Hai-Lee
Old and Bold RC PILOT
A long time ago now I was trying to reconnect with my youth and finally learn to fly RC. Much had changed but then a lot was still the same.
Having been raised in the Balsa and Gas building days and all the expense and time needed I was drawn to the current state of the art especially the current electric foamies and what they offer in performance.
So in April 2015 I started to search around for information on home building in foam and found something called Depron. I downloaded a few designs I was interested in and slowly began building the Depron models. To say I was disappointed is an understatement. It shelved the downloaded plans for later. Sadly in the meantime the local supplier of sheet Depron decided to no longer stock the material. Anyway by then I had found foamboard!
The reason for the long preamble is that I intend to redo the mermaid in foamboard and a search of the FT website revealed that there was a previous post related to the same model. See - https://forum.flitetest.com/index.php?threads/mermaid.22014/
Design objectives
Foamboard is inherently heavier than Depron, it is also thinner though in its standard form it is stronger or more rigid.
I have a large collection of FB scraps and Offcuts which I need to use up or place in landfill.
A portion of my FB scraps are starting to delaminate so I will be stripping the paper from the FB for a lot of the build BUT the areas requiring the FB to have paper attached will be cut from fresh material.
As the FB is heavier than the original material careful attention will need to be paid to ensuring that the model can run a small to medium size battery so careful attention the tail and boom weight and strength will be required.
Finally I wish to build it as light as the structural design will allow.
The original design
Please find attached the original Depron plans, (Tiled plans available if requested).
The original plane is suitable for grass and water take off and landing. I have no local water suitable so if anyone wishes to build I would appreciate their input on the water performance.
The build commences
Cut out the wings, (one port and one starboard) as per the plans from fresh FB. The aileron hinge is to be cut into the upper surface of each wing and the CF mentioned on the plan can have the channel marked but NOT cut at this time. Depending on the FB strength the CF tubes may not be required.
Cut out the Horizontal tail member bad again the hinge line will be cut in the upper surface. The CF line will be the line for the BBQ skewer. Once all the parts are ready for assembly a quick balance check will be done and the tail members may actually have some of their paper removed prior to assembly.
More progress will be added as time allows along with supporting pics, Though I will need ot make the pics somewhat smaller than the pics on past projects
Have fun!
Having been raised in the Balsa and Gas building days and all the expense and time needed I was drawn to the current state of the art especially the current electric foamies and what they offer in performance.
So in April 2015 I started to search around for information on home building in foam and found something called Depron. I downloaded a few designs I was interested in and slowly began building the Depron models. To say I was disappointed is an understatement. It shelved the downloaded plans for later. Sadly in the meantime the local supplier of sheet Depron decided to no longer stock the material. Anyway by then I had found foamboard!
The reason for the long preamble is that I intend to redo the mermaid in foamboard and a search of the FT website revealed that there was a previous post related to the same model. See - https://forum.flitetest.com/index.php?threads/mermaid.22014/
Design objectives
Foamboard is inherently heavier than Depron, it is also thinner though in its standard form it is stronger or more rigid.
I have a large collection of FB scraps and Offcuts which I need to use up or place in landfill.
A portion of my FB scraps are starting to delaminate so I will be stripping the paper from the FB for a lot of the build BUT the areas requiring the FB to have paper attached will be cut from fresh material.
As the FB is heavier than the original material careful attention will need to be paid to ensuring that the model can run a small to medium size battery so careful attention the tail and boom weight and strength will be required.
Finally I wish to build it as light as the structural design will allow.
The original design
Please find attached the original Depron plans, (Tiled plans available if requested).
The original plane is suitable for grass and water take off and landing. I have no local water suitable so if anyone wishes to build I would appreciate their input on the water performance.
The build commences
Cut out the wings, (one port and one starboard) as per the plans from fresh FB. The aileron hinge is to be cut into the upper surface of each wing and the CF mentioned on the plan can have the channel marked but NOT cut at this time. Depending on the FB strength the CF tubes may not be required.
Cut out the Horizontal tail member bad again the hinge line will be cut in the upper surface. The CF line will be the line for the BBQ skewer. Once all the parts are ready for assembly a quick balance check will be done and the tail members may actually have some of their paper removed prior to assembly.
More progress will be added as time allows along with supporting pics, Though I will need ot make the pics somewhat smaller than the pics on past projects
Have fun!
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