I just took an exact measure of my wing tubes vs the standard tubes. Mine go 4 3/8" into the wings, the standard tubes are 4" long, thats still to long for the 8.5" wing rod once the wings are attached to the fuse. The fuse width (2 1/8") plus the standard tubes in the wings = 10 1/8" long, so the tubes would have to be cut down to 3 3/16" to avoid slop with the 8.5" rod.

3 3/16" x 2 + 2 1/8" = 8 1/2" -the rod length.


Ray's rod is 8.5" long, mine will need to be just under 11" long to do the job.
This includes the fuselage width also. Keep in mind my wingspan is 141", so the slightly longer wing rod may be justified.

If i was closer to the home of Skybench, I would put in an order for an 11" shaft, I see from the website that Ray will cut them for us to a specified length. Thats something to keep in mind.

I have taken standard drill rod/pin stock and turned it red with a propane torch and hardened the hell out of it. May work on the stuff you bought, let me know...

Will do.

I've taken a simple approach to rigging up the control surfaces. Light kwik link nylon clevises and du-bro control horns swing the outside surfaces. At the rear I've opted for the lightest and least draggy option, z bends. The steel z bend wire supplied is joined to the 1mm CF pushrods inside the tail. Also I put some little balsa blocks inside the tail to guide the CF rods were they cross over each other and then join to the 1mm steel rods before they exit the fuse, so to eliminate push/pull flex at the cross over bend point before the exits. I have been careful to eliminate link slop, but with nylon links slop does develop over time, but the components are cheap to replace.

I'm replacing the horns you can see on the flaps, they are too light and flex to much. They were an experiment that would result in launch flutter, and could even help strip the gears of the relatively cheap flap servo's i'm using for now. Stronger 9g flap servo's are on the way shortly. I'm getting a maximum 60 degree down deflection and a little over a 1/4" upward deflection with the flaps, so thats the arc to program within for best effect when they are needed.

To eliminate any unwanted throw differential, all control horns were mounted so that the horn to link connection point is directly over the hinge point. The Micro^2 horns offer a good match of small size, strength and leverage ratio for this type of sailplane. I have lots of controlable swing on that nice big rudder. R/E servos aren't super flash, just HS85BB's, they are pretty reliable.

Gizzards!
Four servo's = not to many intestines for the average O3, so its a servo bay we can keep neat and simple, bliss!

Neat installation there Steve. I noticed that you are using double adjuster clips on your flap installation...reasoning?
I usually make my own control horns out of 5ply wood. I'm just cheap and have had some bad experiences with the plastics in my power days.
Dwell's use of the magnets is a cool idea.
Gerald

Sweet! Now that's a pretty sight, all BS clutter hidden away. Any preliminary on CG?

Hi Gerald, one reason to use the nylon horns underside the wing is that they have a little give under impact, which might not be a bad thing if the horn collects some greenery or rock on landing. It may be better for the linkages to break than have the flap or servo busted, kinda like a weak link.
My favorite pair of long nose pliers are now too warped to put a good z-bend in that guage of wire, so I stuffed a quick link onto the servo end of the rod for now. Must buy a new pair today.

No CG yet Don, that will be done this afternoon. This morning I'm out to the field for some flying and a working B.
Dry weight so far is 56oz, pretty happy about that.

Nice job, Steve.....

Jack

Thanks Jack, its a nice easy kit to build overall, and a breeze to personalise.

Speaking of breeze, after being blown around the sky this morning, I popped into town for some more model control rod hardware and new stanely pliers. Now we have more acceptable control over those sizable flaps, and less slop. You can't stop the slop..

Weighing things up; Setting the CG point as recommended at 90mm behind the LE, I needed 119g/4.2oz of lead in the nose to balance her, comprised of 52g in the solid ply nose hole I drilled into the block, and another 67g under the battery pack in the front compartment. This is likely to be wittled away with ongoing flight trimming after some initial test flight trimming.

AUW unflown is 1.729Kg, or 60.988 ounces. Right on target, its nice to have a win.

Still no chance of a test throw or launch, the norther' gale I mentioned earlier turned to a stiff souther' two days ago, and is blowing still.

I have to get back to work tomorow, so this means I won't get to test fly this incarnation of the Olympic 3 until sometime next week.
So close, and yet so far, hehehee its only taken me like 200 days to get this far with this build, whats a few more.

Steve.

I forgot the photos..

