I thought I'd get started building the Easy Built Models display model Westland Wirlwind into a rubber powered flying model. The parts are print wood. The fuselage is formers, and stringers. The wing dihedral will have to be exaggerated at the wing tip section, but at this time I don't foresee any other structure changes. I'm debating building in the undercarriage... it looks cool under the engine nacelles. To sand in the stringer notches I use an X acto knife to cut off of emery boards 1/16" strips. I'll begin with the fuselage cutting out the formers, sanding them, and building on a 1/16" square stick frame. The rudder, and stabilizer are both formed like wings rather than being flat. Oh, and according to the information I have regarding stabilizer incidence for a low wing model from another source - since the wing is flat at 0 degrees the stabilizer needs to be at about 3 degrees negative incidence. That's about it for now.

Kevin

Got the fuselage formers cut out, and sanded the stringer notches in. The print wood parts are printed close together on the sheet wood. Each part is identified so that their ID remains on the part after cutting out. I broke two of them, and had to do a little gluing together. Took the better part of 5 hours. I cut/sanded the parts out on the outside edge of the printing marks. The farthest aft former is tiny, and delicate. I'm going to see if I can butt up the stringers to it rather than sanding in the stringer notches.

Kevin

If you want to make it rubber power you have a couple of options. One is to run short motors in the nacelles. The other is to reinforce the stabilizer and run long skinny motors back to the stab where you have hooks for the rubber.

Balancing wise the first option is a lot better.

I would seriously make the stab incidence settable by mounting it in a wider slot than the stab is thick. Either evenly wider so you can shim it at both ends or just a "V" shaped notch and do all the shimming from one end. The 3° difference seems a little high. But more importantly it leaves you with no room for alterations if you don't give yourself some room.

Bruce, This model is a T-tail with the stabilizer up about 2/3 the way of the rudder. I'll go with nacelle length rubber. The rudder is built in with the fuselage.

Kevin

Constructing the fuselage.

Kevin

Great subject Kevin - look forward to following your build. I second the recommendation for the adjustable stab. If you want to make life even easier for yourself when trimming you could do a screw-adjustable stab along the lines of the one shown in post 61 of my Tigercat thread. I've done this on a couple of models and found that it takes a lot of the trial and error out of setting stab angle for good glide. I much prefer it over fiddling with shims.

Cheers,

Mike

Thanks for your interest, Mike. There are a number of problems making the stabilizer adjustable that I haven't solved yet. The stab is a T-Tail, and each side attaches to the outside of each of the rudder sides. The good thing about that is that the stab is wider at the back than the rudder is, and so the TE of the stab can be connected to make it one piece. There is a gap in the middle of the stab which fits around the rudder; which is cambered rather than flat. However, the way I've made the rudder, the stab attachment area is flat. So I will slip the stab into that slot like construction.

Kevin