Aegea 130" build

[nuevo]

Due to my slowness, I took nearly 1 1/2 years to build this plane. I hope to finish it in about a week or so. I could have done the wings in about 6 weeks if I had been diligent.

First apologies for the poor photo quality. Almost all photos had to be lightened, because the camera is doing a very poor job whenever a flash is needed. I've since purchased a much better digital camera.

Here's some photos of the spar build. Nothing magic. Just a few tools most "traditional" builders might not use.

1) Mixing epoxy (mgs). I like the blue color. 15ml total

2) Adding a thickener (lots of it), called Cab-o-sil. Unlike microballoons, this does not weaken the mixture.

3) Epoxy thick enough. About the consistency of mayo.

The whole purpose for thickening the epoxy is so that it will not soak into the vertical grain balsa. The epoxy will be applied to the end of the grain, which would readily soak up the epoxy. Thin epoxy here would be heavy and soak the epoxy away from the joint with the carbon

4) Carbon pieces all wetted out and ready to assemble. Hole in joiner covered with masking tape to keep the glue out. Balsa not yet wetted.

5) Everything assembled. Note this is sitting on ripstop nylon cloth. This cloth will not stick to the cured epoxy. I can pull it off after curing.

[nuevo]

6) Inside a nylon tube in preparation for vacuum bagging. Several things to note here.


the yellow nylon cloth is folded over the spar, so it covers the spar top & bottom.
the cloth is then covered top & bottom with paper towels. Their purpose is to soak up the epoxy that wicks through the cloth. Half of it will get that far because it's so thick. With thinner epoxy, almost all of it ends up in the towels.
A yellow ski rope is taped next to the spar. This is used to distrubute the vacuum pressure all the way along the spar.


7) Connector to plug the vacuum pump into.

8) Everything ready to go. No vacuum yet. Contrast this picture with the next few.

9) Pump hooked up & ready.

10) Full vacuum applied. Note how tight everything looks. Wrinkles in the bag don't matter. If you look carefully, you can see the bumps in the bag as it goes over something as thin as the masking tape.

[nuevo]

11) Another shot of the whole setup. Note everything pulled down tight.

12) Pump drawing 15 in. of murcury vacuum. The pump will pull 22, if needed.

Comments:

Mixing the epoxy, adding thickener, wetting out the 5 carbon pieces, and wetting out the wood took an hour. Taping the stuff up to bag took 5 minutes. Getting the bag ready & adjusted, another 5 minutes. Then turn the pump on, make sure everything is set. Finally, turn out the light & go inside. I leave the pump running for 22-24 hours will the epoxy cures.

The epoxy I use has a 4-hour working time. I've never felt it heat up, and have never had it gel on me. In the morning, the glue in the mixing cup will be hard, but I can dent it with my fingernail.

In this case, the vacuum pump accomplishes two things. It evenly distributes an incredible amount of pressure to the part. It also forces extra epoxy (i.e. weight) out of the part. This extra epoxy will be scraped & sanded off after it cures.

The vac pump is not required. You could tape the part down on wax paper, make sure everything is straight, and then pile up books, magazines, or paint cans. Same deal. Since I own a pump, I use it for things like this.

[nuevo]

Oops. This posting should have gone first. This posting shows some of the parts, before vacuum bagging.

1) Materials, from Left to right

long prepreg carbon spar cap
homemade full length carbon strip .010"
joiner box CA'ed to vertical grain balsa. The balsa tapers from about .500 at the joiner box to .220 at the far end.
short homemade carbon strip, 0.010"
long prepreg carbon spar cap.


2) New joiner box (upside down L) next to other completed tip (R)

3) Parts next to completed tip spar.

4) Completed tip spar (left) plugged into main spar (right). Not all the way on, so you can see the joiner rod (3/8" carbon rod).

[note comments were written long ago]

Next I plan on gluing up the other tip spar. Hopefully
tomorrow evening, I will sand the extra glue off of it. Then I will wrap both joiner boxes with kevlar tow (as in picture above). Finally, I will wrap both tip spars in fiberglass cloth and then wet out everything with epoxy. Dab off extra epoxy and let it dry. Then all 3 spars will be completed.

