Flair JUNIOR 60 builders

[Gary Murphy 1]

I am a new builder and in a moment of madness bought a Flair Junior 60 from ebay. It did seem all correct on first inspection,2 sealed bags of cut shaped parts sealed bads of accessories and lots of strip balsa.The next day I realised I should have 2 undercarriage wires,i have 1 but I can try and bend a new one.

I have now hit another more worring prob,laid the plans out and read the fuse build instructions and it mentions part "EX 1/4 X 5/8 SHAPED COMPONANT ADJACENT TO UNDERCARRAIGE AREA" it that part a pre cut part and one needed for aech frame side? also I am not good at reading plans yet so can not work out the true shape. can anyone advice please?

[Ernie]

Hi Gary, can you send a pic of the relevant part of the plan?

ernie

[Broken Prop]

Hi Gary

if you mean the piece of wood at the bottom of the fuselage running between the firewall and the second bulkhead, you have to cut and shape that from the stock piece of wood in the kit. It is pprobably best to cut it a bit long so that it sticks out in front of the firewall and trim off the excess after gluing.

Also best to leave shaping the underside of the piece until the model is assembled. That way you can blend the line of the piece into that of the shaped nose blocks.

Hope this helps

Pete

[Gary Murphy 1]

Pete, are you sure you have to cut the piece? I thought all the shaped/curve parts are cut in a flair kit.any other bit with a shape or curve is present in the box.

Also being new to plans I can not tell if the front of the part has a notch like the rear?

I inc the manual section that mentions part "EX" and "shaped conponant"

[PatMc]

Gary,
I think Peter is right, the part should be cut from a piece of stock 5/8x1/4 wood that's in the kit. And I'd do exactly the same as he advises in cutting oversize & shaping the bottom of it once the nose pieces etc are in place.

Re the notches - here's what the part, in isolation, should look like when finished :

[Broken Prop]

Spot on Pat!

(I wish mine had been as neat as that)

Gary, there is quite a large piece of 5/8 x 1/4 in the kit. You can afford to have a couple of goes at it, if you do not get the cuts right first time. There is a notch at the front, which fits into the cut-out at the bottom of the firewall. Use the firewall piece as a guide as to the correct size.

There is also a notch at the rear to fit into the notch at the bottom of the second bulkhead. On my kit the second bulkhead notch was only 6mm high whereas it needs to be taller. (More like 10mm but not as much as 5/8ths of an inch).Take the measurement by scaling off the plan and carefully sand the notch taller. You can see the amount necessary as the draughtsman drew the side view of the fuselage with the notches in the bulkheads shown dotted. (Above the longerons the bulkheads are shown solid).

Remember that this area of the plane needs to be strong as it takes the forces from the undercarriage loads and distributes them into the remainder of the frame. Try to get the joints as tight as possible.

Enjoy your build. It is a great little plane!

Pete

[Gary Murphy 1]

Thanks guys,at least I know what shape to aim for.The 1/8 sheeting? is that pushed between the 2 sides pieces?

[Broken Prop]

That's right. Make sure the grain of the wood goes across the plane for this sheet.

Elsewhere the grain of a sheet where shown plan view is indicated by wavy lines in the direction. This will vary according to the position of the sheet and the forces in it.

The only pieces of sheet not shown are the thin sheets between the wing ribs along the front of the main spar. These little sheets must have the grain vertical as they take shear forces in the wing. There is note on the plan for this.

Good luck!

Pete

[Mike Etheridge 1]

As mention on Pat Mac's blog I am currently refurbishing a Keil Kraft Junior 60 I built in 1962/3.

I have just inspected the fuselage part in question on one side of the plane and could vaguely read the reference 'F 12' ?. All those years ago I constructed a rather elaborate battery hatch in this area as pictured, to accommodate an Every Ready 1289, 4 1/2 Volt flight battery to power the Terrytone reciever and Mactuator escapement. Fortunately it still can accommodate a modern flight battery.

[Broken Prop]

Did you get it finished Mike?

[Mike Etheridge 1]

Yes it's finished just about and should be ready for the next bout of fine but not windy weather. As I have mentioned elsewhere on the website I have changed the engine from an ED Racer to an OS 20. purely because the addition of the elevator meant I needed an extra 3 ounces of weight in the nose to get the CG right. It already had 8 ounces of lead just under the engine location.

I must also dig out the Ben Buckle fuselage and tail and perhaps fly it also with same wings. I got this fuselage which needed some work, from the 'bring and buy' at the Nationals in 2006. I think I have only flown it once ?

 

Edited By Mike Etheridge 1 on 03/08/2017 23:05:01

[Broken Prop]

They look lovely. There is something about the shape of a Junior 60, it just looks right!

After campaigning mine with a glow engine for a few years I decided to electrify it using a motor set from 4Max. I have to say that the results have been very good.

Because I can now turn the motor off I can make use of the lovely gliding characteristics of the model to get extended flight times. I have the gliding trim set up on a flight phase and just turn off the motor, flick a switch and watch the model float on...and on...

It is very relaxing!

[Mike Etheridge 1]

My Junior 60 also has a remarkable glide and I would always tend to dead stick land it when the Racer had run out of fuel. I was convinced in the past when flying the plane on Epsom Downs it would gain height whilst gliding which I suppose could have been due to thermals?

If I ever get round to it the Ben Buckle Junior 60 would be ideal for electric conversion. I have a ribs only wing kit for it but to date have not constructed the wing. I also have a badly constructed Super 60 aileron wing that needs extensive remedial work. Another scheme I have is to re-engine my KK Falcon with a four stroke motor.

[Broken Prop]

Ah, the KK Falcon! It is on my list of 'must builds' as i have the plans and a short cut kit from Belair. Unfortunately the list is growing longer at a faster rate than I can build!

My Junior 60 will certainly thermal and sometimes when there is no wind it is best to do a dead stick landing as otherwise it will float on out the end of the strip. All in all a lovely little plane and I can see why it has been such a firm favourite over the years.

I wonder how many have been built?