Mark Elen Posted April 28, 2020 Author Share Posted April 28, 2020 Hi Dan, Many thanks for your kind comments. Today I have finished off the covering and made a start on gluing the glazing in with Pacer canopy glue. It takes forever to go off, so I have used some low tack masking tape to hold it in place overnight. I also got started gluing the hinges into the surfaces. Cheers Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nigel R Posted April 29, 2020 Share Posted April 29, 2020 That fin is a thing of beauty. It would never have occurred to me to tackle it like that. You have an extraordinarily neat junction between tail plane and fuselage too. How on earth do you do it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Miller Posted April 29, 2020 Share Posted April 29, 2020 Posted by Nigel R on 29/04/2020 07:08:18: That fin is a thing of beauty. It would never have occurred to me to tackle it like that. You have an extraordinarily neat junction between tail plane and fuselage too. How on earth do you do it? I first learned to do that fin covering when building a Sig Piper Cub. I have used it a few times.As Mark says, it takes a bit of care but it isn't too hard to do. It is the way that many full size aircraft do it. Edited By Peter Miller on 29/04/2020 08:18:21 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Elen Posted April 29, 2020 Author Share Posted April 29, 2020 Posted by Nigel R on 29/04/2020 07:08:18: That fin is a thing of beauty. It would never have occurred to me to tackle it like that. You have an extraordinarily neat junction between tail plane and fuselage too. How on earth do you do it? Hi Nigel, Many thanks for your kind comments. I did that with lots of careful use of the iron, changing from cool, to just tack the covering to medium to stick it down, to hot to shrink it where it needed shrinking, being careful not to shrink the junction too much. If I had a pound for the amount of times the temperature got changed while I was doing that I would be a rich man..... Today, I seem to have got a lot done. Starting with gluing all of the surfaces in, I like to use superphatic for this, flooding the hinge slot with it, then after carefully putting a little oil onto just the hinge pins, slotting them home. I also got the other side windows in and the receiver: A few days ago, I bought a vinyl graphic online, I got this put onto the wing today: I then made up the loom for the aileron servos: And I got the aileron loom, servos and linkages installed: That's the wing finished, just a couple of bits now on the fuselage, then check C of G and position the battery, with a bit of luck, it wont need any lead. We will see. Cheers Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john stones 1 - Moderator Posted April 29, 2020 Share Posted April 29, 2020 It'll do I suppose. Thing of Beauty Mark. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Miller Posted April 29, 2020 Share Posted April 29, 2020 Superb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Elen Posted April 30, 2020 Author Share Posted April 30, 2020 Thanks Gents. Other than a bit of plumbing and the final checking and setting of the linkages, it is now finished. I ended up with the receiver battery (2000mah 5 cell Nimh) under the tank to get it to balance correctly. No ballast necessary 😎 I still need to run the engine in, but that can wait until there is a possibility of flying. Many thanks Peter, your design has given me hours of pleasure building. Cheers Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McG 6969 Posted April 30, 2020 Share Posted April 30, 2020 Great looking build, Mark. Wishing you all the best with the maiden when the time comes. Cheers & stay safe, young man Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Clark 1 Posted April 30, 2020 Share Posted April 30, 2020 Truly fantastic job there Mark. It's been a pleasure to watch your progress and has made me be more disciplined with my building in an attempt to achieve a finish like yours. Good luck with the maiden when it comes. Going by the old saying "if it looks right......." you know where I'm going with that! Gary Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Miller Posted April 30, 2020 Share Posted April 30, 2020 THat looks fantastic. I am so glad that you enjoyed building her and I am sure that you will enjoy flying her when the war is over Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Former Member Posted April 30, 2020 Share Posted April 30, 2020 [This posting has been removed] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dad_flyer Posted April 30, 2020 Share Posted April 30, 2020 Even cherry blossom to match the pink and white scheme Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dan h Posted April 30, 2020 Share Posted April 30, 2020 very nice mark. what a great finish it will look excellent in the air! dan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Elen Posted April 30, 2020 Author Share Posted April 30, 2020 Thank you all for your kind comments. I’m looking forward to getting back flying, once we are all let back out again. I have made a start this afternoon on the Ballerina repair, that I mentioned a while ago, covering off, new wood glued in and now it’s waiting for sanding. Hopefully, tomorrow, I will get the covering on and it will be ready for getting my flying back up to scratch before trying to maiden this. Thank you all for following along and your kind comments along the way. Much respect to the guru (Peter) for his design talent and his helpful words of encouragement along the way. I will try to post up some flying shots here when I hopefully get it