Winter project 2007

[stephane.savard]

Well, I had posted these pictures in the last forum, and they totally vanaished into oblivion. So lets try again with version 3.0 of the Wimac forums! :wacky:

This is course my winter project for 2007; some of the earlier pictures have already been posted on the original wimac forum, but for thread completness I'm including them all here.

http://stephane.savard.googlepages.com/DSC_0088Small.JPG/DSC_0088Small-full.jpg

[stephane.savard]

The following pictures are of the nose section of the aircraft and the "fuel tank" problem I had. The designer of the plane sugested building a fuel tank from scratch out of a tin can and brass tubing. I didn't care for that much, and was lucky to find an alternative on the web. Apparently a sullivan 12 oz cylinder tank fits snugly into the space required. So I modified the plans to do just that.

http://stephane.savard.googlepages.com/DSC_0158Small.JPG/DSC_0158Small-full.jpg

http://stephane.savard.googlepages.com/DSC_0170Small.JPG/DSC_0170Small-full.jpg

[stephane.savard]

The cabin should be complete, in the following photo what you see if is the actual floor of the cabin area. The holes are where the equipment goes, or most of it anyway. Some "secondary" flooring will be put on top of this to hide much of the stuff. Only the servos should stick into the cabin, but be hidden by the seats!

http://stephane.savard.googlepages.com/DSC_0217Small.JPG/DSC_0217Small-full.jpg

And here's most of the assembly, with something that looks somewhat like an aircraft fuselage.

http://stephane.savard.googlepages.com/DSC_0237Small.JPG/DSC_0237Small-full.jpg

http://stephane.savard.googlepages.com/DSC_0383Small.JPG/DSC_0383Small-full.jpg

http://stephane.savard.googlepages.com/DSC_0598Small.JPG/DSC_0598Small-full.jpg

This is actually the current state of the plane as of today. I havn't been working on it much, lots of other things going on what with the holidays, but I'm expecting to have lots more progress soon.

Enjoy!

[xed]

Stephane, you are very quiet, have you hit a snag?

[beto9]

Intoxicated with balsa dust... they had to aspirate him three times...

[stephane.savard]

Well, I wouldn't call it a snag, not as such. I'm in Venezuela right now :bouncy:

But otherwise, since the about Christmas I have not really worked on the Storch at all. I bought myself a new camera beginning of December and I've been going on 'photo shoots' of sorts with a friend (as an aside, to Andrew, the 55-200mm lens is great, just what I wanted!) The rumors of my collapse due to balsa dust are greatly exagerated! :shocked:

Fortunately, a few emails back and forth with Paul Weijer (who started me on this Storch project) has got me sorely missing the Workshop! Soon as I get back to Montreal, construction will get back into full obsessive swing!

[pauldaigle]

Forget about balsa wood.

Go Cedar from Cuba, same weight and smells alot better:freakedout:

You can even store a few nice cigars in the Bombay area, (yet to be designed) and ready for a drop!

Nice project Steph!

A few modifications, and we can figure out how to get a humidor in there.

Just kidding, but it has potential..........:laugh:

[stephane.savard]

Finally I have an update!

Ever since coming back from vacation I've been spending parts of my weekends in the workshop. This model is turning out to be rather difficult to build, no where near anything I've built before, but it's still going rather well.

http://stephane.savard.googlepages.com/NIKOND401546Small.JPG/NIKOND401546Small-full.jpg

This is the rear portion of the fuselage which was kicking my butt. It's basically just a collection of sticks, but the problem was trying to get anything straight. There were times when I just wasn't sure it would turn out okay. In the end, I pinned the fuselage upside down and glued the bottom sheet (1 inch width) and several smaller sticks that run the length of the fuselage. I held my breath and when unpinned the fuselage stayed straight.

http://stephane.savard.googlepages.com/NIKOND401550Small.JPG/NIKOND401550Small-full.jpg

The problem I got into was possibly the build order. I should possibly have built the rear fuselage up and then attached it to the forward section. As it is, the structure is perfectly stright, even if the individual formers might be a little bit off. This will not show up in the final build, there is still some dowels to attache to the sides and top. These dowels will simulate the steel tubing that made up the Storch, and the fabric covering will attach to these dowels.

