The whole reason why I decided to do this bird is because I could not find a kit for it. Yes, plan on a short kit. I will post some more pics later.

Tom

Well I started building the fuselage. There is certain order how I designed the parts for the tail. I designed the tail to interlock into the fuselage. This makes it sturdy. For the rear piece of the fuselage, I put two pieces of 1/32" plywood over the squares that the vertical stab fits into. I did this because I wanted the vertical stab to be perfectly straight. Next I attached the rear of the fuselage to the bottom keel. Then I glued both side keels to together. This is the startup of framing the fuselage. See the pictures.

Tom

I've been wondering when someone would do a Tommie!

Signing on, can't wait to see it unfold.

<--he who, like everyone else, flew a Traumahawk "back in the day"

Originally Posted by N827TM

The whole reason why I decided to do this bird is because I could not find a kit for it. Yes, plan on a short kit. I will post some more pics later.

Tom

Excellent - let us know!

Mike

Originally Posted by Odysis

I've been wondering when someone would do a Tommie!

Signing on, can't wait to see it unfold.

<--he who, like everyone else, flew a Traumahawk "back in the day"

I found it a little traumatic to watch the tail surfaces tremble in the airflow when I looked over my shoulder in the Tomahawk....

Always wanted to fly the similar Beech Skipper...have heard it was a better aircraft than the Tomahawk.

Was always a Cessna guy, but loved the Varga Kachina 2150A and the Grumman American Tiger as well.

Yeah, I made the mistake of looking backward on accelerated stalls (~2g). Bad idea! After that, I flew the PC9 (T6 Texan II). Much better for it!

On that subject, you may need to make the tail of this thing out of solid carbon fibre :P

Here is the start of the build of the fuselage. I marked both sides and bottom Keel where the bulkheads go. Next I attached the rear bulkhead to the bottom keel. I then put the 2nd last bulkhead forward on the bottom keel. Then I glued the right side keel in place. I made sure the rear bulkheads were in place before I glued the keels in place. I then finish gluing in the rest of the bullheads in order back to front. Once the bullheads for the wings were in placed I glued in the wing saddles. The last thing glued in here was the vertical stab. To give you all a little eye candy I rested the horizontal on top of the vertical stab. Here are some more pictures.

Yes, I had a lot of fun in the Tomahawk. It was cool plane to fly. It was nice and roomy, the visibility was awesome. The Tomahawk was definitely more comfortable than the Cessna 150. Although, the Tomahawk was not very comforting watching the tail buffet and shake as it entered the stall.

Tom

Sweet !
Im on.

Ken

Maybe the reason I didn't mind flying it was that I didn't stall it...just flew around. Maybe the guy that checked me out told me not to. Too long ago to remember. Cannot wait to try your short kit.

Looking good! And I think you have a half dozen short kits spoken for already?

Here are some more pics. Two of the pics are basically different angles of what you have seen. The other picture is where the I strengthen the fuselage for the bubble canopy.

Tom

Love this airplane !

-Rus

Yeah, great job!

Thanks everyone for the nice comments. Here is the bubble canopy. I framed up the bubble canopy and then glued it to the fuselage. The canopy is real basic. I framed it up, and then installed the windows. After that I glued it to the top of the fuselage. Then I filled the top of the canopy with 1/4 balsa and sanded it round. I also went ahead and glued the rear upper stringers. This plane is starting to take some shape. I will next begin working on the wing.

Tom

Here is the start of the framing of the wings. I used 1/16" balsa for the sheeting. The Spars are 1/8 spruce and the main spar is 1/4 X 3/8 balsa. Here are some pics.

Tom