Fokker Dr.1 Triplane Build Log

[Tench745]

Well, I'd rather not have struts affecting the scale look of it all. There's plenty of DR1 kits out there and I've had my eye on Bengtson's over at Aerodrome RC. I also need to keep in mind a 5 lbs weight limit for mine as I'm not sure if I'll have a club field to use in the coming future.

I imagine you could cut the aft edge of the h-stab shorter and replace it with a carbon tube. You'd have to change up the hinges for the elevator, but you'd get a lot of stiffness without needing struts. That said, another kit that is correct out of the box would be simpler.

 

[TriplaneGuy]

I imagine you could cut the aft edge of the h-stab shorter and replace it with a carbon tube. You'd have to change up the hinges for the elevator, but you'd get a lot of stiffness without needing struts. That said, another kit that is correct out of the box would be simpler.

That's a great suggestion. The balsa in the aft edge of the stabilizer was damaged and needed to be fixed anyway, so I'll see if I can just replace it with carbon.

 

[TriplaneGuy]

Well I finished all the repairs to the triplane last week. Took a little longer than I thought as there was other damage I didn't immediately notice and a number of parts in the tail that needed to be made from scratch. I repaired and recovered the fuselage, then fixed the stab with several carbon tubes and struts.

Here's the fuselage before:

And after....

Here's the damaged tail before the major repairs (I did add the small carbon rods in the center section to strengthen it). The main break that led to the stab tearing off and the resulting crash is on the left side in this photo (by "T4" on the plans):

Here's the tail with the new carbon struts before I covered it with monokote. Interestingly, when I checked out a few videos of modern Dr1 replicas some of them had this type of strut on the stab, so maybe the weak point is a common problem.

The finished product after recovering the damaged fuselage:

 

[TriplaneGuy]

I managed a successful maiden flight after the repairs were complete. Actually, "successful" is a bit of a stretch. Everything was going great until a portion the top wing's monokote tore off (the leading edge of it wasn't sealed well and the wind caught it). For a few terrible seconds the loose piece of covering interfered with one of the ailerons and she headed into a death spiral. I managed to recover it and land in one piece. Definitely a build error that I can't blame on the manufacturer. It's fixed now and I've checked all the other wings, so hopefully third times a charm for flying it without some sort of manufacturing incident. I was told maybe von Richtofen just hates the paint job.....

Got a couple photos though. The first is shortly after takeoff. the second is right as it touched down (hard). You can see the covering torn off and trailing on the aileron.

 

[Michael9865]

Congratulations!

 

[Zetoyoc]

An exciting day! but a good one too. well done.

 

[David McIntyre]

I managed a successful maiden flight after the repairs were complete. Actually, "successful" is a bit of a stretch. Everything was going great until a portion the top wing's monokote tore off (the leading edge of it wasn't sealed well and the wind caught it). For a few terrible seconds the loose piece of covering interfered with one of the ailerons and she headed into a death spiral. I managed to recover it and land in one piece. Definitely a build error that I can't blame on the manufacturer. It's fixed now and I've checked all the other wings, so hopefully third times a charm for flying it without some sort of manufacturing incident. I was told maybe von Richtofen just hates the paint job.....

Got a couple photos though. The first is shortly after takeoff. the second is right as it touched down (hard). You can see the covering torn off and trailing on the aileron.

View attachment 169384

View attachment 169383

Nice Job. I am just now in the covering stage of exactly the same DW Fokker DR1. Some mods I made include replacing all wood screw connections with blind nut bolts, horizontal stabilizer bracing, upper wing flying wires and push pull rudder. I am at a loss trying to find the appropriate Iron Cross decals as you have used. Where did you get yours? Regards

 

[TriplaneGuy]

Nice Job. I am just now in the covering stage of exactly the same DW Fokker DR1. Some mods I made include replacing all wood screw connections with blind nut bolts, horizontal stabilizer bracing, upper wing flying wires and push pull rudder. I am at a loss trying to find the appropriate Iron Cross decals as you have used. Where did you get yours? Regards

Hi David - my apologies for the long delayed response (for some reason I wasn't notified of the post and I'd assumed my build log had gone quiet since I finished). After neglecting to respond for more than a year I'd imagine you found the decals but if not, I bought them from B&E Graphics (https://bandegraphix.com/). Hope your build went great!