FTFC20 Howard DGA-6 (Racing) designed by Mayan

[mayan]

Recently I have been seeing a lot of threads titled FTFC20 and was wondering what I was missing out on. I did a bit of reading and understood it was a new comunity challenge and decided I'd join in the fun although I already have one to many projects going on. I talked to my son last night and asked him to help me decide which model to build out of a few that I showed him. So we made a deal he would choose the plane but he would have to help me get it designed in FB and built, and maidened. This is what he choose.

Here is a bit of history about the plane: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_DGA-6.
And here are the plans I'll be converting to FB for the challenge: https://outerzone.co.uk/plan_details.asp?ID=8550.

Wish me luck ...

 

[jfaleo1]

One of my all time favorite aircraft, beautiful lines and tricky to fly. Looking forward to it.

 

[Vimana89]

Recently I have been seeing a lot of threads titled FTFC20 and was wondering what I was missing out on. I did a bit of reading and understood it was a new comunity challenge and decided I'd join in the fun although I already have one to many projects going on. I talked to my son last night and asked him to help me decide which model to build out of a few that I showed him. So we made a deal he would choose the plane but he would have to help me get it designed in FB and built, and maidened. This is what he choose.

View attachment 138772​

Here is a bit of history about the plane: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_DGA-6.
And here are the plans I'll be converting to FB for the challenge: https://aerofred.com/details.php?image_id=81948.

Wish me luck ...

Nice choice! will be cool to see some more of those 20's and 30's planes. A high wing racer? Sounds like it should be pretty stable, but be ready for the speed and agility!

 

[OliverW]

Nice choice! will be cool to see some more of those 20's and 30's planes. A high wing racer? Sounds like it should be pretty stable, but be ready for the speed and agility!

A guy at our field built a 60cc mr mulligan that flew like it's own machine. It flew twice and each time it was horribly tail heavy

 

[Vimana89]

Brain fart wrong thread to post my stuff sorry bud deleted and moved! Was aiming for the main FTFC thread to post my pics and update but did it here by accident. Anyway, awesome plane, best of luck, and hopefully your foamy avoids the tail heavy issue @SquirrelTail mentioned.

 

[mayan]

A guy at our field built a 60cc mr mulligan that flew like it's own machine. It flew twice and each time it was horribly tail heavy

Big motor and battery should do the trick, at least that’s what I am hoping!

 

[rockyboy]

Awesome!! Welcome to the challenge @mayan (and son)!

Great looking plane - and it looks like the nose is long enough that you can get the motor way out there and balance out the tail weight! I think this will convert very well to foam board

 

[mayan]

My main concern as of now is how to create something that would allow access to the electronics. Considering the wings are connected through strauts to the wheel pants.

 

[rockyboy]

I've seen this done on the Eflite L-4 Grasshopper with a tube mounted at the top of the wheel strut parallel to the fuselage, and the wing strut has a pin that slides into it. Some pictures on page 17 of the manual here (I don't have the plane anymore to share pictures)

https://s3.amazonaws.com/ultracart/...540856&Signature=cJrjQqotXwO22nQv7KgcHCogQ1E=

 

[jfaleo1]

My main concern as of now is how to create something that would allow access to the electronics. Considering the wings are connected through strauts to the wheel pants.

I have a Stinson model that has struts that plug in like rockyboy mentioned they attach with cotter pins to remove easily. If you need me too to will see if I can get it down and get a good picture.

 

[mayan]

I have a Stinson model that has struts that plug in like rockyboy mentioned they attach with cotter pins to remove easily. If you need me too to will see if I can get it down and get a good picture.

Thank you that will be very much appreciated if possible .

 

[mayan]

@rockyboy I had to look at the picture twice to grasp what you ment. @jfaleo1 would still appreciate that picture .

 

[jfaleo1]

I will try to get a good one later today if I can. Been cleaning so, you know, everything is a complete disaster.

 

[PoorManRC]

I've seen this done on the Eflite L-4 Grasshopper with a tube mounted at the top of the wheel strut parallel to the fuselage, and the wing strut has a pin that slides into it. Some pictures on page 17 of the manual here (I don't have the plane anymore to share pictures)

https://s3.amazonaws.com/ultracart/im/C0FB2D7AE3F6820123D49DF041631800?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAJH6LIXIEXUXBRCOA&Expires=1565540856&Signature=cJrjQqotXwO22nQv7KgcHCogQ1E=

On that subject... The Piper Grasshopper would make a great choice for someone as well. 😉

@mayan ..... You KNOW you choose that because she was designed by someone named ISRAEL!! 😜😋

KIDDING! Seriously, cool Plane. As the others have said, the Fuse is laid out so Tail Heavy in a Foamy would be easy to avoid. Looking forward to this!! 😎👍👍

.... If I was still ambitious, this Challenge would make me want to design and build my Dad's Friend's favorite Aircraft, the Lockheed Vega....
Even though I don't know CAD, never designed a Plane, and CAN'T cut complex lines without BLOOD involved! 😜😒

Anyway, not my gig here... BUILD ON my Friend!!! I'm definitely pulling for you two. You are a talented Pair.

 

[mayan]

So I was dying to start this and so I did! I started working on the wings, as it just seemed to be the easiest part. I did it the Master Series style like in the Corsair and made the upper wing panel larger to be able to mold around the spar and meet at the trailing edge., a little to large . So I took the bottom piece I designed of the other side of the wing and used it to make a new upper wing panel. I now know by how much I need to enlarge the upper wing panel to aline prefectly. I am pretty happy with results and the wing molds even though I had a hard time removing all the paper from the upper wing panel which made it hard to mold the FB properly. Back to Illustrator and I'll rebuild the wing. I also tried out something new using a screw and screw nut to try create a holder for the wing struts.

 

[bracesport]

@mayan - for our DLG style wings we also sand the FB before glueing - in that way you can get finer edges for your LE and TE!

 

[mayan]

@mayan - for our DLG style wings we also sand the FB before glueing - in that way you can get finer edges for your LE and TE!

View attachment 140760

I thought about that but want to try keep the build as simple as possible which is already a bit complex because of the landing gear and wing struts connected to one another.

 

[mayan]

Managed to get some fixing done on illustrator, re-printed the plans and started working on the wings again . I still have to add some stuff that I forgot to the plans like the holes for the servos the hole for the servo wires to come out of and slots for the control horns. I guess this project is going to be a lot of back and forth between work bench, my notepad and illustrator . I also redid the screw nut setup and it seems to be solid this time. I also tried a different approach on each wing to see which will hold better. Any how wings are done!

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Screw nut setup 1, original plan for both wings but I folded up the wing and forgot to add it and thus setup number 2 was born .

Screw nut setup 2

The holes for the servos and servo wires that were not in the plan and were cut on the go. Already noted and will be updated soon.

 

[CarolineTyler]

They look like a fine set of wings! great stuff indeed!

 

[mayan]

They look like a fine set of wings! great stuff indeed!

Thank you .