I got my bird Monday and had to wait to start work on it till today. But none the less I have begun my build. First off let me say I am not going to be following the instructions in the order they are written.

Please forgive me if there is something I choose to do that is different than an accepted practice. So here it goes....The Unofficial WH Ultimate Build Thread

1. Gluing up the bottom wing.

a. Installed the dowel pins into the LE of the lwr wing.
b. I followed Tom's advice and used gorilla glue to attach the lower wing halves together.
c. I used clamps that I had in the garage to hold the halves together while they dry.

Ken,

Thanks for giving the extra effort that will be required to do a build thread. It's a lot of extra work to take all the pics and make the notes that you will need when you post. Not to mention the additional time required. Most of us will appreciate your time and effort, but rest assured that someone, somewhere, and sometime in your thread will post that you forgot or neglected to do something that would have satisfied them. Don't let it bother you when it happens.

The Ultimate is one of the planes I'm intending to purchase when I can get back into the real world so your effort will be quite educational. Thanks again.

2. Upper wing

a. On this surface you have to ensure that you install the center rib mount. The rest is like above.
b. Since there is no dowel to clamp to I used masking tape.
c. If you use gorilla glue make sure you pull the tape and clean under it or replace it. Otherwise you'll end up with a mess under the tape.

To clean the excess glue after it spreads out use Acetone.

Thanks for the kind words, I have done similar things in other places so this is really easy for me. As for the critics, everyone has them.

I also am grateful for your efforts, IOU a favor to be named later, this is great.

If you find a better way to do it than I have in the manual please let me know. There are a lot of ways to skin a cat.

TF

3. Cutting the cowl and mounting the engine.

a. I had to find out how deep the firewall to engine cowl opening was. I found it was 7". The DA50 with 3" mount legs is 6 7/8" tall so by adding 1/4" spacers I can get 1/8" clearance between the nose cone back plate and cowl. I used 1/8" flat aluminum doubled up as spacers. They aren’t pretty but they work.
Basicly if you are using a DA 50 you need a total of 3.25" between the engine and firewall.

b. To get the center marks for the engine mount bolts on the firewall I used the method on edge540t.com. Basically you place the engine right where it needs to be on the firewall, using the cowl to center the spinner back plate. Afterward carefully remove the cowl trace your mounting bolts, drill and you are golden. Very easy to do this way.

4. Cutting the cowl for easy fit over muffler and engine.

a. I use masking tape to draft my lines onto the cowl. Once I got the engine hole done I temp mounted the exhaust and started working the hole for it.
b. Through trial and error I found just the right depth to go so I can slip the cowl on without deforming it to much to fit over everything.

Cowl cutting continued:

You're doing great Ken, keep it going! If you do one step each day you'll have it done in a week.

TF

"Done in a week" Unfortunatly I am going to have to take a week or so off on it. My inlaws and father are going to be here Saturday - Friday. Then we have my daughters graduation. Then a fly-in I MUST attend. Also I need a few items to finish up the plane. I am waiting on 2 additional servos to arrive.

None the less I will endevour to get as much done as possible. I am off work the remainder of this week and I am going to get as much done as I can.

After seeing the cowl "up close and personal" in the pics, I kinda like the changes that have been made it it from scale. It's not as rakish and it reduces the "butchering" that had been done on some of my other Ultimates. The lower opening in the cowl will aid cooling tremendously! Thanks for the pics!!!

doubled

I removed the engine and cowl while I work on the tail.

5. I installed the main and tail landing gear struts.

a. Main struts, pretty straight forward here, just make sure you locktite the landing gear bolts. The angle points aft.
b. On the tail I followed the instructions and I ran the screws in then removed and hardend all the holes with thin CA.

6. Test fitting the lower wing aligning horz stab.

a. I have temp installed the lower wing to use it to make sure that the horz stab and wing are level with each other. Sorry no pic of this as my P.O.S. camera kept getting things out of focus.

Tom, should I glue down the lower wing ply doubler? I am thinking I should but the directions don't say to.

b. Based on what Tom has told me I removed the covering around the ply doubler and glued it down using 5 min Epoxy.

7. Installing the horiz stab.

Here I am aligning it to the fuselage. Check and double check the measurements. Get this sucker straight! As you can see I installed a Pin into the center above the cockpit to ensure I was measuring from the canter.

To find the center above the cockpit I took a piece of string and stretched it to the base of the plane. I marked where it met the base. I then folded the string in half and marked where the halves folded. I then restretched the string across the plane and marked my center point. Sorry no pics of this procedure.

8. After I marked the stabs I removed the covering leaving approximately 1/16� to 1/8� of the covering inside the marking.

I did the horz stab first then the vertical.

I used the rudder to help get the spacing between the base of the vertical stab and the stab. I also used a square that I had to trim the corner off of to get the tail square.

Yes, glue that hard plate down on the bottom. YOu need to remove the covering underneath. Trace the outline then cut inside the line about 1/8" so the covering doesn't pull up.

TF

That's what I thought, Thanks Tom.

Ken,

This is a great thread. I am following it with great interest. I have mine but am waiting on the other goodies I need before I can get started.

Up to this point it looks fairly straight forward. I have read the manual several times as is usually my custom before I start assembly

THANKS FOR ALL THE PICTURES REAL GOOD THREAD ONE QUICK QUESTION YOU JUST NEEDED A .25 SPACER FOR A DA 50 STAND OFFS THANKS RICH

If you are using a DA 50 you need 3.25 inch stand offs. I have 3" so I had to make up the extra .25"

Hopfully that clears it up a tad.

There will be more comming I just have to work around what I said in post #10

Nice build thread ken.

Hey Tom you think ken will be done before Joe

At the rate I'm going I doubt I'll win any speed building contests. I have hit a couple speedbumbs and needed to figure out ways over and around them.

I was asked to add these pictures of my cowl cut out. So here they are.

Thanks Ken it will help in getting the cut out close and also help double check my measurements. I should br getting my Ultimate soon. Tom said it was sent out a couple of days ago, but I have seen it.The spacer with the stand offs is about the same with the 540 Edge.I took some round aluminum,center driled it and cut off 1/4 inch washers to space my DA-50.I'll do the same on the Ultimate.Keep up the good thread and don't worry about the time. I had my 540 Edge about 6 months [sm=bananahead.gif] before I got to fly it. I's well worth the wait!!!