[rdwoebke]

Very cool. I'm not into doing bagged wings at current, but this does inspire me. Thanks for taking the time to post all these photos.

I have an old scool bagger that is OK for doing balsa over white foam, and back in the day I used to bag HLG and RC rocket glider wings. Never got into the glass or Kevlar sheeted foams. Would need a new pump for that, as mine I think can just pull 6 inches of mercury and is not adjustable.

Ryan

[nuevo]

Feb 13 2004 (long time ago, huh)

Here’s the sequence of photos from my vacuum bagging session doing the right wingtip. This is of my 130” span 3-piece wing. Comments are below


80% of the work in bagging is preparation. Here is all of the parts I need. From the bottom-up. 2 strips of Kevlar used to reinforce the aileron. 3-strips of Kevlar used for the leading edge. Each piece is already faced with ¾ oz fiberglass cloth. 2 triangles used to reinforce the root end of each tip. Two bit Kevlar pieces which will be used as the skins of the wingtip. Under these big pieces of Kevlar are the mylars already painted. Below that is the wingtip foam core prepped for bagging.
Here you can see the skin showing one of the painted mylars.
Bottom mylar and skin
Epoxy (blue) is all mixed up and ready to wet out. I mixed up 30 ml of epoxy. Gloves required as this gets messy. I ended up mixing a total of 45 ml for the tip and bottom skins. I scraped about 15 ml back off after wet-out. So, I ended up with 30 ml of epoxy in the wingtip, which is almost exactly 1 oz of weight.
Initial wet-out of the Kevlar. I just poured it on. I spread it out with an old credit card. After complete wet-out, I used the credit card to gently scrape off any extra epoxy I can.

[nuevo]

more photos of wingtip bagging...

6) The bottom skin is wet out, and two doubler pieces are set in place. The doublers are not wet out with epoxy yet.

7) The core is ready to go in the bag. Kevlar strip has already been applied with 3m77 to the leading edge. The white part of the core is putty covering the spar.

8) Both skins completely wet out.

9) both skins completely wet out.

10) This assembly is the mess I actually put in the bag. It consists of the core, the wet-out mylars. I taped some paper towels down the middle to help spread the vacuum. The yellow on the LE is rip-stop nylon. This allows some of the epoxy to get squeezed out and away from the wing. I later put more paper towels over the LE to soak up the extra glue.

[nuevo]

11) Here’s the whole mess under vacuum.

12) One more shot of the vacuum pump and the bag. Next I put the top foam bed on top and weighted it down a little.

13) This is a heater oven I built last year. I have light bulbs for heat, an internal thermostat to regulate temperature, and some computer fans to circulate the air. I have a white electronic thermometer to monitor the temp. The temp is set for 100 degrees for 24 hours. Then, as required by this epoxy, I set the temp for 160 degrees for 15 more hours of “post cure”.



The whole wetting out & bagging process you see on here took about 2-hours. Then just let it bake for the next 39 hours.

[nuevo]

a few more miscellaneous photos.

1) core of one wingtip. Spar already glued in, and a lot of spackling putty applied. Note I have a cutout at the root end where the alignment pin goes. I will place a block of balsa in this space.

2) core ready for bagging, sitting on the cutting table. I have a root rib installed. Note I carry the core around inside the beds. Otherwise, hangar rash guaranteed.

3) one wingtip after vac. bagging, and trimming. Aileron not cut out yet.

[briandlg]

Great thread so far. Keep it up!

[nuevo]

Here's where I am today, Dec 2004.

The wings are bagged, edges sanded. Wiring harness built and installed. Custom servo mounts glued in.

On the tips, the servos are screwed in. All that I lack is the pushrods and taping on the servo covers.

In the center section, I have not screwed the flap servos in yet. I also need to drill out the hole for the wing alignment screw (behind the main spar bolt). Need to install flap horns and pushrods.

