I have to say...... That looks really nice!!!!

Ron

Originally Posted by Speedo125

Here ya go Dalton. Still no joy in my mailbox, so I dug up some old nitro plane wheels and stuck 'em on there for the pictures.

That's blue masking tape doing temporary duty holding the control surfaces in place. I'll hinge those and hook up pull-pull links to the tail tomorrow.

The balsa LE will get a radius sanded into it and a couple coats of polycrylic too.

I've really been enjoying this build, and I'm eager to fly it.

Thom

WOW!! and double WOW!! That is a sweet looking BowStick!

I love the logo! You're quite an artist and I love the trike LG. I love everything about it! It looks better than mine. Give me a close-up of that logo.

Post more pictures when finished and be sure an video it flying and post it as well.

I really really like it Thom! (as you can tell)

GREAT JOB!
Dalton

Thom,
I want to build a trike model now! Can you steer the nose wheel on your BowStick?

Hey Ron,
I'm glad you did the plans on this one! Looks nice doesn't it?

I'm so excited about your plane. My wife said that the LG looks like a bow as well, and it does. How did you mount it to the stick?

I like the lite ply or balsa bow on the wing LE. Did you glue it in place? Looks better than the tape holding the CF that's on mine.

The more I look at your plane the more I see. You have really made a lot of improvements.

Dalton

Originally Posted by DaDesign

I'm so excited about your plane. My wife said that the LG looks like a bow as well, and it does. How did you mount it to the stick?

I like the lite ply or balsa bow on the wing LE. Did you glue it in place? Looks better than the tape holding the CF that's on mine.

The more I look at your plane the more I see. You have really made a lot of improvements.

Dalton

I am seeing the signs of a proud father!!!!! He has kinda gone giddy.
I do like seeing those plans put to such good use!

Ron

Thank you guys! I've simply taken a very good design and "tweaked" it a little bit to satisfy the artist in me.

The trike gear kinda gives it a fighter plane look, don't you think? It cries out for a red and white carrier arresting hook, but perhaps that's just my imagination running wild. That happens a lot.

I'm attaching some close-up photo's of the steerable nose wheel arrangement. To make it, I drilled a vertical hole through the stick and CA'd in a piece of brass tubing. A short piece of wire rod runs down through that, and wheel collars top and bottom keep it in place. A servo arm was press fit (very tight) onto the wire for rotational control. It is not glued, so that it acts as a servo-saver in the event that the nose wheel strikes something on the ground.

The lower end of the steel rod is CA'd into a piece of carbon tube. At the lower end of the carbon tube I've glued in another piece of steel rod which was bent to shape. The whole strut could be done with one piece of steel rod, but I wanted to save some weight with the carbon. I'm considering a shock absorber spring inside the tube, but that'll be for later, after she flys.

The upper steel rod has a slight forward angle bent into it. It causes the nose wheel to tilt a little when turned, improving the ground handling. Those Dubro wheels/tires are way too heavy for electric use, but I'm still waiting for my new wheels and servos to arrive from Hong Kong.

I can't claim much credit for the artwork. I made it up using Printshop 21. It was inkjet printed onto a piece of tissue paper (taped to a carrier sheet) and placed on the wing. I then covered the entire wing with a piece of .75 oz FG and spread West Systems epoxy into it. The resin causes the glass cloth and the tissue paper to disappear, leaving only the printed image. I spread the resin with a piece of cardboard cut from a cereal box or one of those promotional credit cards that we often receive as junk mail. After filling the weave, I scrape off as much of the resin as I can to save weight. My Dollar Store foam wing was too wimpy anyway. Using contact cement, I glued a piece of carbon to the leading edge and glued the balsa over that. I believe that a radius on the LE tames the stall a wee bit on these flat plate wings.

The main gear is through-bolted to the stick with the same #6 bolts that I bought for the axles. The axles are 12 degrees aft of the designed CG. The shape of the main gear was carefully made to follow the bow design concept.

Thom

Originally Posted by daoldguy

I am seeing the signs of a proud father!!!!! He has kinda gone giddy.
I do like seeing those plans put to such good use!

Ron

I did get giddy! I'm blown away with Thom BowStick.
He is a good builder. Can't wait to see it finished and flying.
It's a real high to see one of your designs built by someone else.

Originally Posted by Speedo125

I can't claim much credit for the artwork. I made it up using Printshop 21. It was inkjet printed onto a piece of tissue paper (taped to a carrier sheet) and placed on the wing. I then covered the entire wing with a piece of .75 oz FG and spread West Systems epoxy into it. The resin causes the glass cloth and the tissue paper to disappear, leaving only the printed image. I spread the resin with a piece of cardboard cut from a cereal box or one of those promotional credit cards that we often receive as junk mail. After filling the weave, I scrape off as much of the resin as I can to save weight. My Dollar Store foam wing was too wimpy anyway. Using contact cement, I glued a piece of carbon to the leading edge and glued the balsa over that. I believe that a radius on the LE tames the stall a wee bit on these flat plate wings.

Thom

Hi Thom,
I took my BowStick out today and flew it for quite awhile. Made many landings. I love to fly that plane!
Thanks for all the info. I will have to get some .75 oz Fiber Glass. Any recommendations on where to buy?

I'm happy to hear that you were able to fly today. I'm eager to do so myself. Of course, that'll have to wait until I can actually see the ground. It's covered with several feet of "that white stuff" at the moment.

I found my .75 glass cloth in a 100 yd roll for something like 10 bucks on ebay.

Z-poxy finishing resin will work for this application. I usually do my finish glass work with Minwax Polycrylic because; a. It's water based, B. I'm not allergic to it, and C; Because it's much lighter than epoxy resin. However, it doesn't make the tissue paper disappear quite like the epoxy resin does.

I gotta go figure out those arresting cables. I'm thinking of outlining a carrier deck on the pavement and mock up a carrier "island" with an loose stack of 2" thick blue foam blocks.

Thom

Originally Posted by Speedo125

I gotta go figure out those arresting cables. I'm thinking of outlining a carrier deck on the pavement and mock up a carrier "island" with an loose stack of 2" thick blue foam blocks.

Thom

E-Fest this year in Champaign Illinois, one of the RCGers showed up with an Air Craft Carrier made from Blue Fan Fold Foam and they were having carrier landing contests on it. I thing the Vapors had the advantage.

I saw a video of that. It appeared that the carrier was taking a lot of "evasive action."

Originally Posted by bigdaddy61362

Thanks for everything. I will post a pic when I get it together.


Walter

Greetings Walter;

How you coming with your BowStick?

We haven't heard from you in awhile.

Dalton

Originally Posted by ChrisE

Thank you for sharing. If you are still following this thread what size was the carbon fibre that you used for the wing leading edge. Was it rod, tube or strip?

Hello to our friend in England;

Are you building and how is your progress?

Would love to know how you're doing.

Keep in touch!

Dalton

Originally Posted by Speedo125

Here are some pics of my molded ply LG.
Thom

I made these wheels for a pietenpol model I'm building. I think I'm use them with your LG when I build my next BowStick.

Originally Posted by DaDesign

I made these wheels for a pietenpol model I'm building. I think I'm use them with your LG when I build my next BowStick.

Very nice details on DaFabrication work!

Ron

PS......FYI
One of our RCG'ers has suffered a huge loss.
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1009597