Bish Wheeler

LOL, not a problem. Will probably bury mine in the center section as well and will figure it out once I get things started.

Bish Wheeler

Here is the Zlin in it's "kitted" form. I have most of the major parts cut and I will start sticking things together this Sunday. I can't start til then as my wife wants to use my construction table for the garage sale on Saturday and I am smart enough to know when to say "yes dear". I will give a try at building on line and see how it goes. My models usually come out pretty good, but I am from the "Cut it to shape, pound it to fit and paint it to match" school of building and I hope I don't offend anyone's sensibilities!!!

Jahna

GREAT to see you back at the building bench, Bish[sm=thumbs_up.gif]!
I will follow your project wit great interest and I'm sure to see good ideas for my Stinson.

Bish Wheeler

Now that the garage sale is done and and I have my construction table back I have been able to get a little work done on the Zlin. I started with the center section as starting in the middle seemed like as good a place to start as any! After the usual 'Ooops, that's not right" starting jitters, things settled down and I think I am in tune with this build.

It's always interesting to start a build from some one else's plans. Everyone has their own way fo doing things and Dick vanMouric (the designer of this model) has his way of doing things too. His treatment of the trailing edge is unique to my experience and it is really a good approach to getting the wing trailing edge as thin, strong and sharp as can be. He suggests using a 1/4" strip of 1/64 ply at the the trialing inside edge of the lower wing. I was a little leery about it, thinkiing it would not mate with the upper sheeting in a way that would not result in a bump at the edge of the wing. I did a test strip and it came out just perfectly. Very thin and very strong!

So, here are some pictures of the model in the early stages....assuming they will load to the site that is!

You can see here the center section from a couple of different views and if you look closely you will see the 1/64 strip at the trailing edge. The gear is from Century Jet and and is very scale and beautifully constructed. It was a little spendy at $375, but it came with the tank, the valve and all the fixin's so I guess it was not too outragous especially since it has all the correct scale dimensions.

The last picture is of the tail wheel assembly which I built while waiting for my wife to finish with the table.

I will start on the outer wing panels asap!

Bish

carlbecker

My Feedback: (3)

Keep up the good work! I have an interest in building one of these. I have some Robart gear laying around I think I can get to fit well.

Carl

Bish Wheeler

Father's day and I got some work done on the Zlin. I went to the Scale Masters qualifier here yesterday and was inspired to get this thing farther down the road and do the best I can, which means constantly telling myself to "slow down and think it through".

So, here is the right wing panel on which I have had to really think from time to time. As you look at the trailing edge you can see a 1" chunk of balsa running the length of the trailing edge. It is a jig. This plane has an amazing 6 deg of washout, as you can see if you look closely at the end rib, so the trailing edge is built 1' off the board. Then to make things more intersting, the wing has a 4 deg angle of incidence at the fuse. So I spent quite a bit of time checking and re checking everything just to be sure before I glued things in place.

The servo is located so that the control hookup remains scale which means it is buried in the wing and there "ain't much room" in there. I am really uncomfortable with not being able to get at a servo short of ripping into the wing so I cobbled this installation together which I am sure will do the trick. Esentially the servo is mounted to an aluminum plate which slips into a slot and is then is held in placw with two 4/40 screws. The servo will be accesssable through a door in the underpart of the wing which I will make as hard to see as possible. If anyone has a better way of doing this job, I would love to hear about it.

I'll get the second panel going and then start on skinning and joining them to the center section.

Later,

Bish

BOLTMAN

My Feedback: (1)

Hi Guys,

I was in the Czech Republic late March this year and happened to score a tour of the Zlin factory!

You might be surprised to learn that there is a small company that operates out of a leased hangar on Zlin's own airfield. The head of this company is an ex-employee of Zlin who was involved in the design of some of Zlin's earlier aircraft such as the 326 through to the 526. This company buys any and all available hulks & wrecks of the old Zlins and does complete ground up rebuilds that result in aircraft that is essentially brand new again.

We also visited quite a few other airfields while in Czech and it seemed like everywhere you looked the was a Zlin or 2.

I have attached a few photos.

Cheers

BOLTMAN

My Feedback: (1)

Some more pic's...................

bunsen

Bish et. al.

I am about half way thru a ZLIN-526. Using Robart retracts. Starting to sheet the wings. Fuselage is framed up. I have the fiberglass canopy and cowl from Traplett but was wondering what you were doing with regards to the spinner?

The spinner is sort of unique and so far have not found anything commercially available that looks close.

Pictures you have posted look nice. I plan on using a Saito 91 for power. Have a set of pictures and 3-View from Bob Banka as a documentation baseline. Mounted the aileron servo in the wing, somewhat similar to what you did, except made the mount out of plywood. Will make a servo cover out of a layup of fiberglass on the sheeted lower wing.

Ray

Bish Wheeler

Hi Ray,

Been way too hot here to work in my shop except between 2 AM and 6 AM, so have not been "at it" for a while and it may be a bit til things cool down. Probably should invest in an A/C for out there.

