Just noticed this vid posted on YouTube recently. Looks like a Marston

Pterodactyl RC (1 min 35 sec)

Hey that looks good in the air. It goes a fair bit quicker than I expected.

Originally Posted by KiwiKid

Just noticed this vid posted on YouTube recently. Looks like a Marston

That's the 80" version, that clip is somewhere on the Marston site I think. It is zippy, looks like it flies like a hotliner

Possibly not. The YouTube blurb on 20 Dec said it was the maiden flight of a 54" (meaning 52") ptero.

Originally Posted by KiwiKid

Possibly not. The YouTube blurb on 20 Dec said it was the maiden flight of a 54" (meaning 52") ptero.

Sorry, my mistake. That looks exactly like the clip I saw on the web site a while back of the bigger version, I guess it's a chip off the ol' block in the way it flies

Progress report. Just need to do a bit more sanding then its ready to cover.

Looking Good EeleyEagle!!
I am having a tough time with mine. I keep pushing back behind other builds because the instructions are so bad and the parts, though numbered themselves, there are no numbers in the plans or drawings. I have the wing about half built and just got the motors and ESC's. Can someone be so kind as to post pictures of the bottom side of the wing and a head on shot so I can see the relationship of the head and breast?

Originally Posted by EeleyEagle

Progress report. Just need to do a bit more sanding then its ready to cover.

Looking great! You have some BIG motors in there!

Hey Skyshark, Took some photos for. Hope they help. I can get some more if you need specific help areas. You may have noticed that I decided to close in the head and neck areas to make the covering job a lot easier. I am unsure how the speedies will go in the centre wing section but there is no where else they will fit. If I can't get enough airflow over them and out ,I may have to leave a hole in the top of the body open. Suck it and see I guess when the time comes.
JimTmich, Believe it or not they are equivelant size motors as the specs say but around 1/2 the price. They are E-Watts. Have a 3S2200mAh lipo for its belly.

Hey SkyShark.
I just discovered that there is a revised construction manual done in DEC 08 for the Ptero on Rons website. I sugguest you download it and have a look at some of the better, latest photos and he does explain a few things a bit better.
Andrew

Thanks Andrew
Those picture help alot. I will head out to the website and check it out.
Thanks again!
Jim

Hi Andrew,
I decided to join the forum looks really cool.
Looks like your doing a great job on the bird.
Catch ya soon,
Bob

I am slow I know that. I now have the body/ tail feathers and ailerons covered. Just leaves the wing. Hopefully I can get some help with the wing covering as I decided to use Pro Film and it might not be as pliable as it needs to be. Time will tell. It is translucent green to keep with the prehistoric theme.
Can't rush these things.
Andrew

Profilm will be fine...

I have not covered a 52", but for the 80" I did the bottom of the wing first (easier and more 'flat'). I did not fully tighten the covering, just attached the leading/trailing edges and shrunk it slightly.

I think that this is important because the film sticks really well to itself and this makes getting the top of the wing film in place easier - because you can bond it to the bottom film.

Then I did the top. Now the top is certainly more difficult, and the most difficult area (at least on the 80" one) is the inboard section next to the body - this has the most 'concave' shape - it is concave on both axis.

With the first wing I just couldn't get the film to work, and I cheated slightly with some cuts and patches. But when I got to the second wing I found that I had mastered the technique. (Or perhaps I just got lucky... )

I think that the important part is to trim the film on the leading edge to have the same concave shape (when viewed from the top) as the wing. This makes it much easier to pull the film down.

You are normally told to leave a lot of excess material on the film - but my experience was that this did not make it easier! So I tacked the trailing edge down and then trimmed the leading edge about 20mm larger than the wing. I did this while pressing the film down to the shape of the wing.

Then it was much easier to work the film down and bond it. As I said on the 2nd wing it was quite easy.

Once it is all tacked down I then used a heat-gun to shrink the whole lot evenly so as not to distort the wing shape.


As they say: it is the journey that is important, not the destination...


Tim

I did a "Bonehead" move a couple of weeks ago. I glued the top and bottom leading edge parts on. Now I find out I was supposed to install the aileron servos before gluing the bottoms on. Time to put it down for a while. I will have to cut access doors for the servos and come up with some way to route the servo wires.