hi Kjell
It was the exhaust.. spring ther was broken...

Very nice paint scheme. Good luck, Mike

Hi ,

Danie
CG is a matter of liking, and your CG-pos is just fine, on the safe side.
Just enjoy your flight, this bird is kind in all ways

Kjell Olav

Thank you for the vote of confidence Kjell... and Mike for the compliment...

I will let you guys know re the first flight which will hopefully be on Sunday next...

Has anyone got a good technique to apply decals, I'm assuming that most people have individual letters cut out - how do you get them alined?

Hey Twoturn...

The commercial outfits I've dealt with supply the graphics in a three layer sandwich. Starting closest to the aircraft surface: a layer of "paper" that the letters barely stick to the letters then a top semi sticky piece. The letters are arranged/aligned already. There is usually a margin around the whole "word" or whatever. Use masking tape to tape down the top with the sheet aligned where you want it. The pros probably could flip it up and remove/peel off the bottom sheet (the one the sticky side of the letters are attached to) and wiork it all down as one. Depending on the size, I cut between letters up to the tape remove the bottom layer for letter and work it down from the top. In a plong enough name like Temptation, after the first couple of single letter cuts (and it's going well...) I may cut for two letters and put them down at the same time. Only after all the letters are stuck down does the tape and top layer come off. The tape keeps everything lined up the way the shop layed them out.

Hope this is what you're looking for and that it helps. I got the advice from the guy who did the work at the shop and I have done a grand total of 5 planes! but they all came out fine.

Good luck with it!
Tom

Thanks for that Tom, I have talked to my decal guy and he is going to apply "application tape" to the top of the decals so I can apply them evenly. Appreciate your thoughts on this.

Well after a 13.5 hr round trip I brought my new Integral home. Never drive I95 on a rainy day. An 11 hr roundtrip became 13.5+ hrs real quick.<g>. This is a Dave Guerin assembled/built plane. Instead of the stock composite wings I had Dave make them out of the traditional balsa, foam and monokote. Also, the Bolly electric CF gear were used and an old pair of Temptation wheel pants so I could use bigger wheels in the grass. Here are some weight savings numbers:

Stock unfinished wing panels: 14.6oz and 14.7 oz
Balsa,foam monokoted wing panels: 10.9 ozs and 11.4 ozs (w/servos and linkages 12.6 ozs and 13.1 ozs)
Stock wing tube: 3 ozs
Bolly Wing Tube : 2 ozs

That's an easy 8 ozs of weight savings in the wing. I'm sure I may have picked up a couple of ozs of weight tops in the landing gear and wheel pants. The fuse appears to be reasonable in weight. I will have to weigh it when I get a chance. This will be a Hacker C50 13XL powered plane.

Hey Joe looks fantastic. Dave is so good at it. Verne just finished his new Integral with the custom wings and using the Hacker he told me it's 10.5 lbs. Mine with the custom wing will be done in a week or so and I'm using the AXI should be a little more but still in good shape. Best of luck with it. Please let us know how it flys. Mike

Looks great!
I have ca 30 flights on mine and i really start to like the plane!
I know that O.Fremming here in Norway also has made his own foam wings to save weigth.
He cut them with the same profil in tip and root ...not thicker in tip as the original.
This gave him better snaps and saved him i think it was around 200 gr.You can find his post highr up in this tread.

Anyone know where to get some Comp-ARF graphics to put the finishing touches on my Integral?

Dean Funk here in the US is a very good graphic designer. He just did an awesome graphic package for me. His prices are very resonable.
http://www.dragonfirecustoms.com/
Mike

Heres a link for Aeropaint who are based here in the UK http://www.aeropaint.co.uk/

Tom is a true perfectionist and a really great guy to deal with, he also now produces a new range of printed graphics inluding printed covering to any scheme you could wish for!

Check out his slideshow.................

Regards,

Andy.

Absolutely brilliant slideshow, amazing paintwork - bit beyond me!

Hi again to all...

Please tell me you guys have an answer for fixing/curing a stress fracture ("bubble") that developed above my left landing gear after my spat came loose and ruinrd my day... it seems like the "bubble" is only on the outer gelcoat and that there must have been some cavity between this and the carbon inside?

Thanking you in advance
Danie

The same thing happened to me. What I did was epoxy a piece of carbon fibre reinforced end grain balsa between the vertical formers on each side of the inside of the fuselage. these pieces were about 25 mm high, and they spanned the full width from the front former to the rear former. What that did was prevent the fuselage from flexing when the landing gear flexed during landing, which prevents the from delaminating any further.

One additional thing that you might consider doing is making some small holes in the carbon fibre cloth reinforcement on the inside of the fuselage before gluing in the extra pieces so that glue can get into the space behind the gelcoat. (just be very careful not to have the holes go through the gelcoat as well...) Then you can clamp the assembly while the epoxy dries and fix the bulge on the outside.

Hi,

I have changed the internal construction as you can see in the picture...

Both landing-gear web`s is removed, and at the same time, both fuselage sides is laminated with 1.5mm balsa ,covered with light fiberglass.

My personal conclusion for this is that there is a consentration of stress in this area, and the original webs just make it even worse ; transfering the load from the landing-gear directly into the fuselage-side area where they are at it`s most weakened point ...

In other words; the landing-gear structure is too solid compared to the fuselage-sides,and the surounding structure , and thereby cause the fuelage-sides to colaps ( fracture or delamination ) cause of the stress-consentration.

Kjell Olav

I solved the problem by using Bolly FAI Electic Gear. Very flexible and absorbs the shock of even the harshest landings. The gear that is sent with Integral is way to stiff for the plane.

I have over 200 flights on my integral with absolutley no stress problems in the fuselage.

Carl

... This stress is mostly by back-load... Like bending the gear back ...

If you grab the gear and bend it backwards, you can see how easily the fuselage sides flex in this area, specially just behind the rear landing-gear web. In addition, the fuselage sides is at it`s most tiny point and at the same time , the carbon-cloth end in the same area ...

Hmm, i guess those of us running on rough sufaces are a bit cautioned about this

Kjell Olav

I would surmise that anyone flying off of a grass field is going to run the risk of having this problem.

... I believe it`s not the hard-landing that is the problem ( up-load), the original gear seems to flex ok, but the rough surface ( back-load cause by uneven surfaces etc) is the main thing here...

The modification transfer the load, and it feel right to the structure.

Kjell Olav

Finally I have mine ready to go. Thanks to all the posts on this thread it really helped me with the build. Mike

Lookin' good Mike.

With regard to the landing gear issue mentioned, think using larger wheel pants and wheels might be better. I went that route and will be using 2-3/4" wheels and the Bolly wheel pants and Electric F3A gear. I just think these narrow tiny wheel pants are just a stupid idea other than for saving some weight. I'm sure they are fine for paved runways and golf greens<g>

Hi Mike,
Loved your design. Can you send some pics of your internal/external cooling vents please?
Simon

My friend Mickey's new Integral. Custom wing YS 160. Mike