Sloping Off

[Ian Jones]

Right, decision made. The replacement for the JP-Si will be a SAS Fusion, like a Wildthing only different. Ordered it on Monday, it arrived yesterday and today, well today I've been busy .

So here we go, SAS Fusion:

 

First job is to round off the leading edges and the wing tips with 100 grit sanding block:

Then it's time to start taping. It's important to uses the "saddles" when applying the crossweave tape to prevent warping the wings. Try and do it without and be sorry :

The CW tape doesn't stretch so it needs to be cut to make neat wing tips:

1st wing half pretty much taped up:

In no time the CW tape was on and the centre point on the spar marked.

Next, latex adhesive is stippled onto the faces of the wing halves then left to dry:

Continued in next post...

Edited By Ian Jones on 12/08/2011 01:51:59

Edited By Ian Jones on 12/08/2011 02:02:13

Edited By Ian Jones on 12/08/2011 02:03:40

[Ian Jones]

...continued

 

So while the adhesive is drying there's time to prepare some of the RC stuff. I'm going to try fitting an EPP module to keep all the wires tidy and this will also prevent the battery from moving:

With the brace in place and the latex adhesive dry the panels are placed on the saddles and pushed firmly together. After that a line of CW tape covers the join. Looks like a gap between the wing halves in this photo but there isn't:

Next it's the elevons. These are conventional tape hinges:

Next, it's time to test the servo setup & fitting, find their centre points & check alignment for the pushrods:

To fit the servos the mounting lugs have to be removed - I cut them off with a fine saw. Some double sided tape is in the base of the of the servo wells for added security:

At the end of the first day the CW tape is on the fuselage too and it's all taking shape nicely:

Hopefully tomorrow will see it finished and ready for the weekend, now that would be nice. I've got work to do in the morning though so there might be a bit of slippage on that time scale. You might have spotted the yellow tape on the table, hmm, yes I've gone for yellow again and you might not have to think too hard about what the other colour is likely to be .

 

Edited By Ian Jones on 12/08/2011 02:05:54

[Steve Houghton 1]

Looking good Ian As you can see from my profile pic, I went for the yellow & black theme on my WT, and it stands out very well, and the top wing surface looks great when the plane is flying below me or in a banking turn.

[Tim Mackey]

Nice work Ian - and a good guide for anyone doing their first EPP wing too.

Let me know if you want to come and dent and scratch it all on the orme some time, and Ill be glad to "help" LOL.

Not around from later on today, as its my "big" birthday today, and wifey and I are off to the Lleyn peninsula.

Just happens to coincide with the PSSA event in the area - luckey eh

Back Monday, so dont break it before then

[Conwy Soarer]

Nice neat tape job there Ian, look forward to see the finished glider, I have been thinking of buying a new EPP combat model as my XIt is getting on a bit, a friend of mine has a Fusion and is really chuffed with it. Can't wait to see the colour scheme. I bit you are chomping at the bit to get it flying as you lost your Zagi. I know how you feel about losing it, the kids left one of the school Zagis up on Conwy Mountain one time, we had so many models with us I hadnt noticed that it was missing. We went up the following day, we had our address on it and the name of the school in big letters on the wing but it hasnt been seen since.

 

Jon

[Ian Jones]

Posted by Steve Houghton 1 on 12/08/2011 07:56:39:

Looking good Ian As you can see from my profile pic, I went for the yellow & black theme on my WT, and it stands out very well, and the top wing surface looks great when the plane is flying below me or in a banking turn.

Hah, LOL, you guessed . Better not make mine too much like yours, who knows they could end up in the same bit of sky sometime.

 

Posted by Tim Mackey - Administrator on 12/08/2011 08:30:07:

Nice work Ian - and a good guide for anyone doing their first EPP wing too.

Let me know if you want to come and dent and scratch it all on the orme some time, and Ill be glad to "help" LOL.

Not around from later on today, as its my "big" birthday today, and wifey and I are off to the Lleyn peninsula.

Just happens to coincide with the PSSA event in the area - luckey eh

Back Monday, so dont break it before then

Thanks Tim, Have a good time at Llanbedrog etc (that's where used to go for our holidays when I was just a lad) and hapy BIG birthday.

 

I'm goin to try and hold back and maiden it at the Orme but wow am I keen to get soaring again. I hope that I've built it touch enough to resist some of your attempts to add "distinguishing features" to it .

 

Posted by Conwy Soarer on 12/08/2011 10:31:14:

Nice neat tape job there Ian, look forward to see the finished glider, I have been thinking of buying a new EPP combat model as my XIt is getting on a bit, a friend of mine has a Fusion and is really chuffed with it. Can't wait to see the colour scheme. I bit you are chomping at the bit to get it flying as you lost your Zagi. I know how you feel about losing it, the kids left one of the school Zagis up on Conwy Mountain one time, we had so many models with us I hadnt noticed that it was missing. We went up the following day, we had our address on it and the name of the school in big letters on the wing but it hasnt been seen since.

