John Timmis

Hi all Progress on chippy no 2 has been painfully slow. 4 weeks away in USA during March/April stopped all building of course. Since returning we have been struck down by a nasty bug which has had us struggling for nearly 3 weeks. Anyway; the wing mounting to the fuselage has been done & I'm now making a start on the wing fairing. Not my favorite job. The best way is to try & keep the job moving, even if it's only 10 min a day. Did have 2 nice flights with Chippy 1 yesterday. Cheers John

Hi folks It seems to have been very quiet on the Chippie front just lately. Perhaps everyone is out flying? My excuse is that I've been in USA for the last 4 weeks visiting family. Anyway, back now so hoping to make some progress. There are lots of small jobs to do but the main one now is to sort out the wing seating & fixings. The jig shown in the last post is a big help to what could be quite a fiddly job. I think that the wing will be fixed with bolts at the LE & TE, ( the way Danny did it). After that the dreaded wing fairings. Some photos next time. Cheers John

Nice bit of detailing there Martyn. I like it.

I'm very sorry to hear this. I always enjoyed reading his column which was ever full of good advice & inspiration. A real modeller who we will all miss. Thoughts are with his family.

Hi folks Some pictures of the latest progress. Assembling the wing spar first worked well. I have beefed up the U/C fixing. Made up a simple profiling jig to sand the fuselage / wing joint. Weight so far is 2lb 3oz.

Hi folks Chippie control deflections. These are the deflections that I'm using on Chippie no 1. They give me a smooth flying plane with scaleish loops & rolls. There is enough elevator power for a 1G stall from which it seems to fall into a spin quite reliably . I only have 2 positions for the flaps so thy are either up or down. The flaps certainly bring it down when landing. I have not detected any change of trim when the flaps are lowered & so far they seem to make the model less likely to spin. So far all landings have been with flaps down. Cg is as per plan & I did not build in any washout. Elevator : 15 up, 15 down. Rudder : 35 each way. Aileron; !5 up, 10 down. Flaps : about 30 deg. I've only had about 15 flights so far so it's still early days. Hope this helps. It's a safe starting point. Cheers John

Danny Thanks for a super set of photos. Will we ever be able to say this model is finished? John

Hi folks A bit more progress has been made & I have now completed the frameworkk of the wing. This went together without too many problems & fairly quickly. I don't know if there is anyone else still to tackle the wing but for those who are interested , this is my build sequence. Having failed on 5 occasions to find any suitably hard 1/4 sq for the spars I decided to use pine. I bandsawed some strips & then sized them on the router table. It may be over the top but at least it's extra weight in the right place. !. Tabs were added to all the wing ribs. 2. The dihedral angle was set out on a board & using this as a guide both lower spars were glued to the front of the dihedral brace (B2). Then upper spars added & finally the second B2. 3. Strips of 1/8 glued to the lower edges of the trailing edge. 4. The ply brace parts (B3) were glued then tapered. A smoothig plane will do this job in about 5 min. 5. Set up the spar over the plan to build the right wing panel. I have a heavy steel cube (3 inch) to which the center of the spar could be clamped. This keeps it in place & perpendicular to the board . The spar tip was held down with a spring clamp. Starting with R1 & the TE, cyano the ribs in place. Take care that the spar booms are pressed down properly & that the 1/8 sq strip on the lower edge of the TE is properly located. 6. Turn the plan over & do the same with the other wing panel. 7. Add a false leading edge cut from 1/8 sheet. 8. Lift off the plan & then set it up level resting on the root ribs & the tabs. Check tha all is straight & level & then glue in B3 & B1. 9. Remove the excess wood from the edges of the false LE. I use a block plane for this followed by a sanding block. This is were my wing stands now. Next job will be spar webbing & then the top LE sheet. Cheers John.

Nigel That looks very neat. Shouldn't you turn the servos over to get access through the wing opening? Cheers John

Cheers John

Hi This area of the build is a real minefield & some careful thinking is needed in order to prevent painting oneself into a corner. This is the sequence I devised for my first chippie. It worked well & I will do it the same way on the next build. Hope it helps somebody. 1 Hinges. Glue the hinges to the rudder & the elevator halves. Take care to see that the hinge pins are in the right place & are in line. This will keep glue away from the hinge joint later on in the assembly. Offer the rudder / elevators to the fin / tailplane & create sockets for the other halves of the hinges. A stop in the socket is needed so that the hinge can be inserted to the correct depth & so maintain a clearance between the fixed & moving surfaces. This really needs to be done before the fin & elevator skins are glued on. The shrouds will prevent you from seeing the clearances. Make up the bottom rudder hinge from tube & a balsa spacer so that it lines up accurately with the other 2 hinges. 2 Wire elevator joiner & rudder drive. These are NOT glued into end ribs of the rudder & elevator as shown on the plan. Instead glue a short length of snake tube into grooves in the end ribs. The wire joiners should slide into these & this enables the sufaces to be removed & fitted later in the assembly. 3 Glue the tailplane to the upper fuselage shell ( it's a good idea to make the small fairing at the leading edge of the elevator first). Glue the fin in place. Insert the bottom rudder hinge through the elevator & glue it to the fin post. You may have to fiddle it in a bit & might need to enlarge the hole in the elevator skin. Make sure it is in line with the other hinges. 4 Linkages. Bothe rudder & elevator are driven with snakes. Install the snake outers into the lower fuselage shell now. You don't need to install the servos now but do think about where the will be fitted. 5 Trial fit the rudder to the fin. Connect the snake inner to the rudder. Enter the end of the snake inner into the outer & bring the 2 fuselage shells together, ( no glue yet though). Check that it works , pat yourself on the back & make a cup of tea. 6 Do the same thing with the elevator. The elevator snake inner can be pshed through the hole in F14 to enter the snake outer ( make sure you will be able to do this when you fit the snake outers). JOBS A GOOD UN 7 You are now in a position to consider gluing the shells together. Before you do so THINK. Have you forgotten anything ? What about the tail cone at the end of the fuselage. Best start that now. It needs to be glued in place after the elevator is fitted but before the rudder. Sorry this is a bit long. Hope it helps. Hope I've not missed anything out. The photos in the next post should help. John