Hi there,

So, here is my new project for the beginning of the winter !
During Retroplane, we were talking and showing the 1/4 scale Ka3, and between 2 glasses of schnaps some of the German guys suggested that the Ka3 is fine, but bigger, that will be better !

Ah well, sometimes, it's hard to say no to things like that !

So, I have redraw the smaller Ka3, change a few bits and pieces, and here we go !
Slow start, let's say a warm up, with the tail mounting pieces.

The parts :


And 10 minutes later :



And that's it for today ! Next on that piece is to glue the carbone tubes for the V tail.

Next... Well, I have to make space in the garage now, and I'll certainly start the fuselage.

Fred

Hi Fred,
Why not copy the Cliff Charleswoth plan to 1/3 scale.
His designs are fantastic, and so the K3. I have flown one of his designs in 1/3.5 scale for 6 years with great succes. Now it's sold to Germany for it's second life. See for info on UK site of the scale soaring group:
www.scalesoaring.co.uk

Solitairyman

Originally Posted by solitairyman

Hi Fred,
Why not copy the Cliff Charleswoth plan to 1/3 scale.
His designs are fantastic, and so the K3. I have flown one of his designs in 1/3.5 scale for 6 years with great succes. Now it's sold to Germany for it's second life. See for info on UK site of the scale soaring group:
www.scalesoaring.co.uk

Solitairyman

I would say because Fred plans to kit and sell this design when he is done with it and that's not a real good idea if you don't use your own design!

Well, I think SDZ have a point here !
And even if I was not going to sell short kit, I design all my gliders, that's a big part of the fun !
So, here is the progress on the machine so far...

Sunday, busy day in the workshop, with the building of the fuselage.

A looooong 5x5 hardwood strip is placed on the plan. Everything is aligned with a laser and fixed to the workbench.
Then, all the formers are glued to the wood, checking at each time the alignment :



Of course, you also need to check that evrything is square !




And we glue everything slowly, making sure everything is straight



Then, we can glue the wing support on the fuselage

Then, the next job is to glue all the 5x5 hardwood strips to the fuselage...Twice ! because I glue a first 5x5 strip, then, once dried, I glue a second one on top. Easier to bend, and once the second one is glued and dry, this is, well, I think, much stronger than a single 5x10 strip.
Of course, you glue each strips doing each side at the time (symetric and avoid the fuselage to go banana !
And you can check that everything is square using the laser




Once dry, you can move the fuselage to have a first overall look at the beast !



So, next, finishing of the fuselage webing, and another few bits and pieces and we can start to have a look at the wings !

Fred

I am watching with interest the joys of laser cutting just locks together ... i know it's 1/3 scale so what's the wingspan.

Also do you have a time span for production once the prototype is built?

Justin

Hi Justin,

Sorry, I've put the specs on the Scale Soaring UK forum, but not here...
So, here we go :

Wing Span : 3.33 mtrs
Fuselage lenght : 1.87 mtrs
Wing chord : 35 cm
Single stabilisator span : 42 cm

Weight : I think that's going to be around 6 kilos, we'll see !

Well, for the production.. that will be once the prototype is built (should not take long ) and test flown several times.. Once happy, we go production.
I can't really give a time span, but that should be relatively quick as it is relatively easy to build (yep, everything is relative.. ), and so far all is OK (ok ok, I found 1 or 2 glitches, and the files are updated for the cutter each time, almost live).
But I'll keep you posted !

Cheers Fred

This looks like it could be my project for next year... lets hope you can mail a kit to Macau

Justin

Hi Justin,
No problem, can mail pretty much anything to anywhere !

Here is the progress on the fuselage :





The "webing" is finished ! The fuselage is now really strong and light.
Next, I think I'm going to shape the nose and work on the Vtail

Hi Fred,
Got the measage
But all looks great anyway. Looking forward to the rest of the plane.
keep us posted.
Solitaryman

Thanks Solitaryman
Back to the Ka3 now, with a bit of work on the huge V-Tail over the week end !

All the pieces



And here we go ! The V-Tail assembly is a non event.. no difficulties at all here...





Ok, you can see the burn here... I think the cnc laser machine did a break here :lol:





And the result to motivate me !

Next are the LE, sheeting (with 2mm balsa) and the tail joiner made of carbone tubes (7mm ext. and 5 mm int.) and glued with epoxy


Same here, a non event...






Et voila ! the hinges are Robart type. the moving tail LE is sanded in 1/2 circle.



Next ?... back to the fuselage, with the nose cone, and i'll start to have a look at the cockpit interior...

Not a lot done over the week end...
But a bit of work on the wings.
So, 1/2 wing is almost completed, just the sheeting need to be done.
Photos of the early stages :



The spar is made of Pine wood...



And then, the top spar :



For the ailerons, a balsa pieces is interlocking with the ribs.



Easy !
Well, I'll take more photos tonight, but the wing tip is done, so as the Leading edge (balsa 10mm + 5mm) and waiting for the wing joiner to come in to complete the sheeting.
I'll start the second 1/2 wing tonight !

Fred

You are certainly not wasting any time with your build...great work so far

Originally Posted by LoopingFred

Hi Justin,

Sorry, I've put the specs on the Scale Soaring UK forum, but not here...
So, here we go :

Wing Span : 3.33 mtrs
Fuselage lenght : 1.87 mtrs

Since you are building a 1/3 scale - the full scale just had a WS of 10m???