[stephane.savard]

The piucture shown below is that of the fin "tongue". Basically, both the horizontal stabilizer and vertical stabilizer are removable. The two holes in the tail unit will have the aluminium dowels that will hold the stabilizer, and the fin fits onto the tongue. Some struts (functional!) hold everything in place. At the base of the tongue, you can make out the airfoil of the fin.

Interestingly, triming the Storch was done by changing the entire incidence of the tail plane. A hand crank in the cockpit allows the pilot to trim the aircraft in flight.

http://stephane.savard.googlepages.com/NIKOND401556Small.JPG/NIKOND401556Small-full.jpg

This second picture shows the bellcrank for the rudder (pull-pull system) I built it using 1/16" aircraft ply. I'm not entirely sure I'm going to keep this though. The plans call for building the bellcranks out of "Formica" or glass-fiber circuit board material. If I can get my hands on some circuit board material I may replace what I have now. My current worry is that the aircraft ply eventually warps and cause the rudder or elevator to bind (the elevator also has a bellcrank, seen in the other photos).

http://stephane.savard.googlepages.com/NIKOND401548Small.JPG/NIKOND401548Small-full.jpg

[xed]

Stephane, RCTV is looking for someone who is in the process of building a plane if you are interested, you can become a Canadian star! They want to film at around 50% mark through to finish and first flight.

xten.tv (http://forums.xten.tv/showthread.php?t=28)

[Chris Bowes]

Hi Stephane, where did you get your balsa from? Do you bother separating the wood into different grades, weighing pieces etc. etc. Have you ever seen any "competition" grade balsa and do you think its worth it?? I came across an article explaining the different grades of balsa dependant on how its cut from the log and never really appreciated how the properties differ and how each grade is suitable for different parts of construction

[stephane.savard]

Greg: it would be cool, but I'm no where certain how long it would take for me to finish this plane; I'm not even at the 50% mark. I really don't want to be forced to build to a schedule. I'd rather they get someone that builds those masterpieces that can be seen at scale competitions, then I could learn something from the show :)

Chris: I've seen the same article you mention, or probably one just like it and I'll be glad to give you my take on it.

The answer to your first question is Great Hobbies first, and Hobbieville second. In terms of cost, Great hobbies definately has the best prices, and when I have to pay about 275$ for all the wood I need for the Storch (scratch-building is NOT cheap!), every price difference counts. But, naturally no one place has all the wood in stock, so I usually cancel all back-ordered pieces of wood and go to Hobbieville to pick up what's left.

Naturally, this also answers your second question: no, I don't seperate the wood into different grades and weights - I use what is sent to me. But! when it comes time to build I do tend to select which sticks or planks I use for different parts of the plane... more on that in the next paragraph.

As for the types of grain and what not, I find what the wood article says is great in theory, but (mostly) goes out the window in practice. I am only now slowly understanding the woods better, and mostly through experience. Of course, the best way to gain experience is to screw up! So, while I don't look at my fuselage frame and say "gee, I really need some grain 'A' sheeting there", I know that if I need to curve that 1/16th sheeting around, say, the heavily curved rear section of the Chipmunk, I look for the sheets that bend the easiest (which typically would show up in wood with very long grain). Why? because I've made the mistake of trying to use harder balsa for this purpose and spent an hour repairing cracked sheeting because no amount of water could bend the sheeting into place (and more water by the way, makes it more difficult for the wood glue to hold :) experience told me that one too!)

