Hi Flight RO-8... need info please.

[Doubletap]

I just picked up a Hi Flight RO-8 on Ebay with no documentation whatsoever. I can get the plans from RCM but what I need is a copy of the instruction booklet just to verify I got all the parts. Does anyone have the instruction booklet they can send me email scans/PDF's of or perhaps send me a hard copy through the mail? I'd be happy to re-imburse for all costs.

Thanks, :)

Doubletap

[jihlein]

I know I have the RCM plans at home, not so sure about the construction article. Will check when I get home tonight.

John Ihlein
Albuquerque, NM

[Doubletap]

I know I have the RCM plans at home, not so sure about the construction article. Will check when I get home tonight.

John Ihlein
Albuquerque, NM

Hi John,

it would be great if you have it. Let me know if you can find the manual.

Thanks,

Doubletap

[jihlein]

Found the plans, but the manual wasn't with them. Need to dig a little more...

JI

[machild]

RO8? Spindly, T-tail 2M? Turbulated, built-up wing? If this is the plane I'm thinking of, I have an original, untouched kit that was donated to my school flying club in my classroom.

Club members and I cracked the box open, and as I recall all the documentation was there. I'll check tomorrow, and if there is a manual in the box, I'd be happy to photocopy it for you and get it in the mail.

Mark C.

[Doubletap]

RO8? Spindly, T-tail 2M? Turbulated, built-up wing? If this is the plane I'm thinking of, I have an original, untouched kit that was donated to my school flying club in my classroom.

Club members and I cracked the box open, and as I recall all the documentation was there. I'll check tomorrow, and if there is a manual in the box, I'd be happy to photocopy it for you and get it in the mail.

Mark C.

Thanks Mark, would appreciate it very much. Let me know if you find it. You could also fax it to me if that's an easier option for you.

Doubletap

[HIR/Cer]

Found it! Best for me to copy and mail it to you. Besides the parts list, the instructions are handy in building the semi-symmetrical wing. Regards, HIR/Cer

[BMatthews]

Check the wood in the kit carefully. I built one using the kit plans but had to replace pretty much every bit of wood in the kit. The 1/32 ply sides were horribly brittle and snapped like an eggshell even with very gentle flexing. The ribs looked like they had been gnawed into shape by a rabid mouse. The spruce spar stock was also very brittle and had extreme grain runout. I used the spar stock for mixing epoxy and even then it snapped on me.

I don't know if my kit was stored in a very bad location before I got it or what but after the dust settled I realized that the only wood I used from the kit was the wing trailing edge stock. Everything else was junk wood that I would not wish on my worst enemy. Others in past threads have confirmed that these kits didn't use very good wood so perhaps my case isn't isolated.

This all led me to greatly modify the model. I went with a different wing airfoil (Eppler 201) and went for a stronger fuselage with balsa sides and top and bottom that could be shaped to an oval cross section and went for a fully airfoiled fin sheathed with 1/64 ply that extended down and lap glued to the sides to take the force of typical competition landings. In the end I not only used just that one piece of wood but I ended up using only the basic outline of Rick Odle's design.

Still, that outline is sure pretty when it's overhead... :D

[kzimmerm]

Check the wood in the kit carefully. I built one using the kit plans but had to replace pretty much every bit of wood in the kit. The 1/32 ply sides were horribly brittle and snapped like an eggshell even with very gentle flexing. The ribs looked like they had been gnawed into shape by a rabid mouse. The spruce spar stock was also very brittle and had extreme grain runout. I used the spar stock for mixing epoxy and even then it snapped on me.

I don't know if my kit was stored in a very bad location before I got it or what but after the dust settled I realized that the only wood I used from the kit was the wing trailing edge stock. Everything else was junk wood that I would not wish on my worst enemy. Others in past threads have confirmed that these kits didn't use very good wood so perhaps my case isn't isolated.

This all led me to greatly modify the model. I went with a different wing airfoil (Eppler 201) and went for a stronger fuselage with balsa sides and top and bottom that could be shaped to an oval cross section and went for a fully airfoiled fin sheathed with 1/64 ply that extended down and lap glued to the sides to take the force of typical competition landings. In the end I not only used just that one piece of wood but I ended up using only the basic outline of Rick Odle's design.

Still, that outline is sure pretty when it's overhead... :D

Just wondering if everyone reading this knows what grain run-out is? I've been building for over 40 years and this is something I learned long ago.