[e-sailpilot86]

how did you get the color into a bagged wing? It looks like you had it in the bag while it had the paint on it, or covering? really confused here.. :confused:

Nice job, I've never seen such a smooth finish on a bagged wing... or have I and I just didn't know?

[nuevo]

Fuselage.

I originally purchased a Terry Luckenbach fuselage and set it in the corner.

I bought and flew an Ava last summer, and have enjoyed flying it very much.

The Ava fuse was so easy to build, and bought another Ava fuselage and tail feathers for this plane, too. Just too easy to build. I'm not going to document the fuse build, as the Ava thread Charlie started covers all that very well.

It was my friend, Brian Smith's idea to try to mount an Aegea wing on an Ava fuse. He bought the wing from Phil and the fuse from Barry. Needless to say, he's been flying his plane for a few months. :D

I hope to complete the plane in the next few weeks. I could complete it in a few dedicated evenings, but family Christmas plans will delay completion.

[nuevo]

e-sailpilot86,

I did not cover the painting issue. I use a common technique of waxing and painting the mylars before vacuum bagging. The paint barely adheres to the mylars because they are waxed. During the bagging process, the paint is fully adheres to the part, after the epoxy cures.

Needless to say, the paint is applied in reverse order. Red, then orange, then white. Lots of time for masking, paint curing, remasking, etc. I use Krylon paint on the mylars.

[nuevo]

Would need a new pump for that, as mine I think can just pull 6 inches of mercury and is not adjustable.

I don't know if you NEED additional vacuum. I know lots of folks regularly use more vacuum for anything other than white foam.

[BrianSmith]

Thanks Jon...
I'm really looking forward to the first flights..How rewarding it must be...Brian Smith

[nuevo]

I've never seen such a smooth finish on a bagged wing... or have I and I just didn't know?

All the carbon or kevlar skinned bagged wings I've ever seen look quite smooth. But like any painted surface, if it isn't smooth under the skin, it will show up.

This Aegea has several raised areas visible in the finish. Where I have multiple layers of kevlar skin, it shows up. The kevlar is a few thousanths of an inch thick each, so it has to show up in the finish. I also take a lot of time filling in spackle around the spar and gennnntly sanding all of it smooth. If you look carefully at the spar, you can see it in the finish, too. You just can't see them in the photos. :D

Then there's all the finger nail dents. Even dents from the sanding block that have to be filled before bagging.

I'm not particularly proud of the finish on the Aegea wings. I made several mistakes, which I may discuss later on. This was the first plane I've used kevlar skins on, so that was a learning experience, too.

If you don't mind me bragging a little, here's a finish I am proud of. Here is a photo of my 2nd vacuum bagged set of wings. It was my first with carbon skins, and and my first attempt at paint applied on the mylars.

http://rcgroups.com/gallery/data/521/9271Khan-iso2-med.jpg

Here's another finish I did in the vacuum bag. That's me at the 2002 NATS. I'll never do a finish where 3 colors touch again. Uggh.

http://rcgroups.com/gallery/data/521/9271Patriot-Nats.jpg

You can see a few other photos & comments on those planes in my Photo Gallery (http://rcgroups.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=3743&sort=1&size=medium&cat=500&page=1) in rcgroups.

[torcgolf]

wow jon! those looks great! do you have any pics of the latest model (aegea/ava) all put together? mayeb even dry fitted?

im actually looking for someone to bag some wings for me. would you be interested in doing it? i want to get a set of supra cores and build myself a supra.

great job!

[nuevo]

torcgolf,

When I get the plane done, I'll post some pictures. I'm not at home during the daylight, so photos of the whole plane are hard to come by right now.

I'm not in business doing wings. So (seriously) I would be very expensive. Doing the vacuum bagging is not the most time consuming part. For me, it was building the joiner blocks, and the spar. I might be willing to bag a set of wings for $$ the way Phil Barnes does it. But not the way Drela designs them. There's just too much labor required. The wings (labor) would be too expensive for you to buy, and for me to make more than $1.00 / hour.

