Building Brian Taylors Cessna 120

[barryt]

Go on - leave the window open. You know you want to!

Thanks for the power train specs. Looks like a well balanced system.

I can't imagine how you could obtain a polished aluminium finish. I used painted solartex. I think today I would have to use Koverall or Polyspan. I'm currently experimenting with some interfacing material as used by seamstresses. It seems it could be a good alternative to Polyspan..

Wings next or are you going to try some cabin detail?

[Dwain Dibley.]

Once I have fixed the tail wheel support, I want to get the snakes and servos in, then sheet the fuselage. The fire wall has to go on, and I have to check that for side and down thrust, of 2 and 1 degrees respectively.

Then I may have a go at the wing, or at least the centre section to get the sit on the fuz right.

I was thinking tissue and dope and then chrome paint, I had some once to use on some motorbike mirror backs and stems, it came in a little aerosol can.

D.D.

[Martian]

looking good so far..

I can recommend Rustoleum Chrome spray can it gives excellent results

[Dwain Dibley.]

Thanks Martian, I cant remember what mine was called....LOL

D.D.

[Dwain Dibley.]

A test fit of the tail wheel. Not quite scale but not far off if you close one and squint with the other. I will add the pull pull bits later.

D.D.

[Dwain Dibley.]

Still on the tail wheel.... I have now screwed the tail wheel on to the fuselage having packed out the tail with ply and Balsa to take the screws. I always pre drill any holes and drown them in C.A., this hardens the wood and when the screws go in they make a nice hard thread, almost as good as a captive nut, and don't pull out so easily.

Once the tail wheel support was on I had to rebuild the sides of the Fuselage I had cut off, I then added the solid balsa bottom. I pre cut this to length and profile (wedge shape) to save on planing and sanding. The fuselage sheeting will Butt up to this. I will alter the little ply cover pieces to look more like the side view on the plan, it will look quite close to what was intended.

D.D.

Gluing up with Aliphatic. I use this anywhere sanding is required, C.A. is hard to sand.

Edited By Dwain Dibley. on 13/04/2019 13:02:34

[Dwain Dibley.]

I have setup the servo tray, using the two HS 311 standard jobbies. I cut up an old engine bearer fot the servo screws to hold onto. Each servo is wrapped in insulation tape and has double sided tape holding it down as well. In addition each one will have a cover strip made from a door closure cover.

D.D.

Servo position and a wire to see where the snakes will end up.

The snakes will pass the close to the formers and be let in to stop flexing and slop.

Here you can see the blocks for fixing to.

[Dwain Dibley.]

So......... having shown you all that...............Here is version 2.

I wasn't happy and it's only wood.....................and time............., but I wasn't happy with the access so it had to change.

Pics tell the story.

D.D.

Wallace and his suitcase.

This will be the view into the hatch.

[GrahamWh]

Great choice of pilot Dwain!

[cymaz]

Cracking pilot Grommit

[Dwain Dibley.]

Wallace has piloted a few of my planes, and has never ever, spilt his tea.

I have just added the front top formers 2 and 3, 3 is the dashboard, so I took a copy to make the panel on.

I also added the firewall/Motor mount and built in the right thrust. More side and down can be added with washers or wedges later if needed. Plenty of room in there for battery and ESC.

Next job is top sheeting as I keep biffing the formers.

D.D.

Edited By Dwain Dibley. on 14/04/2019 16:36:48

[Dwain Dibley.]

Last coupla jobs for today.........I sheeted the front of the fuselage and cut the hole in former 3 bigger to get the battery through. I test fitted the cowl, its quite a nice tight fit......I hate to see great big gaps between the fuselage and the cowl, so I may add some wood.

D.D.

The hole needed looking into..............................

[Dwain Dibley.]

OK Guys.....Since I need to get the snakes in, I have made up the tail feathers. I have sanded them to shape as per the plan and let in the hinges. The plan also calls for the fin and tail plane trailing edges to be scolloped out to take the rudder and elevators, I will do this later.

I have added the corrugations, made from 1/16th sheet and simply glued on. They will show through the covering. The short one near the top is to allow for the tail light cover.

I added a scale like rudder trim tab, it is hinged but will not move.

I have to make a double rudder horn out of ply, this will be let in near the bottom of the rudder.

D.D.

[Dwain Dibley.]

All done.........Snakes tomorrow. I have to decide whether to go with an elevator horn or solder a piece of metal to the elevator joiner. ?? Horn is simpler regards access.

D.D.

[McG 6969]

Great progress so far, DD.

I'm wondering if Wallace is a converted heli pilot?

IIRC, in an aeroplane the 'driver' - aka the PIC - is sitting in the left seat... ?

