Notice the new date above,after rechecking the SAM list and as I should know, she's a 1936 product.
Not much happening the past week due to other stuff going on. I did get in the shop today for a bit and moved ahead some. The ignition 'pod' is done with covering,paint and the ignition system all installed along with the Brown Jr. I made up the sidecheeks for the electric pod and glued them to the firewall,still have to sand them to final shape and make the motor mount. Finished off the wheels and landing gear by trimming bushings and gear wire. I decided to go with wheel collars as I found some nice small ones in 1/8" size.
Also change the bowdens as the Golden Rod blue ones just were too glaring. They were replaced by Great Planes of the same type but in balck.

Maybe tomorrow I can get time to start covering the fuselage, but it's my turn to cut the club field so I might fly afterwards instead.

Little bits and pieces today. Installed hinges (temporary), assembled empennage and cut out gap for elevator on ther rudder. Finally glued the cowl roof on after doing all the work in the forward bay. I lied about the wheels too. I put the M&M's on her and didn't like them after all. Sooooo..I made up wood "hubcaps" from some bass wood, painted them and epoxied in place on the Sullivan 3 1/2" Skylite wheels. Drilled holes and installed wing hold down dowels for rubber bands. Still to go is making the stab mount,I am not sure what direction I am going with it yet.

Weight as she sits with all gear but no covering is 3 lb. 10 ozs. Should easily be around 8 oz./sq.ft. wing loading as the free flight orignal was.

Back at it in the shop after a short break to fly in the Open Soar FXJ Sailplane Contest last weekend. Made some progress today including making the mounting platform for and doing the intial setup of the ignition system and making up the landing gear. Not much left wood wise to do, covering is right around the corner (no pun intended..).

A bit more from today. Finally setup the Brown Jr. on the test stand and got her running pumping gasoline and 70 wt. through her veins. She is easy to start and sounds strong,can't wait to hear her pulling the Miss Delaware skyward.
Battery hatch is done, receiver mount is made up and installed,all four gear clips made up and nose piece fitted but needs final sanding yet. Still to go is cowling roof,empennage mount on fuselage,make up the ignition system and make the mount for it on the aft side of the firewall and knock out the electric power nose piece.

This morning's work, had a little spare time so made some saw dust before heading off to work.

16 June-added a couple photos of some more progress plus a little side project for the epoxy bottles. Cobbled up a stand for the bottles from some scrap 2 x 6 so epoxy is at top of bottle.

Also made up a little jig to bend up some brass sheet for landing gear clips. These will be soldered to gear so as to stop it from shifting sideways whcih was a problem on the previous Miss...Continue Reading

Just a couple photos of this morning shop results and it's coming along well. Fuselage even with the ply buildups is still coming in pretty light at just under 13ozs.
For the Brown Jr. LMR class there is no minumum wing loading or total weight requirements,so light is the way to go.

13 June update:Nose block epoxied together but still needs reinforcing fibreglass applied to inside corner and veneer to outsides. 1/16 ply cowling roof is was wetted and is being shaped with rubber bands holding it into place.

The shop was humming today making dust and parts. I managed a good 7 hour shot of soilid building time and made some progress. Assorted modifications were made to bring the original 1938 free flight engineering up to snuff for R/C operation and some odd design quirks were dealt with. The tail skid was a problem on the old plane as it would work loose and turn almost as on a swivel after a bit. The new tailskid has an extra bend at the top to lock it into place and is keyed in with epoxy.
The cabin area doublers were installed and the wing mount area was modified with a 1/4 x 1/2 spreader piece that aligns with the wing's trailing edge. There was no provision on the plan for rubber band dowels and I think the original had inner tube hold down that went clear round the fuselage. I made up some 1/4 hard balsa pads that will accept 1/4 dowels for the red 114B rubber bands.
Exit sheets for bowdens were fitted up aft in the bay before the stab mount. Main landing gear pads were cobbled up from some 1/4 birch ply to replace the original method of lashing the gear to the fuslelage spreaders with thread and glue.

Glue spots from CA look really bad in the photos....Continue Reading

Finally back to working on my old gurlfriend Miss Delaware. Fuselage is laid up and coming along nicely. The 30 year old wing is all stripped of old covering,checked and repaired for any structural problems and ready to be covered. Emmpenage parts have been done for some time and only need fitting up and covering. There is yet another change in power plants as I am going to fly her in the SAM Brown Jr. Limited Engine Run class. In addition I have this idea to make the firewall assembly removable with "power pods" that would be all the motive power parts on a nose unit. This way I can change between the Brown Jr and a electric motor. Stay tuned to see how this pans out. Still have to do some stuff on the fuselage such the landing gear pads,the gear itself still has to be bent up, bowden exits and the like have to be addressed.