I'm not a "manufacturing" kind of guy. I like to build for the enjoyment and learning of it. So far, I have never build the same plane or exact same construction techniques more then twice.

Jon

[torcgolf]

thanks for the reply jon. i kinow what you mean by a lot of work :) i actually just ordered a set of aegea wings from phil. i cant wait to see how it turns out.

i cant wait for the pics! im sure it's gonna be a real looker:D

[Salto]

Jon,

Thanks for posting these build pics.

When bagging the spars it looks like the bag is one sided and sealed down onto your work surface. Is this correct? If so, how do you seal it down.

Also, your pic of it under vacuum shows the bag not fully wrapped all around the spar. Did it wrap all round during the actual cure?

Graham.

[Badger]

Jon,

How many hours into your planes to get to a "ARF kit" stage? With all the tooling in place I'm looking at least 60 hours including spars, wings, molding the pod, nosecone, boom, and v-mount. Joiner boxes are 6 hours per set, spars are 12.

Also interested in your weights, relative to target under 50 oz. for a 130" Aegea.

Good effort, you will enjoy the plane a lot.

Warren

[nuevo]

Salto,

Good questions. You are a shrewd observer.

The spars were placed on a piece of thin plywood about 70" x 10" x 1/4". This wood had all of it's edges covered with gray duct tape to keep splinters from puncturing the bag.

The spar was taped to that wood to hold it into place. Then covered with the nylon cloth, paper towels, rope, etc. Finally, the whole "assembly" was placed in the vacuum bag for curing.

So, no the bag does not press on all sides of the spar. I only cared about vertical pressure, pressing the spar caps onto the sheer webs for a solid bond. After the cure, I scraped any extra epoxy that was pressed out.

Yet later, I wrapped each spar with kevlar thread, and finally with the bias fiberglass wrap. All the photos of bagging the spar don't show these later steps.

[nuevo]

There were a lot of vacuum bag steps in this plane. In a plane with a carbon tube spar, each wing goes in the bag once, for a total of 2 sessions with the vacuum pump.

For this plane...

I made some extra carbon spar caps from some tow I had. One bagging session.
each spar (3 pc) was bagged in a separate session. Could have been combined, but I didn't care about time.
each final core was bagged in a separate session.

So I had a total of 7 sessions with my vacuum pump and curing oven for this plane. Wow, a lot of time in the garage.

In fact.... I don't know if this plane will even fly. Might blow up on the winch. (confessions of a builder). The bearings on my vac pump siezed up during the cure of the center panel, which was the last piece I did. I know pump was running at 10 hours into the cure. But at 18 hours into the cure, when I next checked it; the pump had stopped. After a later complete disassembly of the pump, one of the ball bearings on the main motor shaft has siezed up.

[nuevo]

How many hours into your planes to get to a "ARF kit" stage? With all the tooling in place I'm looking at least 60 hours including spars, wings, molding the pod, nosecone, boom, and v-mount. Joiner boxes are 6 hours per set, spars are 12.

Also interested in your weights, relative to target under 50 oz. for a 130" Aegea.

Good effort, you will enjoy the plane a lot.


Thanks for the comments. I don't track my hours. I know I spent a whole lot of time just building the joiner boxes, as you stated. Getting the alignment right on the joiner boxes was a pain. I should have built a jig, but don't know how to do that. I did build both joiner boxes twice. :o

I'm positive my plane won't be 50 oz. I'm thinking 60 or low 60's, from estimates many months ago. I have not weighed anything in a long time.

I know my spar alone was significantly heavier than Mark's target weights. I heard some of Mark's comments about wing flex on launch, and I did't want that. So I used heavy 10# balsa for sheer webs in the middle 10" or so each side of center. I used an extra .010" of carbon for the entire spar, top & bottom.

Finally, I did not taper the spar for the tip sections, when viewed from above. You can infer this from the photo of the core in post #7.

