Quantum L
 

Hi All

I have placed an order and await delivery of my first 2x2 pattern plane. I have decided on a local made plane - it is called the Quantum L. The kit is made up of foam cores for wings, stabs and rudder and a composite fuse.

I witnessed the plane being flown by many locals and it faired very well against other planes.

I like the plane because of the building challenge. There is also a vast local network of knowledge for this model so building hints and set-up will be less stressfull!!! I hope...

I started this thread to share my first 2x2 building experience.

Pictures and building articles to be updated when I can.

RE: Quantum L
 

Hi Greg

You will enjoy that plane very much. Andre's planes is perfect.
Looking forward to your thread.

RE: Quantum L
 

Hey Walter

Thanks for the words - I have managed with the help of Nazeem to get the wings sheeted so far. I thought it better to get help as this was the first set of sheeted wings I have made - I didn't want to get it wrong!!

rgds

RE: Quantum L
 

You must post some pics to show your progress ??

[8D]:D

RE: Quantum L
 

Well this how the wings, stabs and rudder arrived. All nicely wrapped in a brown paper parcel!

RE: Quantum L
 

The two completed sheets of balsa. Strips glued edge to edge and sanded. Lots of work but looks better than the picture in real life!!

RE: Quantum L
 

With the help of a good flying freind - Nazeem - those sheets were transformed into two sets of skins for the two wing halves. During the skinning process I sanded down the foam cores to smooth off the surface while Nazeem measured up mixed and applied the epoxy to the skins only - one at a time.

A strip of glass cloth was laid along what will become the wing trailing edges. This for stiffness and strength I gather.

The whole bundle was sandwhiched between a specially made press jig and the bolts were tightened down for pressure.

After removing from the press jig a few days later ( I was busy - ok!) we weighed each panel. About 380 grams each. Still need to be trimmed down and finished off with leading edges/ailerons/tips. I have decided to go fixed under carriage - so no recesses for servo and retracts will be required.

It seems a lot to do but hopefully I can get some building time in this week end.

Greg [8D]

RE: Quantum L
 

I took some foto's of the newly skinned wing halves. They are still in the unfinished condition. I am very happy with the results so far - all looks fair and straight!!:)

The trailing edges are quite rigid - reinforcing strip of glass cloth!?! You can just see the bits sticking out (that sounds dirty!!:D)

RE: Quantum L
 

The manufacturer has advised that my fuse is ready and he will send it this weekend. I am looking forward to getting the fuse so that I can work on a colour scheme. Any suggestions would be welcome. I think that the KISS principle would be good for the scheme but open to suggestions! ;)

RE: Quantum L
 

Hey Greg,
Any photos of the finished airplane? Does the manufacturer have a web site? Looks good so far!!
regards,
Will Bartlett

RE: Quantum L
 

Hi Will

I don't have pictures myself but I have asked friends to send me some so I will post some soon.

I can send you a pdf document of the report on the South African Master 2007 with pictures in it if you supply an email address. Unfortunately I can't post it here - not supported[:o]

You can contact the guy who manufactures the kit directly at "[email protected]". He does not have a website. His name is Andre.

Greg

RE: Quantum L
 

This is the picture of a very well finished Quantum L2. It actually belongs to the manufacturer and the picture was taken at the South African Champs 2007 - where Andre placed 2nd to Marcelo Colombo by a few fractions! Normalising?!?

RE: Quantum L
 

This plane belongs to one of our very promising younger pilots. This picture was taken at the SA Masters invitational 2007.

RE: Quantum L
 

Wow - father christmas came early - hahaha. My Quantum fuzz arrived by hand delivery form a fellow flier and passenger plane pilot. Below are some pictures I took of the plane as soon as I got home and got the wrapping off!! The "birds" a bit naked but I don't mind:D

RE: Quantum L
 

Some pictures of the "bare" insides! The belly pan removed and various shots at various angles. Full composite fuzz. I think it is superbly done and I spent about an hour just looking at the lot!!!

