Well I am building my third CF 105 Avro Arrow and I decided to do a construction thread for it. They say a picture is worth a thousand words so I will fill this up with pictures instead of text. The first pis are of Arrow #2 so you can see what you are getting. The whole plane is made out of 5 mil depron with a 5 mill carbon tube to strenghten the wing and fin. (I would use a 4 mill tube if I could find one) Start first by tracing out templates of the parts on the depron. Next cut out the parts with a new sharp # 11 exacto blade. These are not all of the parts as some have to be cut and fit once most of the building is done, but they will get the plane framed up. make a channel in the main wing and the trailing wing sections to accomodate the carbon tube. This can be done quite quickly if you cartefully cut out a 90 degree channel in the edge first and them wrap some 150 grit sandpaper arround a piece of carbon tube. Carefully sand a half circle in each side and roughen up the carbon ube with 150 grit sandpaper. Join them using either foam safe CA or epoxy. Do the same to the fin but simply glue the carbon tube to the fin and not the rudder.

Here is the wing and fin all glued up. Leave the tube long on the fin as it will aid in painting later and it will be trimmed to pass through through the wood engine mount.

Place the bottom on a flat surface and glue in the formers at the locations on the plans. Carefully glue the sides onto the bottom and the formers. Remember to bend up the front intake to match the side and glue it . Here is a pic of the fuse framed up. I am about to start adding the top sheeting and the nose.

Cool.. you can never have too many Arrow's. At this rate there should be more Arrows on this board than there were in real life..

right on mark,now i can watch it from start to mailing it to me,hahaha.money is in your account.

Arrow is getting closer. Rough sanded and primed in some spots.

Cool... looking forward to seeing plans(kit?) for this one.

I now have a link where you can see some video clips and download the plans in DXF ( Autocad) format. Go to www.madrc.com/depronavroarrow/.

Carved the canopy out of laminated depron. I also began painting and mounted a removeable fin assembly for shipping purposes. The fin's carbon tube passes through the fuse and is cut flush to the top and the bottom surfaces. A joiner is used inside the carbon tube in the fin so that the fin may be epoxied in place after shipping.

hi Mark.. yeah, the plans download isn't working.

That is a beautiful looking Arrow Mark. Can't wait for the plans to be up.

How does she fly? With that wing area I'd bet she's fairly well behaved. Is this a high performance pusher, or more of a park flyer? Power system, AUW?

I wonder if this thread will be only Canadians? So far it is


edit: ps if anybody wants any photos, drawings etc for detailing, I have the hardcover book put out by the Arrow group, contains pretty much all of the known surviving photos and drawings. I'd be happy to scan any of them. COme to think of it it's been years since I looked at it, I think I'll go have a read now!

Just finished taping the tiled plans together yesterday. I am impressed with the reinforcing tubes connecting to the motor mount connecting the entire structure together. Having neither depron or carbon fiber I think I may try Fanfold blue foam and wood. I have a CDrom motor I wound that would power it nicely however the gear whine of the GWS unit seems to suit the jet sound. The direct drive unit is almost silent. The mainly straight lines of the Arrow make the foam option easy. Straight as an Arrow. Wish my foam were white. A good Canadian plane probably shouldn't look like Tom Sawyer painted it. :-)
Rick

To anybody who I sent the dxf plans to: The plans have changed slightly (some formers) to include the New CG. It is impoortant to the flight of this plane!!! The cg is 10.5 inces forward from the the last former. Also the plan should be downloadable by 3:00 pm today at www.madrc.com/depronavroarrow/. If I have sent you the plans already, you should download the updated ones just to make sure things go smoothly. Thanks. Some more pics of construction to follow.

Did some more work on the Arrow. I installed the control horns using zip ties glued into embedded 1/4 inch balsa stiffeners. next is a pic of how the engine mount works. Painted the nose and the intakes and installed the intake deflector as per the plans. Painted the canopy window cut outs.

Hinged all surfaces with packaging tape cut down to 1 1/4 inch. Carved , painted and installed engine cooling vent. Printed scaled down decals on clear adhesive mylar and fuelproofed them. ( only clear I had.) This is how she looks right now. More to come.