My center section spar was, by far, the heaviest piece.

I will post some weights of the nearly finished components, hopefully by tomorrow.

So far, I have not been as brave as you. I have not made plugs or tailbooms on my own yet. I did make a mold once, to make a duplicate of an existing nosecone.

[Badger]

Jon,

Speaking of bravery, I don't know anyone other than Mark who has attempted the bent center spar, and the issues in getting it to fit the core slot.

The approach you are taking is appropriate, the value in building yourself is to take your time and do it right.

[rdwoebke]

In fact.... I don't know if this plane will even fly. Might blow up on the winch. (confessions of a builder). The bearings on my vac pump siezed up during the cure of the center panel, which was the last piece I did. I know pump was running at 10 hours into the cure. But at 18 hours into the cure, when I next checked it; the pump had stopped. After a later complete disassembly of the pump, one of the ball bearings on the main motor shaft has siezed up.

But you bagged the center spar earlier, so you should be fine, right? The spar carries all the load, and worst that might happen is you have some delam problems, or perhaps some problems with stiffness.

[nuevo]

Here are the weights in oz. from my plane. I'm assuming no nose ballast.

18.0 fuse w/stab, servos, battery, RX, wiring
7.5 right wingtip w/servo
7.6 left wingtip w/servo
24.6 center section w/servos and wiring harness
---- ------------
57.7 oz total

If you examine the wing weights, and compare to Mark's Aegea 130 plans... The part where I went over his weight budget was in the center spar. Given my goals earlier, that's ok with me. I remember, just after building the spars, that I would be 10 oz over weight on the wings.

[nuevo]

But you bagged the center spar earlier, so you should be fine, right?

Yes. I'm not worried. I'm going to fly it, and I'm going to launch it hard after the 1st launch. If it breaks, that's life. Planes are just "stuff". In the big picture of life, that's ok.

[nuevo]

Speaking of bravery, I don't know anyone other than Mark who has attempted the bent center spar, and the issues in getting it to fit the core slot.

You mean the Supra, right? The Aegea has a straight center section.

I agree that is brave. I'd be a little leary of sanding anything out of the carbon at the very middle of the wing. :eek:

I've considered building this plane next. My thought would be to make a shallow mold out of aluminum channel, and build the spar caps out of tow with the bend built in. I know they would not be as strong as the pre-made caps, as they are cured in an autoclave, and probably use stronger hi-temp epoxies.

[torcgolf]

hi guys... this is slightly off topic but here goes...

i've been looking into getting the ava fuse for my aegea build and have seen a couple different variations on the boom. some have been tapered and some non tapered. does anyone know where i can get a non tapered version? and also the horizontal mount for the larger dia boom tip.

thanks all.

[nuevo]

Here's a few photos of the assembled plane. Not quite complete... and far from perfect.

[Hostage-46]

Wow ... nice work Jon, you have a live one there!

[CHARLIE BRITT 7]

I looks good to me, very good, and as you well know nothing is perfect.
Great thread.
Charlie

[Eyefly]

Scribe! Looking great! I have an AVA which would love a wing like that. I am setting up my bagging system now and perhaps, I can do this kind of work in the future.

Alex

[torcgolf]

wow! thats a great looking ship! is that the ava boom from kennedy composites? let us know about the flight characteristics!

congrats. :)

[nuevo]

wow! thats a great looking ship! is that the ava boom from kennedy composites? let us know about the flight characteristics!


Thanks. Entire fuse and tail group is from an Ava. Flight characteristics TBD. :)

[nuevo]

After a marathon session last night, I completed the plane enough to fly in a small club contest today. I have not sorted everything out, but all in all, an extremely good flying plane.

I know I have the towhook right, because the winch groans, the plane goes straight up out of my hand, and requires some down trim on launch. :D

More details in the next day or so.

