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Alaskan Air National Guard Version


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  • 1 month later...

Well, I've made a start on the wings. I was very impressed by how well the jig went together and how well it sat over the plan.

I found it a little tricky to line up the construction of the wing over the jig and plan, due to the height difference and parallax errors, etc, but I think I've got it close enough. I noticed the same problem as Harry with the height of the jig at R1, so fixed it the same way with a strip of 1/16th balsa. Maybe there's a reason for this gap? I must read some of the blogs of the other guys starting on the wing!

I've never built a wing this way before, and was a little apprehensive, but it seems to be going pretty well so far and I think it should make the process of achieving the correct wash-out, a lot more straight-forward than many other methods.

img_20191110_183301798.jpg

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HaHa! I shall try to be more systematic Chris!

I fixed the jig down to the bench Chris, by cutting and pre-drilling about 16 small spruce blocks and glueing them to the sides of 8 ribs, then tacking through these with some small panel pins. I notice that most people are glueing their jigs together, but I didn't bother. Mine is just pressed together and then tacked to the bench. Mainly because I wanted to be able to dismantle it and keep it, but also because I thought it would be sturdy enough like this. You just need to check that all the jig ribs are lying flat on the building board before you start to assemble the wing.

I realise now that the reason I had trouble aligning the wing on the jig is because I had far too much excess on the lower skin. This obscures your view of the jig and the plan and makes things difficult. If I did it again I would reduce the extra wing skin to about 1mm all round.

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  • 2 months later...

Just a quick progress report. I have pretty much finished the wing. I though I would leave the dowels and wing bolts until I can see better how it meets the fuselage.

Mine is the very simple wing - no flaps, no drop tank drop mechanism.

img_20200119_094326506.jpg

So today, I started on the first fuselage half. All seems to pretty straight-forward so far.

img_20200119_145219336.jpg

I added some cockpit floors to try to stabilise F3 and F5 whilst fitting the stringers and planking. I'm not sure they're in the right place, but I figured I can always remove them later.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I feel like time is slipping away and I'm not making much progress. Mid Feb already!

After what seems like days of planking, I have 2 half planked fuselage sides.

Don't look too closely! I've discovered that you shouldn't put short planks on the most curved areas around the nose - cos you end up having to double them up!

2 half skinned fuselage sides.jpg

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Good to see you still at it Steve!!

We are at identical stages in the build - I too now have a finished wing bar the wing dowels and a 2-half, planked but unsanded fuselage. I'm just contemplating the joining operation and I've just been out to buy a few more small spring clamps to help with alignment - my fus bows out a little at the very front and back under the tight curves of the planking - does yours??

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@ Phil , i guess we all have had that same issue when joining the two halves , but nothing a few clamps can't handle.

great to see you back in the building seat Steve !

To keep myself on track i have a special rule : When i end a building session , i allways plan the next job .I also try to do something every day,it doesn't matter for how long...Remember starting is the hardest part.wink

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Yes it's a good philosophy Dirk. I do try to follow it myself. And I often find that a long hard week at work can re-energise my enthusiasm for building.

I got the fuselage halves joined today. Former alignment was not perfect, but good enough I think.

Phil - Yes I found the same thing - the front and back had sprung out a bit, and twisted a little, so needed a bit of clamping. I also found that I needed some big clamps in the middle - around F4 and F5. These will produce some nasty marks in the planking, but then there's going to be quite a lot of filler used on my fuselage to cover all the planking imperfections anyway!

fuse joining.jpg

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Looking good Steve,

When you guys are joining the two halves, are you just ensuring that the keels are straight? Mark 1 eyeball method?

I've just started planking, and have used ammonia to assist the balsa in adopting the curve without too much stress. Fingers crossed.

Cheers

Ade

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Hi Ade - yeah thats all I did - the two sides were flat on the board between F2 and F9 - the bow only appeared at the extreme front and rear where the curvature of the planking is greatest - so between F2 and F1 at the nose, and between F9 and F10 at the tail.

For this reason, I also just clamped mine (in the vertical - like Steve here!) happy that 90% of the fus was true - and that the clamps would do the rest front and back.

Edited By Phil Cooke on 15/02/2020 22:48:57

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