PsyBorg
Wake up! Time to fly!
How you holdin up mate? Seems like your out look has taken a good turn if your talking about doing a full build. Good to see you more active.
First Balsa Build, Kadet Senior
- Thread starter Joker 53150
- Start date
Turbojoe
Elite member
Indeed I have a MUCH more positive outlook now. The V.A. hooked me up with a BIPAP machine 4 days ago. Now for the first time in decades I wake up refreshed rather than exhausted. I now sleep uninterrupted for 8.5-9.5 hours a night! This is truly a life changer for me. The fatigue is still there and still holding me back but it's early days. I'm convinced in a few weeks the fatigue will be gone. Once I get over the fatigue then watch out. The balsa bits will be flyin' all over the place!
For now I'm going to watch Jokers build with keen interest.
Joe
I don't know how the used/swap meet market is these days, but rescue-missions are always interesting and often bargains as well. In the background is a Senior I picked up from a buddy, who got it from another guy, who may have been the original builder. It was built and flown with glow, there is a little damage and a few broken glue joints, and the covering is rough, but it's a perfect candidate for a rescue. I think I paid around $80 for it and planned to just replace the covering, fix the problems, and make it fly. But I got the urge to BUILD, and not do another rescue mission this time around. Now it's on the bench so I can see if I'm interpreting the plans the same as another builder. Not that either of us is right or wrong, but the instructions and plans aren't perfect so a second set of eyes is helpful
So that brings me to the pile of sticks in the foreground... Only a few remaining cross pieces are needed and the basic structure will be done. A little extra weight (a crescent wrench, it was handy...
) applies a little extra down force to keep the parts stable. Building is being done with Titebond II glue, my go-to choice for balsa.
PsyBorg
Wake up! Time to fly!
I'm like that with wiring up a quad making it all in line and pretty. Although I recently built a guitar and found sanding to be extremely relaxing and rewarding with such beautiful outcomes.
PsyBorg
Wake up! Time to fly!
Ty sir I am about to link a few videos of me trying to play it in the build thread I have for it here. So if ya see that go have a laugh at my goofy old self.
Well, the fuselage is about as far as I can get it until I have an engine for this bird. Since a gas tank, ignition module, servos, and other electronics still need to go in I want to keep it easily accessible until that's all laid out. I'm still leaning towards a 9cc gasser, but may go 10 or 11cc if I find the right deal. In the meantime I'll start on the tail surfaces, and should probably get around to ordering a wing kit as well...! The build so far has been very enjoyable, but I'm starting to kick myself for building the standard kit and not my 150% scale Senior instead.
speedbirdted
Legendary member
Looking good so far. I see these get flown with a RCGF 10cc quite often and it seems to give pretty good performance. You have to use two piece mounts because the rear carburetor can be annoying/impossible to fit within a radial mount a lot of the time.
What 9cc do you have in mind? I had a NGH 9cc I got off hobbyking because they had an insane sale before they stopped selling them. I never flew it, but did bench run it a bit and it seemed to run pretty well. It has a front intake and many glow mufflers will fit on it (I think it has the same bolt pattern as the OS 55AX) so it'd be a lot easier to install and minimize cutting up the firewall and cowl cheeks. NGH advertises it as a 40-46 glow engine replacement, so you should be fine in terms of power. Contrary to popular belief, they are still manufactured and you can still buy them.
If you don't mind spending extra money you could also get a Saito FG14. It's based on the FA-82 and factoring in the reduced power, would probably give you somewhere around 70-sized glow 4 cycle performance, which is entirely adequate. A 4 stroke would also fit a large low speed airplane such as this quite a bit better....
What 9cc do you have in mind? I had a NGH 9cc I got off hobbyking because they had an insane sale before they stopped selling them. I never flew it, but did bench run it a bit and it seemed to run pretty well. It has a front intake and many glow mufflers will fit on it (I think it has the same bolt pattern as the OS 55AX) so it'd be a lot easier to install and minimize cutting up the firewall and cowl cheeks. NGH advertises it as a 40-46 glow engine replacement, so you should be fine in terms of power. Contrary to popular belief, they are still manufactured and you can still buy them.
If you don't mind spending extra money you could also get a Saito FG14. It's based on the FA-82 and factoring in the reduced power, would probably give you somewhere around 70-sized glow 4 cycle performance, which is entirely adequate. A 4 stroke would also fit a large low speed airplane such as this quite a bit better....
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For 9cc, it'd probably be the NGH. I've got one on a Telemaster and it's a great running engine. The RCGF 10cc would be nice for a little extra power, but I'm not sold on going with the rear exhaust and carb mount for this application. Carb tuning would be a massive pain when you can barely see the carb to begin with! Still to-be-determined.
Tail surfaces were started last night and should be done fairly quickly. The balsa that came with the kit(s) for the internal structure is fairly thick/heavy wood, but that may be helpful in this case as my gas engine will be heavier than the glow the plane was designed for. The "die-crushed" sheet of E1 & E2 ribs for the elevator is also pretty poorly cut so I may just cut all new pieces from sheet stock. When these pieces are done, I'll remove them from the building board to sand the corners and the profile before starting on the vertical stab and rudder.
And in quick order, the horizontal surfaces are built and glue is drying. Since this is moving along so quickly I had to pull the trigger on getting an engine for this plane, so I went with a 9cc NGH Pro, the same engine I use in a Goldberg Eagle 2. It's proven to be very smooth running and easy starting, so hopefully this one is as well. Once that arrives I can get the firewall built, install the fuel tank, etc.
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Pretty quickly, the vertical surfaces are done and glue is drying. The 6" disc sander I got a few years back made this task SOOOO much easier/faster, especially since the balsa I'm using is probably harder/denser/heavier than is ideal. Doing the final sanding and tapering is really going to be a chore.
Coming together like a big 3D puzzle. Lots of sanding in my future.
TooJung2Die
Master member
Now I know what I'm putting on my Christmas wish list. A disk sander would make sanding all those pieces to fit faster and more accurate. It'll make all the ends nice and square. Yes, now I gotta have one.
For anybody who does a fair amount of balsa work, the disc sander is one of the best tools you can have. I use it more than my bandsaw, jigsaw, or other electric tools by far.
RcLew
Member
Nothing like building and flying a balsa plane, I recall watching my dad when I was a knee high to a grasshopper kit and scratch build balsa planes and cover them with silk then dope them, he also would scratch build my hand lunched gilders often designing them himself. Them magnets work well Joker? I have T pins and lots of plans with millions of tiny holes in them. I'm just getting back to R/C for my grandson's sake, and grandpa's need to pass on the craft to them, they will be 4th gen modelers, hopefully there will be a 5th in the family, if it's not outlawed by then, ok got to stop on that subject, BP is going up!
need to pass on the craft to them, they will be 4th gen modelers, hopefully there will be a 5th in the family, if it's not outlawed by then, ok got to stop on that subject, BP is going up!
Nothing like building and flying a balsa plane, I recall watching my dad when I was a knee high to a grasshopper kit and scratch build balsa planes and cover them with silk then dope them, he also would scratch build my hand lunched gilders often designing them himself. Them magnets work well Joker? I have T pins and lots of plans with millions of tiny holes in them. I'm just getting back to R/C for my grandson's sake, and grandpa's
Magnets do work well, and I prefer them in certain applications like building a big flat fuselage side like this plane has. The smaller parts sometimes are easier to build with pins, but it’s mostly builder’s preference.
