Hello Widkin! Long time no see!
Hello new Grippen builders
I see the Gripen gains popularity here; I'm glad to see this happening! Unfortunately my Gripen is on the repair stand again. Remember the issue with loosing control I mentioned in the last post? Well, it's definitely not ailerons
But that means I need to reattach the cabin/nose again (surprisingly, it broke off pretty clean just between the air intakes), rebuild the bottom of the mid-fuselage (the battery ripped off a large hole when it flew trough the floor on impact) and figure out how to make the whole wings stiffer. It would be much easier during the build; now since the plane is already built it may be a bit challenging. But It will fly again, nothing can stop me now. Well, my three kids can, but I will not give up!
One thing got me thinking, though. When looking at the photos posted by
Peeradol and
blitzr3n3l and comparing them to your last ones (with the motor placement) I see that they both are using exactly the same plans I did, which are different from yours. More specifically, the plans we are using have the motor located between the ailerons (the aft one on your photos), with absolutely no space for the motor in the fwd location. I see your motors are very large and probably in the metal shroud, and that means much heavier than the one I use. That may be the reason why you moved it forward; from my experience I would rather have it moved back to bring the CG to more reasonable range. But that may be just me; after all I built the "mini Gripen" (100% plans instead of 110%). And I'm very happy with the result so far!
About the missing slot/notch on the fwd fuselage to meet with the wings: I noticed the same thing. Using the plans I did and apparently the two new builders do, the fuselage part needs to go further back than the wing notch allows, suggesting that there should be a matching slot on the fuselage. But there isn't. Additionally, having the fuselage notched on the right spot would make it easier to keep the right geometry during the build.
And one last thing. As you can probably see, everyone starts to build the plane from wings. But there's a tiny problem with that: the wings don't "touch" each other, which forces the builder to align them using other parts of the plane. Because of that, it is very easy to misalign them just by a tiny bit, which will result with the whole plane being a little bit "crocked". My plane is. Not by much, and it does not seem to influence the flight characteristics; but still. It would be much easier to keep the wings in the right alignment if they would have at least one common edge (a keyed one would be even better), for example right behind the inner fuselage (which can be shortened, just like you did when relocating the motor) and in front of the EDF housing. The wings come very close to each other already in this area so it would not be a large altering of the plans; yet it would make the assembly much easier and safer.
Peeradol: I see you are using Depron, at least for the fuselage. But it seems like the wing is made out of something different, probably covered with paper. What's that? Are you really going to use two kinds of the build material? That may actually be a good choice! Especially considering problems with my plane. And the idea with bearings and a coke can is great! Good Luck!
blitzr3n3l: as someone wise once said: every journey starts with the first step. I know I'm not as good of a source as the Great Widkin is; but my memory is much more fresh so if you'd have any questions, please feel free to ask. I'll be more than glad to help. Good Luck, and have fun!