RE: Quantum L
 

Ok between flying, taking the family shopping and washing the dogs I managed to get some building done on the wings. Shaped the wing cores, fitted leading edges, planed down the excess and made a mess. Rounded of the leading edges by hand remembering to try and keep things straight.;) This is my first 2x2 and boy are those wings vast:D I decided to deviate a little with the wing tips and laminated in some thin ply along the full cord length of the tip. Plans only call for reinforcing at the aileron trailing edge section.

I seem to always find edges and corners to hit wing tips into[&o]

RE: Quantum L
 

Looks Great so far. Thanks for the photos of the finished airplane - very nice.
-Will Bartlett

RE: Quantum L
 

Did some work on plotting the position and layout of aileron cutouts and servo positions. I will deviate slightly from the plans again by putting the servos on there sides and mounting them below the wing surface so only the servo arm pokes out![8D]

RE: Quantum L
 

Completed the aileron capstrips and shaping - all rather nice;)

RE: Quantum L
 

spent some time preparing the horizontal stabs foam cores for the joining tube. The stabs are removable for transport. I am quite pleased with my first efforts in making a sleeve for the wing joiner!! Glasscloth and epoxy resin rolled over the tube. Still need to make the ply supports for the sleeves and slot them into the foam cores prior to sheeting.:D

RE: Quantum L
 

Hi guys

All these year end christmas functions are really cutting into my building time:D Its just great to get all the free booze:D:D:D

hope I'm still building straight....

Got round to cutting and shaping the supports for the joiner tube and glued them in place into the foam cores. Next step will be sheeting the stabs - but I now got the staff christmas function tonight.....

RE: Quantum L
 

Looks like a nice fuse!

I take it that the 665g in the fuse is the weight?

Not bad at all. I could probably grow to love it if it didn't have that spire of a fin. (I like lowrider fins :D )

I'll tell you, building while Pissy has cost me a more than one plane, I'd built a little HLG (the day of the redbull races here in perth) and all I needed to do was run the rudder cables, I did so (I should point out that the redbull races fall on around my birthday so for the last 2 years its been my birthday party, planes and booze and erm planes!) I just put a drop of CA to ake sure nothing let go (all very sane wouldn't you say?) THen I took it for a test flight....

....WITH NO PREFLIGHT CHECK OF THE CONTROLS, needless to say I'd glued the cables to the tubes and splattered my new creation on the first flight. It's not what you think that gets you, but the small stuff you miss that'll make you cry.

After taht I made the rule of no pissy driving/building/flying/speaking (this one has been enforced upon me after an embarassing pissy speech).

The only thing you should do drunk is cook and erm, oh wait there's more than one thing you should do drunk.... :D

RE: Quantum L
 

Hi renegade - thanx the advice - but for the life of me i can't think what else one should do drunk!!!!!!

Lets see - it's been a while since I posted. I have been away on leave but have been keeping the building going. I am at the point where the wings are ready for bonding together, the horizontal stabs and elevators are completed, the rudder is completed.

The firewall and engine mounting is fitted and bonded in place in the fuzz at the correct angles - took it to a Muslim freind of mine and I know he don't drink so it must be correctly installed!!! (renegade take note....)

I only have dial-up at home, live in the bumb of africa so no adsl available in my neighbourhood - oh probably for the next twenty years or so (sorry me trying to be positive about my rainbow nation future...) - at least the power is still on so I can use the computer...

At any rate I wish all a happy new year. I will post pictures of the current status of the build soon.

RE: Quantum L
 

Right! Back to work I go...been spending lots of time with my family and an odd hour here and there doing some building on the Quantum. Actually I have had a very good holiday so did not get everything I had planned to do - done!!:D

The horizontal stabs in progress...stabs joining tube supports fitted.

RE: Quantum L
 

You see how "Father Christmas" gets around these days!

