Traplet Farmhand 90

[john stones 1 - Moderator]

Any chance of a picture of your workshop now we are doing a live broadcast

[cymaz]

Umm, live broadcast ! Will Gary's build be on Discovery Channel after Storage Wars .??

[Gary Manuel]

Not exactly live

More like BBC rather than Dave

What I meant was, I'll be posting as I continue and might ask questions in real time as I go.

[Gary Manuel]

This is what I have done today.

Having placed the rudder servo in the cabin rather than on the top of the fuselage, I now need to work out where the pull-pull cables exit the fuselage.
The cables need to be as straight as possible to allow the rudder to be pulled without acting as a cheese-wire cutting into the exit point.
A straight edge is positioned between the servo position and the planned rudder horn position. A pencil line is drawn on the side of the fuselage along the top of the straight edge.

The longitudinal position where the cables exit assumes that the wires will run parallel from the servo arms to the rudder horn. The servo arms act as a guide to work out where the cabled will exit.

And "X" marks the spot.

[Gary Manuel]

A hole is "ground" at as narrow an angle as possible with a Dremel and pointed bit. The angle is then narrowed further using a round needle file.

A plastic tube (inner part of a snake) is then glued into the hole trying to align with the planned cable route.

The tube is then ground / sanded flat so that it can be covered easily.

[Gary Manuel]

Now this is a bit of forward thinking.
The bottom of the rudder butts up to the fuselage, which is quite wide. The bottom of the fuselage than slopes downwards away from the rudder. This will make fitting of the steerable tail wheel I have got impossible unless something is done. The tail wheel horn needs to be able to pass under the fuselage to allow full and unrestricted movement. The rudder therefor needs to extend below the bottom of the fuselage.
A small extension of the rudder is added.

This is the steerable tail wheel horn with the extended rudder shaped to accept it.

And this is the horn trial fitted to the rudder.

[Gary Manuel]

I seem to have done a lot of work since the last post with not much to show for it. That can only mean one thing......I'm getting towards the finishing stages.

Here's a picture of how I'm leaving it over-night.

Tail feather leading edges shaped and glued to the fuselage. Hinge slots cut. Hinges epoxied into place and splints applied to hold everything in place - nothing worse than returning to find that the rudder has slid downwards by half an inch

Edited By Gary Manuel on 14/04/2014 21:20:37

Edited By Gary Manuel on 14/04/2014 21:26:14

[john stones 1 - Moderator]

Yep it always seems to slow up towards the end of a build

Nice bit of first aid there Gary

[Kevin Fairgrieve]

Gary where did you get the bracket from?

Kev

 

Edited By Kevin Fairgrieve on 15/04/2014 17:10:11

[Gary Manuel]

Hi Kevin,

It's part of the tail wheel assembly. It can also be used as a pull-pull rudder horn, so this is all you need if your cables are routed to the bottom. Mine are at the top so I need a separate one.

Available from here - it's the largest of the three sizes:

**LINK**

[Kevin Fairgrieve]

Thanks.

Kev

[Gary Manuel]

A while back, I posted a picture showing a gap between the wing and the underside when in position.
This is how I sorted the gap out:

A piece of 6mm x 12mm added first to the rear former to sort out the lengthwise gap.

Then some 3mm scrap balsa sheet added to the fuselage bottom.

All sanded to shape to fit the wing:

Follows the dihedral on the wing now.

[Gary Manuel]

After minor filling, a fair bit of trimming, and some sanding, it's time to start covering.

Fist a top tip for Hobbyking (or other) covering film users who've struggled to separate the clear backing from the film. It drove me mad the first time because they are stuck together so well - refused to separate using finger nails, pins etc. I even convinced myself that there was no backing on. This method makes it easy.

Apply two pieces of overlapping masking tape at 90 degrees to each other - one on the front and one on the rear - like this:

When the tape is pulled apart, the backing should separate from the covering.

Here's the first bit done. Underside of the wing - done as 2 pieces.

Tips not fully covered, but they are going to be a different colour anyway.

[Gary Manuel]

Starting to add colour to the covering.
This is the scheme I'm after:

This is my interpretation of the wings.

[cymaz]

Nice work Gary, I think you've found your new avatar

[Gary Manuel]

Good idea.

[iqon]

is that the top picture or the bottom one.

[Gary Manuel]

Tomorrow's!

[john stones 1 - Moderator]

Soon be done Gary

giz a go

[Gary Manuel]

Say hello to Dusty

Still got a fair bit of work to do, but I thought I'd put the wings on to see how it looked assembled.

[john stones 1 - Moderator]

That looks fantastic Gary

Top job you've done

[Roy Mundy]

A BIG Thumbs up from me Gary, you have made a fantastic job of Dusty she really looks the part mate, you've got to be pleased with that.

well Done

[cymaz]

Go Dusty

[Gary Manuel]

Posted by Roy Mundy on 20/04/2014 23:07:56:

A BIG Thumbs up from me Gary, you have made a fantastic job of Dusty she really looks the part mate, you've got to be pleased with that.

well Done

Thanks - I'm really pleased with it so far. I think it's got lots of character.

I would like to add the number 7's and other finishing touches as I think this will really set it off. I need to find a company that will print low quantity custom clear vinyl stickers. That's what the internet is good for

[Gary Manuel]

 Thanks everyone - I'm really pleased with it so far. I think it's got lots of character.

I would like to add the number 7's and other finishing touches as I think this will really set it off. I need to find a company that will print low quantity custom clear vinyl stickers.

That's what the internet is good for

 

Edited By Gary Manuel on 21/04/2014 06:42:20