[markdrela]

I've considered building this plane next. My thought would be to make a shallow mold out of aluminum channel, and build the spar caps out of tow with the bend built in. I know they would not be as strong as the pre-made caps, as they are cured in an autoclave, and probably use stronger hi-temp epoxies.
The key is to first build the angled building boards, sketched in the bends.pdf file. A table saw makes it almost trivial. Still pretty easy if you have a bandsaw and a disk sander or belt sander.

After that, building the bent spar and center panel is not significantly more difficult than a flat spar and panel. The processes are the same, except that you're working on the angled boards rather than on the table. There is one extra step of laminating the short carbon "leaf spring" in the center of both sparcaps, but that's pretty straightforward, and doesn't require vacuum. Using tow would be much more time consuming I think.

Mike Lachowski builds his F3B spars from tow, but only because this lets him use high-modulus fiber which is available only as a dry tow. He painstakingly lays down each sparcap by taping down one tow at a time on the bench, and then wets out the stack. Then he uses it like precured CF. Lots of work.

I agree that is brave. I'd be a little leary of sanding anything out of the carbon at the very middle of the wing.
The Supra and Aegea spars are sized entirely by stiffness. At the design load of 200 lb, the sparcap stress is only 70 ksi -- less than half of the max allowable. There no risk with sanding away a little bit of the sparcap. There's no point to using higher-strength resin for the same reason.

If you build a Supra, I suggest using the foam core spar -- it's much easier than balsa. I was a little worried about its strength, but it's proven to be adequate.

[BrianSmith]

I saw Jon's first HL on this model...It went so far I did not think he would need a winch..(grin) The L/D is outstanding..I was in awe how he could launch "VERY" high then seemingly cruise upwind out of my sight with very little, if any loss of altitude..I predict great things from Jon and his new hand built wings...Brian Smith

After a marathon session last night, I completed the plane enough to fly in a small club contest today. I have not sorted everything out, but all in all, an extremely good flying plane.

I know I have the towhook right, because the winch groans, the plane goes straight up out of my hand, and requires some down trim on launch. :D

More details in the next day or so.

[nuevo]

Well here's the story. Stayed up way into the night to finish the plane. I swore I'd never show up at a contest with a new model, but I did it today. Got to the field and my TX was dead. Oops. It's a new JR and I plugged it into the wrong charger. :o Gotta start marking all the charge leads in the house.

Got that straighened out and went for a hand toss. Perfect. No adjustments needed. Went up for the first winch launch with no launch preset. Shallow as expected. At 100' I clicked on launch mode. Winch started to groan. :cool: The first flight was 6 minutes or so. Easy to build confidence in this bird. Tried the landing programming in the air a few times, and the nose drops slightly. Close enough for now. Time for landing tests. First landing was 80 pts on the tape.

I went up for 2 more quick test flights to iron out a few settings on the radio, and make sure the landings are dialed in. I did have to put some up elevator in for most flight modes, as my initial guess for elevator setting was too fast. On launch, down elevator was required, as it was so steep. :cool:

I am fairly new to the JR 9303, and this is my first time programming a full-house plane on this TX. I like the plane and the radio. Both are keepers.

Time for the contest. Three test flights, and here we go. I was not worried, as I felt immediately comfortable and confident with the new plane. Only 6 folks in the contest, but some prime top talent too. My buddies Rob Glover, and Brian Smith were at the top of their game. After 3 rounds, the three of us were all within three points of each other. All about 10 points off of perfect each round. On the 4th round, Rob didn't make his time, and Brian got an 85 on his landing. A little room to squeek into first, if I could land. Ended up 1 second off on the flight and pulled the flaps too early, so settled for a 55 on landing.

Brian got a well deserved and hard earned victory in our club's small but fun New Years Day contest. It's nice to spend such a nice day in the winter with good friends.

About my Aegea...

I need to take a little bit of nose weight out for handling, but it is in the ballpark. Aileron response is very good and I do not yet have aileron -> flap mixing programmed in. The legs (L/D) on this plane are impressive. I've owned an Icon before so I know what a great L/D looks like. On landings, with the light weight and large flaps, it's easy to stop the plane too fast and land short.

