Hi there Colonel.I very much enjoyed your misty morning video and admire your persistance with the ailerons, pity about the pavilion. I suggest you mend the Kitty asap or else it will be in the back of your mind. best Wishes and KBO

Given the general timbre of the aboveproffered views, I began the repair job last night. This work has been launched into with no real plan... or more like several plans. First job was to remove the motor (which now makes scraping noises when turned) and radio gear.

After cutting back some covering, I replaced a couple of dislodged uprights in the rear fus section, repaired one of the front fus formers where the impact had caused the ESC to split it down the middle, and glued one of the wing seat pieces which had broken in half.

I then attempted to nail the two halves together using CA to form one semnicoherent piece in the jig to promote (I cannot say ensure) straightness. This is when I found that the top longerons had suffered compressive fractures in line with the windscreen and the rear decking, and had taken up a slight zig zag form Given that the 1/32" cockpit 'floor' that MiniBlink rests on had also split in these two places, I decided to make up an extended cockpit floor from some reasonably light 1/8" sheet running right through the damaged area from the rearmost solid fuselage former into the front of the rear fus. The cracked and wiggly top longeron was pinned and clamped to this to straighten it. The theory is that this sheet will pass any future stresses along, bypassing the obviously weak and weakened cockpit area.

Next part will be to add some 1/8"(?) square strip along the inside of the wing seats to strengthen them and replace some uprights and spacers in the damaged central section. Then reinstall the servos - this is the opportunity to remove the apparently unneeded 9g rudder servo and go back to a sub 5g one; recover, check for straightness and start shimming

Still, now it is one 'handleable' piece, I'm reasonably pleased with progress in one decent double-length session!

Well done Colonel, as I said these things usually turn out to be easier than one fears, and now that you have got over the really hard bit of getting everything back into one piece nicely lined up, the rest should go well.

MiniBlink rides again. Good to see you've grabbed the bull by the horns and set to the repairs.

Gordon

State of play:

Nice work Colonel. KBO

Progress has been slow, I'm afraid, because real life keeps getting in the way

However, the servo tray has now been repaired, and a new sub-5g servo has been installed to replace the 9g rudder servo - which may hopefully also offset some of the weight of the repair

I have a terrible feeling that the fus has gone back together with a slight twist, leaving the tailfeathers out of line with the vertical datum drawn on F1 - I will recheck when I can refit the wings. If so, there will need to be a little jiggery-packering done!!

Recovering has begun - one side done....

Looks like a pretty tidy repair Colonel -as Eric Morecambe used to say - "I can't see the join!" Don't get too exercised about a tad of tail plane tilt - it won't affect the flying and you can always avoid eyeballing down the length of the assembled model if it offends your aesthetic sensibilities!

Finally managed to do the last few bits and pieces and so it's all nailed together again....

After repair, the AUW is 278g which is only 3g above the prerepair weight. I did however save c5g by moving back to a sub 5g rudder servo. The new motor actually has some very slight construction differences to the first, and just running the wattmeter over it is showing 22W @ 3A on an 8x4 GWS Hyperdrive prop. This is 4W & 0.3A less than the first - though this was not a fully charged battery, but the one that was in the model when the monumental occurred. However, even if 22W is the correct max, this equates to 36W/lb and as previously there was enough power for decent flight (most flying was done at 50%-60% throttle) I have very little concern.

We are now in the middle of a bit of a storm, with unsettled and blustery weather for the next few days, so I'm not expecting a reremaiden for a week or two yet....

Very pleased to see her back together Colonel - keep away from buildings this time!

Just had the Brigadier on the blower, was saying "Get Blinky to digitus extractum and jolly well finish that biplane will you? Tell him his batman will tidy the workbench and deal with the memsahib".
With whose sentiments I concur.

Gordon

P.S. Well done on the DK.

Well done CB!
Many people can build well, but I always think the measure of a true modeller is how well he repairs.

Whoops.....!

Back home in one piece is always a perfect maiden! Just checking, thus was the ohm 8 not the rebuilt kitten?
Either way that's great news

Al

I think the Colonel got a bit overexcited by the first flights and posted in the wrong thread

A large G&T and a bit of a lie down should restore his equlibrium.

Ray