Sigh Posted November 25, 2013 Author Share Posted November 25, 2013 I almost completed the fuse. the side balsa covers were way too big i thought light sanding would be necessary but i had to trim it on the fuse which wasn't the way i would have preferred. the aft top covering seems bad. i hope putty and sanding will form the expected contour. i also glued the wooden headrest; since i copied the plastic one it din't fit until its bottom side is sanded to match the fuse top. this helped me hide the sloppy joint work. i trial fitted the engine noticed that the needle needs some room as well as the extender wire to reach outside the cowling. I am very satisfied with the control linkages though, i glued the snakes to the holes with canopy glue. Also I had reinforced the snake exits with balsa dust and PVA putty. inside the fuselage, and had cut the snakes flush with the fuse. Don't have the photos at the moment, but i'll post them soon. I am worried to end up a very nose heavy plane because of the poplar plywood for the landing gear. Andy what was the black thing that you used around the cockpit. i need to hide the balsa. was it a wire insulation, fuel tubing. I guess i need to revisit your forum. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Green Posted November 25, 2013 Share Posted November 25, 2013 Sigh It neoprene fuel tubing. Like this on eBay. Mine came from LHS used for diesel engines. Andy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sigh Posted November 27, 2013 Author Share Posted November 27, 2013 thanks Andy. i bought fuel tubing for diesel engines, it looked like yours but it is little bit thin. i almost finished the fuse unfortunately the tail from the last former to the tip has got some twirl. i hope it won't cause serious flight problems and can be trimmed out. i saw some builders who covered the tail section after the last former to the end. the manual doesn't mention that. i wonder what you guys did for the tail. BTW how did you glue the tubing to the fuse it seems like it will be hard for me to put glue inside the tubing without making a mess. here is the last photos i took. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Green Posted November 27, 2013 Share Posted November 27, 2013 Looks lovely. I just slit the tubing and tacked it with a few drops of thick cyano. It would be best to spend some time and get the tailplane square, you should be able to sand one side to square it up. If you look at my Curare built you can see I did the same to get the tail blended in. Sorry no photos of the Astro Hog. I used a scrap piece of wood to space out the tailplane, and blended the top decking to fit. Andy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sigh Posted November 27, 2013 Author Share Posted November 27, 2013 Andy i was reading your chevron log on your site. for my tail problem, i have glued the tips with an angle and now when you look from the back the tip(where the fuse sides join) is a little angled to one side not 90 degrees. i'll definitely sand the top where the stabilizers will attach. but sanding the sides deeper will compromise the stiffness of the tail. I guess i should do something about it maybe i'll glue a sheet of balsa and sand to square everything. Another thing i noticed is the way you joined the wing panels. but unfortunately i didn't understand how you did it. this evening a more experienced friend will come to help me glue the wing halves. It may help if you can explain the method. Edited By Sigh on 27/11/2013 15:18:00 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Green Posted November 27, 2013 Share Posted November 27, 2013 To be honest I cant remember if there is a wing joiner or just the glass bandage to join the wing. Here is another build that shows a wing joiner. Search the forum for Astro Hog, you might get lucky with a photo of what you are trying to do. And you do need to get it square, a little effort now will be rewarded with a great flying model. Andy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sigh Posted November 27, 2013 Author Share Posted November 27, 2013 Andy there is a wing joiner but for the glue to set I need a setup. I understood your setup btw but I shouldn't have glued the wingtip bows. What if I use epoxy for the inside and thin CA the edges to secure whilst the epoxy cures Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sigh Posted November 27, 2013 Author Share Posted November 27, 2013 The wing halves finally joined. My mate came to help me. We set the wing half against the table we adjusted the angle until the other half is upright. We used a plumb line to make sure. Andy for sure your method is very good to make sure there is no warp. But the wing is too long to glue that way on my table. And I belive the pocket I made and the dihedral brace wouldn't let a warp. Here is the setup and me with my hog. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sigh Posted November 29, 2013 Author Share Posted November 29, 2013 I started to install the torque rods, I noticed something strange. Have you guys seen a plane with different aileron lengths? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sigh Posted November 30, 2013 Author Share Posted November 30, 2013 Ok i found out that the plans does not have identical ailerons for sure and my copy of the plan increased the error to around 1cm. I decided to cut the ailerons to the same length. And don't care the actual wing center cause i think this must have been an error in the plans. