cgrcjet

Elevator control horns

-Marked and cut the slot like the ailerons for the elevator control horn. I cut these slots to where there is a little bit of play. I do this because i apply the epoxy with a sandwich bag by putting it to one corner of the bag, tying it up and then cutting a little of the corner off so i can squeze some epoxy down into the slot. Makes it a little easier when the slot is a little wider. I used CA on the control horns of the first A10 but am not sure which one is stronger.

-Sanded the outside of the slot.

-This is how far i cut down the post of the horn.

cgrcjet

After i set up the rear wing i had the urge to sand it down and get it ready for paint. Just one less thing Tam has to do to get this complete and in the air ASAP. The vinylester surface coat sands out very nicely. Use 320 grit and its ready for paint. You will notice it takes it down to a nice smooth dull look compared to the shiny verticle stabs. Who wants a shiny A10? Not me. It just makes any small blemish that much worse.

Thats about the extent of the build today.

chris

cgrcjet

I was also able to get all the pylons laid up and trimmed today. Unfortunately i could not close them out because i had to finish designing the structure.

-New formers i was able to cut out today. The openings will allow you to insert a screw up into a plypoint and into the wing. I am thinking for the front hardpoint of the pylon in the wing, you can drill out a hole and glue in a piece of ply on the inside of the wing where the hole is at and use a #2 screw to fasten it to the wing. For the exception of 1, all the rear pylon hardpoints will be one of the corner servo cover screws. The hardpoints for the ordinance will be marked with an inset just like the control surface hinging is.

-All but one were a perfect fit for close out. I will fix this tomorrow and close me out some pylons.

chris

cgrcjet

Closed out the pylons today. I was going to draw a diagram of the internal structure but thought a picture would be much faster. For the first test , i left the ply in the top of the pylon out on two of the pylons and just added a little more glue in these areas for a hardpoint to screw through. We will see which way is better. I will try and mount these on Tams A10 tomorrow. As for now, they are under heat so they will cure faster and maybe i will be able to demold them and post a few pics tonight. Not sure how other companies do these but its a pretty time consuming task. Maybe next time i will do them fully closed. Any other suggestions? Im open.


chris

cgrcjet

Demolded a few pylons and they still seem to fit up good. I added up the weight on them and they will be adding about 1/2 pound all together. I used the out of bag method on these. I would save a small amount of weight if i vacuum bagged them because there would be no fillets and i could draw the excess resin out of them. Decisions.

chris

cgrcjet

Fuselodge tail section formers. Make sure you rough up all areas in the fuse where these formers go.

-The formers

-You will notice they go together kind of like a puzzle. These tabs on the wing cradles will slide into the corresponding slots on the front and back formers. There is not a big difference, but if you match up the tabs as far as size, you will notice that one tab on one end is slightly larger than the other end.

-The smaller tabs on each cradle will go into the smaller former in the back.

chris

cgrcjet

-First off you will take the front former (former without the hole) and tack it with thick CA glue about 90 degrees with the mounting plate.

-You then take the wing cradles and set them on top of the mounting plate flush with the sides and slide them into the front former slots and tack them with CA. Make sure the rear former can slide into place before you tack the wing cradles.

-You can then slide the assembly in from the engine nacelle mounting area to make sure all is fitting good.

-ofcourse the back former will not be attached.


chris

cgrcjet

These are the areas i applied glue to before putting them into place


-Outsides of the wing cradle.

-Wing cradle flange area.

-Front and back flange.

-Front and back of the bottom lip of the rear former.

chris

cgrcjet

-Drop the rear former into place and use the hole to pull it up into place and squeeze out the excess glue out of the flange while sliding the other assebly into place. I then tack the rear former to the assembly using CA glue while applying front and back pressure to push the formers up against the flanges to push out the excess glue.

-When you have everything in place you can apply a fillet of glue around the formers.

-Apply glue on the underside area around all parts that join. You will also put glue on the inside on the top of the wing cradles where they meet against the inside of the fuselodge. It would be good to let the glue seep down this crack because it will help out for when you fix the wing incodence. You will also notice in the previous picture where i apply glue that i had applied a good amount of glue on the sides of the wing cradles before i installed it to also help out with this.


chris

cgrcjet

Fixing the incodence on the rear wing.

-Mark up 3/16" on the trailing edge of the wing saddle.

-I also put a mark on the back lip 3/16" up from the bottom of the fuselodge so after i fit the wing up i can check it by this mark as well.

-Take the side of the rear wing profile and line it up trailing edge with the mark and leading edge will be in its normal spot, flush. Trace the outline of the rear wing.

-I had taken a 1/8" cutter on a dremel to cut away most of the material up close to the line. I then used a drum sander to clean it up as close to the line i could.

-Lucky me, i have some extra wings laying around and i used contact adhesive to attach 60 grit sandpaper to the top so i can fine tune the shape of the wing to the new saddle. You can do the same and when you are finished you can apply a little bit of heat to the sandpaper to soften up the contact adhesive and then clean the wing. I think paint thinner would work fine but you might want to test a spot first. You might also want to try some 2 sided tape instead of contact adhesive. You will then need to take down the trailing edge corner of the fuse wing saddle with a file because when you sand it out with the wing it does not sand out this area very good.