I like the spar too. The Aegea made the winch struggle today and very little wing flex visible. Oh... great zoom too, if I get the ping off the line right. Yeah, I know, yet another glowing review like you read in the magazines. :rolleyes:

I have hardly begun to optimize my setup, but am already impressed with the behavior of the plane in several areas. I need to fly it in a lot more weather conditions before I comment further on the flight performance. Today's weather was high-thin clouds with some lower altitude cummulus thrown in, too. Winds fairly light at 3-6 mph. Finding lift was not a given.

I hope to go into a few more construction comments on the wing sometime this week. There are some oversights I made which I'd like to point out, so that others can avoid my mistakes.

[CHARLIE BRITT 7]

Sounds like you guys are having all the fun with your mini contest.
Jon looks like you are off to a good start with the Aegea 130 wing, very impresive first day. How does your wing compare to the one Brian bought, span, lb, airfoil, any other diffrences.
How do you like that new JR 9303 ????

Brian what were you flying ??? Any news on your flapped AVA yet, remember to post some pics when you get it.

Well i finally finished that Hobby-Lobby Miss 2 i've been working on so now i can start my Graphite 3.45.
Charlie

[BrianSmith]

I was flying the "COP"...It stands for Combination-of-Parts...It is a Sage 126 inch FS001 wing on a new Ava fuse, with a repaired Ava tail group...It flys very well...
The flapped Ava is in the mail to me....However I'm probably gonna send it back..I just discovered today it is a one piece flap instead of two seperate flaps and I don't care for that at all..I wanted to use the flaps as ailerons/flaperons, both in the air and for better landings...I'm sad about that...Brian





Sounds like you guys are having all the fun with your mini contest.
Jon looks like you are off to a good start with the Aegea 130 wing, very impresive first day. How does your wing compare to the one Brian bought, span, lb, airfoil, any other diffrences.
How do you like that new JR 9303 ????

Brian what were you flying ??? Any news on your flapped AVA yet, remember to post some pics when you get it.

Well i finally finished that Hobby-Lobby Miss 2 i've been working on so now i can start my Graphite 3.45.
Charlie

[nuevo]

Here's a photo of our small group on New Year's Day. A fantastic day to spend with my friends.

With only 6 people flying, competition was pretty tough. Brian won the day only 57 points off of a perfect score. Pretty good for January, I'd say.

My new Aegea is the left one being held in front of the group. Red & orange tips.

[torcgolf]

hey jon! sweet pic... glad someone got some sticktime during this holiday break! northern california got pummeled by storms :rolleyes:

congrats again on the aegea!

[nuevo]

The Supra and Aegea spars are sized entirely by stiffness. At the design load of 200 lb, the sparcap stress is only 70 ksi -- less than half of the max allowable. There no risk with sanding away a little bit of the sparcap. There's no point to using higher-strength resin for the same reason.

If you build a Supra, I suggest using the foam core spar -- it's much easier than balsa. I was a little worried about its strength, but it's proven to be adequate.

Mark,

I appreciate your insights. I'll file this away with other posts from you on the Supra. If I build a Supra, I'll likely tackle building a fuse, this time. Since my only two gliders now are the Ava and Aegea, I am indebted to you for sharing your designs, techniques, and insights with all of us.

Jon

[Robglover]

This plane is sweet. It goes up the line like a sailfish, and tap dances it's way into your heart in the lightest lift. It has legs like a Rockette.

The bad part is that now I think I need a Supra wing. Damn.

[Badger]

What you probably have not seen yet is the penetration ability at low weight, even at the lower span loading of the Supra the plane still moves very well. Just as amazing is how they slow down on landing when built this light. Jon, sounds like you are going to be another evangelist.

Any offers on my 55 oz stretch Aegea?