Looks great Steve! like a great big toffy apple
I hope all goes well for the maiden, please feel free to come up to Bundy if you want anyone to put the 2nd pair of eye's over it.
We'll be having a PITS shelter building weekend, week end after this one coming. I'll be doing some tuning on my moldies, getting ready for armidale.
In other words, the winches wil be strung
see you around sometime.
Dale

Hi Dale, you sure will. Thanks for the invites.
Um, I think I will be just tapping the Oly up on that winch of yours when I visit. Down here I have a slower winch and a couple of good histarts, ok for getting the OlyIII in woody flying trim.

Armidale, should see you before the event at the field, may have a couple of other sailplane guys from hbmac come along too. Maybe the year after next I will have aquired the gear to be able to participate down there. Should be visiting your field a bit next year anyway, picking your brains for tips..
Steve.

PS did you see the pics from the last bundy comp meet earlier in the thread?

Good thinking Steve.
That extra bit of protection might pay off. That is one slick looking rig!
Best of luck on the maiden. I now have one half of my wing built...lots of wood there but beautiful.
Thanks for the info.
Gerald

No worries Gerald, glad that the combined thread info might be useful for others, even though this O3 is a fairly standard build. I've seen some good ideas from you guys too as the thread develops

Today I had the opportunity to take the oly to the local community rec reserve for some test flights and gentle histarting. The stiff southerely wind had eased off to a steady 10-12 knots this morning, and apart from the odd scudding shower, it seemed reasonable weather to set the oly into the wind.

After all the usual checklists were covered, it was time to finally give her some freedom. Wind was dead south and anywhere between a true 10-15 knots by Paulo's hand held anemometer. Not ideal, but this is a large sailplane.

Waiting for a slight ease in the wind, a steady horizontal javelin throw had the oly take to the sky and away. One thing was in my mind; there is no way I can let it run with the wind from the throw on account of its size, and only having a rudder to right her attitude. The flaps aren't coupled to rudder as flaperons yet.

The plane rose rapidly from the letgo, at about a 30' angle until its energy equalised with the wind and it stopped about 8 metres up. It spent the next 30 seconds moving slowly ahead, and up and down by degrees dictated by the jolty headwind. It touched down gently 20 meters ahead of us.
First thought; I hardly needed to touch the elevator at all as the sailplane rode the wind, and the rudder only to make sure it kept its nose to the wind when the gusty breeze tipped a wing. No need to change trim yet, and boy I'm glad that rudder isn't any smaller.

Second toss, quite a bit harder this time, had the oly rise at a 45' angle and make maybe 10 metres altitude. About a 40 second flight this time, it slowly made 45 metres into the distance and touched down ever so sedately again, despite the wind. Once again, very little elevator control input was needed, and rudder only to gaurd against a low downwind run. It feels very reassuring and steady in the air, even as it rides the rough ground turbulance.

Right! - I now have a towhook point to drill into the fuse and fit the hook. But not in these 15 knot gusts. The breeze wasn't getting any smoother as lunchtime approached, and i intend to get years of service from this bird, so histarting can wait for a fairer day.

Last throw, really hard this time. Up she went, 12 metres or so above it lofted, then the same staggered rise and fall, start and stop as it dealt with the blustery wind, but never once going backwards.
Encouraged, I played with the flaps, they sure as hell work! In fact raising the flaps up to a max 1/4" had the Oly gain headway immediatley, just as Ray described, and at the expense of only a little elevator controled height. Dropping them 1/2" had it promptly stop forward movement and go straight up, with little elevator compensation.

Basically, it looks as if she will fly and lift like a peach by all indications. So I'm yet to discover manouvering performance, but all the markers are good.

Sorry I can't report anything more interesting, but that's the weather. At least these conditions sent me plain messages about how straight and true she is; no trimming needed anywhere yet.

My camera batteries died as my mate Paulo tried to get the second launch, no pics. Maybe next time, when we can send her up on the big latex elevator and do fun stuff.
Yep, this one may have to do very little to win me over.

Steve.

Now that I've slid the wings in and out of the fuse a few times, I do have something to say that should be a help to other builders, sorry for not discovering it earlier.

The rear 1/16" steel wing joining rod slides into the aluminium tubes provided for setting into the wings, but after a bit of use, the insides of the soft ali tubes scuff, being softer than the steel rod, and make getting the rod in and out more dificult. Eventually there will be slop around the rear rod.

If I were building again, I would pitch the aluminium tube and replace it with a brass one. Problem solved. Its obvious really, I should have thought of it earlier.