SIG Rascal 110" refurb and electrification

[Ron Gray]

I'm now in the phase of fiddle, fiddle, measure, measure, will this work? or will this be better? All day and not a balsa cut made yet! But the plan is at least forming in my head, so maybe that's something.

On the plus side, I've made a decision about what I'm going to power the Extra WOT with and have ordered a leccy motor! So must finish off the Rascal before opening the Xtra WOT box.

[Bob Cotsford]

I often find that it pays to take a day off cutting as a better way forward than my initial plan will come to me once I have had a good long time for a subconscious mull.

Or maybe I'm just a bit slow these days and need time for my brain to catch up with what my hands have been up to?

[Ron Gray]

@Bob - words of wisdom indeed! I've been working on this one every day (admittedly not all day!) for a while now so a break from it isn't a bad idea, but I just need to cut out the false TE and flap LE, oh then I just need to cut out the riblets, then there's the sheeting to cut out and join together..........and so it goes on. If I didn't enjoy it I wouldn't be doing it, but I've just looked at the clock, it's nearly 5, it's Saturday and my case of wine was delivered the other day, let's go fly the drone then have a glass or two, sounds like a really good plan!

[Peter Jenkins]

Agree with Bob. Stand back and consider the matter for a day then come back to it. Sometimes helps to avoid a boo boo. Think three times, measure twice and cut once! If only I followed that advice!

[Ron Gray]

Too many things buzzing around in my head, so I'll take each one in turn, and I've already started with the first one, the wine.

[Ron Gray]

After the aforementioned faffing about I eventually got to work on ethics wing repairs.

I 3D printed a template rib and used that to cut out the new rib that was necessary due to they poor state of the original. (The purist might say that I should have put lightening holes in it but I decided against it, a lot of work for little gain). Once cut I stuck it in place and added some infiltration pieces to the top of the 2 inner ribs as they were too low.

I then cut out the poor repairs on the wing tip and stuck bit back together to give me the outline not work with.

Reinforcement pieces were added to the new rib.

[Ron Gray]

Whilst waiting for those to dry I had a look at the ‘good’ wing which, if you recall, had a couple of damaged areas caused, I would guess, by a bit of rough handling, let’s call it hangar rash.

This is what the areas looked like.

To fix them I drilled holes in the top surface of the wing sheeting to enable me to push a piece of wire through to force the balsa back into place having applied some Aliphatic to the edges first.

This is what they look like now.

[Ron Gray]

You know I really should proof read my posts before submitting them, just noticed the words ethics and infiltrations crept in instead of the and infill.

[Adrian Smith 1]

Tuned in here, Ron. You are doing some pretty extensive work and your efforts are a master class in how to do these jobs.

[Ron Gray]

Thanks Adrian, unfortunately the D box section of the wing from root to 4 ribs out really annoyed me as it was twisted so out came the razor saw and off came the balsa sheeting and the (badly fitted) ribs. Seems like I'm cutting off more than adding at the moment! Pics later on this evening.

[Peter Jenkins]

You are going to completely rebuild this model at this rate Ron! Liked your technique to pull sheeting together. Hope I don't need it but useful to have up your sleeve- just in case!

[Ron Gray]

I wanted to make sure everything was going to be OK with the idea of the flaps so that was next up on the agenda.

The wing was prepared for the false TE which was cut out and stuck in place.

That finished off the work for the day but when I went to the workshop today I couldn’t help but get annoyed with the state of the wing around the spar and D box just outboard of the root. I made up my mind that the only way to cure this was to be drastic so out with the razor saw and soon I was left with this.

At this stage it seemed like I was cutting off more than I was adding! The remaining old repairs don’t look nice but to be fair they are strong so I will leave them as they are, some more packing up to get the right levels may be required but we’ll see.

Next up was a new D box section to replace the bitsI’d just removed, this was formed from ply with new hard balsa ribs.

Once dry I fitted to the wing and am happy that it now looks a lot better, is stronger and things now line up!

Not a lot to show for a lot of measuring, checking, measuring checking, dry fitting etc but worth it. I’ve now left that to dry overnight so I decided to cut out some of wing sheeting and used the good wing as the template for the shaped cutouts (didn’t take a shot of this!). Once cut, the sheets were taped together, bent back and glue applied. These have also been left to dry overnight.

I had one last job I wanted to get done today and that was to cut out the new flap servo mounting plates using the good wing as the template.

[Ron Gray]

And finally, the sheeting goes on!

And the next one is cut out for the underside.

[Ron Gray]

New flap being made with ply hard point for control horn mounting.

