Phase 6

[Michael Baylis]

Hi Folks,

Finally got all the bits and bobs together to make a start on my Phase 6. I've checked I have everything in the box, sanded the ply and begun glueing the fuselage sides together. Which for one of them I had to do again, despite having a flat weight on it, it still managed to misalign! Not a good start.

 

[Michael Baylis]

Ok, first newbie question:-

 

For the 1/4" hardwood longerons that curve with the fuselage bottom, how on earth do I pin it to the ply fuselage? Without hammering I can't seem to penetrate the ply. The instructions suggest a impact adhesive, but I'm not experienced enough for that yet.

 

Can't believe I'm stuck on step 3! (step 2 has been deleted from the instructions)

 

Cheers,

 

Michael

[Devon Flyer]

Posted by Michael Baylis on 19/12/2011 20:27:07:

The instructions suggest a impact adhesive, but I'm not experienced enough for that yet.

 

 

Eh?

[Michael Baylis]

Not confident on getting it in the right place first time. Need time to position it correctly because of the s-curve.

[Devon Flyer]

Try doing a practice piece with a bit of scrap.

[Pete B]

Presuming that's the Chris Foss Phase 6, there's a build thread over on RCGroups which may be of help. Kerfing the longerons may give you a bit of curvature.

 

Pete

[Phil Cooke]

Michael,

You have to hammer I'm afraid if using pva or any other slow drying adhesive.

 

One of the basic modellers supplies is a good box of steel flat headed pins, and I use a small toffee hammer - and once you've cut the slots in the longeron to allow it to conform to the curve (as shown in the instructions) you simply place and pin, place and pin etc until the longeron sits square all along the bottom of the fuselage side. You WILL need the hammer to push the pins through the ply fuselage sides, and this is fine - keep the fus side pinned down until all the longerons (top and bottom) are added and dry.

 

Hope this helps...

[Gary Binnie]

Stick at it Michael (pardon the pun!)

 

That's my build thread on RCG, looking at it again I think I struggled with this bit. What I think I did was to glue the triangle stock after cutting slots in it with a razor saw (per the instructions) with PVA but tacked it with cyano to fix it, no pins used but the sides would have been weighted down.

 

I think I started at the rear end of the strip and worked forward, bending it in to match the fuselage side. I use a steel block for this job, about the size of a big matchbox, to butt up against the ply and position the longerons accurately.

 

The next fun bit is pulling the nose together after the sides are joined!

 

The Middle -Phase and Multi-Phase are the same.

 

Cheers

 

Gary

[Michael Baylis]

I've got a load of pins from Slec, but they are not upto hammering without bending.

 

Gary, I have seen your build blog, which is one of the reason why I decided to get a Phase 6. Unfortunately it didn't mention the difficulty with the longerons. Though, reading the instructions, this appears to be the only difficult bit.

 

How did you "tack" with cyano?

 

I have cut slots into the longerons as per instructions.

 

The pin by hand method works for about a 3rd of the length, so the other option I have is to glue a third of the longeron at a time. I have 20 min epoxy, so should be done with the hardwood longeron by tonight.

 

[Gary Binnie]

I suppose it depends on what different modellers perceive as difficult!! I wrote this:

 

The worst part was trying to bend the 3/8 hardwood triangle stock and glue it at the same time, I put saw cuts in per the instructions but they didn't seem to help much, got there in the end anyway.

 

I would have tacked the triangular stock at the point where it meets the ply, top of the stock in side view. Would have used activator/kicker as well to fix it quickly, not moving on to the next inch or so of the bend until it was solid.

 

I very rarely use pins if I can get away with it, weights and clamps work better for me and leave no holes in the wood. I did read on RCG somewhere about a builder who was getting sore thumbs trying to push pins through spruce wing spars, wouldn't like to try that myself!!

 

Trying to think of other tricky steps with the P6 build, pulling the nose in can bow the sides out, cutting slots for the torque rods in the wing root trailing edge stock was not too easy and I sanded the wing trailing edge stock to match the wing veneer before fitting these root parts and without the ailerons tacked on as a guide which was a mistake I had to live with (though to be fair I don't think it was mentioned in the otherwise excellent instructions!).

 

My upper wing fairing doesn't quite match the fuselage at the rear with the wing fitted despite spending a lot of time trying to get this right.

 

Sanding the nose to section can be tedious if you don't like sanding or are not good at it but this is a feature of all CFs gliders (apart from the ones with fibreglass moulded fuselages)!

 

Another fairly big problem I had was sanding down the wing glass wet, water got through to the veneer and buckled it. Done this before with other glassed wings and didn't have a problem, if I built another one I would use film!!

 

It's a great flyer, mine is quite heavy because I glassed it all over but it just makes it go better in a blow. I've damaged the wing seat and root leading edge a few times on landing, the wing bolt or ply plate does break as advertised but when the wing skews it takes structure with it (mostly the top of the main former). It really should have a tapered front wing seat to match the rear one, a feature of CF's other sloper plans and his recommended teaching in a slope soaring bible.

 

When the wing comes off (and it doesn't take much to do it) the aileron servo cable takes some stress as it gets pulled out of the receiver, the nylon horns can break when they hit the fuselage sides. Can be got round by using separate servos but they would still have cables connected to the fuse. Land it in a nice soft bush or tape spare ply wing plates and nylon bolts inside!

 

The P6 gets a slating sometimes (outdated design etc, etc.) and there are obviously better performing machines out there nowadays but I would still recommend it as a capable aerobatic sloper and it is something that you have to build.

 

Please shout if you get stuck, been a wee while since I built it but I can remember most of putting it together (using the RCG thread as a reminder!).

 

Cheers

 

Gary

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Michael Baylis]

Decided to go with Gary's tacking, working very well.

 

1) Spread the epoxy on the longeron.

2) Position part of the longeron

3) Tack with cyano and kicker at the narrow part of the longeron where it touched the fuselage.

4) Hold for a minute for the cyano to set.

5) Move up the longeron and repeat.

 

 

Thanks Gary. I wanted the epoxy strength with the instant grab of cyano. This method fits the bill perfectly.

[Gary Binnie]

Cool!

 

I would have used PVA there (just coz it's less messy than epoxy!). I use PVA from CIS called 'Veloset' (a play on Velocette motorcyles possibly?!), it sets in about five minutes. I swear by it although I find that their aliphatic is not so good, I only use that for laminating balsa with clamp pressure where the part needs sanding to shape.

 

Might be worth checking the solder joint of the elevator drive, I read that someone had a problem with this coming apart, mine was fine (and still is AFAIK!).

 

GB

[Michael Baylis]

Step 3 complete. Work finally allowed me time to finish the longerons:-

[Michael Baylis]

Managed to find a bit of time to make some progress.

 

One of the bits of advice I have read on the phase 6 blogs is to put the closed rudder loop in place before you glue the sides together. However, there is no information on how to route the cables through the fuselage. With them apart is not obvious on where to glue the guides, or where to drill the exit holes. Does anyone have some advice please?

 

Cheers,

 

Michael