I am using the same parts, but I got the Century retracts and I got the spinner and the belly pan from Dick Van Mouric. The spinner will be for display only and will have the vanes etc.

Bish

susquach

My Feedback: (1)

Had the Sig Zlin.....it flew SUPER. The high aspect wings really made for a nice presentation in the air. But......the ground handling will really take a pilot to school. It loves to head for the ditch with the slightes encouragement. The long nose and narrow set gear, along with p-effect makes the plane a real task master. Once in the air though, all the runway antics will be soon forgotten!

Bish Wheeler

I had the Sig model too. My only complaint was that it tended to nose over. As you can tell by the responses to this thread, this version, with the forward swept retracts does not suffer from ground handling problems. I remember the Sig Zlin as the sweetest flying ship I have ever had.

grh_70

Hmm,

Maybe I would be better off selling my SIG kit rather than building it,
since I'm not exactly a hot-dog flier.
I've only had it for 32 years!

Gunslinger

My Feedback: (7)

grh...You have a PM

arado

Hi to all and thank you for your comments.
Personally, I never had problems with landing my Z-526 AS, as the model design features such an incredible amount of washout (both due to the airfoils used and constructional washout) that it is almost impossible to stall the bird. Three-pointers are the way to go, and can be safely flown, also due to the small ground angle of this design.

As for the narrow track gear, this also has never led to any hairrising situations, as the model is so stable during landing. Just my 2 cents, but having designed this model I might be biased......

Lew, maybe you will be kind enough togive your p.o.v. on landing the model??

cap10b

All,
Great thread, wow this does take me back. I had a Sig Zlin that I was building up with a Super Tigre ST-60. For some reason I never finished it. I also bought a foam Zlin 526AS from a guy in Whichita Falls, Texas. His name was Ray. The foam Zlin was fairly large about 90" ws designed for a Super tigre 2000/3000. I gave that one to a buddy that crashed his first big plane and he had a big Super Tigre laying around rusting. There was a big Zlin that was flown at the Top Gun back at the Polo Grounds that was around 120" and flew with a big twin. I surfed onto their web sight one day years ago and realized you would need a NASA engineer to get the plane in the air. So my search continues for a big Zlin that can take a 3W-75 / 106b2 , two piece wing, all wood or composite, that does not cost an arm and a leg and can be obtained in my life time.

Good Luck

JDS

arado

Maybe this kit would fulfil your requirements??

http://www.skygate-collection.de/index.php?id=557&L=2

cap10b

Arado,
Yeah this is the guy Thomas Schmidt (Aeroflug). Did you see the $1790 EURO price tag. Thats like $2400 US. and $700.00 for retracts. Plus shipping to get it here .... I think I'll Pass.

Nice Try though.

JDS

R101

I found the Zlin to handle well on take off and landing - very little tendency to swing or nose over - flies like a big trainer.

Haven't managed to get her to spin yet though - maybe due to the wing washout?

Bish Wheeler

Hi,

Still too darn hot around her to work in the shop, It has been over 100 for 12 of the 16 days so far this month.

Had to go to yahoo to get a new e-mail address as AOL has decided to block any mail from RC/U. My wife loves AOL so I stay with it just for peace on the ranch, but it is the WORST. How in the world they stay in blusiness is beyond me. They are arrogant and run endless commercials. A true POS.

There, now I feel better!

arado

Thanks Lew, I also find the ZlÃ*n a great model to fly - in fact I'm finishing a "new" one, using the original wing and modified fuselage - should be ready in a month or so.

Interesting remark about the spin - will try and let you know!

Another shot for inspiration...

AlphaWhisky

Hi One and All,

I have been following this thread with interest. I`m keen to obtain a set of the old Sig Zlin plans. That model has been mentioned several times throughout this thread.

Does anyone here have an old set, any condition acceptable as long as they can be read, that they are prepared to sell, copy, trade, or otherwise process in order that I can get my hands on a set?

I would be most grateful if someone can assist here.

Thankyou,

Alan W

zlin50ls

My Feedback: (351)

I saw this thread and had to add my newest Zlin project to it. I'm building an old Sig Akrobat that you had mentioned. I'm not completely finished with it as there is more to do. I like the Zlin aircraft as they look different from many other planes. I'm also seeing more Zlin 50 models, Nitro Models has the "Mazda" black and yellow version Z-50 ARF. Please post some photos when you get your 1/5 scale Zlin 526 done. Thanks, Kurt.

negus

Hey Zlin50LS:

Beautifull work on your Zlin 526!!

I've always loved this plane, and I have a vintage SIG kit new in the box and looking at yours made me decide to stert with the buildup!

What kind of power will you beusing on yours?

Are you using retracts? which ones?

Please let us know about your flight impressions when you maiden it;

Congratulations, superb looking airplane!!

Negus

negus

AlphWisky:

I will try to have my set of plans scaned for you and send them in digital format; yuo are quite far from me, just give me some time.

Regards:

Negus