New flap servo mounting plate fixed and underside balsa sheeting added and I remembered to fit the servo cables in place before the sheeting went on, much easier than leaving a draw string in.

Now on to the wing tip. I cut back some more of the old balsa that showed signs of previous repairs and fitted a rib doubler so that the new sheeting would have something to stick to.

Tip sheeting cut out and ready to be fit.

Then it was out with the razor saw and knife and teh other wing was attacked to cut out the wing section ready for the new flap. I took a lot of time over this as I wanted to make sure that the piece I cut out was good enough to be used as the flap.

This next picture shows the wing with the false TE being stuck. Each rib had to be cut back, within the existing sheet covering to allow for the TE to fit, another fiddly job.

The new flap with its top sheeting added and the wing cut off ready to be converted into a flap.

Jobs left to do:

Second wing half - complete flap, fit flap servo mounting plate, cut hole for servo cable, run servo cables through wing.

First wing - finish off wing tip and fit locating dowel and wing bolt reinforcing plate.

Both wings - thorough sand and fill any low spots or dings (I made a couple of LE dents when I banged the wing against the open garage door!)

Then it's the covering!!!

[Peter Jenkins]

I bet you never thought this would turn into the saga it has done Ron. Still, it's kept you busy during the lock down. Looking good.

[john stones 1 - Moderator]

Thorough job Ron, be like Triggers brush when it's done.

[Rich too]

Wow, brilliant job Ron 👍

[Ron Gray]

Thanks for the feedback guys, it helps to make you feel like you're not working in a vacuum!

@Peter - so true, when I started on this project I knew that the fuse had some work needed plus I thought that there was some sheet covering that needed re-sticking on the wings, I was certainly not expecting to see what I found after the covering had been removed. Don't get me wrong I would do it all again as it is an enjoyable task and gets me back into balsa bashing, something I loved doing 30 - 40 - 50 years ago! the other great thing about this sport is that people can be so nice, the guy I bought the Rascal off (sight unseen) saw this thread and was horrified by what I had discovered as he, too, had bought it second hand of someone else. He contacted me and offered quite a large amount of money back on my purchase as he felt somewhat guilty, I refused his kind offer as I believe we have to expect the possibility of this sort of thing happening when we buy second or third hand. The bottom line for me was that I really and I mean really wanted a Rascal, it's been on my list for a long time now, so, whilst it would have been nice to have got a pristine one, the fact that this wasn't tip top didn't really matter and the bonus is that now it has a lot of me in it, so it really is mine!

Keep watching for the next posts.

Edited By Ron Gray on 23/04/2020 08:34:45

[Adrian Smith 1]

Good one, Ron

Our hobby also brings out the best in people as you have found out. Keep up the good work.

[Ron Gray]

The end (nearly) of the wing repairs and modifications.

The holes that I made to push the wire through to push the damaged balsa sheeting back into place were filled with small pieces of balsa glued in.

Which were then sanded flush.

I had previously cut out a section of the wing where the new flap is to be fitted so I re-used the off cut to form the flap. This required cutting the ribs back so that the new LE could be fitted.

With the new LE in place I then cut out for and fitted a ply hard point as per the other flap.

The wing tip had the upper and lower sheeting pieces fitted and were sanded back to the profile of the wing and i'm pleased to say that the upturned tip present in the original wing has now gone!

This wing, the badly damaged one, is now ready.

And here are the pair of them, both now ready for final sanding and then onto the covering.

But there was one last job to be done and that was to make the mounting plates for the servos.

Nearly forgot, one more job to do, drill the holes for the flap hinges (Robert) and new slots for the aileron hinges.

Edited By Ron Gray on 23/04/2020 20:33:13

Edited By Ron Gray on 23/04/2020 20:36:59

[Peter Jenkins]

Those wings look amazing Ron. Well done!

[Adrian Smith 1]

And a tidy work shop, crikey!

Edited By Adrian Smith 1 on 24/04/2020 08:24:35

[Ron Gray]

@Peter - thanks, I feel like the effort has been worth it!

@Adrian - not so sure about that

Main workshop

And the other one

[Peter Jenkins]

So long as you know where everything is then tidyness is optional! I've tidied up my workshop and then not been able to remember where a vital tool has ended up! Then again, I've put a glue bottle top down to apply the glue, and forgotten where I put the top down! Terrible waste of time follows while I search high and low for it

[Bob Cotsford]

I'm still trying to find a couple of metres of 1oz glass cloth that I tidied away. I did know which pile it was in, now I have my worktop back but can no longer find the big bag of white cloth.