller gun? I still have the one my dad bought in the '50s when he did HO trains.

Thanks rainedav! It sure is a Weller gun. I’ve had it for a very long time, I think I bought it in the late 60s. I’ve had to supper glue the case in a few spots but it still works great.

The Blue Angel has legs!!

When I do a build there is always a peak of satisfaction when I get to the point that it can sit on its landing gear. The satisfaction is significantly higher when I build them from plans.

The process of turning a flat piece of paper with a bunch of lines on it into a beautiful three dimensional object always makes me feel like I have accomplished something super special.

To be continued…

Wow! The hit counter on this thread just clicked over past 7000. That is a lot of hits for a thread that has only been up for 2 ½ months. There must be more Blue Angel fans than I thought.

8178,

I think that your craftmanship would generate interest in anything. I really like the plane as well. Thanks for sharing.....

turbo

I don't think it is the airplane that brings us to the thread, rather your craftsmanship and building ideas and techniques. I read it everyday and have already used some of the ideas you have presented in this thread and others.


John

Yeah, one thing that's missing from arfs is the whole concept of setting an example and raising one's standards. I got back into r/c last fall and was fortunate to have stumbled across one of 8178's build threads. It inspired me to try harder and do that little bit extra to make my plane better. It's not really what I'd call competing, but more like wanting to improve my own building after seeing how well it can be done. This is OT, but I was in the 3-D forums (this is not a knock against that style) and it's interesting how some of those flyers view their planes as simply disposable, replaceable objects; no big deal if they crash, just pick up a replacement like it was a golf club or something. Off-the-shelf, no big deal. Is it possible they're missing something?

Looks like nicely oversized gear plates, 8178.

Do you plan on using epoxy to glue them to the foam?

Yes.


Mark

Thanks for the complements guys but I really think there are a bunch of Blue Angel groupies lurking on the thread.

Yes, they will be glued in with slow setting epoxy. I’m also going to pin them into the foam with four small dowels on the corners.

8178, I am one of your groupies lurking here silently watching your "angel" come together. I have to say it has really given me the thoughts of doing one for a winter project. I have a set of curare plans I am considering but with all the help you received and items now available from great people here in RCU I just might have to reconsider.
Keep up the great job and thank you for your very informative postings

Thanks to all the folks that have helped on this project to provided plans, foam cores and canopies this would be a great time to build a Blue Angel. If nothing else pick up the plans, wing and canopy while they are available for a future project.

I completed more work on the wing by gluing the ¼” balsa strips on the back edge of the wing. To make sure the wing edge is straight I put the wing back into one side of the foam block that it was cutout of and position it so the trailing edge was hanging over the edge of the block. I put some light weights on the wing core and sighted down the trailing edge to make sure it was straight. I then glued the ¼” balsa on and tape it with masking tape.

To be continued…

What brand of retract is that? I am having trouble locating a good tri gear pneumatic system. robarts new one uses a pull pull for the nose requiring another servo fro steering. Then there is their older style, but is costly. Any recommendations?