TEBerg

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Hi Gary, thanks for stopping buy the thread..

How long were you at Lemoore NAS?? My father was stationed there with VA-25 then went into Civil Service and worked on the Flight Simulators. The old "spider legg" A-7 simulator then later with the full visual F-18 domes.. I was born on LNAS in 1967.. When we started flying in the 1980's, we used to fly out behind the recreation facility and then later out by the BOQ..

Interesting to hear about the master arm switch incident.. That sounds like it makes the top of the list with taking off with the wings folded....

More pics with the building later - Working the Rodeo this weekend!!!

TEBerg

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I went ahead and put up a "tutorial" for making molds and casting some plastic and foam parts in the "Tips and Techniques" Forum.. You can find the thread here: http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_7432180/tm.htm

It covers the "simple" mold I made for casting duplicate Vortac bomb release clips (they are not made any more) and a more elaborate "glove" mold for the 1/10th scale M117 bomb.. I figured I had better go ahead and make molds so if I break or loose stuff, I can make more.. Or, if you guys have a need for any of these things, let me know!!!..

So the things I worked on between the days at the Clovis Rodeo were the release clips, the bombs and revisions to the tail hook!!!

The Tail hook NEEDED help, because when I finished the last step, I ended up with something that looked like a big ugly club [laughing].. So, I found a few more photos and ended up "flattening the sides a bunch and getting a LOT closer than where I was ... Here are photos of "the club", then the sides flattened.. Yes, the photos show an AD-5 tail feathers, but the hook is the same on the A-1H as near as I can tell.

The bomb clips worked out pretty well, there are a couple small air bubbles on the barb of the clip, but I'll probably use them on the static ordinance and maybe some "practice" ordinance.. I have the original Vortac clips to use on my flying ordinance so I don't "drop" it at the wrong time..[X(]..

Next the 1/10th scale M117 bombs... Well, as you can see, it takes a couple of tries to estimate the correct amount of foam [laughing]... The first attempt is not even close, the second attempt ALMOST filled all 4 fins, but the tip corner of one is just a little shy - we'll use that as practice ordinance. You really have to time dumping the 'liquid' foam in the mold, rotating it around and tilting it to get foam in the back fins, then setting it back down as the foam expands. All in about 30 seconds.

The last photo has the current tail hook and the last version of the M117 bomb.. Notice there is a "shaded" area in the front of the foam bomb.. I put a #1 egg sinker in the mold and cast it into the foam.. I think it feels a lot better then just the light foam and hopefully it will fall a lot more true.. I don't want to drop the bombs on a windy day and have them float off in the distance..

TEBerg

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Well, some ideas just don't seem to work [>:]...

With the foam bombs, they were a little too light so I added the lead sinker ā€“ That worked, but left a mark in the nose area of the M117. There was also the issue of getting the foam into all the fins because they are pretty thin ā€“ That worked out with pouring faster and tilting/rotating the foam into the back, but you have to be quick...

I wanted a ā€œbetterā€ bomb [smile], so I made up a way to solve both those issues and still have a nice clean finish. I had cut extra fins when I made the master, thinking that I may need to use them if the foam was too brittle (which I think they may break when dropped).

So, I put those two ideas together and suspended the sinker from the set of plastic fins (first photo). It looked like it would work... I set up the first cast, the fins went in very well and everything looked pretty good... I mixed the foam and boy was it fun trying to pour past the opening with the plastic fins in the way!!!

I did not get all the foam in before it started to activate, so I gave it a slosh/spin and let it set up... OK, I end up with an ā€œopenā€ looking bomb... Too bad bombs donā€™t have vent openingsā€¦

Well, I went ahead and set up the second one figuring that I had better mix faster than 30 seconds. I use about 10 seconds to pour out both Dixie cups about 15 seconds to mix and start to pour (takes about 5 seconds to juggle everything)..

So, off to the races... 9 seconds of pouring, 12 seconds of mixing and then off to pour only dropping one thing on the newspaper... BTW, we LOVE newspaper doing this stuff!!! Well, the ā€œfasterā€ pour did not go any better and I did not get as much foam into the mold as the first attemptā€¦ I realize from this test that TWO things were working against me the plastic fins were plugging the fin air openings I had made and too small of an opening was left where the fins crossed in the center fill spout... OK, lessons learned!!!

Now, I did accomplish the two things I wanted ā€“ The plastic fins got glued into the foam very nice and the lead sinker is suspended in the foam so you donā€™t even know itā€™s there... Too bad everything in the middle didnā€™t work out as well (second photo)...

