Gull Wing Glider made from a Lidl or two

[Stephen Jones]

Every year about Summer time Lidl super market have a kids chuck glider up for sale at a real deal breaker of just £8 only this year 2022 they where late and with a price increase £10.

With a 30 inch wingspan still cheap enough to hack into a Radio controlled flying model also up for sale was a much smaller foam chuck glider.

Presumably so the kids can actually get there hands on one.

Well as customary usually for me anyway, I have to see what I can morph one of these chuck gliders into.

This year being no different I decided to use both the small and large gliders.

Ha Ha kids, (they're all mine).

So this year I decided to build a Gull wing Glider.

And here is How I built one that flies well for a model under 250 grams

 

Steve.

 

 

[Stephen Jones]

 

So I bought these gliders.

[Stephen Jones]

So I decided that I would Use the large wings from the XL glider and use the body and wings of the small glider.

You may notice that this is not a simple cut and slice job and I will provide templates later on to aid the cutting of the wings.

In fact the middle of the wing is moved forward while the Tailplane is move backwards as well as being a inverted Vee tail.

Steve

[Stephen Jones]

So the main wings are cut up using the templates and then glued together to create the Gull wing shape

No need for any plywood bracing to keep the shape.

Careful cutting and sanding will ensure a good fit and a good glue will keep it in place.

 

You may notice that I have already built and test flown one already only that one used a fox glider as well as the wing from the Lidl XL glider.

 

Using a sanding block will ensure that you get a good flat surface.

 

Steve.

[Stephen Jones]

Now keep to one side the cut offs as they will be used as a wedge for the center section.

 

Steve.

 

 

[Stephen Jones]

I forgot to mention that you will need to flatten that polyhedral out of the wing first.

 

I used the Hot water trick to do that.

The Wings can be cut in half first.

 

Steve.

Edited September 10, 2022 by Stephen Jones

[Stephen Jones]

Hi, Just maidened this model today and it went better than I expected winds where 15 to 20 Mph and the model weights a tad shy of 200g.

Yet it coped well loops rolls high speed passes so here is just a taster of the flights I had today.

It will take me a little while to put a full build and flight video together.

 

 

Steve 😃

[Outrunner]

Well done Steve, your Lidl glider looks mad but fly's really well. Take a bow.

[Stephen Jones]

9 hours ago, Outrunner said:

Well done Steve, your Lidl glider looks mad but fly's really well. Take a bow.

Thank You.👍

🙇‍♂️

 

[Stephen Jones]

 

So after the main wing has been flattened and cut in half, stick the templates to the wing and cut leaving the center wing outer portion to last.

 

So this will be your 1st cut followed by the trailing edge of the outer wing these are normal cuts.

 

 

 

[Stephen Jones]

 

The outer portion of the center wing is cut last so that it  can be cut at angle, this is done by propping it up against a battery and cutting at 90 degrees to the table.

Sanding if necessary to get a nice flat true surface to glue to.

 

As you can see by the picture above the center section of the wing is angled forward as well as down.

 

 

Tape is used to hold in place while glue dries.

 

[Stephen Jones]

 

Check that your wings are level, straight and correct angles by sitting them onto batteries and using a paper template to ensure they are correct.

 

[Stephen Jones]

So when you are happy with the left and right half's of the wing you can glue the two together by cutting up a spare piece of foam to a wedge shape to fit the center gap.

I put some thin metal sheeting down where the center section will lay on the build board to cool the hot melt glue used to join the center section holding firmly in position until all is cool.

 

Don`t worry too much how it looks as it will be covered up by the body top and bottom.

 

 

[Stephen Jones]

 

Now the wing is complete you can add some Balsa trailing edge to the center section of the wing.

Foam could also be used here or if you really want too you could cut up a Mk2 Lidl wing as that has a nice thin trailing edge.

Also cut out a small section of the center wing for servo cables to reside temporary.

 Offer up the Mini Lidl glider body to the wing so that you can work out where to chop the tail off.

 

[Stephen Jones]

 After chopping off the tail where it meets the trailing edge of the wing making sure that the leading edge of the wing lines up with the slot in the body first.

Slice the body in half but at the same angle as the wings so that when the two half's will lay flush with the wing to create a vee shape cut.

I continued my cut part way into the body to aid lining the body parts up later on.

 

 

[Stephen Jones]

So now trail fit the top part of the body to the top center section of the wing as you may find that you will need to shave a bit more foam away to get a nice fit.

Now we need to think about the servos.