Good quality spruce should have the growth rings running the full length of the strip of wood. If they run off somewhere along the length then junk the wood as BMatthews pointed out. Poor quality spruce could mean the death of your plane.. and no one wants that. A very good and often times used substitute for spruce is bass wood. I like bass wood over spruce because bass doesn't have as much pitch (read sap) and oils in it. I have found that you NEVER use CA on spruce because you don't get a good bond due to the pitch & oils in the wood.

I haven't seen an RO-8 other than in pictures. It looks very nice and I am sure it flies just as nice as it looks.

Good luck with it.

Kurt

[BMatthews]

Good point Kurt. I just assumed folks would know what I meant.

To hopefully add a little to Kurt's explanation .... All wood will suffer from SOME runout but it's how much that is important. If you follow the grain (growth rings) and you see it run at an angle to the edges of the stock it should have NO MORE than an angle of about 1 in 15 to 1 in 20 for it to be usable as a spar. So that means that for 1/8 x 1/4 as used in the RO8 if a single grain line runs from one side to the other in less than about 3 inches then I won't use it. Now you need to study the grain lines to see how this works. If it's vertical grian it's easy to see. If it's flat grained then you need to look at the 1/8 edge and judge it on that. Most wood has the growth rings angled and that makes it a little harder to judge.

Just study the wood and look for examples that are as straight running as possible out of the batch. Definetly avoid strips with kinks part way down the length. That's almost always a sign of runout. Long smooth curves are OK but I like the thin sides to be straight as it's harder to flex those into place and building stress into a wing is a good way to ensure warps that just won't go away.

I'll also look for material that has flexibility without brittleness. I flex the stock to an amount that I know it'll take without damage. If it turns out I've guessed wrong and it snaps I'll happily add it to my pile to avoid trouble with the LHS owner and use it for less or non critical uses than wing spars. But over the years I've seldom guessed wrong if it passes my original eyeball inspection.

Fussy? You bet I am. My time is too valuable to risk it on poor materials.

[Doubletap]

Thanks to everyone for replying and offering assistance! I ended up ordering the plans for the RO-8 from RCM and it included the build article and the parts list, so I'm good to go.

Doubletap

[kzimmerm]

Thanks to everyone for replying and offering assistance! I ended up ordering the plans for the RO-8 from RCM and it included the build article and the parts list, so I'm good to go.

Doubletap


Now that you got all of us going on this thread you WILL have to post pictures of your building efforts...

Good luck with it.

Kurt

[Polkastudio]

Anyone have a RO8 kit they would like to sell? I missed this one on ebay, went to sleep at the wheel!

Polkaboy

[Doubletap]

Now that you got all of us going on this thread you WILL have to post pictures of your building efforts...

Good luck with it.

Kurt

Well that's if and when I ever get around to building it; unfortunately, I have LOTS of other kits that are all competing for better spots in the build queue! :D It's the windy season right now so I'm mostly building fast/heavy slopers. I'm finishing up on an old Bob Martin SR-7 right now and need to complete a DCU Super Dragonfly. After that, who knows? ;)

Doubletap

...vintage sailplane kit enthusiast/collector/hog

[BMatthews]

Anyone have a RO8 kit they would like to sell? I missed this one on ebay, went to sleep at the wheel!

Polkaboy

After what I found and reported you still want one? It wasn't just me either. Another modeller that asked me about my RO-8 said that he had a kit and had chosen not to go ahead with it due to the same sort of material quality issues. No one else locally had seen one completed other than that fellow and no one else ever told me that they had a kit of one.

[jjscott]

I scanned in the article from RCM 10/79. Just got some other sailplane plans from them -- happy to see they are still a source for these plans.

[Shreve]

I built one of the early ones when the kit first came out. IIRC, the wood quality was not that bad. I covered it exactly like the plans one, and even did the lightening holes in the ribs. Looked exactly like Dick Odle's. Here it is in a group shot. When one kit came up in the Emporium awhile back, I just had to snag it. When I opened it up, yup, looked real iffy. So I'm not sure if I'm going to attempt it or not! :confused:

http://pic14.picturetrail.com:80/VOL524/634537/3052496/186931903.jpg

http://pic14.picturetrail.com:80/VOL524/634537/3052496/186933401.jpg

[jihlein]

FWIW, when I got my plans a few years back, I started turning them into CAD files for CNC machining. I got all the ribs done in compufoil, and created the dxf files suitable for laser cutting or cnc routing. Never got to the fuselage. If anyone is interested, I can post the dxf files for the ribs later this evening.

John Ihlein
Albuquerque, NM