I think Iā€™ll glue some of the plastic clips I made on them, paint them a nice bright orange color and keep them on hand for some practice bombing. I donā€™t think they will last long at all, But ā€“ I do want to try ā€œLoft Bombingā€ and wonā€™t mind if these fly off somewhere I canā€™t find themā€¦

Time to get back to building.. I pulled out all the parts for the top center deck last night.. That is the next step of the fuselage.. It's built out in sections Sides (done), top center, rear turtledeck, front top, front bottom, then rear bottom sheeting..

garfred-RCU

Hi Tom
You were born while i was on my last cruise there at Lnas. I got out in Sept 1968 by flying off the hancock ,CVA19. I got to Lemoore in 1964. Met my wife there in hanford before my last cruise, and we left there in 1969 to come up here to washington. Where we have been eversince.
This build you are doing sounds like a lot of fun. Have you tried Vacuforming the bombs?
I have built an vacuformer for my model, and it works pretty good for me.
Gary

TEBerg

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Gary, I have a guy lined up to help me vacuum-form the landing gear pods. I have not thought about trying that with the bombs, but I could make a resin blank in the mold and form over that... They say the resin is OK up to 350 or 400 degrees or something like that...

I did get some building finished on the plane this week... Spent a lot of time with my son because my wife was in LA working for three days also... But I did manage to get a little accomplished...

I completed the step building the Top Center Deck... I only made a couple changes/modifications to the building plans.

I installed the Servo Rails in the first step, instead of the final assembly after everything was done and covered. It just seemed easier to measure and glue them in now.

I installed a 1/8-inch doubler underneath the cockpit floor... Just the standard 1/8-inch thickness seemed a little thin to install the pilot.

After sheeting the fuselage top and opening up the cockpit area, I installed tapered blocks on the right and left sides of the cockpit. It just seemed too wide and I was worried it would just look way off. So I just trimmed down some aileron stock and glued it along the stringers.

For the sheeting, they use 1/8-inch thick... This is a LOT thicker then anything I had sheeted before... So, I took it slow, sprayed warm water/ammonia mix on the outside, clamped and held the sheeting in place before I even thought of gluing it... With the nice straight decking, it curved to fit pretty well. I sprayed a second light coat of water/ammonia mix on the wood before I let it go completely and got ready to glue. I put thick CA down the stringers and the fuselage formers. Then I sprayed activator on the underside of the sheeting... I carefully lined up the top center and held it in place. Then I ran a fast bead of thin CA down the top center to lock her down. After that I worked as evenly as I could to secure the sheeting down the side to the bottom edge... There were a couple of places where I had to spot-glue with thin CA, but overall it's looking pretty straight...

This whole assembly was sanded to flush all the sheeting and stringers with the formers and bottom. Then it is glued on the top with 15-minute epoxy and held to dry...

That's it again for a couple days. I'm driving up to Woodland-Davis to watch the 49ers Scale Event... Should be fun...

speedaholic

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looking good tom, you biuld fast, and nice too. cant wait to see it when shes all done. have fun at the event, i think we are having the giant scale event in fresno tommorrow.

TEBerg

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Oh my gosh, where have I been[].. Well, I did get up to the Woodland-Davis event and saw some very nice airplanes and some great flying... Not a huge event, but fun..

In the time between "other things" I have finished some more building..

I broke the airframe[], fixed it and finished a couple more steps..

Ok, so how did I break it.. Well, apparently I was off a little (like 1/16-inch) between the two sides and when I pulled the back together I got a crack in the plywood side, right behind the doubler and the former. Well it looks like a weak point to me any way.. So, I cleaned things up and clamped some balsa blocks/doublers inside the fuselage over the break point and did the same on the other side to keep everything even. Then, before I pulled the tail together this time, I sprayed both sides with the amonia/water mixture.

I also remembered to not 'trust' that everything was even (because I know it's not) and placed the fuselage over the plans.. Yep, there is a little difference in the sides where they are not quite even at the very back.. However, with a little sand paper, everything should be fine.. So, the back was pulled together, the rear former is glued in and everything clamped..

From there I went on with the instructions and built the rear upper deck frame.. It fits together pretty well, but you do have to build it flat and sand all the tabs to match.. The next photo has the two sides sheeted on the deck.. But, man did working with 1/8 balsa suck again!!! I have the left side bent a little different than the right, I broke one of the sheeting pieces right at the compound curve and had to fix and double it.. And, I can't say the top edge is exactely straight for the moment.. The good part I see, is that with the 1/8 thickness, I will have some room to play with the sanding block and filler!!! The top back deck is not glued in place yet, that comes later in the process..

