Originally Posted by bstanley72

I think the problem arises from me trying to avoid printing on multiple pages. I have a roll printer where I can print 60 cm x whatever length I want. I don't want to have to print out and tape the tiles together. If I export to PDF and then rescale in Illustrator I can do that.

For those who don't have Illustrator, you can easily scale to any size you want with ScaleAndTile3 or 4.
Cheers,
Bill Segraves
Author of ScaleAndTile

Hey bstanley72,
Have you made any progress with your build?
I've got a few mods to recommend:
- Tail wheel position should be as aft as possible
- Main wing could be placed 20mm aft
- Fuselage could be a bit shorter (up to 30-50mm probably)

Will be starting in the next couple of weeks. I'm in the process of collecting the electronics for it. I'm practicing my hotwire cutting on a less complex plane before I give this a go. Will post photos when I get rolling on it!

Originally Posted by mperaltaoz

Hey bstanley72,
I've got a few mods to recommend:
- Tail wheel position should be as aft as possible
- Main wing could be placed 20mm aft
- Fuselage could be a bit shorter (up to 30-50mm probably)

I'll incorporate these changes into it. I plan on scaling it up a bit too.

Out of curiosity, what is your thinking behind these changes? Tail heaviness?

Originally Posted by bstanley72

Out of curiosity, what is your thinking behind these changes? Tail heaviness?

Not really, but I think it will give you a bit more flexibitly for battery placement.
At the moment the CG is at 95mm from LE with a 2650mAh battery all the way forward. Initially I added some ballast to bring it closer to 70mm but the I removed it as it wasn't really necessary.

She flies awesome as it is anyway but if I had to build her again I would change these things.

- Tail wheel aft to avoid the rudder touching the ground on take off (see photo)
- Main wing probably 40 or 50mm aft, so I didn't need to push the battery all the way forward but also because I think it will look better (optional)
- Shorter fuselage because it is my longest plane! (I did use some scale drawings to come up with the plans so probably the real plane is just long)

Looking forward to seeing your photos, good luck!

Have my foam blocks glued together and will make the formers this weekend, will start hot wiring next weekend.

What foam thickness did you use on the vertical and horizontal stabs? 10mm I'm guessing?

Yes, I typically cut a 10mm board for the tail feathers, and also cut a thinner one (3-4mm) for wheel covers.

I finally got myself to fix the tail wheel issue that was annoying me so much.
All it took is some wire and a little patience...

Alright, I'm all set. Will start cutting next weekend, I have another set of hands coming to help me!

I'm a bit nervous about the F13 to F16 cut, any words of wisdom you might have, I'm all ears!

That's looking really good, mate.
Make sure you use cardboard or something thicker than paper for the templates, as paper doesn't have enough strength if you apply pressure to it when hotwiring. I use cardboard boxes for templates and it works just fine.
Re F13 to F16, I'm pretty sure I cut that section in one go (i.e. didn't use F15 at all). Nothing special, just be gentle with the pressure you apply with the hotwire against the templates, same as with all the rest.
Looking forward to seeing more photos.
Good luck!

I'm using heavy weight photo paper. I did a little testing and it seems to work, but we'll see. Hopefully any issues that I might have can be fixed with a little sanding, or, I may end up with a profanity laced mess! I've cut a wing out using counter top laminate as the formers, however, cutting all of the formers for your design with the laminate would be quite the project on its own! Also I'm not that good with a band saw.

I'll know for sure by early Saturday!

Another question for you, what did you use for your spar? Balsa, ply? What thickness? I have some Bass wood that I was going to use, but can't decide how thick to cut it.

I use plywood 3mm for spars, LG mounts and motor mounts.
Wherever I need more strength (typically not in spars) I glue 2 sheets together (I.e. 6mm)

And so it begins!



The heavy photo paper worked pretty well. It was tough enough to guide the wire, though too much pressure it would start to give. I had a helper so I think that made it work. I don't think I would try using the paper if I had to hotwire alone.

Still trying to figure out how thick to cut the spar. I decided to try two options to see which I felt better about so I cut out a 1/8 (3mm) and 3/16 (5mm). Here is my big hunk of basswood, I think I can get a lot of spars out of it!



I still need to round off the wing tips then I'll start glueing the fuse. I think I may have mentioned before but I've scaled this up to 1250mm. However, I might be making it harder on myself as that's really an inbetween size. I've got some thinking to do on power systems. I have a 900 watt NTM motor, but I'm staring to think that may not be enough.

We'll see! This will be a long, slow process, but I'm looking forward to it!

That's looking great!
You've done an excellent job with the hotwire which will save you a lot of time in sanding.

In terms of the spar, 3mm has worked fine in all my planes. I cut a groove for the spar with a blade and then pour some polyurethane glue into the grove before placing the spar. Then cover with masking tape to avoid excessive foaming and let it cure overnight. The next day the wing is rock solid.

A couple of tips:
- Save the interior of the cowl as it will come handy for doing the front lid
- Save a bit of the interior cut for doing the servo trays
- Cut the tail end of the fuselage where the horizontal stab goes and save the off cuts as you will need them after you glued the tail feathers to join the horizontal and vertical stabs for better looks

Re powertrain, suggest to try Webocalc and ECalc. You can get the wing area from sketchup and estimate the weigh in probably around 1600-1700 grams (mine is 1400g including battery).

Looking forward to the next photos