I've recently picked up a couple of Guillows kits on ebay, the Javelin and the Piper Cherokee.
I intend on converting both to 4 channel flight and I've started work on the Cherokee.
There are several build logs on RC groups which are very useful and identify several pitfalls and changes to make this a good flyer, including a progressive airfoil, washout and increased control surface area.
One significant challenge with the Cherokee is the small wing area and therefore high wing loading. I started out by adding an inch to each wing with the addition of an extra F3 rib each side and should increase the wingspan from 20" to about 22".
Next I added 2mm of washout to the wingtips while adding the 1/32" stringers. I achieved this by simply shimming up the leading edge of the root by 2mm while glueing in the stringers. It's likely this will need tweaking when covering.
The fuselage started to come together relatively easily, its not a complicated kit, but for my caveman hands its very fragile and I had to make several repairs to the formers. While constructing the fuse I started to consider how I would install and access the electronics. One builder on RCGroups made a removable wing which initially seemed like the way I would do it, but I think I will now have fixed wings and instead make a blue foam hatch for a large part of the top front fuse.
The hatch is likely to run from the 1st former to the third and incorporate the shape of the cockpit, replacing the top half of the formers entirely.
I intend on converting both to 4 channel flight and I've started work on the Cherokee.
There are several build logs on RC groups which are very useful and identify several pitfalls and changes to make this a good flyer, including a progressive airfoil, washout and increased control surface area.
One significant challenge with the Cherokee is the small wing area and therefore high wing loading. I started out by adding an inch to each wing with the addition of an extra F3 rib each side and should increase the wingspan from 20" to about 22".
Next I added 2mm of washout to the wingtips while adding the 1/32" stringers. I achieved this by simply shimming up the leading edge of the root by 2mm while glueing in the stringers. It's likely this will need tweaking when covering.
The fuselage started to come together relatively easily, its not a complicated kit, but for my caveman hands its very fragile and I had to make several repairs to the formers. While constructing the fuse I started to consider how I would install and access the electronics. One builder on RCGroups made a removable wing which initially seemed like the way I would do it, but I think I will now have fixed wings and instead make a blue foam hatch for a large part of the top front fuse.
The hatch is likely to run from the 1st former to the third and incorporate the shape of the cockpit, replacing the top half of the formers entirely.