Same with longerons that need to be bent to make the nose of the aircraft, I now know to look for two pieces that have the same flexibility. Why? because I also spent an hour cursing and trying to fix the nose of the Bronco that was crooked (the less flexible longeron will bend less and straighten back out a bit more when the work is unclamped)

So that's pretty much how I'm getting to know the wood a bit better. as for "competition" balsa. I've heard rumors that this does not really exist anymore. And I certainly don't want to pay a premium for balsa that won't fly my planes any better. So my take on this is to look at it in much the same way as a streamlined body suit will not help an amateur speed skater compared to the gold/silver winning olympic speed skaters - I leave that wood to the Sailplane guys that complete in FAI :)

Incidentally, the Stuka I built was CAD drawn and laser-cut. It had a whole bunch of structure lightening wholes built into the wing, fuselage and every piece of balsa (and ply!) available. I was curious and kept every little piece. When I finished I weighed them after the build. Leaving them in place would have added less than half an ounce. Most of the weight in an aircraft is in the electronics, engine and details (especially paint and fiberglass covering), when my aircrafts are finished (before fiberglass) the aircrafts are always rather light, I'm not sure competition balsa would make much of a difference in the final weight for the increase of price of a wood that is already rather expensive.

And the above is also a great reason why I'm not sure I want a camera looking over my shoulder and showing to the (Canadian) r/c world how I put together my planes :)

[stephane.savard]

Bonus, I got some build pictures! I have no time right now to give my comments on the pictures, but I will do so a little later.

http://stephane.savard.googlepages.com/NIKOND401565Small.JPG/NIKOND401565Small-full.jpg

http://stephane.savard.googlepages.com/NIKOND401566Small.JPG/NIKOND401566Small-full.jpg

http://stephane.savard.googlepages.com/NIKOND401568Small.JPG/NIKOND401568Small-full.jpg

http://stephane.savard.googlepages.com/NIKOND401569Small.JPG/NIKOND401569Small-full.jpg

[stephane.savard]

The part of my Storch build I'd been dreading the most is shown in the pictures in the previous post. The music wire forms an integral part of the fuselage/wing interface.

The problem is that soldering and I have never gotten along all that well. Everyone says it's freaking easy and all, but I just can't get a hang of it. I have a small 25 watt thing and tried soldering the 1/8th inch wires together with copper wire holding them together, and all I managed to do was a mess and nearly burn myself. I figured more power couldn't hurt, so I went out and bought a cute little butane powered soldering iron/torch.

Using the tool in torch-mode, I did finally manage to get those damned wires together! woohoo! Okay, so it's not pretty, and yet again I had to use a metal file to remove the excess solder, but in the end I tried pulling the wires apart with my hands and they hold fast.

The last picture shows how the wire is sandwiched between some plywood pieces, and the wing root structure will be built against the sandwich. These wires are actually scale (the structure exists in the full-sized Storch). Addtitional non-structural wood dowels (and some structural aluminium tubing) will be added to complete the metal frame that made up the Storch's cabin. There's still much more to do, but the main internal structure is in place.

The 1/8th music wire you can see protruding out of the sides of the plywood sandwich are the actual wing "tubes". The wings will slide onto these and are locked into place. The plans call for wing struts, and you can probably imagine that they are fully functional struts!

Also worth mentioning is another new tool I bought. In the past, I've always had problems bending music wire. It usually involved pliers, a bench vise and a hammer, but it never involved much success or fun. The new tool is a Mighty Wire Bender from K&S. Fairly cheap, it makes bending wire incredibly easy and rather effortless. Well recommended!

[Chris Bowes]

25W!!!

Its ok for small electronic solder work but for this kind of job you need something much more meatier! :)

In the close up pic it doesn't look like there is a great amount of solder between the two wire pieces flooding the copper wire wrapped around them?

What type of solder are you using? I have read that silver solder is the one to use in this type of application. The electronics grade of solder is quite soft and will not stand up to much mechanical loading.

I have a heavy duty solder iron you can borrow plus the silver solder if you want it. I have always had quite a bit of luck with my solder jobs and don't mind passing on some tips.

[stephane.savard]

huh, okay, judging from your reaction, guess the butane solder/torch was a good idea then. It claims on the package to be equivalent to 75W. The picture might be a bit misleading, the contact between the music wire is flooded with solder. I held the flame to the music wire and just added lots and lots of solder.