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Green Posted November 30, 2013 Share Posted November 30, 2013 Hi Sigh 1cm wont make any difference, but a good idea to make them the same length. If you see my build, I took a 5" length of aileron and made it a flap and roll rate unaffected. Andy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sigh Posted December 1, 2013 Author Share Posted December 1, 2013 Andy the problem is the right and left wing length is different by 5mm in the plans my copy made it visible. But I am going to mount the wing off center to have equal length wings right and left. And for the next build I'll make sure the copy is good enough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sigh Posted December 13, 2013 Author Share Posted December 13, 2013 I was a bit tired, busy and lazy at different times. No important updates. Just glassed the center section and painted the cockpit floor. Next dowels on the wing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sigh Posted December 17, 2013 Author Share Posted December 17, 2013 Ok I had built the vertical and horizontal stabilizer. When I first trial fitted the stab on the fuse I noticed a gap between tha stab leading edge and the fuse. It worried me but it is like that on the plans this means I need to fill the gap. Since I live very close to where I work I came to the shop on my lunch break. It was nice I walked and dealt with something else. The vertical stab is downstairs drying the horizontal is almost ready for covering. I had drilled a block of wood and cut it half and glued sand paper on the concave surface and sanded the leading edge. The problem is if I need to sand the trailing adge round. Here are the photos of today's work. Thanks for reading and helping. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martyn K Posted December 17, 2013 Share Posted December 17, 2013 Sign Can I suggest that you put vertical grained webs between the top and bottom tailplane spar - It is quite a slim but highly loaded item and it will add a lot of strength for very little weight. Alternatively, add the webs at the rear of the spars forming a C shape. My tailplane actually broke in half mid air. Fortunately, I still managed to land it OK with what was left Marty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sigh Posted December 18, 2013 Author Share Posted December 18, 2013 Nice idea thanks Martyn, tail doesn't seem strong to me too. Fuselage tail section has got a few millimeters of glue area not very suitable for a huge and really highly loaded part. I'll do the webs and also i need some modification on the fuse where the stabilizer will be glued. it needs more glue area there. What happened to your tail plane. did it break form the sides or one of the spars break loose? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martyn K Posted December 18, 2013 Share Posted December 18, 2013 It simply snapped in half. I think the spars buckled. I ended up putting a 1/32" ply brace between the top and bottom spars for about 150mm each way to repair it. Prevention would have been a better idea though Martyn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sigh Posted December 18, 2013 Author Share Posted December 18, 2013 I checked your astro hog album, i noticed that the leading edge is balsa on your build. SIG have included a 1/4 "spruce stick to make the stab leading edge and supplies thicker ribs. I will do what you suggested anyway because i have a huge poplar plywood to fix the landing gear in the front. to balance i think i will need some weight at the back it will be better than sticking lead. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martyn K Posted December 18, 2013 Share Posted December 18, 2013 Ahh.. that would make good sense and probably driven from experience of failures. Martyn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sigh Posted December 18, 2013 Author Share Posted December 18, 2013 i came from the shop, i unpinned the fin and sanded it. I guess i'll first glue the vertical to the horizontal before i glue them to the plane. what do you think? I want to do it because it will be easier to make sure the vertical is perpendicular to the horizontal stab. and easier to fit the tail fairings. I also want to glue the tail fairings to the fuse and install the stabilizers after i covered everything like an ARF. because I am not very confident with covering i may mess up the tail fairing covering. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sigh Posted January 2, 2014 Author Share Posted January 2, 2014 i could not log in to say merry christmas friends. but it is not too late to say happy new year to everybody. i recently covered the stabilizers and glued the tail fairings. i did exactly what i planned. after covering the stabs i fitted the horizontal stab nicely with double sided tape. and glued the tail fairings with a gap between them for vertical stab. i aligned everything and left it for the glue to dry. after the glue has dried i roughly shaped it with a razor plane and then sanded until it has the same contour with the fuselage. the tail sect. doesn't seem very strong i don't want to see the stabs fly off plane in flight. especially the vertical stab doesn't have too large glue surface. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Hartley Posted February 25, 2014 Share Posted February 25, 2014 Hi I've been reading your build blog and notice the undercarriage set up which appeals to me (wing mounted u/c 's do not last long on my flying site). Perhaps you would be good enough to let me know the make - it looks similar to my Acro Wot u/c. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sigh Posted March 3, 2014 Author Share Posted March 3, 2014 HiEric this is the undercarriage i am using. If you have further questions I'll be happy to answer http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXNM65 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sigh Posted March 3, 2014 Author Share Posted March 3, 2014 long time no updates and very few progress. the engine is installed to a break-in setup. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sigh Posted March 3, 2014 Author Share Posted March 3, 2014 i covered my hog red and white. not very satisfied with the red stripe on the sides. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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