Cheers,

Chris

[Dwain Dibley.]

Thanks McG, I will get him to scoot over......

I got the snakes/Control rods in this morning, crazily one outer was sufficient, but I don't think the inner will make two.

As I said, luckily, they more or less followed the formers and very little had to added in the way of bracing.

I sculpted out the tail area to allow for the profile and incidence of the tail plane. At first glance you might think you can just glue the tailplane on but, if you study the plan you can see it angles down slightly to the front and has a symmetrical profile.

D.D.

Nicely crossed.

Neat Exit.

Yummy......For the Coffee breaks.

I am quite pleased with the t/p seat. The tail wheel ply cover will be altered to match the angle of the tail wheel support.

She is starting to look like something now, this is my favourite part of any build. Fuselage sheeting next.

[Dwain Dibley.]

[McG 6969]

... had a good chuckle, Dwain...

... the 'cheese' is OK, thx Wallace... but I just hope those fancy tea cakes are filled with genuine British orange marmelade...

Cheers

Chris

[Dwain Dibley.]

It's Raspberry.....LOL

Some of the parts have been duplicated by Sarik, not a problem, but it did have me at it, trying to figure out where they went. In the end .........Not needed.. I thought maybe Sarik had added the rear Dihedral braces in ply.........?, but I made them out of 1/8th Lite Ply, instead of Balsa as per the plan.

All the bits for the centre section are ready to be assembled now, I want to do this next as it will help set up former C3, which supports the wing at the rear. Plus I will be able to line up the wing retaining bolt brackets.

D.D.

Parts.

Dry fit.

This bit will line up C3 and both wing fixings.

Edited By Dwain Dibley. on 16/04/2019 19:53:05

Edited By Dwain Dibley. on 16/04/2019 19:55:54

[Dwain Dibley.]

So this morning I glued the centre section up and made sure it fitted the fuselage, I had to adjust the angle of the dowel holes so the wing sat down properly.

I put the angles on the leading and trailing edges to take the 1/32nd ply roof, added the top and bottom wing bolt fixings.

I had to use a piece of 1/8th lite ply to get them level, so the bolt will find its nut without a faff. I think I will put a tube in to make it even better.

D.D.

The rest of the trailing edge will made up the the same profile as the wing fixing bracket, you can see this on the plan.

With the lid on.

I glued the lite ply spacer in with aliphatic, and when the wing fixing nut is lined up I will reinforce that too. The author of the instructions was worried about strength here and he moved the fixings into the cabin, but I can't see the advantage of that, maybe others can ?

I also reinforced the back of the hole that passes through C3 with 1/32nd ply.

In Position.

With the lid on again, taped down to see the curves.

Edited By Dwain Dibley. on 17/04/2019 13:37:39

[Dwain Dibley.]

Some more fiddly bits Boys.

D.D.

I found an old heli tail shaft that was a fit for the wing bolt and reamed out the ID to go over the captive nut.

Like so.

Cut to length with the trusty pipe cutter. Everything in line, glued and reinforced.

Tidied up the tail wheel ply mounts, I think it looks better.

[Dwain Dibley.]

Decided to get the hatch magnets in, as that is another little job out of the way. A bit of careful measuring and it all worked out OK. I can pick the fuselage up with the hatch now. I always add a belt and braces catch made from a servo arm screwed into a ply block.

D.D.

The view thru the work shop window. I can see Clee Hills, although the pic says otherwise,

Belt and Braces.

[Dwain Dibley.]

The last job for tonight Guys.............. the roof is on.

D.D.

[fly-navy]

Looking nice Stevie, might be an idea to check balance before sticking tail feathers on as you could put some holes in them if it's tail heavy.

How ya keeping buddy.

[Dwain Dibley.]

Johnny...............How you doing mate, hope you are keeping well. I will follow your sage advice.

I had orders from the Missus today, so I had to paint the walls in the kitchen this morning. They are all sparkly now, so I was able to get on with the real work....

I have sheeted the top of the fuselage, I did it in 4 pieces, It can be done in 3, but I don't like to waste Wood. So I only used one 4" sheet of 3/16th, plus a bit from the scrap bin (tiny triangle at the tail end) ........Well chuffed.

It took a fair bit of wetting, bending, and extreme patience........, but I think the result is quite good. The pic was taken after sanding and tidying up both ends.

I attached the pre cut sheet ( triangles, 50 mm down to 18 mm) to the existing balsa sides, allowing generously for the curves at each end. Then copious amounts of H2O,and bending and gluing. Lots of pins and cursing, so no pics of the procedure, couldn't let go of the job !!!. So just the end result.

D.D.

Looking like a Cessna......

Edited By Dwain Dibley. on 18/04/2019 17:30:10