In any case, the joint is encased in plywood, which was laminated together with polyurethane glue. Also, since parts of the landing gear does attach to this plywood sandwich, some bolts will be going through the sandwich and holding it together. The joints are solid and will never come apart :)

BUT, soon, once the cabin is done, I'm going to need to work on the rest of the landing gear, which needs quite a bit more soldering, and very good soldering at that (and hopefully clean since it may be visible). In this case I think I may give you a call for some tips :)

[Chris Bowes]

No problem, i have some brian taylor plans on the way for an aeronca c-3 too so could also do with some advice on how to plan materials required!

[stephane.savard]

huh, I wouldn't have figured you as an Aeronca C3 type of person :) Unless I'm looking at the wrong pictures!

I couldn't find the plans for a Brian Taylor Aeronca C-3, but did find some for the Dennis Bryant (same guy that designed my Storch plans)

[Chris Bowes]

Oops, quite right....they are the dennis bryant ones

Yeah i know what you mean, but! I figured its an easy airframe to start with (and cheaper than the DeHavilland mosquito i want to build!) as a first build from plans goes and I actually started building one some years ago before moving to canada so it will be finishing off something i started, scratching an itch if you get my drift....

Besides its a pretty unusual design and i'm all for trying something different!

[stephane.savard]

Well, this being my first Dennis Bryant plan, I have to say, they're pretty good. I'm starting to see that ALL plans have problems one way or another. One tool I'm staring to really like is a cheap set of calipers. I have no idea how to use them correctly, but I never use them to take precise measurements. I use them to take a measurement off one peice of plan and quickly seeing if the wood part of another part of the plan is accurate.

When you get your plans, give me a call, we can look them over and you show me help me with my solder :)

[beto9]

Chris, I am a fan of the Mosquito! To think it was built with plywood! And there is nothing as heavenly as the sound of two engines roaring in synch!

Steph: I also have big sweats trying to solder and I got a hefty iron. But... I think that music wire is very reluctant to solder and is better to roughen up the surface with sand paper before. And if you use copper wire it will soak the solder...

[stephane.savard]

The first time around when I tried to solder I didn't clean the music wire, but you are right, I used some wet/dry sandpaper and sanded away until the metal was much more shiny. It helped a lot. I'm not sure what you mean by copper soaking the solder, what's that?

[beto9]

Figuratively, is good, solder sticks very well to copper.

[Andrew Fernie]

Yes, silver solder is much stronger. You can get it in the same little coils that electronic solder comes in. I think that I got my last package at Reno-Depot, but that was a few years ago. Also, buy a little container of flux - normally next to the solder in the stores. A good clean surface (sanded), flux, silver solder and your torch is a good setup.

Andrew

[stephane.savard]

Well, time for another update. Basically I've been working on the plane more often these days, and concentrating on the cabin area yet again.

http://stephane.savard.googlepages.com/NIKOND401615Small.JPG/NIKOND401615Small-full.jpg

The structural component of the cabin (and what keeps the wings attached to the fuselage) is the 1/8" diameter music wire that was previously soldered and quite thoroughly encased in plywood. The music wire goes right down to below the cabin flooring, where it's secured by wheel collars, which I then soldered into place. Seems that with this stronger iron I'm getting better results! As can also be seen, the wire is secured to the walls of the cabin using nylon clamps bolted into place.

http://stephane.savard.googlepages.com/NIKOND401617Small.JPG/NIKOND401617Small-full.jpg

Above is another angle that shows how the "spars" encasing the music wire are joined together by quite a bit more plywood. Also visible is the wing root rib. The Storch does not actually have wings that join in the center like traditional wings. The entire area between the "inner" wing root ribs (the ones with the large holes) will be the top cabin window. The area between the inner and outer root ribs will be covered with 1/32" ply

[stephane.savard]

http://stephane.savard.googlepages.com/NIKOND401618Small.JPG/NIKOND401618Small-full.jpg

The "window frames" of the cabin are now in place. This is actually made up of six 1/16in frames (three per side) and a network of 1/8 wooden dowels. The entire cabin will be painted a darkish gray, and all these dowels (and the music wire!) are at scale locations. The full size Storch was of rather simple construction - nearly all of it metal tubing. This model will be fairly close to scale, so far as I can tell, the deviations from scale in the cabin area is mostly due to structural concerns, like for example, the slab sides.

http://stephane.savard.googlepages.com/NIKOND401620Small.JPG/NIKOND401620Small-full.jpg

The top rear of the cabin shows that I am building an armed Storch; the ring in the back was the location for the MG15 machine gun, coincidentally, the same gun that was in the rear cockpit of the Stuka.