Those of you that have recieved a kit from john or lowell may not need to cut this area out, as i believe lowell said before, they had pre cut these.


chris

cgrcjet

Applying the bumper to the rear wing former.

-For some reason i had a problem with the bumper lining up with the mounting plate former incorrectly. It was to far forward at the point where there was not much former to screw into on the mounting plate. In other words the cutout in the center of this went back to far. I think i had changed the file somewhere along the line to try and save weight. I have fixed the cut file today and brought this opening further forward. You may want to check and see if these line up properly. The easy fix is to cut back the top of the wing skin a little more than a 1/4" or until the bumper is able to sit fully on the mounting plate former to where there is some ply to screw into.

-I used a 1/2" x 1/2" piece of basswood as the bumper and cut it down to fit in the opening. The bumper is just there to fill in the space between the mounting plate former and the former it will be glued to in the wing so when you tighten down the 2 screws they have some backing behind them. When all is said and done you will want this bumper to hit against the mounting plate former when the wing is fit into the saddle. The 1/2" x 1/2" basswood is a little shy of filling the space. When i glued this piece in with 5 minute epoxy i did not push down on it with alot of force. I let it ride on top of the glue to give it a little extra height and then applied a little glue around it. It was only shy about a 1/32". You can then go back and make sure the wing is fitting against the saddle. If it is sitting away from the saddle a bit like mine because of the bumper, you can take a sanding block and bevel down the back edge of the bumper until the wing fits against the saddle. The reason why i beveled the back of the bumper is because it does not sit against the mounting plate flat but at a slight angle.

chris

cgrcjet

-I then drilled 2 holes through the basswood and ply and out the bottom of the wing skin. If you do this straight enough, the holes on the bottom of the wing skin will be spaced nicely and look good from the outside. If you dont feel you can drill straight enough through the hole thing, you can measure and mark out on the bottom of the wing and drill them from that side. I used 2 #5 x 1-1/4" screws to mount the rear wing. The holes that i pre drilled for these still had a snug fit. I did this so when the wing is loosened up and detached you can leave the screws halfway in so they dont get lost.

-The holes that i drilled were off just a bit as far as spacing on the bottom of the wing. I drilled them out again from the bottom side with a bit that was just big enough for the screw heads to fit through. When i drilled them out i displaced the bit more towards where they had looked evenly spaced and even. I then used a small round file to clean up the hole to where it looked more presentable.

-I then marked out the trailing edge of the wing for alignment with the backside of the fuse.

-Put the screws through the skin holes and screw them in to the basswood where they stick out a bit.

-Sit the wing in the saddle and when you have everything lined up correctly you can apply pressure on the trailing edge section of the wing so the screws leave an imprint on the mounting plate former. You can then take the wing off and use a small pilot bit to drill out where the marks were left from the screws. As you can see, even though i had brought the bumper back a bit on the top side of the wing, the holes are still a little close to the edge.

-To help with a little extra support i had glued a piece of 1/8" ply up under where my screws will go into the mounting plate.


chris

cgrcjet

-I marked down an 1/8" from the seem line on the leading edge of the wing. This will allow me to miss the former in the wing when drilling out for the 3/8" dowel.

-I then placed the top edge of the dowel on the top mark and then marked the bottom so i could have the diameter of the dowel marked out on the leading edge.

-I then measured and put a mark between these 2 points so i knew where my drill hole was going to be. I then measured from the bottom of the wing (fuseloged) up to the middle line.

-Take that measurement and mark it down from the bottom of the fuselodge and onto the front former of the rear wing area of the fuse. You can then use a small bit to drill out a pilot hole.


chris

cgrcjet

-I then cut out a piece of 1/8" ply to glue inside the leading edge to give the dowel a little extra support. I did this by just tracing out the front profile of the wing in this area. Scuff up the inside and glue the piece in place.

-You can then re mount the wing with the 2 screws. You can then take and starting with a smaller bit, drill the hole out that you had previously made in the front former. This time you will drill from the opening where the engine nacelle goes. Through the former and into the wing.Work you way up in bit size until the hole is big enough to slide the dowel through the leading edge of the wing.

chris

cgrcjet

-You can then put marks on the top of the wing trailing edge up against both sides of the fuse.

-Come about a 1/16" in from those marks and take a file and trim the top trailing edge back about 1/32". This will help with installing the wing after the dowel is in. If you do not trim it then this area will catch on the back part of the wing saddle to where the wing will not slide into place.


chris

cgrcjet

-Put a bevel on one end of the dowel that will go into the front fuse former.

-Slide the dowel into the front of the wing. I tacked the dowel in place at a slight angle with CA. You may not be able to tell in this picture but the beveled end is angled slightly towards the bottom of the fuse.

-Front shot

-The dowel comes in the length of the pre installed former in the wing and sits under and against it.