TEBerg

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From the back of the plane, we moved up front for the next steps... The firewall is laminated from two 1/8-inch thick plywood cutouts... Well, not surprising the pieces were a little warped. Nothing that clamping it flat on a piece of glass while the epoxy dried couldnā€™t fix!!! It is nice, flat and sturdy now...

Before I glued the firewall together, I drew the outline on some heavy paper so I could work with the engine mount... The plans call for a straight bolt pattern and the engine mounted on its side ā€“ sticking out to the right. Well, I want the right-hand (starboard) side to be the ā€œphotographicā€ side of the plane. Therefore, I was going with the engine mounted inverted. Well, as I looked at how the engine and muffler lined up, the inverted position put the muffler right in line with the leading edge of the wing. Looking at it a bit more, everything appeared to line up better with the engine mounted at 45-degrees down to the leftā€¦. Hmmm, Iā€™ve heard that you could have some idle problems inverted, so I wonder if the extra 45 degrees will help. What the orientation does do for me is provide easy access to the glow plug (so I may not need the remote adapter) and lines up the exhaust, and needle valve all on the left side of the plane. That gives me one side to work with when starting her up and keeps the starboard side very clean looking!!! It may even keep the top of the engine out of the dirt in case of a belly landing. So, I measured out the firewall plan and included the offset for about 3/32 of down and right thrust... Again, this is something that was suggested to help the flight characteristics of the flat bottom wing. Weā€™ll see if it all worksā€¦ I checked the engine clearance once more than transferred the locations onto the firewall with an auto-punch. I drilled all the holes and set the blind nuts in the firewall.

From there, the plans call for you to set the top front deck in place and line up the firewall. Well, I also used a large right triangle and ruler to confirm when I got the firewall square to the fuselage. Then the firewall is glued onto the side frame with thick CA. You build the top deck right behind the firewall WITHOUT gluing it all to the fuselage. I guess this to make sheeting easier. Well, to do this, I pulled out my favorite wax-paper and kept everything from touching directly. A couple of side stringers were added last. I did have to make some extra clearance with my new engine bolt pattern, but everything seemed to fit together well

The next steps will be building the bottom front deck and sheeting those pieces. Then they both get epoxied to the frame and firewall...

Launch Pad McQuack

Morning Tom just stumbled on this thread. Wish I had a little earlier. I am based in Woodland and was one of the competitors that weekend. I have a global skyraider kit in my stack of kits to build one of these days. Something I got new when they first came out from Global. I was working at the local hobby shop and had to have one.
I would have touched base with you at Woodland while you were here. We had one of our other members that was flying a global skyraider quite a while back. As I recall he had to "beef up" the horizontal stab a little bit due to flutter. Granted he like to fly the sandy fast, but something to keep in mind. If you put any more props up on Ebay make sure to put a note on the thread. Would not mind having one for my sandy.
Hope to see you back up in Woodland for the Wings of Victory that is a huge event for us. The masters qualifier is not normally that large. With the cost of gas the masters on the east coast this year we were missing quite a few "regulars" that normally come down from the Or. area. So that drove the attendance down even further.


Forrest

TEBerg

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Forrest,

Which plane were you flying.. I might have some pics..

I did learn a lot and visited with Larry Sutherland, who is from my flying club.. Bummer about his plane/gear.. Me and the family spend most of the time hanging around back in the shade beside the pond.. The Wings of Victory is scheduled for our vacation weekend, otherwise I would stop buy again.. I'm probably gonna target the Fresno Radio Modelers warbird event (October) as my "due date" for getting the Skyraider done..

Also, I do have a prop "kit" left from the sale on e-bay.. I'll drop you a PM...

Launch Pad McQuack

Tom was nice visiting with you in Chowchilla. Look forward to seeing you around at some of the events again. I appriciated you taking the time to brave the weather to bring up that prop and see us in Chowchilla. Hopefully you had time to stick around and see us fly all 3 P-61 that afternoon.

Forrest

TEBerg

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Forrest, Iā€™m glad I got out to see the Chowchilla event... It was great talking with you guys and seeing you fly... Even with the rain, the vendors and pilot booths were very nice.

I had better get back to writing (and BUILDING)!!!

I stopped with the frame/boxes for the top and bottom front decks. Sheeting them with 1/8th was still a treat, but a lot easier without the compound curves. After the decks were built, I opened up the bottom for the lower fuel tank. Since Iā€™m mounting the engine inverted, Iā€™m going to drop the tank about Ā½ to Ā¾-inch. With the tank lower, I decided to go ahead and mount the RX battery in the top deck. So I made a platform for the battery, than coated the inside with Aerogloss Dope to get some fuel-proofing in there. I made the battery saddle out of Velcro pieces that will be stuck on the battery and Velcro straps to wrap around the battery.