[stephane.savard]

http://stephane.savard.googlepages.com/NIKOND401621Small.JPG/NIKOND401621Small-full.jpg

There's actually still a bit to do in the cabin, but I'm holding off for a while. Like I previously mentioned, I want to fully detail the cabin with seats, instruments and anything else my skill and patience will allow. Of course, that means that I need access to the inside, and all that framework will be in the way. So what i'm actually holding off on are the front window and the cabin's door.

http://stephane.savard.googlepages.com/NIKOND401622Small.JPG/NIKOND401622Small-full.jpg

The above shows where the door will be located. Made of brass mostly, and designed to open and close. It will be semi-scale - only the top part of the door will open since I don't want to weaken the structure by cutting the siding out of the cabin wall.

I also splurged a bit and sent for my pilot this past weekend, hope he'll be here soon to oversee the construction and fitting of his seat in the cabin!

[stephane.savard]

About the machine gun - I've learned a couple of interesting things about the Storch. First of which was that the machine gun out back was really more for show than of any real defensive value. But the real interesting thing about the defensive capabilities of the Storch was a few stories...

The first is that a mock combat was made between a Storch and another german fighter. Because of the extremely high maneuverability of the Storch, and it's slow speed (34 miles per hour), the german fighter never managed to record a "kill" by capturing the Storch on its gun cameras.

I've read of a similar report, where an allied plane (possibly a spitfire? I can't remember right now) tried to attack a Storch. The Storch dived down to fly between the houses/buildings of a city. The allied fighter never got a hit.

But of course, on the other end of the spectrum, the Storch was the only plane downed by pistol fire. An American recon plane spotted the Storch flying below them and opened fire using their pistols. The Storch had a forced landing and the Americans subsequently landed to capture the Storch pilot and observer.

[Chris Bowes]

Looking great so far!! What will you be covering it with??

[BARBERIK]

I Have One Is American Though, But If You Can Use It.

[stephane.savard]

I plan to cover it just like the original, in fabric. I've never used the stuff, so I'm not entirely sure how it will go. I'll also be using neutral colored fabric (white?) because I'll need to paint it afterwards.

I worked a bit on the plane yesterday, but didn't get much farther than what's in the pictures above. Bascially consists of added small strips of 1/32" ply to the outside of the cabin's wooden dowels. The window panes will eventually attach to these thin strips of ply, and then fabric is used on the joints between window panes to hold them all together... again, like the real thing!

Erik, thanks for the offer, but the gun doesn't look the part. I've debated ordering a MG15 in 1:6 scale, but the only ones I found were 20$ US. I already spent nearly 50$ on the full body scale pilot (12" tall!). I think I may do the same as I did with the Stuka and use my electric drill as a wood lathe and build my own. Since it's 1/6 scale, it will certainly be easier to detail than the tiny one in the Stuka (at 1:6 scale, the MG15 is just over 7 inches long)

[stephane.savard]

A small update only, last weekend I was't home so I didn't get the chance to work on the Storch much.

The big change is that my pilot has flown in; Major Krauer will be piloting the Storch once it's finished :) He comes from a different hobby really. Some people out there collect these little 1/6 scale guys (12 inches tall) because they tend to be rather accurate renditions of WWII soldiers. Others still spend countless hours assembling a diorama and use these figures to populate the scene. I suppose I'm taking that one step further with my putting him into an actual working 1/6 scale model of a Storch!

In this case, Krauer here has the correct flight uniform and markings for a Luftwaffe Major in the Jagdeschwader (fighter group). Of course a Storch is not a fighter, but, most fighter groups had a few Storchs attached to the group that could have been used by a commander of the group (I plan to paint my Storch using a Storch from the Green Heart squadron, a known fighter group).

