Richard Ashworth

The front hatch was next. The plan says add a piece of overlapping wood to the rear of the hatch and use a screw to hold down the front. Ok for an infrequently opened hatch in an I/c model but impractical for electric. Solution, cut the hatch slightly shorter, short of the firewall. Two pegs at the front of the hatch going into the CA hardened deck over the firewall and a latch at the back going into the decking in front of the cockpit. A piece of 4mm lite ply was let into the front of the cockpit decking. A part depth cutout for the brass latch made at the back of the hatch and the latch epoxied in. The position for the hole in the cockpit face was ascertained by pushing the latch against the face with all assembled .   Edited By Richard Ashworth on 08/09/2018 17:09:05

To aid in tailplane and fin location a short cocktail stitch pin was put through the tailplane. Holes were made in the ply tailplane tray and in the fin which rather than per instructions straight epoxy onto tailplane I have added two shoulders to triple the glued surface area. The elevator halves were joined with the beech joiner and its leading edge shaped. The tailplane and elevator were covered, slots cut for the mylar hinges which were lightly roughened, inserted and glued, thin CA. The hinges were then pegged by carefully drilling from underneath, 90% of the way through the wood making sure that the mylar was pierces each time, and then after flooding with aliphatic a cocktail stick peg was pushed into each drilled hole. A black sharpie pen was later used to colour all the pegs in the black elevator.

  The middle of the ailerons wes marked and David's plane and permagrit block put to good use. Much easier than anticipated. Wing halves joined with lashings of aliphatic (bandage to follow) simple as top surface flat, no dihederal to sort.   The wing match was not "perfect" but only 0.5 mm out, leading edge and false trailing edge were a fairly good match. No pictures of operation, bandage on the top of the wing cut to a mm or so less than the inside fusalage width, under wing full width bandage used. One side of the wind had its surface the size of the bandage, coated in a layer of aliphatic, the bandage laid on from the leading edge to the back using an old credit card as a squeegee to press the bandage into the glue so that it squeezed through and smoothing it on top of the bandage. Checked that the whole of the bandage was well soaked and extra glue added if unsure. After being left to dry for 24hrs the glue had dried back to leave slight dimples over the bandage surface so more coats of glue were applied as necessary leaving it to dry after each application, until the whole of the bandage had a hard smooth surface. It all took time but the wing seems very solid. Later picture with drilled wing dowels and aileron gear installed. Tailplane next. The tailplane is made up of a main surface with a small, about 8mm tapering to nothing, piece on the centre of the leading edge. Laser cutting and a taper to 0 doesn't work, so the extension was glued on then a 30mm section at each side where the piece was burned was cut out and two pieces laid in and sanded to shape. Edited By Richard Ashworth on 08/09/2018 14:20:00 Edited By Richard Ashworth on 08/09/2018 14:23:00 Edited By Richard Ashworth on 08/09/2018 14:24:32

The first of the jobs I was NOT looking forward to was making the wings as I had not previously even seen foam veneered wings but if it was going to fly it would need them so:- Torque box extensions epoxied on and cutouts in the wing squared off to a fairly tight fit. Foam dug out. Put on one side and leading and trailing edges glued on, aliphatic, and shaped.

Rear turtle glued on with aliphatic, T pins and masking tape. It was actually a fairly good fit. Cunning plan 1. A 9mm ply firewall was made, drilled for Tnuts, ventilation and ESC - Motor wires and epoxied in, I was not happy with the kits firewall strength as it was to take the I/c motor mount, part cut away for the front u/c leg. A second false firewall was also made, channelled for the u/c leg that would sit held against the firewall so that from the front it would be motor, X mount, stand offs, false firewall, firewall all bolted through by 4 3M 50mm bolts. Out of order but Edited By Richard Ashworth on 08/09/2018 12:10:47

Formers epoxied in place and sides joined. Thinking ahead, balsa side rails put on both sides for battery tray, elevator & rudder servo tray and a series of 1cm square balsa tabs drilled as snake supports full length. Lots of measuring for positions based on the sizes. Servo tray and snakes glued in.

Four foamies and two ARTFs after having retirement and started in rc power (electric) flying I got the building bug. Firstly thanks to everyone who posts on this site for some cracking reads and especially High Wycombe and District Model Aircraft Club for their Feb 2018 mass Hornet build blog. Kit bought May 2018, quick delivery, box a bit dished but contents ok, and started looking at the plans and the "glue it together" instructions then pondering and planning. Mid July lots of "bits and tools" that might be needed and ready to go, wife's car banished from construction hangar (garage) for the summer. First task as HWDMAC extend right side of fuz to match left, but also deepen the underneath of the nose to give cooling access and space for ESC under the battery in the hatch area. Size of 4s 3300 battery checked for layout and servo placements. Going to be "tight" but ok getting weight forward. Glue on ply doublers using aliphatic (aliphatic and epoxy main glues used) Made sure left and right! Former layout marked from the plan and layouts checked