Murat Kece 1 Posted March 21, 2021 Share Posted March 21, 2021 I acquired this kit from our club, Aberdeen & District Soarers, mid 2020. This was my second balsa glider build. It has blue foam wings with spruce spars all the way through. Here's the spar sandwiched with a balsa core. Here's the only photo of the glider I have which is from the box of te kit.. Started with the wings. Main spar is glued in between the two halves of the wing panels with ply reinforcers at its root. The wing joining tubes were epoxied on place on the plan template before its is cut into two halves ensuring full alignment and application of the first dihedral. Here's the tube in place after cutting into two halves. Wing cheeks are then prepared altogether for alignment. The leading and training edges are glued in place. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrumpyGnome Posted March 21, 2021 Share Posted March 21, 2021 Gosh - real blast from the past! I had one and made a right pigs ear of the build with 'turbulators' resulting from excess glue around the spars....... flew quite nicely I recall. GG Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murat Kece 1 Posted March 21, 2021 Author Share Posted March 21, 2021 After completing all the TE and LE gluing, I added the ply wing root cheeks/cappings and added the tubes for the second thinner connection/guide rod. Then the fuselage construction followed. The tail assembly and the all moving tail (AMT) were constructed as integral part of the fuselage. The bell crank was shaped. The fixing point for the AMT was reversed (front hole is fixed) Fuselage was constructed with all the internals installed (snakes, servo mountings, servos and battery holder. It was then shaped, rasped, filed, filled and sanded (80/120/220/400). The hatch was cut prior to fibre-glassing. God help!! This glassing and painting required so much more elbow grease than just covering with platic coverings (Solarfilm etc).. Although the end product is more robust and damage resistant I will still preer coverings.. Anyway it hass been a good learning... The fuselage was glassed and sanded (220/400 wet) between 6 coats of Poly-C.. And it was painted with white spay paint (PlastiKote gloss white, 3 coats with light 400/600 grit sanding in between). Although it was my first brown paper covering, I was impressed with the successful outcome with 50% dilute PVA glue. It increased the stiffness and robustness of the wings significantly. I applied the white vinyl polka dots ot the topside and white vinyl st ripes at the bottom of the wing in order not to use any other covering/paint etc. The numbering and club decals were added. The plane was CG tested (78mm from the leading edge) on my home made CG stand. The short nose and craped space a the nose made the balancing a struggle as I needed 250 gr of ballast.. I casted a shaped lead ballast and glued it at the nose leaving just the sufficient amount of space for the NiMah batteries, receiver and the switch.. The end result AUW is 1564 gr including ballast... I did not add any adjustment weight to equalize the weight of the wings. This was sorted out in the initial trim during the maiden flight. The bird was read for the maiden on 15th March 2021.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john stones 1 - Moderator Posted March 21, 2021 Share Posted March 21, 2021 Very nice Murat. ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murat Kece 1 Posted March 21, 2021 Author Share Posted March 21, 2021 (edited) Here's the glider in its final livery: The maiden flight took place on 15th March 2021 on the Brimmond Hill, Aberdeen, after the relaxation of the COVID19 restrictions in Scotland for outdoor activities. A great flier eventhough it has only 2 ch control (rudder/elevator).. AMT travel was reduced to 60% with 30% expo. here are some snap shots.. The videos will be loaded once I reduce their sizes or put on Youtube.. I really enjoyed this build and learned a lot.. First AMT, first brown paper, first fibre-glassing... I thank my fellow soarer Norrie Kerr and the modelflying forum community for their support and assistance with a few questions I raised.... and to Derek Robertson for the training and model trimming he has provided patiently.. Edited March 21, 2021 by Murat Kece 1 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leccyflyer Posted March 21, 2021 Share Posted March 21, 2021 Good job Murat ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrumpyGnome Posted March 22, 2021 Share Posted March 22, 2021 Very nice job. Looks far better then mine ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murat Kece 1 Posted May 25, 2021 Author Share Posted May 25, 2021 (edited) I had a wee incident and ended up repairing this birdy. The nose section was damaged while the tail end, wings and wing roots survived intact. I added additional doublers and extended the nose by 35mm adding a ballast compartment at the nose. Not worried about the additional weight as this reduced the balancing weight I used. I used the shots from my shut gun cartridges. They were very handy to feed through the plastic tube I added to the ballast department. I also added some glued into the nose section itself. Here are some photos of the the damaged bird and the repairs: Complete rebuild of the nose section, except the tip! I used the same hardened tip.. You see here the ballast compartment and the feed tube. ; Rejoined the front and the tail sections.. and re glassed the new part with 49gr cloth and PolyC: Rebalanced the bird.. It went onto flying again on 22 May at Cairn O'Mount.. It is a stable and well behaving flier.. It just does not want to come down easily.. Edited May 25, 2021 by Murat Kece 1 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tosh McCaber Posted May 25, 2021 Share Posted May 25, 2021 Well done Murat- looks great in the air again! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tosh McCaber Posted May 25, 2021 Share Posted May 25, 2021 ps- like your step by step repair shots! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Chantler Posted May 25, 2021 Share Posted May 25, 2021 Nice build (and repair ? ) ? Nice to see a traditional kit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murat Kece 1 Posted May 25, 2021 Author Share Posted May 25, 2021 They say you become a repair expert before becoming an expert pilot...................? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leccyflyer Posted May 25, 2021 Share Posted May 25, 2021 Now that's what you call a happy ending. ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy_nelson Posted January 23, 2023 Share Posted January 23, 2023 Does anyone have a plan I can purchase? Really want to build another phoenix. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Posted January 25, 2023 Share Posted January 25, 2023 On 23/01/2023 at 11:37, Andy_nelson said: Does anyone have a plan I can purchase? Really want to build another phoenix. I have a phoenix 100 2.5 wonder wings if you would like it. I had it given to me, I don't want to use it as I don't want to break it. I'm from Cheltenham Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Posted January 25, 2023 Share Posted January 25, 2023 5 minutes ago, Daniel said: I have a phoenix 100 2.5 wonder wings if you would like it. I had it given to me, I don't want to use it as I don't want to break it. I'm from Cheltenham Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murat Kece 1 Posted February 4, 2023 Author Share Posted February 4, 2023 On 23/01/2023 at 11:37, Andy_nelson said: Does anyone have a plan I can purchase? Really want to build another phoenix. Hi Andy I have the plan but it does not have the wing, which is cur from foam. You may do cut it using the wing rib profiles. If you like I can get it copied and send it to you at cost. Regards. You can PM me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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