Ouch Ryan feel for you. Thats why I like doing the design and then sending to a laser cutter so there can be no mistakes

After recovering from the festivities of Friday night I went back to work on it Saturday afternoon. The chop the fuselage in half and add an inch option won out. I think I added enough structure in to make up for the sheeting being cut since the fuselage top was meant to be structural across that area and is now not. I added a few 1/4" squares across the seperation up to the front of the wing and extending back to the rear of the wing mount. After that I went on and trimmed the wing and got the leading edge dowel in place. I cleared off my wing alignment fixture (aka kitchen table) put the wing and fuse together finally and got the wing mount blocks and in. She finally goes together and looks like a plane finally a year after being started.

The fuselage and tail are now 1% larger then drawn. The wing and nacelle's are 6% larger then drawn. The wing and everything on it are 5% proportionately larger then the fuselage. Hopefully won't be too noticeable. Otherwise it will just look hot rodded with larger engines.

Ryan -

Great going there. Nice views of the model.

Whew Ryan, you are a brave man. I stuggle with the wing/fuse fit anyway, but having to saw the poor dear in half - yikes. Looks really good though, you did a first rate job.

Cheers,
Jeff

Thanks. Not as bad as it first seemed. Just have to be careful to keep things aligned while reattaching things. The saddle didn't have to be changed much after the stretch. Only about an 1/8" strip to shave off at the thickest part of the rib.

Finished up filling in the fuselage behind the horizontal stab and epoxied on the vertical fin tonight. I think time to make the elevators and rudders next. My last cut out parts still sitting on the shelf.

Well recovered!
I keep looking in here from time to time to check out progress.
The stress on the cut-and-paste section is not huge so no cause for alarm on that score.
I have to say that, whilst sympathising with you in the discovery and recovery (and the strain on nerves!) I have not had personal experience of that particular problem. Even if my drawings get damp and swell a bit I just land up with a slightly larger model because I permanently fix the nose section to the wing centre section then cover the join area with thin plastic while I build the tail section on. That way it always fits and the tail removes to afford the biggest access area to the workings that one could wish for. Not a helpful bit of information at this point, but maybe valuable for the next build.

On the subject of next build there are definitely Dragon Rapide part kits available in UK, so must be over there too. I am currently designing it's smaller brother the Dragonfly - and I am DEFINITELY not going to cut out all those different wing ribs by hand!

But better not distract from the main point - which is to get your Maryland into the air! (By the spring?)

This will definetely be ready and waiting for the spring unless it gets side tracked here somewhere for another project again. The what's left list is getting very small now.
Rudder
Elevators
Sand wing and cutout the ailerons
Sheet the center fuselage section
Build 2 cowls.
Cover
What will be the biggest challenge left, learn how to vacumn form to make the nose and cockpit windows.
Paint
Fly

This thing has a cavern as it is with the wing opening since the root rib is already over 18inches at the fuselage joint with about 5 inches of width.

That is an interesting idea to build the nose to the wing and put the joint in the fuse. Never thought of that way. I can see that I would have a difficult time building the fuse if I had to do it attached to the wing inside my building room which is why all my assembled plane pictures are always shown in the kitchen. Maybe with a 50inch wingspan I could manage that.

Who is making the Rapide part kids in the UK? The only kit I know of here in the US is the little Dumas one. Ivan's plans are the only ones I've seen for a larger one. It's not a common or popular plane this side of the ocean at all. I'm probably pyscho in that I really don't mind cutting wing ribs. It's fuselage formers that drive me nuts which is why they were kept to an absolute minimum on this thing. After remembering about the little Dumas one I am getting some tingling towards picking up one to make a go at the Fun Build with it.

Originally Posted by jhspring

Whew Ryan, you are a brave man. I stuggle with the wing/fuse fit anyway, but having to saw the poor dear in half - yikes. Looks really good though, you did a first rate job.

Cheers,
Jeff

Too right!

Pat Trittle has a De H. Rapide thread on RCGroups, might be a bit too small for you...
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=559571

And I found some info on Vacuum forming which worked out quite well for me..
http://www.instructables.com/id/Make...-plastic-vacu/

Here's my vac forming effort...http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showt...=878408&page=6

Lovely job... Good luck!

Nick

Wow! that's one labour-intensive vac setup! (The second link - Not yours Nick - yours is a bit like mine!)
Mine is somewhat simpler and takes a lot less storage space.
It relies on an old vacuum cleaner (buy the wife a nice new one to save the ears!) and a heat gun.Stick the cleaner's suction nozzle in the vice, pop the box on top, insert a bit of plastic sheet (recycle old packing?) between the rubber strips (bits cut from old inner tubes) of the hinged sections, do up clips, play heat gun on plastic until it goes floppy, turn on vacuum cleaner, whack the top down, leave motor howling for a couple of seconds and then turn off motor, release the sheet, and cut your part free.
Simple enough. The other half of the job is carving the blank (mould) from wood or MDF of course - that is fixed to the centre vent with a screw from the back.

The left-over bits of plastic sheet can be used for all the little intakes and outlets as per the second picture.

Third picture is my standard kit of parts for transport to the field. Takes about five minutes to assemble, instal battery packs and switch on ready to call 'taking off!' That's my 112" Percival Q6.

Had to wait for flying buddy to get back from the field (too windy to tempt me out today) to get details of the Dragon Rapide kit he purchased.
He says it's to a Sweitzer plan available from Jerry Bates who can supply various moulded parts and his kit cost him £240 from Belair in UK. The model spans 98" and is 1:6 scale.

Hi Ryan, very nice plane and a superb re-work you have done to fix the problem of wing and fuselage missmatch.
Remember my Martin flew very well. Hope you don't mind if I post a couple of pics.
Francesco

Thanks for the vacumn forming links. That will be really helpful when I get to those soon.

Originally Posted by nibbio

Hi Ryan, very nice plane and a superb re-work you have done to fix the problem of wing and fuselage missmatch.
Remember my Martin flew very well. Hope you don't mind if I post a couple of pics.
Francesco

Post away. It looks great. What are the specs for it? Is it your own plans?

Originally Posted by RyanPSU21

Post away. It looks great. What are the specs for it? Is it your own plans?

Yes, it has been scratch built following drawings I drew with Autocad.
The plane has 1,70 m wing span, weighs 2,8 Kg and flew with a pair of Speed 600 and 8x4 props on a battery pack of 8 NiCd 2400 mAh.
Now is a little bit damage and is awaiting (since one year ) to be restored and to be flown again.
Flight performance was not so sparkling but it can be said that a scale flight attitude was achieved.
I look forward to see your beauty in the air so I'll follow your thread closely.
Ciao,
Francesco

I've got the tail feather basic structures built up. The rudder has some more gratuitious laminations going on since there is no straight line in the contour anyways. The rudder is going to present some challenge just due to the width it is at the rear of the fuselage. Some form of more scale hinge then easy hinges is probably going to be needed to make this work.

Yes, I reckon you're stuck with doing the rudder the scale way! With the scale shape there is no real alternative. I used 1/16" ply strips with wire pins but found the fixing into the fin (and elevator) a little shaky!