The amount of detail is pretty incredible, and the only problem with the pilot is the peaked cap, it's too big and looks a bit rediculous. So I'm leaving it off. But the rest is there, flight pants, boots, gloves, under shirt, flight jacket, belt, pistol, pistol clip (yes, there is a seperate clip that fits in the pistol!), flare gun, flares (that can be loaded in the flare gun), goggles, and a watch. I left the watch off, 'cause it's not visible under the jacket :)

I was a bit worried when I first ordered it because of weight, but he turns out to be 8 oz. Could be less, but at least he's going to be sitting right under the C of G.

http://stephane.savard.googlepages.com/NIKOND401702Small.JPG/NIKOND401702Small-full.jpg

http://stephane.savard.googlepages.com/NIKOND401703Small.JPG/NIKOND401703Small-full.jpg

http://stephane.savard.googlepages.com/NIKOND401704Small.JPG/NIKOND401704Small-full.jpg

Besides that, I kept working a bit on the cabin. Mostly some rather time-intensive bits - cutting, fitting and glueing strips of 1/32" ply to the outside of the cabin, and started working on the front window area.

[stephane.savard]

Last weekend I was out of town, and a friend lent me a book called "Tempest Pilot", a biography on a WWII pilot. The Tempest is definately one of my favorite allied aircraft, and will certainly be one I build someday. But, an interesting bit was one chapter possibly about a Storch, and another that was definately about the Storch.

The first never mentioned the aircraft, but the Tempest pilot talks about a "kill" that he never claimed. There were two Tempests on patrol, and they spotted two "high wing fabric covered" aircraft. The Tempest pilots attacked, and the German aircraft dove for the ground and one managed to evade the Tempest by flying slow, low and with very tight turning radius (the Tempest pilot beleived at the time that the German plane probably landed out of sight). The second German plane on the other hand did not get away, but it took BOTH Tempests working together to finally corner the plane and shoot it down.

Much later in the book, the author descibes being in Germany during the occupation shortly after the war. There he used a captured Storch with two other pilots to hunt geese! One was piloting the aircraft and the other two shooting out the windows. He describes it as having limited success; even the Storch couldn't get really slow enough for the hunt ;)

[stephane.savard]

Time for another update!

I've now completed the Storch's cabin, or at least the exterior of the cabin. Bascially this involved setting up the front windshield and a few pieces near the wing root.

http://stephane.savard.googlepages.com/NIKOND402200Small.JPG/NIKOND402200Small-full.jpg

I've also worked on building up the sides of the fuselage, that's the wood dowel that can be seen trailing along the side of the fuselage. I think I may have mentioned this already, but the full-size Storch was of very simple tubing contruction and the dowels are in place to simulate this (plane will be fabric covered).

http://stephane.savard.googlepages.com/NIKOND402205Small.JPG/NIKOND402205Small-full.jpg

http://stephane.savard.googlepages.com/NIKOND402210Small.JPG/NIKOND402210Small-full.jpg

http://stephane.savard.googlepages.com/NIKOND402208Small.JPG/NIKOND402208Small-full.jpg

Seen in the pictures above are the work I did on the wing roots and front windshield. Some aluminium tubing is also in place; I'm not sure why the plans called for aluminium though since it doesn't seem to be really structural; but it is in a scale location!

The cabin structure looks a bit ratty because of the sanding, but all of this will be covered by the window panes and fabric, so I'm not really concerned about it. If there is one point I was not very happy about was the side frames of the front windshield (in the third picture), the wood does not present a "flat" surface, and the window panes will be more difficult to fit.

http://stephane.savard.googlepages.com/NIKOND402207Small.JPG/NIKOND402207Small-full.jpg

And finally the tail end of the Storch. The aluminium wire will be what holds the horizontal stabilizer in place - the stab will have alumnium tubes built in. Curiously, the stab only slides into place but will not lock! Entirely functional struts will connect the vertical stabilizer to the horizontal stabilizers, and that's all that will hold them into place. This makes the horizontal and vertical stabilizers removable for transport (if needed). I have no worries though, this is not an aerobatic plane, and will not be flown aerobatically either.

