What did you do for the LE sheeting? What's it glued to?

I'd love to see another Shrike build thread, especially one that's a little different.

I use Dave Brown Pushrods as wing joiners.

Andy

Andy:

The ribs in the 40 kit are triangle notched on the front, so you can use some square balsa stick for the LE. (I think I used 3/8 or 1/2 square). That way, the balsa sticks up higher than the ribs and it's easy to butt glue the sheeting to the back of it.

I only used 3/8 CF tube for the forward and aft wing spars, as shown. Very strong, very light, and not expensive. Best part was being able to use a 3/8 Forstner bit to drill the holes in the ribs. Everything lined up perfectly over the plans. (Note the fuse hanging off the end of the bench while the wing is assembled onto the spars. Strange, but it works.)

These things come out so nose heavy, I shoved as many servos as I could to the rear, and built the horizontal stab out of solid 1/4" sheet. You can see in the pic how it's sort of inlayed into the 1/4" stick frame that Joe B. designed.
In the end, I only had to put about 1/2 oz of weight in the back, and only then after I went from a Macs muffler to the factory one on the 46AX.

The sandpaper above the wing is for underhand launching. I mix about 1/8" up elevator trim (beyond level flight) with the flap switch on my Tx, to get a positive nose up on launch. Once she's established a positive climb angle, I flip it off.

I always use a spar of some type to anchor the trailing edge of the LE sheeting. I was wondering what you did there. It looks like you don't have any.

Andy

Nice one Bob... Man I got to finish my B-17g
Just wanted to share and not hi-jack thread.

Andy:

I misunderstood. The ribs are notched for square balsa spars under the back of the sheeting. It's stuck down to that.

Nice Fort, freechip.

Originally Posted by freechip

Nice one Bob... Man I got to finish my B-17g
Just wanted to share and not hi-jack thread.

That's pretty, there's something about a nice "skeleton"....

Originally Posted by AndyKunz

Right now if you look at the side view it's a rectangle. I'll be removing wood from one side only (the unsheeted side) to turn it into a right triangle. Then I'll sheet the remaining side, still keeping a right triangle.

Here you can see those steps as I finish making the elevators.

After the glue dried, I trimmed the ribs to a rough triangle with a knife. Next I took them to the belt sander and carefully created a wedge (also making a taper on the TE edge).

Next, I glued on the other side of the balsa sheet. Note that I moved it 1/8" off the LE because I will trim that back for removing the bottom of the front portion to make it able to give me down elevator. This also extends the TE about 1/8". This will be sanded on all sides including top and bottom so that we end up with a 1/32" thick TE.

The blue mark that you see on the top of the last photo is where the control horn will go.

Hopefully this shows what you were asking about.

Andy

While that glue was drying, I fit the fins into the stabs. These will not be permanently attached until after covering, but they are snug fit together now. The angle is approximately 10 degrees from vertical.

And now the photos I've been wanting to shoot for a couple years!

All the wood parts are done except for the main gear doors.

All you see here, which includes the nose retract, steering servo, and door weighs 24 oz.

Andy

Very nice man. I miss my little shrike....

Gravity sucks but it was fun while it lasted.

Mike

There's a solution to that situation, Mike! Go for it!

Andy

You think I can rebuild it?

Originally Posted by AndyKunz

Here you can see those steps as I finish making the elevators.

.....

Hopefully this shows what you were asking about.

Andy

It absolutely does, thanks for the detail and it looks great!

Originally Posted by pda4you

You think I can rebuild it?

I don't see why not. That damage will buff out

The plane is simple enough, especially at that size, that you can build a new one pretty easily too. I'll be building another 400-size one myself this winter if I can get down the strata to it.

Andy

I like that elevator treatment, Andy.