It's even got a red nose!!!!:D

RE: Quantum L
 

So after completing the stabs joiner tube installation I prepared the sheeting. I applied the trailing edge fibreglass strips for strengthening and expoxied the sheets to the cores. These were then placed in the clamping device.

Then I fitted and shaped the leading edges followed by the laminated tips. I again deviated from the plans by fitting a full chord length ply insert to strengthen the tip. All came out very nice.[8D]

RE: Quantum L
 

During the clamping time of the stabs I prepared the carbon fibre servo tray. With the guidance of Nazeem again I made my own laminate using the 3mm balsa and carbon fibre cloth/epoxy resin sandwhich. It came out really great and I am well pleased with my newly learnt experiment!!!

Of course the servo tray was completed over a few days!! ;)

RE: Quantum L
 

Well pleased with my servo tray efforts I then went on and made the engine firewall using 5mm ply and carbon sandwhich method. This was then shaped to fit with a small clearance inside the fuse.

The engine mounting is then fitted and the engine is temporarily mounted. Using the backplate of the spinner ( I borrowed the spinner backplate from Nazeem) and a 1mm balsa spacer the whole assembly is suspended in the fuse. The fuse is supported standing vertically.

The backplate is aligned with the nose of the aircraft, the firewall is a snug clearance fit in the fuse, the mounting is located on the firewall to have built in down and side thrust as required according to plans.

The fire wall is then "tacked" in place using 30 min epoxy. Once dried the engine and mounting is removed and the whole circumference of the firewall/fuse joint is filled with a mix of 30 min epoxy and cotton flock. This is done on the front and rear of the fire wall. It dries amazingly strong and looks very neat.

RE: Quantum L
 

The foto of the engine in the previous post includes the laminated ply/carbon nose ring and cheak plates for my installation. Once I finally receive the spinner for my plane, been on order four weeks now [:@], I will double check the engine alignment with the backplate and then install the cheakplates into the fuse to support the nose ring.

RE: Quantum L
 

I made some more progress with the horizontal stabs. These are removable for transport purposes so they require a joining tube and fixing - incidence - points for installing on the fuse.

I hollowed out some of the foam core to install hard points for the incidence pins locating holes. I then expoxied in some blocks using the mix of expoxy and cotton flock. Fills any gaps and is very strong!

Next was to hollow out a small portion of foan core around the joiner tubes. This is then filled with a mix of the expoxy and cotton flock to provide a really strong base. I then fitted a cap strip of 1.8mm ply to finish off the root section of the stabs.

RE: Quantum L
 

Another couple of hours went flashing by while I was busy installing the aileron servos!!!:D

I first took great care in the planning of the installation so as to make sure I did a right and a left wing servo bay in the underside of the wings. All measured correctly and checked and so along I went with the blades and dremel router and straight edge.

After completing the servo bay holes I made the awfull discovery that I had measured incorrectly on the one side. I was so mad with myself I felt like stomping all over the wings and starting over!!![:@]

I decided to take my daughter shopping instead for christmas presents!!!!:D

Anyway after the shopping I was in a better mood and formulated a recovery plan as well. Garments can have "invisible mending" - so why not wings - hahaha.

I filled in the hollowed out foam, replaced a piece of the wing sheeting and remarked and recut and rehollowed out the correct servo bay position!!!!

Then I took the wife to supper and celebrated with a few beers[8D]

RE: Quantum L
 

After the efforts with the aileron servos I took a couple of days off building and went flying, shopping and boating. A freind of mine has got into formula 1 R/C boat racing. We spent a day at the pond racing around the bouys. He bout his boys a Thundercat 30-something (not sure what) but after tuning and running in a bit it beat the pants/skirts (??) off of his 3.5cc Formula 1 racing boat!!