[pauldaigle]

I am totally impressed with the details on that pilot. Is that a flak jacket and a Ruger 9mm
I see,:laugh:

Good job on the plane too, Fieseler, Mewes and Bachem would be proud of you :-)

[xed]

Time for another update!
I have no worries though, this is not an aerobatic plane, and will not be flown aerobatically either.
Boring!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!! :-)

[stephane.savard]

Paul; Its a Walther PP handgun with an actual removable ammo clip. As for the flak vest, I don't think the pilots wore these things, but I could be wrong. What he's currently wearing is: a blue service shirt (showing the rank of major), Kanalhosen (channel trousers), flight jacket, leather gloves. As for equipment, he's wearing the pistol, belt, boots and flight goggles. What's missing in the picture (because I won't be putting them on for "flight") are the life vest , flare pistol, compass, wrist watch, and officer's cap.

If you want to learn more about this, you can go to:

http://www.dragonmodelsltd.com/html/70108%20page2.htm.

These dolls can be bought for about 45-50$ Canadian (all incuded including shipping) on ebay.



Greg: I though of several witty remarks to that, but the truth of it, is that I am a bit worried that I might end up finding the Storch a little too tame :) Though it would be a nice platform to begin practicing a REAL scale flight (as opposed to just lazy Sunday flying ariund the circuit). Scale competition, like IMAC, requires the pilot to fly a set of maneuvers. Problem is, we cannot rely on having an engine 3x overpowered to pull the airframe through the maneuvers, the plane must look like the real thing :)

[Paul Weijers]

Stephane,
I am very impressed. It is probably going to be the best looking plane at the field. Don't forget to let everyone know when you have your maiden flight. By the way, as your pilot has not yet flown, how come he already has an EK1?
Happy landings
Paul

[stephane.savard]

heh, took me a while to figure out what the EK1 stood for. I will remove it for the time being until he has his maiden flight :)

Incidentally, the pilot came with three such crosses! Each one is slightly different (the one I have on him is the only one that did not have a highlighted swastika painted on it)

I had originally tried to figure out what each meant, but never knew what to look for, will be easier now that I can google for EK1 :)

[stephane.savard]

Time for yet another update to the exciting world of scale building! :)

http://stephane.savard.googlepages.com/NIKOND402211Small.JPG/NIKOND402211Small-full.jpg

I've now finished the vertical stab and rudder, although it took a little longer than anticipated. If you look at the fin, you'll see that the center of it is made up of a plywood core. This is actually the plywood pocket that fits over the tongue on the fuselage. This is also the second fin I build!

Per the plans, the plywood pocket is only about 3/4 of an inch wide, at the rear of the fin. What I had done was cut out all the ribs of the fin to shape, assemble them to the trailing and leading edge, and THEN cut the slot and fitted the plywood pocket.

This was a problem. the fin was loose fitting (I could move it side to side), and somehow when the ribs where glued into place, I ended up with a warp. So I scrapped that fin and made another, taking a hint from when I built the Chipmunk.

First, I cut out the plywood pocket a little larger, so that it fits over the entire fin tongue on the fuselage. I then used uncut ribs (rectangle pieces, all the same size except for the length) and cut a slot in them, and slid them onto the fin tongue/pocket combination. They were extremely tight at this point. I glued the whole structure together (fin pocket, trailing edge, leading edge, etc).

What did I end up with? an extemely blocky fin! the ribs were rectangles, no airfoil shape. Why do it like this? Because I only had to using a sanding block and razor plane to make it to the correct airfoil shape. This is much easier than trying to cut the individual ribs first.

