looking really nice! keep 'em coming!

Time to get these ready to install. Again, Kristof has done a ton of the work so all thats left is minor details. First thing I did was make some control horns from some .030" carbon plate. Horns are provided in the kit and by all means are nice parts and could be used just as well, but I really like my carbon After these were cut and shaped, the tails can be marked for cutting in the slots to glue the horns in. Once they're glued in, all thats left is to install the springs. I decided to use the T-shaped springs like what is used in the Twister in this build becuase their shape is supposed to elminate an induced twist in the surface that the U-shaped springs can cause. Once the springs are in, you they're ready to go on the fuse. For the stab, that just means screwing it on, the vert will be joined in detail later.

hi,

looking good kyle , any reason for not using the suplied horn's?

maybe i'm a little late on this but the smallest horn is ment for the rudder and the bigger one for the elevator(to get the steering wire moving complete free in the fuselage)

sorry i forgot to drill the holes in the wing , my mistake.



with cg at 72-73mm you would find the helios really moving fast and that's how i / we(belgian piltot's) like it best , it cover's more ground then most dlg's and point's out even the smallest thermal very well at this location.

at the last eurotour contest (herten) when there was lot's of wind i even got it at 70mm and it worked better for me this way .
i'm certainly not a top pilot and the more forward cg gave me a plane that handled much better and was a lot more stable in turns

for launching you wan't 0 degree camber and for cruise you wan't it a little less then most plane's let's say 2mm cambered max at the root .

the way i fly it is most of the time in cruise mode , when there is a lot of wind i fly most of the time in speed mode , so that leaves thermal mode for occasional use only , when there's a really strong thermal then i have it about 4mm deflected

this is the way i like to fly it , and it would probably be a good start to go from there .

all settings depend a lot on cg , so you could get more after with that but for me it works best when it has some speed and not hanging in the air.

succes

-kristof-

Wave Glider,

As I'm using myself the Helios for competition I will be very interested for your findings in flight.
If you can share your remarks that would be very appriciated.
Also against which other plane(s) can you compare it ?

Have a safe maiden flight.

PeterPe

Finally got a second from work to respond to everyone...

Kristof, the horns you provided would have worked just fine. I just really like my carbon horns I've used and abused the ones I've made like those without a single failure, so I figured I'd make a set for these as well. All of the parts you provided in the kit are top notch, very well made and I don't think anyone who uses them will have any problems, I'm just weird (I think its probably OCD inherited from my mother's side ), so please don't be concerned that I think your parts are bad!!

Thanks for posting the throws and CG too, those were some rough estimate numbers I was going to begin with. I was actually thinking about trying the CG at 75mm from LE because my Edge 2P is also supposed to be at 72-73 but has wound up to 75 and I reallllyyy like how it flies on that sweet spot. Most likely before the maiden(s), I'll have one set at 75mm and one at 72mm and I'll fly both to compare.

Peter, I bought these with the intention of being my primary contest ships as well. I've flown the Edge foils for over a year now and am totally hooked, so when Kristof said he was building these with Zone V2 foil and they would be solid core, I was sold. I have flown quite a few planes in more short time, probably many more than I'm proud to say lol, but I will be able to compare to all of the Drela foiled planes I've flown and the 2 Edge's I have. I suspect it to be mostly similar to my Edge, as GT told me it would be when I talked with him about the ZV2 foil prior, but I am very curious to see what it's improvents are over that fantastic airfoil.

I'm hoping to have these in the air this weekend, barring any bad weather or unforseen problem, and I will share all I find! I have more pictures to post from last night, my camera died and it was after 1am, I was done. I'll post them later tonight when I get home!

hi,

here are some pictures of the latest d-box-disser and d-box wing

-kristof-

Now its time to prepare the fuse for the rest of the build. This part is pretty simple, basically cut your holes in it for the wing plug and string exits, and also sand the inside of the nose and body well so that the servo tray and ballast tube will have good bite when glued in.

This part was the hardest of the build, mainly because I had to modify some things becuase of the electronics I used. First thing I wanted to try out was these new LiFE packs. I may be sold on them already! 6V nominal voltage, so no regulator needed (plus there wasnt any room for one!), and the servos are running at top speed/torque for practically the whole battery life because of the very flat discharge curve they have. I had to modify the tray for the packs to fit with the dremel, after that the packs fit perfectly in the schnoz of the Helios.

Next was my servo choice, I wanted to use a nice, stout servo for the pull-string set-up, so I chose to use SM22's. While they do fit in there side-by-side, their height was a major issue. A lot of modification went into making those fit, I had to grind the output spline down as low as it could go and also grind the horns so they would clear the hatch. After all that, they fit great

Once that issue was sorted, the tray could be glued in. After the tray was glued, the ballast tube was next. When those peices were all done, the switch jacks were glued in, which was a pretty tight install! Then the servos went back in and the strings were ran. You'll notice I used 2 strings on the rudder, it makes for a stiffer set-up. Once the strings were done, the whole install could be dropped in place for good. The 6106 rx had to have their skins peeled to fit in the slot. After all the gooied were tucked in, it was time to do the hatch magnet. I was a bit on the edge about using this at first, but I'm glad I installed them, it makes opening the hatch to pull a battery or swap ballast a breeze.

We're almost there, install the vertical and we're done with the build!

Joining the tails was pretty easy work, especially considering that all you really have to do is join the vertical, all the work on the stab is done. I decided to mount the vertical in the "convential" manner instead of on the side of the boom. This was mainly because I have no experience with side-slung tails and it still has that "that doesn't look quite right" factor to me. I also wanted to try doing a patchless install on the tails, no glass to help bear the loads. This seems to be catching on lately and holding up to some strong launchers so I decided to give it a shot. I think it turned out very good.

