Fox-6 Scratchbuild

[ThatsALotOfPlanes]

Hey guys!

I wanted to share my current project, a self-designed glider I call the Fox 6. I've been working on drawing up plans for a couple of weeks, and I started building last week. I was heavily inspired to start this project by John Woodfield on YouTube. One of his builds, the Ocean Breeze, is the basis for my build, along with plans of large gliders from the 1940s and 50s I found online.

I've never undertaken something like this, the only balsa experience I have is chuck gliders and stick and tissue builds. It's fun to use big 1/4" square balsa when normally I would be building with 1/16" square, it feels like building with lincoln logs . Right now I have the elevator and both sides of the fuselage built, with the rudder close to completion, I'll get pics up this evening of those.

The wingspan is 72 inches and the length is 50 inches
Here's a three-view:

 

[jsknockoff]

Will this be R/C, or is it going to be free flight?

 

[Timmy]

I really like the look of it!

 

[Taildragger]

Looks great!

 

[speedbirdted]

I love to see people building from their own heads on here. At least if it's not just me trying to do it that means I must not be crazy Are those laminated v/h stabs I see?

 

[GliderFlyer]

Hey guys!

I wanted to share my current project, a self-designed glider I call the Fox 6. I've been working on drawing up plans for a couple of weeks, and I started building last week. I was heavily inspired to start this project by John Woodfield on YouTube. One of his builds, the Ocean Breeze, is the basis for my build, along with plans of large gliders from the 1940s and 50s I found online.

I've never undertaken something like this, the only balsa experience I have is chuck gliders and stick and tissue builds. It's fun to use big 1/4" square balsa when normally I would be building with 1/16" square, it feels like building with lincoln logs . Right now I have the elevator and both sides of the fuselage built, with the rudder close to completion, I'll get pics up this evening of those.

The wingspan is 72 inches and the length is 50 inches
Here's a three-view:
View attachment 192026

John Woodfeild!
He makes good videos

what's your choice of covering?

 

[ThatsALotOfPlanes]

Will this be R/C, or is it going to be free flight?

R/C, I'm going to put a hook on the bottom and enlist a local kid to run it on a string

I love to see people building from their own heads on here. At least if it's not just me trying to do it that means I must not be crazy Are those laminated v/h stabs I see?

I love designing things in 2D and bringing them into 3D reality! The tips of the H-stab are 1/16 sheet laminated to 1/4, the V-stab ended up giving me trouble so I cut out flat pieces to form the tight curves there.

John Woodfeild!
He makes good videos

what's your choice of covering?

He always has the best music to his vids! I've got a couple rolls of red and yellow Parklite that I bought a while back, I haven't looked into whether it would be a good fit for this. Definitely going with red and yellow regardless.

 

[ThatsALotOfPlanes]

Fuse side and elevator with yardstick for scale


I used 4 strips of 1/16 balsa wrapped around a former to make the tips of the H-stab. That was my first experience with bending balsa for anything structural, and I think it came out ok. It's definitely strong and light, but there were a couple places where gaps formed (good spot vs bad spot below)


The tip of the V-stab and the curve at the rear bottom were too tight for wrapping balsa around, so I just took 1/8 balsa and made laminated templates of the curves. Not real happy with how this method looks, but it worked.

 

[ThatsALotOfPlanes]

Not sure what I'm going to do for hinges yet, I was thinking fabric, any other suggestions?

 

[speedbirdted]

Fuse side and elevator with yardstick for scale
View attachment 192060

I used 4 strips of 1/16 balsa wrapped around a former to make the tips of the H-stab. That was my first experience with bending balsa for anything structural, and I think it came out ok. It's definitely strong and light, but there were a couple places where gaps formed (good spot vs bad spot below)
View attachment 192059 View attachment 192058

The tip of the V-stab and the curve at the rear bottom were too tight for wrapping balsa around, so I just took 1/8 balsa and made laminated templates of the curves. Not real happy with how this method looks, but it worked.
View attachment 192061 View attachment 192062 View attachment 192063

Looking good! Did you wet your balsa before you made the laminations? If you use something thin, like 1/32 strips, you can get some insanely tight bends before the balsa will start to crease up. This is the lamination jig I made for tail tips on a 21" RC converted rubber build I finished up not long ago, made with 3/32x1/32 sticks. I laid the balsa strips in water for a few hours before letting them dry in the lamination jig, and then glued them with super phatic to make sanding the edges round a lot easier later. You can also use thin CA, which will not require removing the laminations to glue them and then reinserting them, but it will make sanding a bit more fussy and you will also need a jig made of something that will not be eaten by CA. This one is foamboard, and would not work with CA.

Not sure what I'm going to do for hinges yet, I was thinking fabric, any other suggestions?

You've got a ton of options at your disposal here. CA hinges, polypropylene hinges, pinned hinges, hinge points, and many others - on an airplane of this size they'll pretty much all work equally as well. At this point it's really down to the preference of the modeller. Fabric hinges aren't something I have experience using, but if you've used it on your builds and they do their job well, since that's what you have experience with I would say go for it. If you want to choose from the options I mentioned I would go with either polypropylene or pinned hinges, mostly because it's very easy to create a non-binding hinge with no lateral play using them. They can be a little difficult to glue though, so I would drill through where the hinge is installed, glue through the hole with thin CA, then stick a toothpick in there and sand it smooth.

Another random suggestion is I would use a gusset at the bottom of the rudder tailskid thing. Butt joints are not very strong and this is an area that is going to be stressed on every landing so the reinforcement will go a long way.