Our day ended a bit abruptly when his boat developed a slight forawrd motion problem - the propshaft broke!! The Thundercat blew the silicone joiner pipe for the exhaust so that was also O/C. A good day and a great introduction to another field of R/C for me. I don't think that boating will take over from my pattern flying - it's way too boringly 2D. [8D]

RE: Quantum L
 

Somewhere along the way I done the rudder! My england is good, no?

Great big chunk of foam covered with balsa sheeting and cap strips of laminated balsa/ply/balsa top and bottom. I did not take many pictures during the rudder assembly??

Couple of points about the rudder I put together - it is sheeted with 2mm balsa instead of the 1.5mm the plans call for. It has the trailing edge fibre glass strips as per wing and stab construction. It has the ply laminated capstrips as mentioned.

I've seen some wierd modifications done to some planes rudders while checking out the competition at the pattern comps I've been too. The guys have talked about a thicker trailing edge so I have cut back the trailing edge as much as possible without getting too close to the foam cores. The trailing edges is now 5mm thick on the rudder. This apparently improves something about it's performance - wait and see!!

RE: Quantum L
 

Ok - so now I need to join the two wings together. I need the wing to set up the horizontal stabs joiner tube sleeve that is fitted into the fuse. The wing is required to line up every thing fair ans square!:)

The wing foam cores are supplied with the dihedral cut into the foam block. This makes it a simple operation to join the wings with the designers correct dihedral built into the wings. With a handy flat level surface available I joined the two foam shucks with packaging tape making sure all is well aligned and square.

I then test fitted the wing panels for accuracy. All seemed well so I proceded to bond the two wing halves using 30 min epoxy along the joint. Then the cores are held together with masking tape and placed in the bottom shucks. After double checking alignment the upper shucks were positioned and some handy weights used to hold all secure. Paving stones left over from the paving recently done at my home!!

The second picture shows where I still need to cut openings for the aileron servo leads. "Tunnels" were made in the foam cores with Nazeems help. A jig was used to pass a heated pipe accurately into the foam cores to the correct depth. You can see the holes in the servo bays in a previous posting.

RE: Quantum L
 

After the wing joint epoxy had completely cured - about two days later:D - I was busy with my holiday flying routine ok - been having to practice the new advanced schedule for the coming season!!! A big step up from the sportmans schedule that I was used to flying for the past two years.

Anyway after the wing joint had cured I had to shape the wing to fit into the fuse saddle. A little off the front and back please...leading edge and trailing edge surgery was required. I finally had something I was happy with and could proceed with aligning the stab joiner tube.

RE: Quantum L
 

So once the wing was sorted - fitting well into the fuse saddle I could then align and glue in the sleeve for the stabs. I used a mix of 30 min epoxy and cotton flock to fill the gaps and provides a super strong glue joint. It is very handy having an extra empty room with a nice flat surface to work on instead of my single garage!!!;)

As you can see the inspector approves the final assembly - job well done!!!

RE: Quantum L
 

I have been trawling around for ideas on a colour scheme. After looking at lots of planes and different colours I decided on K.I.S.S.

I have opted for a blue/yellow/white combination for the wings and stabs. The same for the fuse but with some black trimmings to bring out the horizontal lines. Here is a completed stab half that I tested my scheme on - I think it looks great and is relatively easy to put on.

The first pic is the top surface and the second the bottom surface. :)

RE: Quantum L
 

Ok - so I like the colour scheme so I went ahead and finished off the other stab and then the rudder as well. You can aslo see I have been putting the control linkages to the various moving surfaces. It is amazing how time consuming applying the covering actually is! [:'(]

RE: Quantum L
 

And the rudder!

RE: Quantum L
 

I then completed the stabs incidence locating pins installation. These are carbon fibre pins insterd into the fuse at the correct location and corresponding holes in the individual stabs.

I borrowed another good freind of mines' incidence metre as he has a new one with a lazer pointer on it! I was very pleased with my results and hope it leads to good straight flying - when I am not holding the sticks that is!!!:D

The pics of the laser pointer is for left and right stab - zero incidence to thrust line.