From there, I epoxied the top deck in place. Iā€™m leaving the bottom front deck off for now so I can line-up and drill the wing hold-down dowels later. The instructions say to just match the dowels from the plans and glue them in the wing. I just donā€™t trust the plans that well. So, after I get the wing ready, Iā€™ll glue a doubler to the former and drill through that right into the wing and into a balsa block. The kit just calls for the dowels to be held by one light-ply plate and slots in the fuselage former. After talking with Sam (Thanks for the photos again Sam), Iā€™m going to do as he did and add another layer of plywood and make it a good fit so the wing cannot move or vibrate.

From there it was time to line up the pushrods and get some of the hardware setup. The instructions say to install the pushrods after the turtle deck is glued, but I like to have room from both top and bottom. I have the tail wheel setup so the wheel is on the opposite side of the servo arm from the rudder. Not quite a ā€œpull-pullā€ setup, but it should balance out some of the stress on the servo. I also installed duel pushrods for the elevator. I donā€™t want to rely on one pushrod and control horn with a piece of wire between the elevator halves... I will still wire the elevator halves together, but want some extra security with a pushrod on each side.

After the pushrods were lined up and glued in, the turtle deck was glued on... Another story/oops there... You do need to clamp the sides to match the turtle deck. Well, I was just a little off with one clamp (which I discovered too late) and the left side was pulled in about 3/32-inch too far. So, I had to go ponder how I was going to fix that mistake... OK here are photos of the steps outlined aboveā€¦

That was about it for the May buildingā€¦

TEBerg

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Besides not getting a lot of building done; I did get out and had some R/C fun...

I got my Krafty 60 (which was "bashed" to a low-wing with retracts and flaps) tuned up and out to the club float fly. They are always nice days at the lake with the club having a Bar-B-Q lunch. While we were out at the lake, a couple of from the club had their R/C sailboats out for some fun. Take a look at the red hull sailboat... Not bad for 26 YEARS OLD!!! How do I know that...? Well, that is a boat my Father purchased when we were getting into RC... We used to take it out on a wide part of the Kings River here in California and sail it around with the sail trim just tied off at a set angle. We could not afford the $30 sail winch back then [laugh].. When I joined the club years ago, I sold it to a club member who sold it to another member.. So, it is still sailing fast and smooth today.. My wife was very surprised when I told her that used to be dad's sailboat..

I also finished the new airframe for my Stryker.. As you can tell from the photo, the original fuselage has had some good bumps and bruisesā€¦ The new fuselage was just $20 and it came out looking pretty good.. I have to get the batteries back into shape, or buy new ones.. Then I can go get the guys together for dogfights again.. It is just a blast with the little sonic modules on the back of the plane..

The other photo is my new On-Board glo-driver.. I picked it up in Chowchilla.. After speaking with Forrest, this should help keep me sane while running the Magnum inverted. Even if I donā€™t need it (I was planning on trying without the on-board system), I figure it will just be better to have it instead of needing it when I donā€™t have it.

TEBerg

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Back to some ā€œScaleā€ building..

I FINISHED the ordinance for my plane!!! Here are the M-117 bombs I have for the Skyraider. Photos of the ā€œSpecialā€ ordinance were shown earlier..

I just have two painted up for show-and-tell (well, judging). The one with the dowel in back is the master I made out of rocket parts and plastic fins. That one will be for show. The second bomb will be my droppable ordinance. It is cast out of foam with a lead fishing weight in the front. You can notice that the surface of the cast foam does show a few irregularities, but I donā€™t think you will notice them as the model goes by and drops it [laughing]ā€¦

I made these up to be 1/10th scale, so they should look pretty good on the plane.. I also have some other cast bombs (the trial/errors) that Iā€™ll paint some bright colors and use for bombing practice along with the original ā€œexplodingā€ Vortac bombs..

TEBerg

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I mentioned that I had an ā€œoopsā€ when I glued the turtle deck on the fuselage. I probably should have used two blocks of wood to help line up the sides; because, using just the clamps let one of the sides ā€œslipā€ in a bit and I had about 3/32-inch of the turtle deck hanging over on one side... I donā€™t know if you can tell in the picture, but it would have been a definite problem to just sand out or try to fill... The fuselage sides are constructed with balsa along the top. I marked the area where the side was pushed in too much and decided to split the balsa to let the side back out... So, a careful cut with the Exacto knife and the side flexed out nice and even. Then I just wicked some thin CA glue in the cut and held it all tight to set. Now just a little filler should clean it all up very well... The first photo kinda shows how the cut looked after I finished. The bottom moved out about 1/16 of an inch so there is just a bit of a channel left to fill.

