FWAL Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 Last Thursday I chopped 2" off an advanced middle phase wing which I won on ebay for half price. Then I rebated wing for 2 servo's and did away fiber glass wing joint in lieu of ply tongues and grooves. I also thought full length ailerons would improve role rate. I also constructed built up fin,rudder and stab and took an inch off the width of the fuse.Original model weighed 960 grams mine currently weighs 670 prior to balancing. Sorry no photo's as it's too difficult to upload Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FWAL Posted July 13, 2011 Author Share Posted July 13, 2011 Lets see if a photo will appear? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FWAL Posted July 13, 2011 Author Share Posted July 13, 2011 Oh, this is easy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FWAL Posted July 13, 2011 Author Share Posted July 13, 2011 I'm on a role tongue and groove wing join Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FWAL Posted July 13, 2011 Author Share Posted July 13, 2011 A bit of prep and ready for covering.I think I have kept the original MP lines and just hope I haven't jepordised the performance Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Smith 7 Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 Hi, I'd be interested in how you did the fuselage, both the structure and the fit out. I learned on a Middle Phase (R/E) and wouldn't mind having one again. It was the right thing to do, selling mine at the time since I flew off fairly rock slopes, but all the same there's a bit of nostalgia there ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FWAL Posted July 14, 2011 Author Share Posted July 14, 2011 Hi TonyI am trying to upload more photo's but I think I must have exceeded my daily upload limit as it ain't working at the mo. In essence I went with my gut feeling and past experiences. Breakages usually occur at the nose, wing fixing area and tail. So it is these areas where I introduced localised reinforcement be it ply plates or sheet balsa. I also moved the position of the fuse side joints away from the TE of the wing further back. The servo's were moved forward from under the wing to the cockpit area. I will upload the photo's if it kills me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Houghton 1 Posted July 14, 2011 Share Posted July 14, 2011 Very interested in seeing your mods and will be even more interested to hear how it flies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FWAL Posted July 14, 2011 Author Share Posted July 14, 2011 Steve you're not the only one!Well I managed to upload some more build photo's the fuse is constructed from balsa with a spruce longeron running almost the whole length. The fuse side joint has been moved away from the wing TE and 1/8 ply plates reinforce this area. The triangular fillet stops short of the nose as another laminate of balsa used to reinforce this area along with 1/2 height bulkheads/formers The fin was glued in position at an early stage. The spruce longeron wasn't long enough to run the full length of the fuse so a 1/16 ply gusset was used to bridge the possible shear point back to the nose and the half height bulkheads should I hope stiffen the construction. Spruce was also fitted on top and adjacent to the wing seat again I hope to stop the twisting action. Oh yes.... no expense spared. A £9.00 rx and two 2nd hand futaba servo's. Nice fit though. Originally the servo's were fitted under the wing but I'm reserving this area for ballast Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Smith 7 Posted July 14, 2011 Share Posted July 14, 2011 Keep em coming, that's great. How wide is the fuselage at its widest point? I remember it being pretty wide, to suit older radio gear. Mine had the two servos under the wing, I think. Two standard sized servos side-by-side for the rudder and elevator. I'm not sure how narrow you could go with modern radio bits. Similarly I'd be interested how it balanced. Mine had a four cell AA battery holder in the nose, and it balanced just about right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FWAL Posted July 14, 2011 Author Share Posted July 14, 2011 I PVA'd the mid phase last night and will start covering tonight. I'll be using solar film as I have some spare and the ebay wings came with a full role of yellow. Maybe in the future I will recover with pro film or similar but this will be dependent on performance. The fuse was designed with normal size AAA battery packs and servo's in mind. It's overall width is 1.5" as compared to the original 2.5". I do hope that moving the servo's forward and making built up tail parts I wont have to use too much nose weight. We'll see soon enough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Smith 7 Posted July 14, 2011 Share Posted July 14, 2011 Fingers crossed. A little weight saved at the tail makes a big difference. When I modified my RTF electric glider I did a little weight and balance spreadsheet to try and work it out in advance. Even removing the stickers from the tail helped a little. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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