Simon Ward 2

Hi Mike, yes this has happened to me, with my current bottle of Superphatic. As Peter mentioned, I'm sure that heat has been the reason for the discolouration. I tried the glue on a few test pieces of balsa and to be honest, couldn't really tell if there was any difference in the final bond, felt pretty good to me. Setting times were the same too. So I'm still using the glue on my Sabre build, but mainly using it on low stress components, that need a fast grab, not too keen on using Superglue!! Most of the glue I use these days is either, balsa cement or Titebond, which I find works very well. Hope this helps. Simon.

I'll be there too, really looking forward to meeting everyone and checking out the other Sabre's in the flesh. Simon.

Hi Chris, thanks for dropping by. My big resolution next year is to try and manage my free time better. I find it's very easy, to let yourself get distracted with another aircraft you'd like to build!! Free time is at a premium now until the New Year, so probably won't get too much done on the Sabre. Still keeping up with everybody else's builds though. Cheers. Simon.

Hi Andy, I'll have another look at the foam cores after Christmas, it's really busy here until the New Year!! I was planning on using 3/32" balsa to skin them, with a carbon/foam/carbon spar and maybe a little glass cloth under the skins(?). Oh yeah, they're not for a Sabre. Cheers, Simon.

Hi Andy, 7!! Thought I was pushing it a bit at 2 . My problem is finishing off a project, always seem to jump onto the next one a little early: Original mass build JP, constructed this year, not 2014!! I will get it finished next year, honest!! Do you think it's worth continuing with the 'bitty' foam? I have used it before on a constant chord wing, almost Wot 4 thickness, and it was okay. I'm not 100% on this new wing, due to the airfoil/wing taper. Shouldn't be any problem to cut a new set in a more robust foam(?) Cheers, Simon.

Managed to get a little more done to the left wing panel this morning, also started work on the right one. Bonded the top skin to the left panel and made a start on the webs for the right panel. Pulled the left wing panel off the jig this evening and I've got to say it felt very light and very rigid. No doubt due to a great design and construction method from Martin and co. Excellent . I started another project, rather stupidly, just before the mass build start date. It's going to be a PSS, but progress won't continue until I've got the Sabre somewhere near completed. Thought you might like to see a couple of pics, as the wing shape, thickness and taper are very similar to the Sabre, with just a slightly longer span. It's getting a balsa skinned foam wing, so I'll be able to compare weights once completed: Cheers. Simon.

Hi Chris and Alan, thanks for dropping by. Alan's spot on regarding the stress on the wing towards the tips. Especially this type of wing. I have to confess that my initial thought was to omit these outer webs, but in the end, I bonded on some medium grade 1/16" balsa onto the rear of the spars. It shouldn't be necessary, however the 'weight' penalty is pretty small. Guess I was getting a bit paranoid about wing flutter!! Hinge reinforcements added, as well as a small amount of balsa at the root TE, to allow the torque rods to notch into the wing without weakening it too much. Also managed to get the servo mounting plate bonded in: The plate is an off-cut from a previous build and is made up of 2 pieces of 1/16" ply, with 400gm carbon cloth sandwiched in the middle, all glued up with ZAP laminating epoxy. Cheers guys. Regards, Simon.

Well, progress has been a little slower than anticipated, but I have managed to find the odd 5 minutes here and there. The false LE was added to the left panel, followed by the webs, in my case some very hard 1/8" balsa between the spars: The webs were levelled using a Permagrit spar slotter before the top spar was bonded in place: Next job I tackled was making up some torque rods for the ailerons. I saw on another post a discussion on the merits of wing mounted servo's vs. a centrally mounted servo using torque rods. My own take on it, is that a lot of the time, it depends on the model and the type of performance you're after. When I used to fly aerobatics in the late 90's, the accepted method for aileron's seemed to be wing mounted servo's. I know this method is really popular today, with cheap, high powered servo's, not to mention the speed of construction in the ARTF world. A friend of mine just recently finished an own design pattern ship and he's opted for torque rods. As far as I can tell, his reasoning is to remove as much weight from the wing structure as possible. So when I first looked at the plan, my initial thought was to go with a single, centrally mounted servo. After a bit of cogitating, I opted for 2 centrally mounted servo's. The other plus, is that there's no control horns/rods hanging out of the bottom of a low wing fighter aircraft, that's hopefully going to fly off the Great Orme!! Here's the torque rods being made-up: I've used some pretty heavy gauge wire for the torque rods and used some pretty hefty ball links, as there is rather a lot of sweep on the wing panels. You can see from the above pics, the amount of twist the ball links have to accommodate and I'm pleased to say, they are smooth running and slop free. I'm a little further on from this stage, but I'll update again when there's some more tangible progress. Bye for now. Simon.

Thanks for posting that Chris, very helpful indeed. Good to see the 'mods' taking shape on your build. All the best. Simon.