When I was finishing the fuselage steps, I had to cut a custom piece of plywood to go in front of the tail wheel. The plans called for the tail wheel behind the last former, but it matches the scale profile much better on the front side of the former. You can also see the modified ā€œsemi-scaleā€ setup I manufactured. It is spring-loaded to add a little shock adsorbing. I glued the wing hold-down block in per the instructions. However, since the taper thinned where the bolts will go, I added two 1/4-inch plywood plates to the hold-down block. That way there will be a lot more to thread into with the 1/4-20 bolts. The photo shows the plywood pieces I cut before I glued them inside the fuselage and added triangle stock in the corners.


The other ā€œoopsā€ I came up with was the top of the dorsal. The former fit into the top deck pretty well and everything looked straight as I built it on the board. The 1/8th sheeting were not the easiest to get in place and I did know I had the center off to one side. Well, After the turtle deck was glued on, I marked the center where the vertical fin will go and the dorsal was WAY off. About 1/8th inch off center and it was not just the sheeting, it was definitely the top of the plywood former. The photo is kinda blurry, but you can see how much of the former is "above" the center line I drew (too far to the right).. After looking at my options, I traced the shape of the former off the plans and transferred it onto the back of the turtle deck. Then I removed the top of the sheeting and took the Dremel tool to the former. Then I added a new top piece and a couple of doublers to hold the new sheeting (The next photos show putting the new sheeting in place.) I used 3/32 sheeting on the new sides and it went in place much easier. At least now I can look down the top and see a straight line front to back. It should all clean up pretty well with the tail feathers and filler blocks in place. In the last couple photos you can also see the little 'groove' that is left on the left side, below the turtle deck, that I will fill in from the clamp mistake.. The last photo shows the modified former with the "new" sheeting looking a lot closer to straight in line with where the vertical stab will be located.

I spoke with one builder from the Scalebuilder Site who also built the Global Skyraider. He did note that the Skyraider, "was a bear to build, heavy wood, parts didn't fit correctly - but she looked good when done". I think Iā€™m dealing with the same thing. The 1/8-inch balsa they used to sheet the fuselage was definitely very hard for the job.

So, as I continue with the project, I know to check fit twice ā€“ once for the step Iā€™m working on and then for the next step where the piece needs to goā€¦ Hey, if I end up with a plane that flys well and looks good ā€“ Iā€™ll be happy.

I need to go buy some extra balsa parts and pieces for the flaps and retracts Iā€™m adding to the wingā€¦

TEBerg

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Iā€™ve had a chance to clean off the building table, sort out the scraps and look ahead at the next phase of the project. The Wingā€¦

Iā€™ve been marking up the plans, discussing options with guys in the club and spending a bunch of time looking at other similar projects here on RCU. Iā€™m planning on going with the stock strip ailerons, but cut them down to more of a scale length and add flaps on the wing. The flaps will be ā€œbuild-upā€ in order to use most of the supplied materials and to keep the shape of the trailing edge matching the plans.

For mounting the retract units, I need to cut some extra parts including: 3/32 balsa ribs (1/2 length) to hold the sheeting; 1/8 light ply ribs (3/4 length) to match the wing profile where the retracts install; and, 3/16 plywood ribs (1/3 length) for mounting the retract rails. Each side supporting the retracts will be laminated with the 3/32 balsa, light ply, then 3/16 plywood that should hold everything in the wing pretty solid...

Last night I cut and punched out the kit ribsā€¦ Not a bad set from the kit, there were a couple warped ribs, but the only real problem was on rib W-2 where it looked like the di-cut machine had bent. The cut went almost 1/3 up into the front spar and was not cut completely through. So, I removed that rib carefully, leaving all the plywood attached to the bottom. I ā€œopenedā€ the di-cut and glued the front as one solid piece. Then I used the adjacent ribs to draw the profile back on the ribā€¦ Iā€™ll sand it to shape nextā€¦

Iā€™m off to sand the ribs to matching shapes and start cutting pieces for the kit modifications. Sure wish I had a band saw for this. Iā€™m limited to an old Craftsman jigsaw and sanding wheel. Maybe I can find some wood shop guys who would cut out the custom parts for buying them lunch???