 

[TooJung2Die]

John Woodfield is very inspirational! I don't know how he builds those big gliders so fast. I can definitely see his influence in your design. Good luck with this build. Do you have a gorgeous sea view cliff to fly from like John? 😁

 

[ThatsALotOfPlanes]

John Woodfield is very inspirational! I don't know how he builds those big gliders so fast. I can definitely see his influence in your design. Good luck with this build. Do you have a gorgeous sea view cliff to fly from like John? 😁

I think he said he's retired in one of his videos . Unfortunately there aren't a lot of hills in East Texas, let alone cliffs!

 

[ThatsALotOfPlanes]

Did you wet your balsa before you made the laminations? If you use something thin, like 1/32 strips, you can get some insanely tight bends before the balsa will start to crease up. This is the lamination jig I made for tail tips

Fabric hinges aren't something I have experience using

Another random suggestion is I would use a gusset at the bottom of the rudder tailskid thing. Butt joints are not very strong and this is an area that is going to be stressed on every landing so the reinforcement will go a long way.

I soaked the pieces for about an hour before wrapping them around a foamboard former. I like the channel style former your use, I used rubber bands to hold the strips down which enhanced the gaps I think

I don't have experience with fabric hinges either, but I don't have the materials for really any other options :/

I definitely agree with reinforcing the tail skid, I also need to plan reinforcements to the forward fuselage where it will contact the ground as well

Thanks for all the great info!

 

[speedbirdted]

I soaked the pieces for about an hour before wrapping them around a foamboard former. I like the channel style former your use, I used rubber bands to hold the strips down which enhanced the gaps I think

I don't have experience with fabric hinges either, but I don't have the materials for really any other options :/

I definitely agree with reinforcing the tail skid, I also need to plan reinforcements to the forward fuselage where it will contact the ground as well

Thanks for all the great info!

The method with rubber bands has never worked well for me. I always end up getting spots where the laminations separate as well as other spots where the wood gets squished and dented. I have seen people get really good results using it though so it must be possible, but having a channel style jig always gives me the best results.

You can also use ammonia to bend balsa which makes it even more flexible though I don't, as the fact that I have a basement workshop means I would gas everyone in my house if I did. Some people will also tell you it can permanently weaken the wood though I've seen no actual direct evidence of this. Windex also works but I've never tried that either.

I would pick up some hinges then. You can get a pack of 36 poly hinges from Sonic-Tronics for a bit over three bucks. This will teach you hinge slotting which I think is a skill every modeller needs...

 

[rockyboy]

Love this project! John's videos are really inspiring, and one of these days I want to take the plunge on designing my own balsa plans too - really excited to follow along your project!

On the bending/laminating subject, I did a quick video on my last build showing the process I use for this. Pretty much the same excellent advice the others have been sharing in this thread, just in a moving pictures format

 

[ThatsALotOfPlanes]

Love this project! John's videos are really inspiring, and one of these days I want to take the plunge on designing my own balsa plans too - really excited to follow along your project!

On the bending/laminating subject, I did a quick video on my last build showing the process I use for this. Pretty much the same excellent advice the others have been sharing in this thread, just in a moving pictures format

Thanks! John's videos are just mesmerizing, they've lead me down multiple rabbit holes on Outerzone!

Great video also! Does ammonia not have to soak in at all? It seemed pretty immediate. How did you keep the rubber bands from crushing the edges of the balsa?

 

[ThatsALotOfPlanes]

I ended up messing around with a CNC machine this evening and came out of it with this thing. It's a ballast box that is made to hold quarters. With 2 stacks of 7 quarters, it has the ability to hold 79 grams of nose weight.


The plan is to put this holder on a ply tray in the nose with a magnetic hatch to cover it. Top view of the nose to the left and side view of the nose to the right. The top middle piece is the tray and below it is the hatch. The red rectangle is the side profile of the tray.

After I get the servo tray planned out I can start assembling the fuselage.

 

[rockyboy]

Thanks! John's videos are just mesmerizing, they've lead me down multiple rabbit holes on Outerzone!

Great video also! Does ammonia not have to soak in at all? It seemed pretty immediate. How did you keep the rubber bands from crushing the edges of the balsa?

With thin balsa (1/8 or thinner) the effect is really very quick - that part of the video was in real-time, not accelerated at all. The pressure of the rubber bands can be adjusted by how close the toothpicks are to the edge of the form. And it also helps to have the balsa strips all wider than the final piece needs to be - then if there are any dents put into the edges of the balsa it can be sanded to final width after it comes off the form.

 

[ThatsALotOfPlanes]

Well, progress has been slow lately. My local hardware store doesn't have any 1/4 balsa right now so the fuselage is on hold. That also means I have no spars
I cut the wing ribs for one side of the wing out and mocked them up with basswood acting as spars, but I don't have enough 1/8 balsa for the trailing edges. Once I get the materials I'll post more pics and updates.

Oh also, I got distracted with the whole snow in Texas thing. I can't believe how fun ski flying is!

 

[ThatsALotOfPlanes]

Finally got some 1/4! I think I might have just enough now to finish this thing!

Got the wings all cut out and mocked up, right now the wintips are pinned and drying, once those are done I'll be able to put the wings together.


Right wing from above ^


Both wings dry fitted with the 15 degrees of dihedral ^

I still need to make some way of strengthening the join between the two wings. I'm definitely putting a rib in the middle that will make the area of the glue joints between the main spars larger in effect, and probably some pieces that make a bridge between the spars as well.