[GNieuwoudt]

I am in the process of building a Supra wing and the spar is almost finished. Here in South Africa we do not get the prepreg carbon for the spar caps and I have to make my own from Uni-carbon. I made a Jig from 20mm square alluminium tube and bolted flat pieces to two of the sides. The tube is bent at the correct angle in the middle and the sides hight can be adjusted. Took me about 1 hour to make this setup. I covered it with packing tape to help with the release. The foam cores was cut with a CNC cutter with the dihedral for centre panel incorporated. I glued the two bottom core beds to a piece of plank and I have my angled building board. The piece of foam cut out for spar was used to get correct hight if Jig sides setup. Most of the work was then done in the Jig and only the last measurements was done in the core beds and cores.
I took some photos of the process with all the steps and will post later. Up to now I have spent the minimum of time and the results look very accurate.

Cheers
Gert

[g.guasch]

Great plane, John, and very interesting thread.
The plane that Barry Kennedy should sold (and Vladimir built)
What is the fly order ?

Bye,

Gerard.

[g.guasch]

Hye John,

Is it possible to have some other pics of your AEGEA/AVA ship ?

You may, if you prefer, send some at my pro server, heavy files allowed without any pb.

g.guasch@chu-tours.fr

Thank's a lot,

Bye,

Gerard.

[g.guasch]

Hi Jon,

Finaly,

I have got a Phil's Agea wing ond a AVA fuse !
A brand new wing in bed and annever used fuse with wing adaptation !
Just wait now that USPS bring it to me...

So, please, where have you located your CG ?
I have read that Rhil on his AGEA MANTIS fly at 103 mm from the LE.
And you, after :rolleyes: spend some time with the ship?

Thank you very much for this thread,

Regards,

Gerard.




Mark,

I appreciate your insights. I'll file this away with other posts from you on the Supra. If I build a Supra, I'll likely tackle building a fuse, this time. Since my only two gliders now are the Ava and Aegea, I am indebted to you for sharing your designs, techniques, and insights with all of us.

Jon

[Charged]

Whats the weight of the airplane?

[BrianSmith]

It is an absolutely outstanding flyer...My CG is at 108 MM..My model weighs 61 OZ...BrianHi Jon,

Finaly,

I have got a Phil's Agea wing ond a AVA fuse !
A brand new wing in bed and annever used fuse with wing adaptation !
Just wait now that USPS bring it to me...

So, please, where have you located your CG ?
I have read that Rhil on his AGEA MANTIS fly at 103 mm from the LE.
And you, after :rolleyes: spend some time with the ship?

Thank you very much for this thread,

Regards,

Gerard.

[nuevo]

So, please, where have you located your CG ?
I have read that Rhil on his AGEA MANTIS fly at 103 mm from the LE.
And you, after :rolleyes: spend some time with the ship?


Sorry, I have not been on rcgroups in a month. Go with Brian's measurements.

[PizzaHunter]

Good Afternoon!
I visited Charleys River site but I didnt find Aegea 130" plans.
Were can I get them?
Kirill

[nuevo]

Kirill,

Join the Allegro-Lite group on Yahoo.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Allegro-Lite/

Then visit this page for wing plans & airfoil coordinates.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Allegro-Lite/files/Aegea-3m/

[PizzaHunter]

Thanks, Jon

[markdrela]

You should realize that the "Aegea 130" is just a wing, not a whole airplane. It was most commonly joined with the Mantis fuse and tail. A few people have also joined with the Ava fuse and tail.

Also, the Aegea has been superseded by the Supra, which is also a complete airplane, not just a wing.

[PizzaHunter]

It would be easier for me to order AVA's fuse. Vladimir's model factory is situated in about 300 km from Kiev. And what about stab? Should I use the same stab as Supra's?

[rdwoebke]

It would be easier for me to order AVA's fuse. Vladimir's model factory is situated in about 300 km from Kiev. And what about stab? Should I use the same stab as Supra's?

Some guys have been putting Aegea 3 meter wings on Ava fuselages with the Ava stabs.... I'm sure you could build Supra style tails too, if you wanted.



Ryan

[nuevo]

I used an Ava fuse and tail feathers for my Aegea (earlier in this thread). They worked perfect for my application.