Well, the last photo kept posting HUGE and would shrink down when I clicked on it.. Don't know what's going on with that... I'll try again later. I checked in the Support/Questions or Problems section and found out that the Large Photo issue is sometimes a "Glitch" in the system. Sent a note to RCU Admin and they rebooted some servers and it is working like normal now.. Thanks RCU...

TEBerg

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It really seems like I should be building the wing by now. But, I always seem to find things that need ā€œdoneā€ before I start gluing. I also took my son up to camp, went on a trip to the coast for my anniversary, back up to the mountains and we spent a night at the Scout camp before bringing him back home... So, that all cut into my building time.

I went back to the stock wing ribs and glued the light ply ā€œopeningā€ from the landing gear blocks back into the ribs. This was mostly so I donā€™t get a flat spot when I put the sheeting onto the wing. It may also provide some strength. The next photo is the wing ribs all cleaned and stacked up, ready to make a wing ā€“ Not Yet.

I got working on the ā€œnewā€ ribs I needed to mount the retracts. I had used the plan profile to ā€œestimateā€ how they would fit. However, with a double-tapered wing, there is a BIG change in spacing by the time you get out to where the retracts will be mounted. So, I took my ā€œcleaned upā€ ribs and started drawing out where the Robart 615ā€™s would fit best, get the wheel into the wing and still reach the ground. It only took a couple of tries to get everything looking good. I cut a template out of medium weight cardboard and traced out new ribs. Using light ply, I made one new 2/3 rib that will fit between two existing ribs and match the width of the mounted retracts. I cut the ā€œsidesā€ out of light ply that will double the existing ribs (and the new 2/3 rib) and extend down along side the retract gear hardwood mounting rails. They are measured so the outboard doubler will stick down about 1/8 inch lower than the inboard to make up for the wing dihedral. I had to estimate the wing dihedral from the center brace, because no exact number is given in the instructions or marked on the plans.

The landing gear mounting blocks will be glued ā€œon topā€ of shorter 3/16-inch plywood ribs that are laminated inside the light ply doublers. I also cut some 3/32 balsa doublers to go outside the plywood wing ribs to give me a little more gluing surface for the sheeting. The next photo shows all the stuff Iā€™m going to pile into the wing in order to mount the retracts. It is probably way over-engineered [laugh]. The review article just installed Ā¼-inch ply ribs and top rails for the retracts. I may cut down one ā€œlayerā€ of the whole thing and just go with the light ply ā€œdoublerā€ and the 3/16 plywood base.. Iā€™ll look at the plans again before I start gluing...

I figured I was now ready to start building a wing ā€“ Again, NOPE...

I spent Sunday evening going over the plans and ā€œroutingā€ wires, pushrods and air hoses. After that I marked all the ribs with holes that need to be cut for the ā€œjunkā€ hanging on the wingā€¦ Man, take a simple wing that just has ailerons and put retracts, ailerons, flaps and bombs on the thing and it becomes a MESS [laugh]. The last photo shows all the ribs where I have to cut and drill holes BEFORE I start assembling the wing. It is a lot easier to drill the holes now, then after everything is togetherā€¦

8178

My Feedback: (17)

Great job on the prop and Iā€™m looking forward to following your build. The AD and that prop brings back memories of being at NAS Memphis in training. When we were in a class, I think they called AFAM, we learned how aircraft fly and operated, etc. but also learned how to handle and direct aircraft on the ground. You know the guys on the flight deck with the colored hand wands! They used an AD for training and let me tell you standing out in front of a giant AD with the sound of the engine pounding in your chest the huge prop turning leaves a long lasting impression!

wingman371

Hey Tom, I had built one of these years ago and I also left the fuselage lightening holes closed as you have done so I could glass the plane. Since you are not going to glass and use an iron on film I would suggest that you go ahead and open the fuse sides back up. The amount of lead I had to put up front was an ungodly amount and the bird never did fly that well, way overwieght for the .61 I had in it. Your bird is looking great and with all the acoutrements you are adding are going to give it that extra zing.

trouch

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Great build,If you or anyone else ever travels thru Los Banos I'll give you one that is partially built. I picked it up many years ago and just will never get around , to finishing it. My uncle was squadron comander of the 1st SOS in Thailand 1970. Was going to copy his plane,but the navy KMP arf is looking mighty good. Tom Rouch 209-675-6593

TEBerg

My Feedback: (1)

Wingman, Thanks for the note.. I spoke with a couple of different guys and they did confirm that this bird can get heavy.. I'll see how the sides fill in and if it does give me a "clean" look. I had a Goldberg Chipmunk with the same type of openings in the fuselage and it always caught weird reflections and looked bad.. I filled the openings with thin balsa to try and go in the middle. If this is a big issue, I'll keep the option of removing the filler open. Thanks.

