Guillows Piper Cherokee 140 Rc Conversion

Citabria

Active member
This is my first rc conversion. It’s not gonna be very pretty but I’m hoping it just flies well.
Does anybody have any tips for a guillows build?
I’m trying to lighten it up a bit by deleting ribs and some stringers but it doesn’t seem to get rid of a lot of weight. This will be a three channel airplane with a small brushed motor so I gotta keep the weight down quite a bit.
 

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telnar1236

Elite member
The rubber band powered Guillows planes tend to be plenty light for even some pretty weak power systems. Typically, in my experience, you need to strengthen the airframe if anything. Deleting ribs and stringers tends to make the shape more angular and boxy, but if you don't mind that, it isn't a huge problem so long as it is done carefully to avoid weakening things too much. When I am trying to save weight, I typically get the largest savings on covering materials and electronics.

It's looking good. Good luck with your build and any future balsa builds.
 

Seahunter

Active member
This is my first rc conversion. It’s not gonna be very pretty but I’m hoping it just flies well.
Does anybody have any tips for a guillows build?
I’m trying to lighten it up a bit by deleting ribs and some stringers but it doesn’t seem to get rid of a lot of weight. This will be a three channel airplane with a small brushed motor so I gotta keep the weight down quite a bit.

Loved that kit. I built one back in summer of 2018 for display only. Converted it to a 180 with the extra windows. Took second place in quillows contest that month. I kept a build file on it. Mine was much too heavy to fly. I didn't use much of the kit. most of it was aircraft plywood. Check out the build log post for yourself and maybe find some inspiration there. Search for Sept 2018, Quillows Piper Cherokee Kit #307 Build on this forum.. I built it as a display model of my daughter's piper cherokee 180. It has working led lighting on an oak stand. Its on display in her home in Sante Fe NM. One thing I remember was the quality of the balsa in the kit. much too hard heavy and brittle. Get you some softer light straight grained sheets and use a balsa stripper to make better stringrers. make it much easier to cover. Nice work, hope it maidens out well...Fred
 

Citabria

Active member
Thanks for the help guys! I’ll check out your Cherokee 180 build, and I’ll try to find some better balsa. And see if I can get away with some more stringers and try to strengthen the airframe up. I’m thinking about adding a tiny carbon fiber rod to the elevator to strengthen it up, they did that on the hobby zone duet and it’s pretty strong. This build might go on for a while because I still have to get the electronics and a few other things. The main thing I’m worried about is, setting the angle of the wings up wrong when I glue them to the fueselage. ( I think it called angle of incidence) not diehedral. Do I some how join the wings together and make it a one piece wing or, try to get it as best as I can.
 
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Citabria

Active member
Most people probably do this but, if some one doesn’t want to buy expensive ezedope just mix elmers glue and water in a bottle and shake it up and use it on the balsa to cover it with tissue, I also put it on the tissue to tighten it up and add a little bit of strength.
 

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Citabria

Active member
I’ve done a lot since the last post. I made a receiver tray out of thicker balsa and a pushrod guide also out of thicker balsa. I made a top plywood cowl mount I plan on adding two more to the sides, that way I have a detachable cowl. I will make a little shelf thing for the motor to sit on.
 

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Citabria

Active member
I made the cowl mounts out of plywood and made the motor mount shelf out thicker balsa. The cowl uses three screws one on top and two on the sides. So far the fuselage weighs 14 grams. The fueselage isn’t straight, I don’t know how much that would effect flight but I’m trying to keep the tail straight as possible. The nose is angled to the right to counter act p factor but, we will see how it flies.
 

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Citabria

Active member
Did a mock up of the motor and propeller. I’m using a guillows one inch plastic wheel for the nose wheel instead of the wooden nose wheel for propeller clearance. I’m also using a main gear wheel pant on the nose wheel to be able to fit the larger nose wheel into a wheel pant. The main gear got replaced with guillows small wooden wheels, which came out of the guillows dehavilland chipmunk kit. I also put a 1/16inch balsa control horn on the rudder.
 

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Citabria

Active member
Here is the receiver I bought. It’s called the wl-toys F949S receiver. It’s a 4ch receiver. I already have the battery, transmitter, and motor so we will see a maiden flight soon.
 

