I am building a smasll 3 channel plane called "Old School." I'm using plans I bought from the AMA. My problem is that, I have always been thought to "Measure Twice, Cut Once," I layed my planes out on my workbench and started to trace the the outline of the bottom of the fuselage, two sides and the supports. Checked my traces from the planes, they were good. Cut the pieces from 1/16th balsa, Layed them out over the planes, all looked good. Now the problem. Once those parts were glued together, the rear was to small. No room for control rods to exit, and almost no room for the servos. Ok I made a mistake from where and I started over. This time I used a set of planes and cut the patterns out, glued to the balsa and started over checking as I go, everything seems right, but again same problem, to small. Getting very upset, about to use the plane a a fire starter for my grill.
Can anyone help me with this problem? I'm about to give up and just PNP planes.
Thanks for your time reading this, sorry it took so long, just wanted to make everything clear.

Mike Waddell

there are a bunch of us guys saying the same thing.Make sure that your plans are correctly printed,and that each view aligns in 3d space.It is not about computers.relax,and make sure A to B is the same regardless of which perspective you chose .

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Try laying out your parts - servos, engine mount, push rods, etc on the plans so you can see where parts go and whether or not they will fit. This way, you can move things around and visualize before you cut. You may need to make some size adjustments to the parts of the plane or get some different (usually smaller) servos, etc. There is always a way. That's the joy of building your own.

Plans for Old School are available at Outerzone. It's a glider and boy is that fuse skinny. The plans on outerzone are a redrawn version so may not be exactly what you have on hand. I took a quick peek at them and saw that the servos are mounted in line from front to rear. It will be tough to run pushrods back to the rudder and elevator. I would recommend flexible Dubro lazer pushrods or something similar. Best to install the outer rods as soon as you get the sides and top or bottom glued together. Gliders are not my forte' so i'll tap out here.

Don't give up. Building from plans is much more rewarding than ARFS/foamies/etc.

carl

sometimes choosing the best model for your build skills,is more important than choosing a plan that you like.Many people make cardboard cutouts to help visualize the actual model...all you do is print and glue on cardboard.