Cessna 182 Balsa Build

[Joker 53150]

I haven't heard of anybody actually flying one yet, but really hope to get confirmation on the CoG before mine is ready. Either way, mine WILL fly, purely out of spite for the crappy instructions. Either it'll fly through the air or fly into the ground at a high rate of speed.

 

[dja2424]

That's one way to make "balsa dust." Hopefully it flies well!

dja2424

 

[artw]

Joker, did you use the stock motor mount?
I did and I find the turnigy D2826-10 1400kv sticks out a bit too far for my liking.
I was planning on creating a "shim" on the cowl/fuselage interface from leftover 3/16" balsa I had from the tail sticks
the cowl is already far too forward and this would push it out this much further BUT at least the prop won't be 1/2" away from the face of the nose.
Art

 

[Joker 53150]

The motor mount isn't installed yet, and I'm pretty sure the stock version won't work for me. Once I finalize my choice in motor I'll build the mount to get the prop and spinner in the ideal spot.

 

[artw]

This is what I ended up doing. I will be able to sand the shim as required to get the nosecone to be "centered" on the axis of the motor. I can cut about 1/8" off the shaft so the collet sits closer.
anyone else who hasn't got this far yet - dryfit the cowl parts on the fuselage before gluing it. I did it by eye and it doesn't quite line up.
there is a photo of it without the shim added in my taildragger thread.

 

[Joker 53150]

My build is getting close enough to completion that I can get a reasonably good idea as to the final weight. Depending on what motor/prop/spinner combination I use I'll end up around 525-550 grams not including the battery (assuming I don't have to add lead to get the CoG correct). Something about that weight was bugging me, so I looked back at one of my old posts:

Interesting... I just noticed the last line of text on the "instructions" says the take-off weight is 220 grams, and empty weight is 200 grams. Anybody got a 20 gram 1300-2200mAh battery? And I'll be surprised if I can fit more than a 1500 in the battery box, much less a 2200.

Realistically, their claim of 220 grams is probably just a mistake. Or a complete lie. Possibly just a random number pulled from somebody's ass.

Then I went to Hobby King's website to look at motors and checked the stats on the 182, and noticed they list the bare airframe weight at 500-550g without covering and the AUW at 750-800g. Were those wights there previously? I don't remember seeing them before. If their bare airframe doesn't include covering, I would assume it also doesn't include electronics, so at that point 500-550g would be correct if you used the heaviest balsa on the planet! My build should end up close to the 750-800g range they list depending on my battery weight. I'm still thinking about using a 1500, but we'll see how it balances first.

I compared the current weight of the plane against another balsa build I did, the Navion I built for the Model Airplane News "Build to Win" contest. The Navion was a pig at around 675g without battery, thanks to the retractable gear and heavy construction methods I used, but it flies nicely and cuts through the air well. The weight forces me to keep the speed up, which is fine until it's time to land. For the size of the plane it's still on the heavier side compared to others I've built. The wing isn't very large so this should translate to higher wing loading. Eventually I may do some math to figure out the actual numbers.

Also, the covering is almost done, as shown in the pictures below. A few little spots to tidy up, windows need to go in, steering linkage and pushrods need to be attached, etc. The "little" stuff that takes forever!

But at the end of the day, I'm honestly just not thrilled with the design/look of this model so I haven't spent a lot of time getting creative with the fuselage covering design. I'm still going to cut some vinyl numbers for the sides, but other than that it's going to be somewhat plain. The biggest thing I dislike about the plane now is the cowl. It's just a big blocky blob of lazy garbage design that ruins the rest of the plane. Like putting Mike Tyson's face tattoo on a super model's face with a Sharpie marker. After the plane flies (fingers are crossed) I might consider building a better cowl from scratch. We'll see what happens in Spring.

 

[dja2424]

Nice job!

Looking good! I hope mine looks 1/2 as good when it's done. Good luck getting it in the air!

dja2424

 

[artw]

I decided to cut the motor mount instead of using the shim.

