WazEco Build (Wasabi)

[Chris van Schoor]

Posted by Tom Foreman on 10/07/2009 08:49:06:

I was afraid you were going to say that, looks like I will have to source some fibre glass board then.

 Tom, ply will do fine for a former as well.  I recommend using Goop or silicone for any formers (including the servo tray) in this type of application, as the flexibilty of the glue helps a lot in keeping things togeter.  Epoxy can be a bit too rigid or brittle, it doesn't adapt to the flexing of the fuz as much.

[Stephen Stokes]

Looking good Tom,

I built my own wings and drew up and built my own fuz. I used 85 metal geared servos.

For speed and a little more power I run them on a 6v pack.

The only problem with a built up fuz is lateral strength. On a few quick arrivals the tail snapped clean off. To solve this I stuck carbon fibre strips from the TE of the main wing right up to the bell crank at the tail.

At the end of the day I may have saved a little cash but I would still recommend your route with the class fuz.

[Tom Foreman]

Hi Stephen, glad to here I'm not the only WazEco owner out there, how do you find the flight chacteristics of your version?

 

 

Tom

[Stephen Stokes]

Hi Tom

My version with the home built fuz came out a little heavy nearly 200g over weight and I think I paid the penalty for this. This is why I recommend the glass or should I say the class fuz. 

 To date I have only flown it in light winds and still have not got all the mixing for flaps and spoilers right. I hope to take is on holiday next week and fly it of the Cornish cost in some strong winds to really test the flight characteristics. Then I come back with a verdict. 

 My version has a removable two-part stab just for this reason nice and small to pack and carry.

Check out the RC forums via the Wasabi web site. I also used magnets to hold the wings on. So much simpler to rig in the wind on the side of the hill.

I don't want to hi-jack your built thread so if your want to see some pictures check my photo album.

 

Edited By Phil Wood - Moderator on 17/07/2009 18:38:40

[Tom Foreman]

Cool will have a look at your posts and photos, where abouts in Cornwall are you going? Me and the missus are off down there in September so I can fly gliders am hoping to find some good sites to slope off

 

Tom

[Tom Foreman]

Well after MTBing up Whernside in the Dales last night, feeling tired tonight and can't seem to motivate myself to do any more than a bit of light sanding. Some more bits turned up from Blackburn Models, yellow and blue pro-film, pull-pull rudder wire and some carbon tube and rod to have a go at making an elevator pushrod. Havn't got that far yet but like to have stuff in stock so I'm not waiting for materials. I think the only thing left to buy now is some nice glass fibre aileron horns.

 

Anyway here are some more photos from the past few days, getting there slowly

 

Built up ailerons with ribs and leading edge glued in, just need top sheeting to finish.

 

Rear stab frame work assembled with CA for the ribs and Aliphatic resin for the balsa leading edge.

 

 

Getting the final sheeting for the ailerons to glue on turned into a nightmare as it lifted on the leading edge, managed to squirt medium cyano in to fill the gaps. Awaiting sanding at the moment.

 

Continued...

[Tom Foreman]

Top sheeting of rear right hand stab, decided to cyano in place using thin cyano, but use alphatic resin for final bottom sheet. Getting hard to work out which is left and right with these symetrical wing sections, will be OK when its Pro-Filmed as I'm going for different colours top and bottom.

 

One done second one to go.

 

Rear stab wing tip cyanoed on with thick cyano, shaped with razor plane and starting to sand. Leading edge is a bit wierd as the sheet wraps around it, but not quite big enough (its pre-cut to shape) so I used a little light filler to smooth it out. The trailing edge is getting a bit tin and flexible. Might finish with some finishing epoxy just to strengthen the thinner sections, but too sure if the pro-film will still go on OK, I'm sure i probably will, only one way to find out!

 

Tom

[Tom Foreman]

Well sanding the ailerons is a bit of a pain , I also realised why I had trouble with gluing the sheeting, when building the ailerons up I should have propped up the trailing edge to achieve a symetrical aileron, but I have ended up with a flat bottom one. Fortunately this can be corrected by the sanding, oh well live and learn

 

 

Chamfering aileron so that you can get the massive deflections required for a 3D capable glider, it took a bit of planing and a LOT of sanding to get this far!