Hey Tom, I used to travel through Los Banos a couple times a month when I traveled up to work in Gilroy/San Jose. But with gas prices and other commitments, I havenā€™t driven over there for a while. But, what a GREAT OFFER.. I hope someone sees it here and takes you up on it. Right now, my wife probably doesnā€™t want to see me with another kit [laugh].. Although, after I get through this one, if there are balance issues as noted by Wingman, I may take you up on the extra kit and keep it on the hanger deck..

Thanks Guysā€¦ Keep the information comming, it all helps..

TEBerg

My Feedback: (1)

I donā€™t know if you can call what Iā€™ve been doing ā€œbuilding,ā€ but I have been doing a lot of measuring and ā€œfiguring.ā€

With the ribs punched and new ribs cut out, including a new rib W-4 because the 1/8 light-ply rib from the kit was just too crooked, it was time to decide on wire routing, air lines and push rods. After marking out what looked to be the best locations for strength and access, I clamped the duplicate ribs together and cut out all the holes. The third photo shows the ā€œnewā€ W-4 and how warped the middle (original) one was. I tried water, ammonia and water, weighting, even steam. It was just quicker and easier to cut on the jigsaw after all that.

Then some problems began to surface. Since Iā€™m going with ailerons and flaps, I had to trim extra trailing edge off the provided sheeting. No big deal. Well the kit-provided 3/32 trailing edge balsa was THICKER than 3/32 but not 1/8!! I double checked everything and yep, it would not even fit with the flat-bottom wing ribs. So, off to the store to buy some 3/32 that matched the rest of the wing sheeting. The di-cut trailing edge was also too short by about 1/8 that would have shortened the tip by one rib thickness, not a big deal, but might as well fix it when I can.

While I was checking parts (smart move on my part), a couple of other kit problems included the rear stringers being the wrong size for the plans and the ā€œpre-shapedā€ trailing edge was not pre-shaped. So, luckily I caught all that before a run to the store and was able to pick up an extra strip of rear stringer and two pieces of trailing edge stock. The trailing edge worked out my advantage because I only had 1/2X1/2 balsa, but needed 1/2X5/8 to account for the thicker ribs where I was adding the flaps.

The next photo shows the layout for new trailing edge sheeting. You can see the root of the wing is only about 3-inches wide since Iā€™m trimming a bunch off for flaps. The next step shows the sheeting and lower wing spars in place.

Notice the dihedral gauge lined up on rib W-4 (thatā€™s why I needed a straight one). It is the outside rib for the retracts and Iā€™m using the same dihedral angle as the center rib (W-1) to have the gear standing straight under the wing instead of canting out.

A close-up shows how I spaced the extra Ā½-rib I cut for the retracts (W-3a). I have 1/8-inch light ply ribs and the light ply doublers spaced with card stock to make up for the future epoxy. W-3a is also matching the dihedral angle for the wing. The gear are sticking out the top for spacing the ribs. The doublers stick down under the wing leading edge to line up the retracts with the flat bottom wing. After the top is sheeted, I will glue 3/16 hard plywood inside the doublers and glue both into the wing to mount the hardwood rails.

Next I installed the trailing edge and top wing spars. After that I went to install pushrods for the flaps and bomb releases. Well, that meant re-drilling 3 out of 4 holes I had ā€œplannedā€ to make things work.. There go my ā€œgreat ideas.ā€ At that time I also decided to have the retract air lines go inside the planned tubes with the aileron extensions. I thought about routing the lines through all the rib ā€œfrontsā€ but could not figure out how I would be able to do any maintenance. Therefore, I will just open some extra area behind the retracts and run the air lines inside the future tubes. For now, it looks like it still could work.

Iā€™m currently sanding, spacing and figuring out parts for mounting the wing dowels (I donā€™t like the kit idea of one 1/8 Ā½-rib to hold each dowel) and adding my hinge doublers...

Be back soon.

speedaholic

My Feedback: (4)

you been doing more than me I havent been doing much too mine, i guess the engine problems just slowing me down, I got a bubbless tank that i am going to try next but will have to make some mods for it to fit in the fuse. everything looks great on yours. its going to be a real eye catcher when its finished. well catcha later
Eric

TEBerg

My Feedback: (1)

Thanks Eric..

I wish I had some great insight about the fule foaming problems you're seeing.. The only similar experience I had was with my Raptor 60.. First was with some bubbles in the fuel line with no apparent foam problem. I ended up replacing all the lines and making sure that at least 1/3-inch was pushed on to all the fittings, or wired on tight. That seemed to solve the bubble problem.

