Stripes

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Finally a new and interesting design. The Indy 400 was published in the July 2006 issue of Model Aviation and has graceful lines with good geometry. The engine, wing and stabilizer are directly on line and the wing has very little dihedral. Combine that with a nice airfoil and this is a good flier. The topper is that it is well designed to be strong unlike the glue deficient ARFs I see at the field. I like one piece designs I suppose because my long infatuation with the many Hots I built got me used to not having to take off the wing.

I always cut templates using SeeTemp. It makes transferring the pattern to the balsa so much easier and makes cutting replacement parts easier. Of course replacement parts could include a whole new plane. Anybody that has been scratch building for a while knows you don't get the plane the way you want it until you have built several.

Just look at those aquiline lines. You know this has to be good looking.

Stripes

My Feedback: (19)

You can cut little peek-a-boo holes in the template to allow marking the location of the wing. That gets the location of the wing quite accurate but we will do the actual outline of the wing there in a later step which provides greater accuracy for cutting. I mark it now in blue ink and later in green before I cut.

Now in my picture you may notice a slight mark on the balsa up near the nose. Don't be thrown off by that it is just a water stain. This balsa is as old as my son, the doctor. Still I was glad to get it because I had no 1/8 material and a close friend supplied this on short notice.

Stripes

My Feedback: (19)

The use of a fuselage jig helps keep it all straight. Here you can see the fuselage formers layed out and the position of the engine mount marked. I decided to skip the use of a full sized F2 in favor of a stub at top and bottom. I figure the wing will be glued in place and hold it all together, right? Well this is a scratch build so I do get to do it the way I want to. It makes for more space for the radio and tank.

Stripes

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Cutting ribs and attaching to the spars proceeds like any other airplane but then the wing halves are joined in the middle using plywood. Just a little dihedral as per the plans. Although you can see the fuselage with the wing cutouts done I have to say this is a picture of my first build and I don't do it that early any more. Cut the wing mounting holes after the wing is assembled. Keep everything nice and straight. The trailing edges should line up nicely if it's all straight. Sand everthing to get a nice tight fit. I put a small piece of plywood inside the trailing edge spanning the two sides. It stiffened the joint in the trailing edge nicely.

Edit: Incidentally I cut small kerfs in the trailing edge for the ribs to fit into. It really stiffens up that joint and they don't fall apart before the trailing edge sheeting is applied. You have to sand the trailing edge piece to conform to the curve of the ribs so it's best they not fall off in the sanding process.

highfly3D

Hello Stripes

The plane looks good and cute too!! how aer the wings gona be attached to the fuselage, are they removable or permenantly fix, what engine are you using for this project.

Highfly3D.

Stripes

My Feedback: (19)

The wings on this aircraft are permanently attached which considering its' compact size isn't a problem. A .20 or .25 is the recommended size engine - I'm using a Supertigre .34.

Locating the position of the wing isn't hard if a template is used. You just sort of trace it on there as well as the location of the bulkheads.

Stripes

My Feedback: (19)

Take the assembled wing and place the tip over the marked location for the wing on the fuselage. Because I marked the fuselage with blue ink when using the template I now use green for the actual outline of the wing which I will cut out. Mark both sides of the fuselage and use some care to be sure they are equidistant from the top of the fuselage.

Stripes

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If you cut that accurately the wing should slide right in. You can see the 1/16 balsa doubler material on the inside of the fuselage as specified by the plans. If I were to build another one I would use 1/64 or 1/32 inch plywood for the doubler.

You can see in this picture that the wing does not yet have the front of the leading edge applied as per the plans and construction article.

I used some Gorilla glue, well the cheaper Elmer's really, to attach the wing. It fills those innevitable little gaps.

Stripes

My Feedback: (19)

It winds up looking like this except I cheated on the F2 bulkhead as I mentioned earlier.

ROOKIE PILOT

Stripes
I also really like the Indy 400. Do you know if it's available in a larger version, if so where can I get a set of plans. Thanks Rookie pilot

HelloScott

Hello,

I'm Scott Black, the designer of the INDY 400. I was happy to see there was a building thread on RCUniverse for the INDY 400! Stripes let me know he was starting a thread. I'll be glad to help anyone any way that I can.

I've scaled up a couple of sets of plans for the plane to a .40 size. Makes for a nice flyer!

Here's a photo of the INDY 400 at the Toledo R/C Show this year. It got 3rd place in Sport Monoplane! I was happy about that.

Scott
[email protected]

Stripes

My Feedback: (19)

Yup, what Scott said. Also you can get the plans from Model Aviation and take them down to Kinko's and enlarge them by 12 1/2%. That will come out right for a typical .46 and still be small enough for the back seat of the car.

Stripes

My Feedback: (19)

The stabilizer needs to go on with perfect accuracy. Lots of checking here. Stand back about ten feet behind it and make sure the stab lines up with the wing.

Maybe if we are graced Scott will jump in with some photos too.

Stripes

My Feedback: (19)

With the wing firmly attached the leading edge is glued to the front. I just pile it up with rubber bands while the glue cures. The following day the leading edge can be shaped. I have a wood rasp that was made for balsa that I use for rough shaping. It cuts down on the flying dust and makes breathing easier. Then while sanding with a 24 inch bar I put a used furnace filter in front of a 20 inch box fan to catch the dust.

Stripes

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A little imagination and you can see the leading edge in there.

Stripes

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The blue control rod tube is for the antenna.

Stripes

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It all zips up nicely.

Stripes

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Mounting the aileron servos in the wing can relieve fuselage congestion.

Stripes

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I like a slightly larger canopy so I used the generic canopy available from Tower Hobbies. This give the finished airplane a different look. I also made a cast of it to be used for outlining where to place the reinforcements on the fuselage.

Stripes

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Using the positive cast it is easy to mark where the canopy will go and then attach a nice strong ridge for attachment which will stand up to anything you can do to it.

Stripes

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Once covered and with a nice generous application of canopy glue this thing won't be lost. I also like to put a VoltWatch device inside the canopy as I will show later.

Stripes

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Test fit of the engine which in this case is a ST34.

Stripes

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Fill in with a bunch of wood scraps so we can shape a nice front end.

Stripes

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Draw some lines and start shaping. I like to do rough work with a rasp, less dust that way.

Stripes

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I find that wraping the engine with Saran Wrap and hitting it lightly with a heat gun keeps the dust out of the engine. I submitted this to magazine but I get no respect for it.