The Patron Saint of bringing awesome new toys to middle aged men stopped by my house this afternoon.

Thought I was going to have to wait till next week, before this gem showed up.

Holy moly Rocky this thing is righteous, it's been a few years since I got a new DLG, and the last one I got I am at least the third owner.

It's looking like the final weight will be cracking around 10oz. My current Encore is 11.3oz. so this will be a change of pace weight wise.

I'm not building it for ultra light weight gas bag performance. The plan is more for very good performance, and durability. It will just mainly be my drag it out in the backyard, and fly with the occasional pack it up, and fly it somewhere else.

I'm so glad I sprang for this I really like the bagged solid foam core, and the construction is brilliant. Good job Validol making elves in Santa's shop.

Hopefully I'll make a big dent in the last of the set up to be done tomorrow, maybe even finish it off.

Ploof

Are they all Kevlar wings? She looks purdy.

That's the best looking kevlar wing I've ever seen. Reminds me of those orange cream-sicles. Do you know if it's painted or if it's pigments in the resin?

I'm right behind you Chris. I'll start building mine in December.

Nice Dave that's a pretty nice looking paint scheme. I'm really impressed with this kit.

I got quite a bit of work done on it today, but still have a way to go.

Jonboylemon: They also have a sread tow layup I'm aware of. I'm more comfortable with mending Kevlar skins when needed so I figured I'd stick with that, also I figure it stays cooler in direct sun.

bwill: I feel pretty confident this is painted in the mold before the layup is performed, then the paint sticks to the layup. This results in a light weight durable paint application.

Here's some of what I managed today.

Validol's wing and fuse deserve better looking set of tails.
IMO.
Yuri

They aren't the coolest looking DLG tails I've ever seen, but they definitely aren't the worst. I'm not really wild about the look of the swept back tips, but the structural necessities in it's form are well done.

There is something that I have always liked about the design of DLGs that weighs heavier on the side on utilitarian needs while still trying to remain somewhat pleasing to the eye.


I'm also not a real big fan of the pylon design, but still I think this fuse is really great looking. It's pretty slender, but has offered plenty of room for install. I still have to find a way to install ballast with out getting to tangled with the various wiring that gets in the way at this point.

Chris,
Thanks for posting the gear installation pictures and comments. Nicely done and looking forward to flight reports.
I was given second choice from the current batch and am glad to see that the pretty orange one went to you and will live here in the Pacific Northwest. The green ValleyDoll is on track to arrive home today and I am excited! I just may sneak out of work early to go see it.
I doubt if my progress will be as quick as yours but shouldn’t have any problem finishing up before Dave (come on Dave, that red on black is beautiful!).

Hope we can all meet up some day and reunite these planes.
Craig

Yah we need a group photo

Geez you guys, get a room!

Looking forward to seeing these beauties. Chris, you must make some of our contests next season. Whidbey is a 15 min ferry ride!

Rick

Made a little more head way this evening after work. I'm almost thinking about swapping out the Carbon Fiber rods for steel wire just to simplify the install, and keep the install clean looking. After eyeballing some of the installs on the groups here I'm thinking I might give it a try. I'm thinking the looks of the heat shrink tube, and L-bend wire might not be worthy of this machine.

Ploof

For some reason I can only upload one photo per post here?

Here's another shot

She looks great just sitting there. Love the orange and white cremecicle scheme.

Originally Posted by ploof

... I'm almost thinking about swapping out the Carbon Fiber rods for steel wire just to simplify the install, and keep the install clean looking. After eyeballing some of the installs on the groups here I'm thinking I might give it a try. I'm thinking the looks of the heat shrink tube, and L-bend wire might not be worthy of this machine.

Chris, heat shrink and L-bend wire have been used on many great models and I assure you are worthy of this one too.
When attaching L-bends, make sure to rough up the wire surface a little and not touch it with fingers to avoid skin fat contamination - CA glue will not gab the wire well unless it is clean and rough.

Steel pushrods are normally of smaller diameter than carbon rods (0.020" is a good wire size), and require a smaller teflon tubing to work properly. If you use a smaller diameter steel pushrod as you are supposed to, the installed teflon tubing will be too large for it and you will have some free play in the pushrod. If you use the same diameter steel wire as the carbon rods (0.030" or so), the pushrods will be horribly heavy. But I know some people do in fact use large wire up to 0.032".
If you definitely want to switch to steel wire, you can try something like 0.025" if you have it: not extremely heavy and may work OK in the currently installed teflon tubing.

I was concerned about the steel rod diameter, bummer.

That steel rod method looks so clean.

I've setup up with the L- bend, and heat shrink method a few times before. I think I'll be able to get something halfway clean looking together.

Ploof