bling free...yeah right.....

Calm down, Froggy...

Originally Posted by schrederman

Calm down, Froggy...

LOL...woodie...lol.

Whats all this chatter about woody's then, I don't understand it... Must be a cultural thing or something you guys have.

Originally Posted by dwells

bling free...yeah right.....

Hmmm, I do see your point.. Well, I can cheerfully defend myself by saying that the flaps only ended up that way 'cause I was to lazy to build them up. So the solid balsa flaps met the drill press and went on a diet. Come to think of it, the pretty pattern is only a bi-product of rationalisation, so, in essence there is no blingyness to them...

Hey, check out this little sloper hybrid i knocked up last year, just to prove my aversion to all things bling..... its so damn ugly you have to love it;


Actually my father has done this to it on his wandering travels, it was once almost even pretty, almost.

Originally Posted by GDbot

Whooaa! atmosteve cover it in transparent.

GD I reckon so, but I'm having the devil of a time getting my hands on the purple transparent film I want for it. It has to be purple for some reason. If I can't get it, then solid purple/mauve will have to do, and it would be less blingy too hahahaha.

Wow, that's one ugly plane Steve. Let me guess, the top side is burnt orange... . I've never seen such a pattern of holes in a control surface, very cool .

Hi again all, progress has been patchy as usual, and the olympics on the idiot box didn't help either. So far, happy with the results on my OlyIII, which is saying something due to the constant see-sawing humidity that old murphy decided to give me since the start of the build. Plus life has conveniently got in the way too, but with I won't go into that.



The next thing was to hinge the flaps, the solartex iron-on hinging material has worked well.






Then it was onto the outer wing panel build, here we was, having a beer (or two) while tapering the sheer webs before gluing assembly




The tender job of glueing and setting the wing panels... breath holding time..






Checking alignment allround, looking good so far touch wood, there looks to be no real unplanned wash in the Oly skeleton, for someone like me that hasn't built a large woody for a while, its an moment.




That being the case... phew... time to assign the D sheeting, but not before taking the time to shape the ribs to make a consistent LE line and rib top with 320 grade sandpaper.




Then it was the leading edges of the outer panels, and other general farting around and fussing. Here are some pics of the unfinished build. Basically all the little woody parts have been assembled and very roughly finished.




So whats left now is assesing things like alignments and angle of incidence (the tailplanes are taped on in these pics) finishing the forming of the surfaces, then filming using my garish fluro green and transparent violet and yellow film mixture.
Not looking forward to the covering, but really going to enjoy finishing her off with sandpaper, always loved that part of wood aeromodelling, getting as nice and as slippery a surface as is sensibly possible
None of this is as simple as the pics and my words might convey. While being an uncomplicated build overall in terms of components, I've found the Oly III to be a bit more challenging in terms of your planning and consideration to its assembly. It does suit model builders of all experience levels IMHO, but only if they have a good grasp of the principles, both in construction accuracy and resulting aerodynamics, the plans are not comprehensive but thats ok if you know what you want to do, but all the essential info is there, plus heaps of support if needed.







This used to be a kitchen!


I recommend building on your kitchen bench. Food, music, and entertainment are close at hand, and there is no cold walk inside and out if your workshop is outside the house.

Cheers for reading.

Getting close Steve..
Comp in Bundy next weekend - see you there?

cheers jeff

Lookin Snazzie dude....


Wylie S.

Originally Posted by jirvin_4505

Getting close Steve..
Comp in Bundy next weekend - see you there?

cheers jeff

Sadly not as a competitor Jeff, thats the life getting in the way part I mentioned earlier. Shame as its So close a venue. A friend and I will be visiting though if transport (my problem) works out.



Thanks Wylie.

Now isn't that beautiful, the birth of the Holy OLY lll, sorry couldn't resist.

Here is a caution on the use of flaps as a thermalling aide, their is a learning curve to overcome the tendancy to drop the flaps too much. An 1/8 of an inch can be excessive when working light lift, down flaps are all about drag, a slight amount of negative flaps are all about reducing drag.

Looks like your doing a great job and enjoying the build.

Ray
http://www.skybench.com
Home of Wood Crafters

Thanks Ray, trying my best to build her straight and true. There's always an uncertainty on how a new model will react when flown, and thats quite a bit of flap I have there, thanks too for the thermalling tip. This will be my first (proper) large thermaller that has flaps, in the past used only spoilers if needed.
I am letting the spoilers go for now just to see how accurately I can pin a landing with or without flaps, and to save weight, retro fitting spoilers isn't a hard job.
Can't wait to see her take to the air, but have to be patient.

I fly my Challenger with flaps that have a much smaller root then what you created and they are very effective. Set the flap coupling with the stab to allow a bit of down flap before the stab is accuated if you decide not use a coupling on-off switch. A very good pilot has flown his Challenger as an RES ( has system to lock the flaps to pass the RES contest director inspection )and prefers not using the flaps. I like to fly my Challenger with the flaps raised 3/32 " to increase the speed.

So your into a whole new ball game with flaps.

But for landing purposes they are superior to spoilers only:

.... after many serious ... lengthy practice and coupling setting sessions ...

Maybe a years worth of flying in all conditions to really get on to them for landing and thermalling.

And then you could also experiement with a flaperon setting.

Adding a photo ( not very good ) I took during our Vacation of a flock of White Pelicans ... their wings are 3 Meters.

Ray
http://www.skybench.com
Home of Wood Crafters

Thats a great photo Ray, I'm often soaring with pelicans here on the coast, pelicans don't like planes to much it turns out, Aussie ones at least. I always knew I wanted to get back into RC thermalling, all my life I just have to stop and observe any thermalling birds I come across, which is most often when travelling along some road. Sometimes around these parts we get Brolga's and Jabiru's using lift off the blacktop, an awesome sight.

I'm hoping the years I've spent flying some of my power and slope planes that had flaps might be a help, but generally in the past I didn't bother using even spoilers to much when doing a TD event with the slower wood thermallers, but that was back in more innocent times.
So I'm really looking forward to this, should be something new to learn for sure. My multiplex radio handles flap mixes, it will take me a little time and a good number of launches to find sweet spots. As you mentioned, the glider could still be elligable for a res event with only a few minutes work.

ATMO,

In the picture of the right outboard wing panel, the rib notches do not seem to line up with the spar cap. Is that an illusion or am I not seeing it correctly?

Thanks
Ron

Hi Ron, perhaps what you see is the rib notches that butt up to the top D panel sheeting that fits over the spruce spar? In one of the other pics, the second one, the capped spar was not yet fitted. Which pic was it where you saw the effect?
Steve.