hammerd

I'm doing this one:



Using automotive catalyzed urethane, single stage, for the colors.

hammerd

Color going on:

Rick W

My Feedback: (20)

[8D]

Hammerd,

OUTSTANDING!

I'm envious, wished I live next door. Good to see someone finishing a plane with top notch workmanship and finishing products. I look towards the southwest and bow down.

Thanks for the post.

Rick

pnightin

My Feedback: (1)

I am impressed. This is truly superb work

Redwulf__34

Glad to see you going with that scheme. You don't see many DUS with in the american scheme. I almost did mine in an american scheme.

What paint are you spraying?

Sean

hammerd

Thanks for the compliments.
The paint is PPG Omni MTK, single stage automotive paint. Sprayed over acrylic lacquer primer surfacer and PPG DP40 epoxy primer.
I'm rethinking the snow owl graphic. I've sized it and done a test cut on the vinyl cutter only to find it has too much detail to cut properly, let alone use as a spray mask. I even tried simplifying the design, but it barely resembles a bird when I do that.

All Day Dan

My Feedback: (5)

Try this Guy http://www.cal-grafx.com/. Dan

hammerd

More colors:

hammerd

Finished the paint and put eveything together this weekend.
Broke the motor in and she's ready to test fly.

longdan

That is outstanding!
Be sure to post the flight report.

mangolo

Total weight please....


Waldo

Tango Juliet

It's almost too pretty for a sport model! You've done an impressive job, thanks for sharing. I wish I had enough motivation to build all the planes I salivate over.

hammerd

I'm not sure of the weight. I don't have a good way to check it. Using the ol' "get on the scale with it and subtract my weight" method, shows it at about 5-1/2 to 6 lbs., but I wouldn't swear it's accurate.
C.G. falls right on, without having to move anything around.

mmattockx

Buy a 10lb food scale or get a small postal scale. Even the digital ones aren't that pricey anymore.

And I'll second (or third or fourth) that you have done a superlative job on this model. Absolutely beautiful workmanship and finishing.

To any who say they can buy an ARF of the same model for $XXX, they missed the whole point. Not only will no ARF EVER look like this model, it will never be built as well, either. And they didn't get the enjoyment and satisfaction of creating a superb model from a stack of balsa.


Mark

longdan

Would you be able to give us a run down on your covering technique?
I know that earlier in the thread, you said it was a bit experimental, but I think we can all say that it has been a roaring success.

Redwulf__34

I weighed mine the same way and it came in around the same. I covered with Koverall and painted with Warbird Colors it was 5-1/2 to 6 lbs on the old bathroom scale. It's gotta be close at that.

Where did you balance at? I just maidened mine and she was tail heavy. I was dead on the money where the plans said. Mine was built from the original Jensen plans and the CG was shown about a 1/2" behind the main spar. I rebalanced on the main spar and will re-fly it on Wednesday.


Oh and Awesome job! Your craftsmanship is superb!!!!!

Sean

hammerd

She balances just a hair forward of the main spar. The C.G. shown on the Jensen plans looked too far aft to me, so I went with the rule of thumb "25% of the chord". On the Jensen plans that would put it right at the forward edge of the spar. Looked good to me. I can move it aft later if it seems nose heavy, but I'd rather start with the C.G a little forward than aft.
The internet plans don't show a C.G. on them.
Longdan. If it stays attached, and the paint behaves itself in service, I'll do a write-up. Right now it looks good and is as tight as a drum. I didn't have any problems with tape pulling paint and the weave is completely filled. Let me put a few flights on it before I consider it a success though.

hammerd

Maiden flight accomplished!!!
I snuck out to the field this morning, and met Duane, the fellow that I wanted to do the first flight on her. He gave it a look over,we started it up, and he took her for a spin around the patch.
It took a lot of up elevator trim, the C.G. does need to be further aft, but no other trim was needed for level flight. The O.S. .61 ticked along without skipping a beat. She flies great!
I put in a few short flights after that, but my knocking knees were quite a distraction, so I called it a day.
I moved the battery back when I got home, and I'll take her out again this weekend and wring her out.
I'll report back after trying the changed C.G..
A few shots at the field:

petronio

Nice, clean and neat finish and installation, congrats!

SKYHI1

Congratulations on your maiden. You have a very nice plane. Good luck with it!

Frank

TFF

That is great! I like to see nice planes at the field.

prgonzalez

Simply MAGNIFICENT!!!

A craftsmanship of a MASTER!!!

Congratulations is not enough word for praising you.

I hope you can share some of your techniques with us newbies of scratch building. Do you have a web site?

hammerd

No, no website. I only recently got back into R.C.. I did it as a kid, but this is my first build in 30 years or so.
Flight tests went well this weekend. Moving the C.G. back really helped and after adjusting the control throws and expo's, my takeoffs take place almost entirely from the runway now.
More tweaking to do but overall she's a good flier.

All Day Dan

My Feedback: (5)

A good starting point for the location of the CG is to locate it 30% behind the leading edge of the Mean Aerodynamic Chord(MAC). The MAC for a constant chord wing is the chord and that includes the ailerons. You have probably found out that 30% is just about where you wound up. If the wing is tapered you will have to do a little geometry to find the MAC. Try this, http://www.palosrc.com/instructors/cg.htm. I think the jets are at around 25% and the IMACs at 35% plus a lot more. For making holes in the sky, it's 30%. Dan.

mercura

Congratulations, wonderful craftsmanship. Have downloaded plan, will make it one of my winter projects.
Dave
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