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Seahunter

Active member
Nice work. I enjoyed your detailed pictures. Be cautious on your maiden, double check all controls center of gravity etc, hard to repair a balsa model. Good luck, following your posts.........Fred
 

telnar1236

Elite member
Nice work so far. Typically, unless it's really bad, you can just trim out the effects of a crooked fuselage.

I always find it easier to cut in and mount control horns after covering. It means you don't need to put slots in the covering material. But I've done it both ways and both work.
 

Citabria

Active member
I sanded down my motor shelf and made a plywood motor mount. I also painted my cowl, nose wheel pant, and spinner cone, which did not add more than a gram of weight! They don’t look the best but they will look good when there flying.
 

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Citabria

Active member
Here is the door/battery hatch. The door is thicker balsa with some 1/16th inch balsa and the H1 piece. I added 1/8th inch balsa to the L2 piece and cut part of the fueselage stringer and side keel to fit the door in place. I’m thinking of taking one of my pins and cutting it to put it in the door and adding some balsa on the other side to keep the door in place.
 

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Citabria

Active member
Is there anyway to fix a warped wing? The left wing is fine but the right wing is warped
 

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telnar1236

Elite member
Is there anyway to fix a warped wing? The left wing is fine but the right wing is warped
It depends on the cause of the wing being warped. The picture you showed looks more like an issue with applying the tissue paper than a warped wing to me, but pictures don't always clearly show small warping or other issues. If it's an issue with the tissue, you can either cover over it with another small piece or more optimally, remove the tissue and re-cover. Cut off the smallest amount of tissue possible with a sharp razor blade and then patch over it with a new piece using a glue and water mixture to blend the edges. If you do it carefully you frequently cannot even see where it was done.

If the structure of the wing is actually warped, the most likely cause is also the tissue paper. When you shrink the tissue paper to the wing, it frequently will bend the wing a little bit. If you shrink the tissue paper on the opposite side from the direction the wing is bent, it can sometimes reduce or eliminate warping, but you need to be careful not to shrink it too much or you can tear the tissue paper or break the balsa. If that doesn't work or the tissue paper is already sealed, the next step is removing the covering material and seeing if the wing remains warped. If the wing is no longer warped without the covering material, it can be safely re-covered with care being taken to shrink tissue evenly across the whole wing. If the wing remains warped, give it a couple hours to see if it slowly recovers. If it doesn't and the type of cement used allows it, you can try soaking the wing in water (or rubbing alcohol or window cleaner) and very carefully bending and clamping the wing into the correct shape until it is fully dry. If even this does not work, you're pretty much stuck rebuilding the wing.

Most likely the issue is caused by the covering tissue and can easily be resolved.
 

Citabria

Active member
It depends on the cause of the wing being warped. The picture you showed looks more like an issue with applying the tissue paper than a warped wing to me, but pictures don't always clearly show small warping or other issues. If it's an issue with the tissue, you can either cover over it with another small piece or more optimally, remove the tissue and re-cover. Cut off the smallest amount of tissue possible with a sharp razor blade and then patch over it with a new piece using a glue and water mixture to blend the edges. If you do it carefully you frequently cannot even see where it was done.

If the structure of the wing is actually warped, the most likely cause is also the tissue paper. When you shrink the tissue paper to the wing, it frequently will bend the wing a little bit. If you shrink the tissue paper on the opposite side from the direction the wing is bent, it can sometimes reduce or eliminate warping, but you need to be careful not to shrink it too much or you can tear the tissue paper or break the balsa. If that doesn't work or the tissue paper is already sealed, the next step is removing the covering material and seeing if the wing remains warped. If the wing is no longer warped without the covering material, it can be safely re-covered with care being taken to shrink tissue evenly across the whole wing. If the wing remains warped, give it a couple hours to see if it slowly recovers. If it doesn't and the type of cement used allows it, you can try soaking the wing in water (or rubbing alcohol or window cleaner) and very carefully bending and clamping the wing into the correct shape until it is fully dry. If even this does not work, you're pretty much stuck rebuilding the wing.

Most likely the issue is caused by the covering tissue and can easily be resolved.
Thanks, I will try these methods and see if it works.