Man, these things take a long time to build.... even using fiberglass fuses and foam wings. Ever
thinked in sub-contract some of the building? Nice work BTW

Regards, Enrique

Sean

Any more progress on the Isobar?

I've done a little body work, I'm getting close to getting back on it full time. I lost the purple Eurofighter this weekend due to a mechanical problem, so need to get a sport jet finished up. Thank goodness the F-15 was in Waco or I would have been on the sidelines all weekend. There was some serious carnage there this weekend, all told somewhere near 80K worth of carnage. Whew!

That sounds like a very expensive weekend. What was the casue of most of it? Mechanical, radio or what? What failed on the Euro?

Sent PM.

Sorry to hear about the Euro! What was the mechanical problem?

PM'd ya

Not my plane but wanted to post an update on a latest Isobar success. Guys in Austin had a successful maiden on this little gem the other day. Damn thing flew beautifully. The newly designed flap system allowed the jet to land with half a tank of fuel almost if not equal to any slow approach ever seen on a kingcat or the likes. This has me going in over drive to get back on my isobar
The new cockpit option adds a lot to this airplane. I understand there is a lot more going into the next few kits including that some formers are pre-installed

Sean, what's new about the flaps? That one really is gorgeous!!!

Much larger flaps! I haven't taken a measurement, but it's like a whole inch and a half more than what I had on my last one in chord and maybe an inch longer as well. If you compared today's flaps to what you had, it's a whole nother ball game. Y'alls split flaps are about the size of what we've got in ailerons. If you've seen a Kingcat flap, it's close to what is on the Isobar.

It's an incredible machine, and I hope to have mine up and running by Austin Jet meet.

I tried larger split flaps years ago and found when deployed to 50 deg
the amount of drag was so high, the plane bled off speed too fast for my taste...

If you can get used to them, (large flaps) I am sure they will be great, but
on windy days you may want to land with 30 deg flap... make things lot smother.

Eddie

One wing is one sided glassed, you can see where I placed ply wood in the control surface for the anodized control horn which is a ZERO slop mechanism.

I installed the spar support (basically tacked it in with aeropoxy and will put some carbon fiber tow in later. A neat picture of Tom A's pipe support he and a buddy came up with and he was kind enough to give one two me. Just in for show right now and to get an idea as to how it will look.

I started making a plug for a fiberglass fuel tank mold. Holds well over a gallon of fuel, about 180 ounces.

Hey Sean.. The plane looks great but are you building a new fuel tank because you want to..
The Standard tank had 140 oz and ~7-8 lbs.. I don't think 10 lbs of fuel is really needed.

Eddie Weeks

Roger doesn't come on here and I want to fly longer than he can, this is going to be a surprise to him and he'll have to fork over a beer to take a look.

I'm really doing it for two reasons, flying longer than Rog, and I started building a plug for a sport jet and want to start the molding process on something easy to get my feet wet so to speak, working with Tooling resins and such. Once I've got that figured out, I plan to make up a totally composite wing with live hinging for the isobar. And what I learn there will follow over to my sport jet.

Ya, it's just because I want to, no other reason, I have the standard fuel tank as well, if weight becomes a significant issue, I can always switch it out.

Sean,

Your Isobar wings are begging for a live hinge job. Maybe next time. Fuel tank looks good. Remember to shoot some primer on it prior to waxing. Makes it a lot easier to wax.

JR Gautreaux

PS. Did you get the pic I PM'ed you?

JR, ya, got the pic, looks good! I'm gonna finish up on the fuel tank when I get back from my next trip, about 10 days from now.

Later! Call me tonight after you pull your stuff apart!

What is a Live Hinge... ?

Eddie

I think that's what you been doin' all along, Eddie. The full length "skin" hinge (fiberglass in your case).

Eddie,

Yes, a live hinge is a hinge that is part of the main wing. Instead of cutting out the control surfaces you mark a line where you want the hinge line and during the wing glassing process you lay a 2" wide strip of Kevlar tape centered down the hinge line. When everything cure you score the hinge line so that the epoxy is removed leaving only the Kevlar. The control surface can then bend down that line point.

JR Gautreaux

Nice to see there are still some Isobars out there. One of these days I am actually going to build that kit I got from Eddie so long ago.........

Just a couple more pics I took before I left for FL jets. This stuff is now going into primer. I got asked at FL jets what my process is once I resin up the wings. I actually go at it with 80 grit to knock off what I can. Contrarry to popular belief, I believe all the strength is built into what you build with foam and balsa and hard woods. In other words, I don't worry at all if I knock through a little glass here and there. The primer will fill that in just fine. In fact, on my edges/ caps, I don't add glass at all, I just put a thick coat of reson on there, shape scratch up with sand paper and then primer it on up. If you look back through this build, you'll see I've capped the wing and other places with 3 ply to 5 ply. This adds some weight, but I believe I can take out a landing light now and not have to worrry about anything breaking (a dent maybe), but I'll be flying.

So I glass, knock off what I can and then hit it with K38. I then again go after it with 80 grit getting back as best I can to the resin. This gives me assuredness that I'm back to the airfoil as good as best I can, and I've filled in some low spots.

I then hit it with K38 again and this time I'm on it with 320 and a foam sanding bar rather than metal. I make these small foam sanding bars that hit contour really well. I may do the priming process four times or more on a surface. But I take a lot of primer off with the sanding process.

My final sanding prior to paint or panel lines will be wet 400. If I have a major dent I use a catalyzed automotive filler such as that stuff that starts with "E" can't remember the name right now. Really thin stuff.

Enjoy, and I'll be back on this to show some more priming stuff on Thursday. This jet will be all hooked up and sitting on gear sometime next week. I'll be stuffing servos by next weekend.

It's really coming together well.

Sean

Sean, are you testing my patience with this thread? Are you trying to out do my F-15 thread?

Nah Mike, thing is, LOL, I built, flew, and sold my F-15 since I saw that fancy jet in your garage Started an isobar, Bought a new house, and you know, the little stuff like LIFE!

Regardless, I'm on this thing now till it's done. Should have it maidened before Austin Jet meet at current progress rate. Should be in stellar performance mode by MS.

Looks good, Sean!