Jon

Your right it's not as pretty, but it sure looks rugged. Tried twisting my XC stabs. Nothing, no movement at all. But at a cost, without rods they weigh about 4 oz. An idea....Oh..Oh...you could make up both sets of stabs, so they'd be interchangeable. On light air days, use the original stabs while removing some lead from nose to balance. On heavy air days replace lead and use new stabs. Just one of many dumb ideas that seem to find their way into this small brain. The new stabs do look like Viking stabs, just checked out pic on Ray Hayes' web site.

erich

Now that this project seems to be nearing completion, I'm getting a lot more motivated to get little bits of work done on it here and there. Sprinted home from work today and knocked together the rudder in about 45 minutes. Notice I did enlarge is slightly and change the profile a bit. I figure that since most gasbags tend to be a bit sluggish in the yaw axis, and because my wings are a bit heavier than the original's, a larger rudder might be useful. It's built in a similar fashion to the stabs- very strong, but needs a LOT of sanding.
Not sure if I'll get much done this weekend. The Amgen Tour of California bike race is passing through, so my wife and I are going to ride part of the race course before the big boys come through, and then camp out by the finish line. Should be a nice change from breathing balsa dust!

Found a photo of Bob and Durex lV and Bob landing Durex V I was timeing for another perfect flight Yours is looking good Your hard work with all that sanding will pay off a great flyer Enjoy Craig

Built the fin this evening. I really like the way this plane has a sort of "box" built around the bellcrank. It's made of 1/32" ply. What's nice is that you can cut out both pieces of ply at the same time, and drill the bearing hole in both, so that as long as you place them properly, it ensures that you stab is very close to being perfectly square to the fin. As far as getting the ply placed right, both the tailpost and the 1/2" leading edge block are recessed 1/32" on each side so the ply kind of drops right into proper alignment. Neat method! As soon as the glue dries on the fin, I'm going to assemble the whole plane and drool over it
Jon

Here's all the major parts assembled. A quick check of alignment shows everything is very close to being perfect. One exception- I seem to have given the wings a VERY slight sweep-back. Oh well, seeing as the tip panels have a pretty substantial forward sweep on the TE, I'll just have to shift the CG back a touch. Anyway, this plane is looking a lot better than I ever expected. Still have a lot of shaping and sanding, though.
Jon

Looks great, especially the fuselage, in 3rd photo. Stab fits in pretty good with the Durex design. Really like the rounded front portion of fuselage. Never cared much for the real pointy front ends. That looks good on rockets and missiles, not gliders. Looking forward to your cover scheme. Once your finished with all that sanding.

erich

One thing I have found with built-up sailplanes like this when it comes to sanding. When you think you are done sanding you are really only about 1/3 of the way done. The extra work pays off.

Great job on the Durex.

Mark Miller

From experience I can tell you, Mark is absolutely right. You could start one of those western bars, with all the saw dust I've made.

erich

Last weekend I built one of my little Zephyr II HLG kits. I am always am amazed how much wood you can sand off that kit. In the end though you get a nice rounded fuselage that is still strong. Round and curves are a thing of beauty.

Mark

Yeah, I know what you guys mean by all the sanding. Although I think that one of the keys is also knowing when to stop sanding- you could almost go on forever. I figure I'll sand the fuselage until I bite into the internal 1/2" triangles, and then sand to a smooth radius. I think the sanding is not just for looks, it's also about weight savings. As seen in the previous pictures, the model is just a hair under 48 oz. It'll be interesting to see how much weight comes off during the shaping process.
Mark and Erich, thanks for the compliments. That's always a big motivator to get things done well.
Jon

Working on blending all the main parts together. Attached the fin to the fuselage and connected the pushrod to the bellcrank. Then added the added the rest of the 1/4" sheeting around the rear fuselage. Also did the final shaping of the wing fillets.
It's looking like it's going to need a bit of noseweight, so I just ordered a 4-cell pack of GP2200's. Should give plenty of air time. There's also a bunch of places where I can shave some weight aft.
Jon

How are you planning to hinge the surfaces?
Bob

Another reason why my wife thinks I'm insane: I built this neat little plane carrier. I suppose I could have bought a commercial unit, but where's the fun in that?

Bob- as far as hinges go, I'm using polypropylene "live" hinges.
Jon

I glued on the fairing blocks for the stab to fin joint. Had to add some scrap so it would match the contour of the fin. Still haven't decided if I'm going to glass or monokote this area. It could use the extra strength from the glass, but it's already pretty rigid, and I don't want to add too much weight aft.
Finally finished doing the rough sanding on the fuse. Now I need to go over it with the fine stuff. Since the weather is supposed to be awful in SoCal for a few days, I'm hoping I can get the fuse glassed this weekend. I also want to try and get my spoilers set up.

I really want to make sure that the wing and fuselage mate very closely. I really hate having to tape the joints.
I sanded and filled the wing roots so they fit the fuselage as closely as possible, then I cut a piece of 1/32" ply that would cover the wing root. I cut holes in it for the wing rod and incidence pins and slid it on the wing rod. I then smeared titebond on the wing root and slid on the wing and butted it up against the fuse. Once it dries, I can fill any gaps and then sand it to match the wing. That should give a perfectly flush mating surface with the fuse.