And here it might surprise a few (or maybe not), but glueing the plywood pocket to the ribs of the fin is the ONLY place so far where I've used any CA glue! Since the ribs were so tight fitting, I needed to use thin CA for it to wick into place. Otherwise, the entire build is made with carpernter's wood glue. Rona store brand, not even a fancy wood glue at that. What many people might not know is that wood glue might take a few hours to fully cure, but within 15 minutes, the parts will usually be strong enough to handle. during that time, I'm either cutting the next part, or sanding, or taking a small break and studying the plans. Anyhow, my sinuses are happier for it.

I also have no epoxy (except a tiny amount on the engine bearers), prefering polyurethane glue (same thing as Gorilla glue, different brand).

http://stephane.savard.googlepages.com/NIKOND402213Small.JPG/NIKOND402213Small-full.jpg

Above is the fin when it's attached to the fuselage, everything is perfectly straight and removable. The rudder has not yet been hinged, it's just hanging off the fin for the photo.

The rudder itself was rather simple and mostly traditional: 1/16th balsa core, 1/8th ribs glued to the core and razor planed to a taper, and the upper/forward piece is 1/4 inch planking glued to the rest and sanded to shape.

The one piece which was a little more involved is the contour. It's a balsa dowel! I used a belt sander to sand away half a 1/8th balsa dowel. Balsa dowels don't bend that much, so I soaked the dowel in water and wrapped it around a can that was about the correct radius. I have an old hair dryer that my wife gave me some time ago that I keep in the shop, so I used that to accelerate the drying the wood. then it's a simple matter of glueing the dowel to the rudder to make the contour.

[stephane.savard]

http://stephane.savard.googlepages.com/NIKOND402215Small.JPG/NIKOND402215Small-full.jpg

To end it for today, here's a shot of what I'm currently working on, the horizontal stabilizer. you can see here that I am using the same technique as the fin - I cut the airfoil shape after assembling the frame.

By the way, a quick note to those building their own planes. One tool that I've been using that I find is not essential, but very useful is one of those "Mouse" sanders. Using this it's very easy to sand just about everything and do so straight. Depending on the grit of sand paper attached to it, you can sand lots at a time or just a little (I prefer a fine to medium grit).

[stephane.savard]

Here we go again...

http://stephane.savard.googlepages.com/NIKOND402217Small.JPG/NIKOND402217Small-full.jpg

I now have two stabilizers, but as you can see I haven't yet removed any wood to make the airfoil. The sub-leading edge is in place, right at the center of the rib fronts. Note that the trailing edge is 3/4", and the sub-leading edge is 1/4". The REAL trailing edge though is smaller than 3/4" though, the next picture will show why.

http://stephane.savard.googlepages.com/NIKOND402219Small.JPG/NIKOND402219Small-full.jpg

Using the paper ribs, I use a pen to draw the outline of the ribs onto the wood. You can see that the root ribs (shown here) is fatter in the middle than at the trailing edge. Actually, only ribs 1 and 2 have this fat middle, the rest are slim.

As an aside, you'll notice that the rib shows two circles. Those are the placements of the aluminium tubes for attaching the stab to the fuselage. I umm, forgot to drill them prior to glueing the ribs to the trailing edge. It will be done later, but it will be harder to drill them perfectly straight. Though, I don't trust the hole locations drawn on the plan.

http://stephane.savard.googlepages.com/NIKOND402221Small.JPG/NIKOND402221Small-full.jpg

I took the above picture to show everybody the problems with scratch building (I have yet to find any plan without some kind of mistake!) Notice that the rib extends past the leading edge by about 3/32 to 1/8 of an inch. The stab frame is "perfect" according to the plans, there just is a discrepancy on the plans. I have to be constantly on the lookout for these problems when I use a template to cut a part, and where the part actually has to fit. Here it's not too bad, the rib template was too long and easy to fix. Problem is when cutting a part that ends up being too small

http://stephane.savard.googlepages.com/NIKOND402227Small.JPG/NIKOND402227Small-full.jpg

And here is one stabilizer half that's sanded to shape. This is the first time that I see a stabilizer that does not taper in "height" as it gets closer to the tip (the thickness of the trailing and leading edges are constant, as per the plans). It makes the ribs look a little weird because the first two ribs at the root are a little thicker in the middle than the other ribs.