flying. Cheers Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john stones 1 - Moderator Posted April 30, 2020 Share Posted April 30, 2020 Yep, enjoyable blog, beautiful model and even bought confetti to decorate the final shot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Elen Posted June 2, 2020 Author Share Posted June 2, 2020 Today was finally the day to maiden the PS2. I flew the Ballerina a couple of times before just to get my eye back in. I have to report that it flew beautifully, a couple of clicks of down and a couple of clicks of left aileron and it was flying a treat. I landed and took out the trim and flight 2 went better, by flight 3 I was getting comfortable with it. Then came the calamity..... while it was sat on the ground, in the restraint that our club use for starting, there was the biggest gust of wind, a bit like a microburst, but we all think it may have been a thermal, it got picked up, flew backwards past me at about head height and landed upside down on a field box next to me..... I am not at all happy tonight. It has snapped the wing, all 3 spars at the junction of the aileron and snapped off the starboard horizontal stab. Did I say that I'm not happy... On the plus side, it has given me a chance to destruction test the hinges. Gluing them in with superphatic definitely works… they won't come back out - any of them. Cheers Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McG 6969 Posted June 2, 2020 Share Posted June 2, 2020 ... ooh sjeesh, Mark. Such a beauty, I can imagine you're "not happy"... I guess best is to put it aside for a while... and when the mojo is back, to start the refurbishing. Cheers and keep safe, young man. Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kc Posted June 2, 2020 Share Posted June 2, 2020 My advice is to just get the glue out and start the repairs. Such a beautiful model didn't deserve such a fate- if it had been an old tired model it would not seem so bad. but it's not oil soaked and nice clean balsa repairs well. Don't delay just start the repairs it may take less effort than you think. It wll be worth the effort repairing. I am afraid repairs are part of aeromodelling......... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Miller Posted June 2, 2020 Share Posted June 2, 2020 That is a real sickener. However that looks a very clean break. Only one rib bay Splice in sections of spars with doublers inside the spars. Fit butt straps inside the leading edge sheet in the bays each side of the break and then reskin those sections flush with the original skin. Trust me this can all be done in a day or so. I know, I had to do a bigger and more complicated repair on my Stampe wing. I also had a vercy demolished fuselage but luckily that was all glue joints Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Miller Posted June 2, 2020 Share Posted June 2, 2020 That is a real sickener. However that looks a very clean break. Only one rib bay Splice in sections of spars with doublers inside the spars. Fit butt straps inside the leading edge sheet in the bays each side of the break and then reskin those sections flush with the original skin. Trust me this can all be done in a day or so. I know, I had to do a bigger and more complicated repair on my Stampe wing. I also had a vercy demolished fuselage but luckily that was all glue joints Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Clark 1 Posted June 2, 2020 Share Posted June 2, 2020 Oh Mark!! That's a sore one to take!! Always worse when it's not your fault. Shouldn't be too tough for a builder of your calibre to fix. Gary Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Elen Posted June 2, 2020 Author Share Posted June 2, 2020 Thanks gents for your comments. After a stiff drink tonight, it all doesn’t seem so bad. The plan now is to build a new wing for it, I wouldn’t be happy bodging it back together. There were a couple of bits I wasn’t happy with. The tail end will get cut and sanded out and a new one put in. I have ordered the wood for the wing tonight, but it may be a month or so before I see it. At least while I’m waiting for that to arrive, I can get on with the Cougar. I still can’t believe that of the 5 or 6 models on the flight line today, mine was the only one picked up and chucked about....I must have done something wrong in a past life😂 Either that, it PS2 just wanted to fly😂 Cheers Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nigel R Posted June 3, 2020 Share Posted June 3, 2020 That's a real shame Mark. But Peter is right it will go back together. Seems even more of a shame to throw the wing you have and completely replace it. Sometimes the battle scars are just part of its character. My chilli wind wings have a repair like this hiding away but you would never know it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Miller Posted June 3, 2020 Share Posted June 3, 2020 Hi Mark As I said, I recently demolished my Stampe in a big way. (Applying full up from a low inverted pass) and at the time I said it was scrap but a day later and it looked repairable and it was. The wing was a lot worse than yours I can tell you, there is about 4" of new wing in the middle of the left wing. T flies just as well now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul C. Posted June 3, 2020 Share Posted June 3, 2020 Ha the joys of aero modeling 😨 after only a few flights I somehow managed to fly mine through a tree , chopped it up nicely into little pieces. Been playing with model aircraft since I was a kid and this was the largest damage I have managed up to yet, still got the wheels though . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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