-Back shot. I then glued it to this former and to the former i had to make that fit up in the leading edge area. I also applied a little bit of glue to the outside where the dowel slides in.

-After the glue set, I slid the wing into place. The bottom part of the fuse and the bottom part of the wing were not flush on the leading edge bottom side of the wing. The wing was a little lower because the slight angle i put on the dowel. It created a little bit of binding. I took a round file and slowly filed the front former hole down towards the bottom of the fuse until the bottom of the wing and fuse were flush.

chris

cgrcjet

Right now i am in the process of making , yes once again, the pylon molds. After making the first set of pylons i had thought it would be much faster to make the parts fully closed (and it will be). Probably even save a little weight and look a little more professional. I have already made the first half of the new molds today. It was even much faster to make the molds this way. I will get the molds ready tomorrow to make the second half the next day. Live and learn. Again! Sorry Sick I know your still waiting.


chris

cgrcjet

Verticle stabs setup finished. The setup procedure for the servo is on page 1.

chris

cgrcjet

Avionics cooling vents

-You will want to leave a little bit of the flange on these ,so you can glue them to the inside of the fuse. There are square markers on the sides of the fuse that will need to be cut out. After roughly cutting these out , i use a small file to clean them up to the line and then sand down the fuse on the inside in these areas. You will need to install these before you put the front fuse formers in because one of the fuse formers are notched for these and glued in around them. These are different in size so you will have to match them up before you glue them in.

-Left side of fuse

-right side of fuse


outer blister vents

-right side

-close up of right side

-Left side

cgrcjet

fuselodge wing fillet

-Some of these have a flange on them and some do not because i was expiromenting with vacuum bagging these and open mold process.

-I take off the flange with a belt sander but just go down until the flange falls off or it may not fit up nicely if you take to much off.

-picture on the fuse.

chris

cgrcjet

Wheel fairing

-In the kits that i have sold, i have included a template to cut out for the gear. I can send one of these to all who have bought a kit from John and Lowell.

I decided to screw the fairings down but you can also glue them if you like. I had to sand out a little bit of the leading edge area on one of these sides, so you may need to do a little fitting.

-I first found the location and put 3 screws in top.

-I then put a few screws in the inside flange.

-I then drilled a couple holes in the area where the dispencers are and put a couple screws on the back flange. Its kind of difficult to put these screws in ,so i put a dot of CA on the end of a screwdriver and some kicker on the screw head, so the screw wont fall off the screwdriver and you can put it down through the hole to screw it in.

-Shot of the back flange

-Side shot.


The screws tighten in pretty snug but i think i will put a small piece of ply backer in behind them. On some of these it may be hard to access for the ply but i am going to try and fish some fishing line or something through the holes, drill a small hole through the ply and put the line through that with a knot on the backside, put some CA on it and pull it back through until the ply is up at the hole. We'll see if it works.

chris

cgrcjet

Canopy

-I started cutting out the canopy frame for the clear vacuum form canopy to be glued in place. I used a 1/16" cutter on a dremel angled down in the direction of the cut to prevent chattering. I cut as close to the line as i could and used 100 grit sandpaper to bring it to the line.

-There is an outline on the front and back canopies to help in cutting out the openings. On the back canopy you will notice a mark where the outline is to be cut. I held back from this mark between 1/16"-1/8" to give a little extra area to glue in the clear canopy. I only did this around the front flange area. The marks on the front canopy will be the same. One mark shows the outline and the other shows how far i held back from the line. Again, this will only need to be done at the marks where both canopy sides meet up. Be careful when you install the clear canopy in the back canopy frame. The frame has some give and if you glue the piece in while torquing it, you will have a problem with it fitting in its place nicely. Take your time.

chris

cgrcjet

Wingtip dispencers

-I cut the flange down to about 1/16"-1/8" with scissors, for gluing to the wing. Sanded down the sides with 100 grit sandpaper on a flat surface and sanded both surfaces to be bonded.

-I used thick CA glue on the flange to glue it in place. I put a little pressure on the ends until it fully conformed to the wing. As i do this i wipe the extra glue up that squeezes out and use some kicker. After its dry i like to run another bead of glue on the outside of the flange and clean it up with a Q-tip to get a nice edge.

-Dispencer decals.

I have decals that will go on these as well as the wheelwell dispencers. Sic, i know you have already bought some decals for your A10, but i will send you a set anyways so you can have all the extras.

chris

cgrcjet

Franco from Florida is putting some P60's in his A10. He sent me some great pics and i thought i would post them. John tried a single P60 setup without a thrust tube, but looking at these pics, it looks excellent. The P60 is about the equivelent to the turbax setup as far as weight and thrust. I believe the turbine is just a bit lighter than the fan unit.


chris

cgrcjet

The blisters that go on top of the wing. I marked over 8 1/2" from the wing root and put a mark. You will leave a bit of the flange on these to glue them. The inner flange was lined up on the outside of this mark towards the wingtip side. I lined up the front of this piece straight across with the top of the slat edge on the inner part of the wing.


chris