 

Jon

Hi Jon, Thanks for your comments too. I did quite a bit of head scratching before going for the Fusion and everything I've heard since suggests it was a good choice. The colour scheme will simple but hi-vis. I'm pulling hard on the reins but my fingers start twitching and getting a warm glow just thinking about it (strange!). I hope that means there is now two Zagis blown away and floating about in Cardigan Bay; I hate to think some dishonest moron might be getting some pleasure from them.

[Conwy Soarer]

Posted by Ian Jones on 12/08/2011 11:02:00:

means there is now two Zagis blown away and floating about in Cardigan Bay; I hate to think some dishonest moron might be getting some pleasure from them.

Sadly Ian I think your second theory is more likely to be correct, I doubt if the dishonest moron is a flyer though, more likely a muggle just hoping to make a quick buck.

 

 

[Ian Jones]

Ah yes, of course I was suggesting any of us wizards would be so dishonest. All good eggs our chaps

[Steve Hargreaves - Moderator]

I'm a complete & utter slope/EPP/CW tape virgin so I'm probably wrong but wouldn't the wing be stronger if the two halves were joined first & then the wing taped as a complete unit...

[Ian Jones]

Good idea I think it might be stronger Steve.

 

However the chevron type of wing, well the JP-Si anyway, does not have a spar and the rigidity comes from the tape. The WT & Fusion both have spars making them more like the conventional two wing halves that are assembled and then joined. On reflection though it would be quite easy to do it as you suggest.

 

I will be applying the coloured tape before joining the wing to the fuselage so I may now modify the way I do it so that it stiffens it up a bit more.

[Tim Mackey]

I have taped (CW) WTs with wings joined /seperate and TBH dont belive it matters that much.

 

[Tim Mackey]

Ian, Ill be back from Monday, so should have plenty of chances to meet up at the orme for its maiden. Just PM or call me when youre ready mate. Thanks for the good wishes..

[Ian Jones]

[Steve Houghton 1]

Posted by Ian Jones on 12/08/2011 12:41:59:

Good idea I think it might be stronger Steve.

 

However the chevron type of wing, well the JP-Si anyway, does not have a spar and the rigidity comes from the tape. The WT & Fusion both have spars making them more like the conventional two wing halves that are assembled and then joined. On reflection though it would be quite easy to do it as you suggest.

 

I will be applying the coloured tape before joining the wing to the fuselage so I may now modify the way I do it so that it stiffens it up a bit more.

Ian. The Beevolution has two 3mm ribbon spars which run for almost the whole wing length, one each for top and bottom, and the spars are curved at the centre of the wing, which does make fitting a little awkward. There is also a 10" tubular spar which runs further back along the wing. These do make the wing quite stiff before the CW tape is applied.

[Tom Satinet]

Posted by Ian Jones on 12/08/2011 12:41:59:

Good idea I think it might be stronger Steve.

 

However the chevron type of wing, well the JP-Si anyway, does not have a spar and the rigidity comes from the tape. The WT & Fusion both have spars making them more like the conventional two wing halves that are assembled and then joined. On reflection though it would be quite easy to do it as you suggest.

 

I will be applying the coloured tape before joining the wing to the fuselage so I may now modify the way I do it so that it stiffens it up a bit more.

 

Ian,

 

sorry to disagree, but the reason the JP si has structural strength is that the rear part of the model is not EPP, it is a more rigid, but less deformable foam (EPO?). That's why you have to glue the EPP bit on the front to give it some degree of survivability, although in reality the model doesn't have the toughness of a full EPP model like the Wildthing or Bee. I guess it is easy to build and cheap though.

 

Full epp models like the bee, wildthing, m60 etc etc, require strengthening spars. TBH there is a reason that nearly all the rest of the foam slope models are all epp - that's because it's better!

 

If you built an epp model with no spars it would be like a dead fish!

 

Tom

[Tom Satinet]

Posted by Steve Hargreaves on 12/08/2011 12:11:17:

I'm a complete & utter slope/EPP/CW tape virgin so I'm probably wrong but wouldn't the wing be stronger if the two halves were joined first & then the wing taped as a complete unit...

yes, and I thought that was what the instructions said.

The middle of the wing is obviously the part under the most stress.

[Ian Jones]

Thanks Tom.

 

Instructions, Ah yes, very useful and here they are:

 

SAS Fusion Instructions

 

I always read the appropriate instructions before changing anything and there's clearly mixed opinions about what the pros & cons are about placing the CW tape right across the wing either as a whole wing of after joining.

