I think the biggest challenge is making the wing. The plans show a symmetrical wing, and I came up with this idea for using cutouts like FT uses for polyhedral in wings like the Tiny Trainer. Being symmetrical, I'll do some cut-outs on top and some on the bottom. The cutout on the left produced the section on the right.
Lessons learned:
- Cutouts were 1/4", which is too much.
- The spar has to be cut. I was using two strips of foamboard for the spar, and had to cut through both and mash a V into them to get them to bend.
- The foam on the opposite site needs to be scored to allow it to fold
- Once built with glue and tape, it's rock solid, despite all that cutting.
It's either going to need a lot of packing tape, or covering film or laminate to hold it tight. I have some 1.5mil laminate that I bought on Amazon. I'm not very good with not wrinkling it, but I'll probably use that or real Monokote. If I build with the water-resistant foam I can use the blue tape trick to hold things as I set each section, then cover the whole thing at the end.
The drawing below shows four ways I tried today of finishing the trailing edge.
- Top right: just folded together and left alone.
- Top left: compressed with covering iron after it was closed.
- Bottom left: compressed with hot iron before folding (notice the melted foam oozing out the side)
- Bottom right: trimmed 3/4" of paper and then sanded away foam prior to folding together. This is my favorite for sure.
Much of the seagull plan has the trailing edge taken up with elevator or aileron, so I may not end up using this much but I really like it.