The only time I saw foaming was wiht a helicopter that had the tank mounted too tight. Remember, Heli engines are turning about 16K rpm, so it can cause foam real easy. The solution ther was to "loosten" the rubber tank gromets in the helicopter frame. That allowed the tank to "float" better.

With this kit, I'm planning on at least 1/8-inch of foam between the tank and any "hard points" when it is mounted. With luck, I won't see foam or bubbles..

TEBerg

My Feedback: (1)

As building continues, I got to where I could take the wing off the boardā€¦ A couple more steps after that and I can start on the right wing panel.

The photos below show a few more steps. The first is installation of the Ā½-inch square leading edge. The kit is described to have built in wash-out. I usually see that with little tabs built into the backs of the wing ribs. Well this kit accomplishes the wash-out with a change in how the leading edge lines up in the front of the wing ribs. It was a pretty interesting fit. So, I made sure the bottom spar was pinned down flat and weighted the root of the wing when I clamped the leading edge in place. After a little juggle between some small irregularities in the leading edge and minor differences in the rib alignment, it all seemed to work just fine.

The kit calls for the wing dowels to be drilled through the leading edge and held in place with one light ply support. Since I already know the plans are not perfect for the fit of the fuselage, there is no way I was going to trust mounting the wing dowels and thinking they would have a good fit in the Fuselage. Iā€™ve herd from Sam a couple times and seen some of his Skyraider modifications. I decided Iā€™m going to mount an extra plywood plate on the fuselage former and drill through it into the wing for one straight shot. To do this, I moved the light ply plate over in the wing and added a balsa block behind the leading edge to receive the wing dowel.

After that I went on to glue the pushrods into the wing. Remember, when gluing a tight bend in flexible push rod; put the inner pushrod in the outer tube first. Note to self, the outer tube will kink like a straw without support (used to know that) [laugh]. I also used Gorilla Glue for the pushrods. Mostly as a test to see how it will behave when I use it on the hinge points. It works pretty darn great. I lightly wet the balsa and plywood with a Q-tip that I removed most of the cotton and put the Gorilla Glue on a ā€˜roughenedā€™ pushrod tube. It foamed up very nice and filled any gaps around the pushrod. Some of the extra glue I just wiped off with a damp paper towel and if there was just a little foam, I left it as a fillet. The photo showing the push rods also has a pretty good look at the servo lead tubes. These are just rolled pieces of paper that are glued into the wing ribs. I left the retract area open in case the landing gear gets into the tube location. Also, I plan on pulling the air lines through the inside tube to the wing center. On another personal note, don't get ahead of yourself and glue the INSIDE tube in first; you can get the outside tube in place, but you have to roll it really tight and pull it inside the first one...

After sheeting the top of the wing I pulled it off the board and got ready to install the plywood retract supports. And, I only left one pin inside the wing when I went to take it off the board [laugh] ā€“ thought I had them all, but one just seemed to hide. A small cut with the exacto, quick pull with the pliers (like ripping off a bandaide) and a little glue later the problem is solved.

I had planned the landing gear supports to have a notch in the front that held the top and bottom of the leading edge just like the wing ribs. However, after the sheeting was installed it was just too hard to fit the rib doublers in place. So, looking at the support, I decided to cut off the ā€œtopā€ point from the rib doublers. The photo of the four rib doublers shows the center two 1/8 light ply doublers have been trimmed ā€˜flatā€ and the two 3/16 spruce plywood are marked with pencil to be cleaned off. I figure that most of the stress will be push up into the wing and that the glue surface on the existing ribs (plus the Ā½-rib I installed) will provide good support.

The last photo shows my triple thick landing gear supports. From inside to out I have 3/16 plywood that will hold the top of the hardwood rails, 1/8 light ply doublers that will get glued to the sides of the hardwood rails, then the existing (one extra rib I fabricated) wing ribs. On the outside rib I also added a 1/8 balsa doubler outside the existing wing rib to give me a little more ā€œbiteā€ for the bottom sheeting. Also, note the big ugly smear of glue in the rib/sheeting to the left of the landing gear supports ā€“ Well, that is what happens when you try to glue your retract doublers on the wrong rib [laugh]. Thank goodness I was just putting some glue down to hold the top of the doubler and did not try and jamb the plywood in thereā€¦ I used Gorilla Glue to mate the 1/8 light ply doublers to the existing ribs and 15-minute epoxy to install the 3/16 doublers. Iā€™m using this setup because it is very similar to retracts installed in the Top Flight P-40 and also follows pretty close to the Robart installation guide.