dirk tinck Posted February 8, 2020 Share Posted February 8, 2020 Hi phil ,nice going there, Maybe it's a little late but not TOO late. I finded out just now myself: If i would build it again i would place the fuse former ,the one just behind the seat position,a little more to the back to have room for a'' bang'' seat.Just pre-fitted a pilot and it's going to be a tight fit !! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McG 6969 Posted February 9, 2020 Share Posted February 9, 2020 Your 'canoe' looks great, Phil. Nearly done with the planking now. Regarding former F4 which is in the way of the ejection seat, it is certainly not too late. What I did is gluing a transverse spruce strip to it, being later able to chop off the top part with a Dremel and a diamond blade. This might be a bit late for Dirk now as his cockpit structure is already in place... Please also note that it might not work for a full length pilot, but my driver is only down to his waist. Cheers Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Cooke Posted February 9, 2020 Author Share Posted February 9, 2020 yeah a full depth cockpit on this one would be difficult with the battery box. Thanks for the 'heads up' with your findings whilst I can still make the alterations - but I must admit I hadn't considered making anything up beyond a sub-surface mounted bust on this one, in an attempt to keep it relatively simple. I'll give it a bit more thought before I close the fuselage halves later today... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Cooke Posted February 9, 2020 Author Share Posted February 9, 2020 The seat does look very thin (flate plate like with a stand off head rest) towards the top - an unusual (very early) design! Some scale refs... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Cooke Posted February 9, 2020 Author Share Posted February 9, 2020 ...and one I took at Duxford years back when we still had a UK based Sabre A good reference for the height of the pilot and seat. The stand off headrest is like a Dremel polishing wheel! Some classis PSSA innovation required here! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Cooke Posted February 9, 2020 Author Share Posted February 9, 2020 Dirk I just thought there is nothing stopping us building a seat onto the formers front and rear faces as needed to ensure a deeper seat in exactly the right place. Make a seat up, ‘slot’ it to take the 1/8” former and slide it down into position. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dirk tinck Posted February 9, 2020 Share Posted February 9, 2020 Good thinking Phil ,making the former part of the seat... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Cooke Posted February 9, 2020 Author Share Posted February 9, 2020 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Cooke Posted February 9, 2020 Author Share Posted February 9, 2020 So the 2 fuselage halves came away from the building board today and after re-enforcing some of the key joints around the wing box with a smear fillet of epoxy I offered the 2 sides together to check alignment. Not too bad, the extreme nose and tail both curl outwards a little (~1/8" under the residual stress of some of the tighter planking rads no doubt, but this will easily pull in when the halves are clamped and glued. Certainly all the formers were well aligned and true, so that was a win - although I did have to file back the top mating faces of F3 and F4 a little (maybe 1/32" to get their neighboring formers to seat better. I trimmed the front and back overhangs closer to F1 and F10 and then set about removing the central area of F6 - which I needed to do to allow the torque rods to work freely on the wing - easier to cut this out now before the halves are joined. I removed the shaded area, easy with a Dremel and a permagrit file. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Edmead Posted February 9, 2020 Share Posted February 9, 2020 Your planking Looks so much neater than mine, I got glue everywhere! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Meade Posted February 10, 2020 Share Posted February 10, 2020 Phil's planking is always neater than everyone's We think he's a Prize Planker Edited By Andy Meade on 10/02/2020 15:47:13 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Meade Posted February 10, 2020 Share Posted February 10, 2020 An afternoon off at home with a poorly dog produces this, a seat for an F86. Let me know if anyone wants one printed, even just the top half for those not committed to a full depth proper scale aircraft (Phil) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Kettle 1 Posted February 10, 2020 Share Posted February 10, 2020 . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Cooke Posted February 10, 2020 Author Share Posted February 10, 2020 I need to point out where to draw the line, both for the half depth seat, and your humour... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Meade Posted February 10, 2020 Share Posted February 10, 2020 Jones made me do it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dallas Crisp Posted February 10, 2020 Share Posted February 10, 2020 Great forum would be lost without it. Yes thanks, would love a copy of the seat top half. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Cooke Posted February 15, 2020 Author Share Posted February 15, 2020 Hey Dallas - great to see you on the forum! So I finally got to join the fuselage halves today... final dry checking proved everything aligned pretty well with some minor bow to combat with clamps between F1-F2 at the nose and F9-F10 at the tail. I gave each side a reasonable coating of PVA and aligned them by hand, best fitting any minor mismatch whilst ensuring F4 (as a main datum) was as true as possible. Once clamped all round, along top and bottom spines from front to back, I left it to dry in the vertical. One issue I did note was that the wing mounting plate seemed to 'float' a little between the 2 F14 formers - as if the fuselage was a couple of mm too fat around the wing seat - but the 2 halves of F7 at the rear of the mount were butt-jointed on the centreline - so all I did was centrally float the plate in its mounts leaving a 1.5mm gap each side. This would need reinforcing with triangular stock once dry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Cooke Posted February 15, 2020 Author Share Posted February 15, 2020 Whilst that was all drying I made up a simple jig from a sheet of white polystyrene foam and some scrap 2.5" x 1.5" timber. The recesses were sized and shaped to accept the fus at F2 and F8. This will help me handle the fuselage whilst I'm finishing the top and bottom planking and mounting the tail - it will also act as a useful transport aid in weeks to come! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Cooke Posted February 15, 2020 Author Share Posted February 15, 2020 The battery box was added (with the majority of F6 removed from the wing bay (for aileron torque rod clearance) it meant I could insert and glue the battery box in after I'd joined the fuselage halves - which made things a little simpler. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Cooke Posted February 15, 2020 Author Share Posted February 15, 2020 Triangular stock was added top and bottom between the wing mounting plate and F14 each side to bolster the floating joint. So with that all done we have to return to more planking top and bottom - I will be sheeting as much of the underside as possible where the curvature is minimal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McG 6969 Posted February 15, 2020 Share Posted February 15, 2020 Nice progress, Phil. Regarding the wing plate, I had exactly the same, but I thought I had been 'oversanding' it myself. No panic involved as it was, like yours, very floaty laterally. I just made a couple of small fillets of epoxy and micro-balloons to properly fill the gaps. By the way, I noticed that you prepared your wing bolts and blind nuts already. I must admit that I still don't understand the involved sequence to bring the wing correctly to the fuselage. Cheers Chris Edited By McG 6969 on 15/02/2020 23:35:11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Cooke Posted February 16, 2020 Author Share Posted February 16, 2020 Chris - Dirk has covered this well in his build blog - its the trimming of the fuselage sides to the correct profile thats the tricky bit I think allowing for dihedral and a the thickness of any wing seat/fillet material... a job for another day The dowel holes are pre-set in F4 and I just read the position of the captive nuts off the plan - I will have to make the wing suit the fuselage now with those final details, but only once its 'sat' correctly in the wing saddle. Dirks recommendation again was to glass the wing before any of this takes place due to the amount of handling involved - all makes sense. So many jobs still to do... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McG 6969 Posted February 16, 2020 Share Posted February 16, 2020 Thanks Phil, I understood Dirk's method allowing for the dihedral of the wing, but my point was how to make sure the dowels will correspond at the front and the same for the bolts at the TE. That part is still quite 'misty' for me... Cheers & thanks again. Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin Gay Posted February 17, 2020 Share Posted February 17, 2020 Phil/Martin, If you have not yet planked the bottom of the fuselage, you can access the dowel holes in F4 with a short pencil or a small dowel with the end inked. These will mark the dowel positions onto the wing. Failing that you could use a pair of dowel centre pins from amazon: **LINK** Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Edmead Posted February 17, 2020 Share Posted February 17, 2020 Hi Phil I’ve been following your blog as we are at similar stages of the build. I’ve read Martin’s gamma blog, and he said before joining the fuz halves you need to do the battery box, wing bolt plate and bell crank. I understand how you’ve been able to omit the box at this stage but you didn’t mention the bell crank for the elevator. Can I leave the bell crank until after joining or are you doing something different? hope that makes sense Andy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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