 

Phew, one finished aileron, one more to go, but I've worn the sandpaper out, so I can see a trip to Wilkos is in my future, thats all for now folks!

 

Tom

Edited By Timbo - Moderator on 17/07/2009 09:17:44

[Stephen Stokes]

 

Hi Tom

It’s a pain all that sanding but it all pays of in the finish, keep going.

I Fly off the cliffs in Cornwall, off the first peninsular north of Land’s End, at St Just. This is not a massive recommendation it is just very close to where I stay and so very convenient after spending the day on the beach with the kids. You’ve got to do it, it’s so lovely flying with the seagulls watching the sun go down.

I think most of the areas cost line is national trust so access is usually ok. Take proof of BMFA membership this usually helps to keep the wingers at bay.

Steve

[Former Member]

[This posting has been removed]

[Tim Mackey]

If you use the correct "paste from word" toolbar button above your text window, then it often comes out just fine.

[Stephen Stokes]

Thanks guys, the smiley post was a direct cut and past. the last one 'gibberish' was posted as Mr Moderator suggests, me thinks somthing may be wrong here.

 

I use word to try my best at spell checking as there is no button here to check it?

 

Sorry will try harder

[Tom Foreman]

Well I'm fed up of WazEco building, this kit is definetely got some problems. The rear stab joiner dowel just doesn't fit in its tube, spent hours grinding down carbon rod to make it fit, not fun. The wing incidence dowels are a nightmare, the root ribs are cut for 5mm dowel, but the fuse is fitted with brass tube that fits 4.1mm dowel. The rudder post is supplied in two versions, foam and ply, the foam  one was already broken, the ply one didn't fit. Had to re-shape it and plan to use to two sanwiched together. The ailerons are slightly undersized, looks like the wood was cut wrong. Anyway, just another challenge I suppose.

 

Finding it hard to source some glass fibre or carbon fibre aileron horns, tried 20 trade stands at Cosford yesterday, no luck. Tried ordering off Als Hobbies (after their trade stand told me they had them back at the shop), got an e-mail back this afternoon informing me that two of the items I had ordered  were not in stock, no problem sounds like the bits I do want are in stock, well actually they just cancel your order if anythings not in stock. Great service NOT, this is the second time I've tried to order stuff off Als and the second time I've been disappointed, oh well guess I'm just unlucky. Wish BRC had what I wanted in stock, they never let me down.

 

 Anyway, anyone know where I can get some magnets for holding my wings on and some nice carbon or glass fibre horns, otherwise I'll be forced to use those nasty plastic ones.

 

Building blues

Enjoy the photos...

[Tom Foreman]

Rudder, remembered to build a symmetrical one this time around.

 

Rudder post doesn't fit without a lot of dremmeling.

 

 

Other rudder post already broke, holes for hinges in wrong place as well, will sandwich it together with the ply wood one.

 

Rudder pin hinges, rib going across lightening hole looks a bit weird, but thats how its drawn on the plan, oh you have to make your own ribs as well, the ones that come in the kit are the wrong size completely, all too short.

 

 

Trial fit of rudder, have to resist gluing it in as I have to do the elevator bell crank assembly first.

 

Much grinding of carbon rod and incidence dowels later, is the finish now in sight?

 

Still a lot to do, this is basically the completion of all the wooden parts, still got to cover, install radio and linkages.

 

Looks like I'll need to add some more wood to the aileron tips.

 

 

Cheers for looking!  

Edited By Tom Foreman on 20/07/2009 18:49:09

[Former Member]

[This posting has been removed]

[Stephen Stokes]

Tom

For magnets I used these eBay item number 360171635382 from dicky5050

They are 10mm dia and 5mm thick and strong at 3.8kg pull 

I made a root template from clear plastic and used this to line the hole in the fuz with the hole in the wing. One mag in the fuz and one in the wing for max strength.

Cheers 

Steve

[Tom Foreman]

Cheers for the advice Steve & Phil, one set of magnets on order

 

Tom

[Klippy]

Hi Tom, I've had the same problems with Als, thought it was just me! After a failed order that they apparently (to me) just ignored, I re-ordered but told them to send what was available and ignore the rest. This worked!

