When I was building the wing jig mentioned previously, I made some supports for the outer panels to preserve the washout when sheeting later. The 1973 article says that 2 deg of washout should be built in. I have measured mine at 3 deg. I can always compensate with the aileron installation but does 3 deg sound excessive?
Any comments welcome......

Pat

No sounds good to me

Mike

Thanks Mike - reduced it a little by clamping the wing firmly into the jig while doing the top sheeting - it seems to have set at about 2.5 deg -I'll measure it again when I release the clamps!
Pat

Sheeting such a large (for me) wing was a bit daunting as I'd not done it before. So with the wing skeleton firmly clamped to the jig (also reducing the washout slightly) several sheets of 1/16 balsa were shuffled around, cut to size and taped together. The joints were glued with med. CA and the sheet sanded smooth. I fixed the skins with med CA except where they would need sanding - along the LE. This was stuck down with Titebond and clamped overnight.

After fixing a few places where the skin didn't glue to a rib () It was declared covered - on top only. I have to leave most of the underside open until the servos , flaps, landing gear etc is fitted - ages away!

Some foam profiles of the "glasshouse" and the engine nacelles were added to give me a feel of how big a task both will be. The nacelles, I may vacform as both left and right seem to be identical. The nose glazing? - still dreaming about it!

Pat

Superb!

Getting better by the minute!

But it is progress.....
The design requires that the tailplane be inserted into its place before the fuselage halves are joined. Also the tail pushrods. The tailplane was set in place, squared away and the fuselage top and bottom glued together with Titebond. I had to forgo my usual CA (sob) as a bit of working time was necessary to correctly align the parts. She was taped up and left for a day to dry. The wing is now fixed with 3/8 dowels in front and two 10-32 nylon bolts behind.

The mounting plates for the UC were attached to the engine bearers with bits of HW to make the retract mount level (the nacelles are at the same angle as the wings) I'm having some minor issues with this set of expensive EFlite retracts - they play up at voltages above 4.8 which is no good. Some replacements are coming.....

Currently I'm cutting bits for the ailerons - and working out how they are constructed

Pat

Does anybody have advice on the viability of a castering tailwheel on this sort of model? I only operate off grass and the design specifies that the tailwheel is castering, not rigid or steered. I cant do anything about internal steering now the fuselage is closed but it may be possible to extend the rudder control to below the fuselage and make a link if necessary.

Any thoughts?

Pat

Personally, I'd make it steerable if possible.. I've not had good luck with castering on pavement or grass.

Tony

A number of water flyers use differential thrust to help steering on water. If your radio is capable, maybe try a modicum of differential thrust that can be switched off once in air? I wouldn't think it should matter if the tailwheel swivels freely if set up that way. But then I've never tried it!

James

My experience is the reverse of Tony's Pat. On grass, my 50" Spitfire managed just fine. Had to be a touch judicious with the throttle of course, but as soon as you have any forward motion, the tail is going to lighten up and the rudder will work fine. Of course in a crosswind, you have issues and you won't be able to taxi back to the pits (unless they are directly up wind :-))

Regards,
Jeff

Maybe you can add a collar and a short pushrod coming from the main rudder pushrod, like the FMS Stuka.

Thanks for the comments and suggestions. I'll have a look at Tartago's suggestion - it would be fairly easy to do with an unobtrusive link.

Pat

Hi Pat
She's a beauty, great work! – I considered having a castoring tail wheel on my Guillows B17 conversions, but was advised by a number of modellers on this site to make it steerable – you can view my solution here http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showt...5#post22328953
Best
Charles

The ailerons were fairly easy tasks - sheeted both sides, balsa LE and ribs plus some local bulk to support the recessed Robart pin-hinges. The LE is recessed into the wing and the hinges recessed into aileron. Nothing special except I made some little points to push into the hinge holes in the wings then pushed the ailerons down into position, the points telling me where to drill the ailerons for the other side of the hinge. The wingtips still need to be addressed - having read VonJ's '109 thread, I'm reviewing options!

I guess I'll have to face those pesky flaps next!

Pat