 

[Joker 53150]

I like it, a simple solution!

 

[artw]

Did anyone else notice that in the wing assembly photos the spars appear to be laser cut ply, and in our kits they are balsa?
do you think it would be prudent to install some shear web blocks at least along the main spar?
joker have you given your wing any sort of load testing yet? like pick it up by the wing tips and bounce it around?

 

[Joker 53150]

I didn't see anything of real concern on mine. Since it's got two spars, plus the leading and trailing edge and the LE sheeting I think it has enough structure to be safe.

Or I might be completely wrong...!

 

[artw]

sounds good it probably doesn't need any extra weight anyway.
I am about to give the wings a go.

 

[artw]

I have laminated wing rib W1 and W2 together and am at the point where you glue it to the ends of the spars.
I assume at this point is also when you set the dihedral. There is a fair amount of slop here so the dihedral can be anything you want really. looking at the full scale pictures it looks to be about a degree or 2 it is not very much.
My plan was to cut a piece of wood with the required angle and use that as a "square" so at least both wings will end up with the same amount.
what did you guys do here?

 

[Joker 53150]

I didn't pay much attention to the dihedral, and just assembled the wing. It's got a tiny amount of dihedral, but minimal at best. Hopefully the ailerons do their job well!

 

[colorex]

I learned a lot from reading this thread. "Don't buy chinese kits"?

seriously though lots of good info.

 

[Joker 53150]

"...unless you like a challenge"

They can be a great value, but are not for everybody.

 

[artw]

I ended up setting the dihedral at the scale amount of 1.733 degrees by drawing it in Autocad and transferring it to a piece of balsa.
this kit has been fun and frustrating at the same time. I have nothing else to compare it to. it would help if I could read the chinese on the build photos but that is what this thread is for.

 

[paultbg]

I've tried to maiden mine yesterday at the field club.
With stock (recommended) motor and a 8x4 prop looks to have plenty of power to fly.
However it has a huge flaw. The front wheel leg is very very soft and it will actually bent below the plane when you speed up for take away. Now, indeed our field is not a drift racing track and the dirt has some small bumps here and there but I can say it's fairly decent.
After 2-3 tries and a broken prop on bow over I gave up for the day.
Once home I tried to solder a double leg from some strong 2mm servo push rod without luck. Then I decided to heat shrink the same piece along the leg. That seems to work better and now the leg feels sturdier. Will see next week.
There are only few options to correct the problem:
1. replace or improve the leg with a stronger metal
2.convert the airplane to a tail dragger but you will have to move the main wheels somewhere in the middle of the loading tray (bad idea) or add some weight to the back (bad idea again).

 

[Joker 53150]

Good to know about the wire! I'll have to look at mine before finishing it up. Most of my flights are off of asphalt so hopefully it's strong enough for that kind of surface (depending on the abuse of hard landings).

 

[GT6mark3]

As mentioned by some other posters, I wish I had found this thread a little sooner. It's been useful to have my preconceptions of the build instructions confirmed ie basically they're useless, and it's also good to know that I've managed to get most of the parts correctly installed.

Almost from the beginning of the build I thought the CG might be a problem, so I've done the standard weight saving mod to the tail feathers ( and extended the rudder down to the lower edge of the fuselage so it's more like the full size ). On the basis that it's better to move the battery as far forward as possible to minimise the amount of lead weight that might be needed in the nose, I extended the battery compartment forward by 2 inches. It would have been easier to do this at the beginning of the fuselage build, but I only bit the bullet once everything had been sheeted. However it only took a couple of hours, and it does prove that it's possible to make a fairly radical change to the almost completed structure.

The wings have been modified to use separate servos driving each aileron directly via a pushrod, as well as flaps. I've also put a ply hard point at mid span to attach a wing strut.

Finally, after all the work involved in constructing this "masterpiece" of Oriental model aviation engineering, I had to do something with the nacelle. The front former was move aft by an inch, and soft basla blocks glued to the front, allowing a bit of curvature to be added to the finished article.