With the tails mounted, the build is done, time to program it, balance it, and go fly!

Hi Kristof,
First I will compliment you on you model and on the "opne source" mind that you show. Fantastic job on th emodels (s) and on letting everybody know what and how you do it.

I have a couple of questions that I hope that you donøt mind answering:

1)
In post #97 you mention that you use "laminated glas + kevlar" at the hinge line. Is the glas only at the hinge line, or do you have a 25 glas layer on the whole wing?

2)
Do you cover the leading edge like when bagging - i.e. a steip of cloth on the leading edge before the copre is placed in the mold?

3)
How do you make the hinge reinforcement that has ben milled in the core? Is faced like Phil Barnes does or have you made another fance way of doing it?

4)
When you mille the cores, do you take the skinthickness into acount og how else do you make sure that the cores surfaces meet both mold halves? What I'm trying to understand is how you make sure that both upper and bottom skin is pressed to the cores?oing a bagged wing?

5)
Besides the mainspar, do you make a webbinng between the spars or is that just the foam acting a webbing, just like when doing a baged wing?

TIA

cheers
Erik Dahl Christensen
Denmark

hi erik,

1)
in post 97 i cut the kevlar before it wen't in the mould and used an layer of 25 gr glass on the kevlar , i did this because i was having a hard time cutting the kevlar afterwards but i have some tools to do that now.(cutting disc tool)

so now i only use the kevlar disser , no glas and cut the hinge and trailing edge when the wing is out of the mould .

2) for LE there is the spread-tow as you can see and i use some colored(black) microbaloon epoxy mixture i apply with a sirenge in the mould before inserting the cores , when the cores are in i go around the LE with my syrenge again , so when i close the mould the excess black epoxy get squeesed out .

i catch my plane on the LE all the time witouth having to fear it might split , like hollow moulded wings can do.

3) on the aileron itself i cut out a strip of rohacell 2mm wide and pull a carbon sleeve/sock around it , when wetted out i put it back in the core wich is in the mould by now.

4) i don't reduce anything for skin thickness, cores are cnc'ed 0.3mm thicker .

i made a press to close the mould ,way more then a vacuum set-up can pull .

5) there is no webbing between the spar's ,because i don't think bend stiffness is that important on a dlg wing , it has to be sufficient offcourse but i think it is .

have tought about doing the same thing as on the ailerons with the carbon sock to have more torsional stiffnes but estimated weight gain is about 20 gram so i don't think i wil do that .

hope this answer's your'e questions

-kristof-

Originally Posted by erikdahlchriste

Hi Kristof,
First I will compliment you on you model and on the "opne source" mind that you show. Fantastic job on th emodels (s) and on letting everybody know what and how you do it.

I have a couple of questions that I hope that you donøt mind answering:

1)
In post #97 you mention that you use "laminated glas + kevlar" at the hinge line. Is the glas only at the hinge line, or do you have a 25 glas layer on the whole wing?

2)
Do you cover the leading edge like when bagging - i.e. a steip of cloth on the leading edge before the copre is placed in the mold?

3)
How do you make the hinge reinforcement that has ben milled in the core? Is faced like Phil Barnes does or have you made another fance way of doing it?

4)
When you mille the cores, do you take the skinthickness into acount og how else do you make sure that the cores surfaces meet both mold halves? What I'm trying to understand is how you make sure that both upper and bottom skin is pressed to the cores?oing a bagged wing?

5)
Besides the mainspar, do you make a webbinng between the spars or is that just the foam acting a webbing, just like when doing a baged wing?

TIA

cheers
Erik Dahl Christensen
Denmark

Thanks for the explanations!

Originally Posted by krikkens

hi erik,

1)
in post 97 i cut the kevlar before it wen't in the mould and used an layer of 25 gr glass on the kevlar , i did this because i was having a hard time cutting the kevlar afterwards but i have some tools to do that now.(cutting disc tool)

How can you cut kevlar with a cutting disc? Can you show what tool you use?

2) for LE there is the spread-tow as you can see and i use some colored(black) microbaloon epoxy mixture i apply with a sirenge in the mould before inserting the cores , when the cores are in i go around the LE with my syrenge again , so when i close the mould the excess black epoxy get squeesed out .

Nice trick!

4) i don't reduce anything for skin thickness, cores are cnc'ed 0.3mm thicker .

i made a press to close the mould ,way more then a vacuum set-up can pull .

Does the wing expand after pulling it out of the mold? Can you measure the thickness of the airfoil in the mold and on the finished wing?


Thanks!


Jonas

Originally Posted by Jonas M.

Does the wing expand after pulling it out of the mold? Can you measure the thickness of the airfoil in the mold and on the finished wing?


Thanks!


Jonas

nope, rohacell is not like depron, it is hard foam wich remains after pressing it , when i press a small piece between my finger's i can't notice any swelling after release.

the TE of my wing's are paper thin and remain that way , altough the cores had 0.3mm thickness

TE of a kevlar wing i cut with a sharp knife using a cnc'ed wooden template
but for the slot of the aileron i use this tool ,it also is nice to do the cut's on the side of the ailerons , the thickness of the disc is perfect for free movement of them .

-kristof-

Thanks!

Do you mind showing us your mold-clamping-device-whatever?

Originally Posted by Jonas M.

Thanks!

Do you mind showing us your mold-clamping-device-whatever?

here ya go..