 

Well I went with the instructions because as far as I can tell their tried and tested & everything works out okay .

Edited By Ian Jones on 12/08/2011 19:38:44

[Ian Jones]

Apallin typos & grammer iun my last

[Conwy Soarer]

Posted by Tom Satinet on 12/08/2011 16:08:54:

 

Full epp models like the bee, wildthing, m60 etc etc, require strengthening spars. TBH there is a reason that nearly all the rest of the foam slope models are all epp - that's because it's better!

 

If you built an epp model with no spars it would be like a dead fish!

 

Tom

Sorry Tom you are only partly correct the Xit which is a windrider Bee in an Irvine box doesn't have a solid spar of any sort and its full epp, the spar is replaced by tape, it works fine. The all EPP zagi also didn't have a spar just had tape.

Jon

[Ian Jones]

Didn't get much time in on the Fusion yesterday but what I did do has really brought it on visually.

 

Starting off with the fuselage. For this relatively small area of coverage I used strips of solartrim:

Next up the wing colouring tape. Goes on just like on a Zagi:

Next is to fit the elevon horns. These need to be as close to the inside edge of the elevons as possible. SAS provide a length of 1/8" balsa to be cut and pushed into the flutes to prevent the corex getting crushed - seems to work. All went well until I dropped a screw. I searched all over the floor with a torch and magnet before I looked here:

Having wasted ages looking for that screw I finally had the elevons fitted and working. They will still need adjusting yet and it looks as if they will be close fit inside the fuselage so a little bit of hacking may be necessary there - we will se later, in the mean time we have:

 

... and it's starting to look like it just might fly:

 

There's not a lot left to do building wise and I'll be taking a break from that for a while as I finalise how I'm going to secure the RC equipment in side the hatch, so that will be coming up in the next installment .

 

Edited By Ian Jones on 13/08/2011 11:02:50

[Tom Satinet]

Posted by Conwy Soarer on 12/08/2011 23:02:22:

Posted by Tom Satinet on 12/08/2011 16:08:54:

 

Full epp models like the bee, wildthing, m60 etc etc, require strengthening spars. TBH there is a reason that nearly all the rest of the foam slope models are all epp - that's because it's better!

 

If you built an epp model with no spars it would be like a dead fish!

 

Tom

Sorry Tom you are only partly correct the Xit which is a windrider Bee in an Irvine box doesn't have a solid spar of any sort and its full epp, the spar is replaced by tape, it works fine. The all EPP zagi also didn't have a spar just had tape.

Jon

I thought the bee had carbon ribbon spars.

 

As for the instructions on sas models - they are okay but I think there are points where basically everyone ignores them in particular the "ban" on ballast which is basically nonsense! 

 

on the fusion I had I could not work out the spar stopped so far short of the wing tips unless it was purely to save money by supplying it in 1m lengths. 

Edited By Tom Satinet on 13/08/2011 21:00:15

Edited By Tom Satinet on 13/08/2011 21:01:54

[Conwy Soarer]

Posted by Tom Satinet on 13/08/2011 20:58:49:

Jon

I thought the bee had carbon ribbon spars.

 

No Tom the Irvine Xit which is actually a std Windrider Bee does not have any additional sparring, all strength comes from X weave, I think you are thinking of the Beevolution which has a slightly thinner section and carbon spars.

My original 2 Zagis were bought from Colwyn Bay Model Shop many years ago - I think they were made under license by avicraft I had one full EPP Zagi, this was hot wired and cuts had to be dug out of the wing and I had one which had a hot wired EPP D box and a hot wired EPS rear this again did not have a spar and IMHO was much stronger than the current designer which has a moulded EPS rear piece. There also used to be a Zagi THL not sure what that was. The Zagi is still being sold/developed by its original manufacturer Trick RC.

Trick RC

 

Jon

[David Gilder]

Zagi THL = Zagi Thermal Hand Launch.. Built for light lift / small hill flying!!

 

Hope that explains that one!!!!

 

 

[Wiltshire Flyer]

Looking really nice Ian!

[Steve Houghton 1]

Ian. Here's what I did about fitting the radio gear into my WT. The battery pack slides into its designated slot as a comfortable fit, once in, it ain't going nowhere. I fitted a Orange DSM2 RX into mine and secured it to the roof of the bay with a blob of hot melt glue. When I checked the CofG it needed some nose weight so I added some tyre sticky weights, stuck these to the side walls of the radio bay then just cut a piece of spongy foam to fit inside the bay to keep the wiring and anything else from possibly moving about. It seems to have worked and I've had no problems.

 

It's looking good Ian