I used 6g servos but did not want to add servo extension leads so I cut up some 400mm extension leads to 300mm and used them to replace the existing servo wires so I have long 300mm leads on my servos so that the connection to the receiver could be done in the cockpit area.

 

 

 

This is fine soldering work so you may wish to cut the plugs off and extend from there instead to make it easier.

 

 

I also cut the servo mounting lugs off as I will be gluing them into the wing.

 

 

[Stephen Jones]

After Hot melt gluing the top part of the body into position you will need to cut a space into the underside of the wing for the servo to fit.

Also cut a small slot for the servo wire to run into the body.

 

 

Once the two servos are fitted you can glue the bottom part of the body to the wing using hot melt glue ensure that the servo leads are in the space we cut out of the body earlier so we can get at them later.

Once both top and bottom parts of the body are glued to the wing you will find that it becomes ridged which is a good thing. 👍

 

[Stephen Jones]

Now we can cut the small glider wings in half as we need to use them for the tail plane.

 

 

stick the leading edge of the template to the leading edge of the wing and cut to shape

 

 

 

 

Once you have cut to shape draw a line 3 cm from the trailing edge of the tail plane

 

 

Use a hot iron to make a slot into which a barbecue stick can be glued.

 

 

 

 

This will add strength while also helping keep that curve out of the wing.

Now is a good time to add packing tape to the balsa trailing edge

 

 

Now mark 25mm from the top bend in the wing and between the join of the trailing edge as this is where we will poke the barbecue stick of the tail plane.

You will need to trail fit several times before gluing and sand or cut the top join of the tail plain to fit correctly.

When happy use hot melt glue.

 

 

 

Now you can make up the Ailerons and fit they may need sanding thinner towards the outer edge.

I used clear packing tape as my hinge.

 

 

[Rich Griff]

Please could you explain the "hot water" trick for flattening the wings please.

 

Still learning...

[john davidson 1]

it is also possible to use a paint stripper gun ( carefully and at a distance ) , once it is really pliable  weigh down on a flat surfce

[Keith Billinge]

10 hours ago, Rich Griff said:

Please could you explain the "hot water" trick for flattening the wings please.

 

Still learning...

You can flatten the polyhedral with steam. The best way I've seen it done, is with a wet cloth, and an ordinary household iron. Holding the wing flat and putting a wet cloth on the bend, you gently heat the area, keeping the iron moving so as not to scortch or overheat the foam. At the same time, you can apply pressure to the bend and straighten it out.  It's very important not to go too mad with the heat and take your time.

 

KB

Edited September 14, 2022 by Keith Billinge
Spelling is not my forte

[Stephen Jones]

As regards to taking the bend out of the wing all of the above will work, as will slicing half way through the foam directly above the bend then weight the wing flat and squeeze some epoxy resin into the now opened gap.

You could even cut the bend out and glue the wing back together.

I am sure there are many more way it could be done.

I have a video some where just can not find it.

 

Basically you need to heat up the foam at the bend so that you can flatten the wing without snapping it and then cool it while it is in the flatten state.

So I place the wing over the sink so half the wing is on the draining board the other half is over the sink. I fill a jug with cold water and fill the kettle .

I then put the kettle on and put a weight on the overhanging wing  over the sink, when the kettle has boiled the water I pour the hot water over the bend in the wing this way the heat goes into the foam and around it.

I then cool it with the cold water it may take a few kettle fills of heating it up and cooling it down before it stays flat. unless you have hot water on tap.

 

I hope that makes sense.

 

Steve

[Stephen Jones]

 

So now the trailing edges need to be hinged I used clear packing tape.

 

 

I used commercial horns and I used push rod connectors at the horn end as I find it easier to make adjustments this way.

 

 

Finding the right screws is another matter so I fitted mine like this.

 

Steve

 

[Stephen Jones]

So now we can work on the cockpit area.

 

So I hollowed out just enough space to take a 1860 battery that I fitted a battery lead to.

I also made some room for the receiver to fit into the cockpit.

 

 

I found that I still needed the ball bearing to get the correct CoG.

 

The pictures below show that I used two hinge Points to secure the Cockpit the robart hinges.

 

The picture above shows the Hinge pin removed

 

 

Steve

 

[Stephen Jones]

 

To secure the Cockpit all is needed is thin copper wire to be pushed through the Hinge pin hole.

 

Bent like this make it easy to thread through the hole.

 

 

The rotated down into the cockpit line and all is secure.

 

Steve