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Gentle Curves - Lucas his Skywriter


Lucas Hofman
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Glued the doublers on the inside of the fuselage in place tonight:

img_3616 (small).jpg

The article accompying the RCM&E drawing is quite sketchy on the the building part, or rather it does not contain any pictures of the build. However, Lindsay build blog is very good and more then compensates.

Lucas.

ps. please say so it all these small steps are boring.

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Hi Lucas,

Any forward step isn't "boring" at all, young man. yes

I'm afraid that your lack of reactions is just due to the fact that the 2017 Mass Build very certainly isn't as successful as last year's Ballerina was.

If you compare all the 'first 5 points" the Skywriter got in voting to the number being concretely built - or projected in the near future - at the moment, there is some kind of a problem with this MB.

Just keep it up. You're doing great as you did last year. wink

Cheers

Chris

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Lucas, I notice from Johns photos in his blog that I've forgotten the 1/8th balsa fillets to the rear of the wing seat on the fuselage sides. I notice I'm not the only one!

Also I see you're cutting your own parts? If you're using the original plan in the mag then watch out for former F4a which was to small in width on my plan. Fortunately I used the top section of F4 to mark and cut F4a.

Finally as above, not boring at all. It takes a lot of time to take the photos as you go along and document each step in a detailed blog, but it will be extremely useful for first time builders.

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Chris, thanks for the heads up. I did use the original plan the cut the F3A/F4A. Even twice - I want to be able to easely check the bolts holding the upper struts and remove the struts when needed so I am planning an extra hatch from F3 to F4A. Checking now I see that also F2H/F3H are too narrow on the plan. 4 helping formers are do not take much time to make again, but so good to find out now. Thanks again Chris.

Lucas

ps. 6 flights with the Ballerina today from the frozen lake. I cannot complain about the amount of hobby time available!

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I am living just west of Oslo Chris. Very little snow here (although it is snowing now). But all the lakes and even the some bays of the Oslofjord are frozen, so live is good for those flying models!

In Bergen is is usually raining, and you need to get a little inland (and up in the mountains) before this falls as snow.

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Glued the last two formers and the tailpost in place tonight. I had to sand them a 1-2mm smaller to get a nice even curve in the fuselage sides:

img_3625 (small).jpg

This is fun! Quite a few hours of preparation now form a fuselage in short time. Tomorrow the tailplane seat, the tailwheel plate and the stringers and the the aft part of the fuse looks the part.

Happy building, Lucas

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two steps forward, one step back! Or in this case 0 steps forward, 1 step back:

img_3627 (small).jpg

When fitting the top stringer I noticed that there was a very big change in height from F8 to F9. Looking closer I saw F9 hanging 3 mm under the fuselage sides

F9 (on the drawing is missing it "lowest" 2 teeth. And since I have no longeron to define the vertical position I had pushed the former to far down. Cutting loose might damage the sides and the tailplane seat so I have opted to make a "F9A", and now with the lower teeth, and glue that on the front face of F9. Not a big deal, but irritating. Tommorrow better.

Lucas

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Last months free plans included a template to flue the firewal at the correct angle (am I the only one studying every plan even if I have no intention at all to build it....). That was a nifty idea.

I have drawn one for the Skywriter (2 degree down, 2 degree right). Cutted it from a bit of depron:

img_3642 (small).jpg

if you want to do the same you can find a PDF on my dropbox (https://www.dropbox.com/s/4nl7bf93946e4a7/template%20firewall%20placement.pdf?dl=0)

Lucas

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Oops! What I forgot when glueing the firewall was to check whether the top of the fuselage sides was level. Luckily it was only a few tenth of a degree of. F1 came in late tonight. I wondered whether I should follow the angle of the firewall or just glue i perpendicular to the datum line. I choose the later, can always sand the cowling front to it is aligned with the propeller.

img_3645 (small).jpg

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