Hi all,

I have designed a F3A plane now planning to build the fuselage, this is the first time that i am building a 2x2 pattern ship, in the past i have build small to giant scale planes using lite ply, but for this plane i am using only balsa to keep it light as possible. But now my problem is making a wide & long balsa sheet for the fuselage, the balsa wood i have is 48"x4". I would like to know from other pro guys how u did it before i start off with the fuselage. Also i have few other questions will post these later as i progress.

I will be using a OS 160 FX with a tuned pipe, JR 10x radio & servos still to decide my budget is tooo tight i will post some of the design details as i progress further.

Thanks for the reply..

I used to make 2m wooden F3A planes-at least the fus sidesthe shape was made up with foam/veneer turtle decks top and bottomwith longerons at the "box" corners.
Getting the balsa sides deep enough is no problem-just butt glue the sheets along their length, much as you would for wing skins.
To get the length,I used to overlap two lengths of balsa so that the joint would be approx 45 degrees, fix the overlap with double-sided tape, and then cut a deliberately wavy line through both sheets with a powered fretsaw-this ensures that the joint can only go together in one position, when the parts are separated, and subsequently glued.
The only hi-tech material I used(in the fus sides) was 60 gsm kevlar cloth epoxy-bonded under clamp pressure, to the balsa sides-before the final shapingthis allowed the use of 6-8lb 1/16 balsa-together with 3/8 square, or 1/2 triangular, balsa longerons,this was plenty strong enough.

Check out my thread here: [link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_8067319/tm.htm]GT Express[/link] People are very helpful around here. If you need any help let me know. -Chris K