[Tom Foreman]

Its OK Tony, got my magnets ordered, will make do with plastic aileron horns, lost interest in fancy carbon fibre or glass fibre jobbies.

 

Tom

[The Senator]

Hiya Tom.

The WazEco is lookin good.

As you said yes there was a few issues with the first batch of WazEco kits. The kit was originally design using the CAD file for the molded version and that throw up a few problems like the brass inserts for the incidence pins which were added later. 

The easiest thing to do with this is to glue a 5mm tube into the wing and then use a 4mm rod.

 

With the tail a small section of the tube that is used as the spar is inserted into the brass bell crank tube to give a much better fit. This is then glued with the wings in place to make sure everything is straight and level.

 

I started another build to iron out all these issues and update the plan and kit as some of it is a little vague. We will not be doing the WazEco again until all is sorted.

 

I have emailed most of the people that have the WazEco to pass on the updates and additional small parts like the incidence pins etc.. I'm afraid I missed you Tom.

 

It is probably a bit late to send you these parts Tom as it looks like you are at the covering stage now. Perhaps there is another way I can help you out?

 

 

Chris. Looks like a good mod. A bit of work but, probably worth it. The fuse IS very light. I will defiantly look at some sort of reinforcement around the wing area.

 

JOE (IslandModels) 

 

 

 

 

[Tom Foreman]

Hi Joe, no worries, as long as it is sorted for future customers all is good Glad to see the manufacturer is taking note

 

Will try and get a bit more done tonight, see if I can get this baby maidened by the weekend.

 

Cheers

 

Tom

 

PS - thanks for the tip on the tail section, havn't done that bit yet.

 

[The Senator]

Hey Tom

Hopin' to get my build back on track very soon. I have a big project to finish first. Cleaning up my workshop. This is usually a days work all by itself!

 

The problem with the brass bell crank tube is that brass and aluminium tube thicknesses are much less than GF/CF so the brass tube is 7mm ext and maybe 6.6mm internal. Can't find one that is 7mm ext and 6mm int. I have some aluminium that is closer but still not perfect.

 

What I will do is glue the brass tube in place(after the bell crank is fitted) and then a small piece of 6mm carbon tube inside that. Wrap a piece of paper tape around the carbon tube for a better fit and make sure everything is straight!

 

Hope this helps.

 

Looking forward to seeing it finished Tom. Every time we get a good big blow in my local slope I wish I had mine finished!

 

Joe 

[Tom Foreman]

Well didn't do a lot tonight, but any progress is better than none at all

 

Correcting the ailerons, I worked out what I did wrong I mixed up the Left and Right hand one doh!

 

Got distracted and built a cradle stand out of scrap polystyrene packing

 

Ailerons trimmed and sanded back, looks loads better now.

 

Aileron servo glued in with thick cyano, reinforced wing skin first with thin cyano, servo wrapped in insulation tape.

 

Servo was a tight fit, but managed to get the panel to lay flat with a bit of "persuasion" diamond taped in place, will pro-film over the top. Reinforced the balsa with thin cyano.

 

Cheers

 

Tom

[Tom Foreman]

Magnets came this morning, wow excellent service, cheap as well

 

They come with health warnings!

 

1. Keep away from credit / bank cards.

2. Don't trap your fingers between them.

3.Don't give to children.

4. Neodymium magnets are hard and brittle and may shatter if allowed to jump together.

5. Wear eye and hand protection.

6. Magnets interfere with electronic equipment, keep apart at 300mm min. safe distance.

7. Never travel on aircraft without declaring the magnets.

8. Magnets destroy information on magnetic media such as hard drives.

9. Watches, computer monitors, TV's and mobile phones can be seriously damaged by them.

10.Users of heart pacemakers should not use them.

11. Never use magnets in potentially explosive atmospheres, as sparks may be caused.

 

 Wow learn somthing new every day, and you thought LiPo's were dangerous, think again!

 

I have placed my magnets in a safe place 300mm away from everything else in the centre of the room. Just think of the havoc these things must cause as they go through the postal system!

 

 

Boy they sure are strong though, can hardly prise them apart!

 

 

Tom

 

Edited By Tom Foreman on 22/07/2009 12:59:13

[Matthew Lloyd]

"keep 300mm from electronic equipment"

 

So how's that going to effect your radio, then?