EraJomppa
RC Enthusiast
After flying couple of scratchbuilt gliders past year I decided I wanted a proper glider. DLG seemed the best way to go for me so I chose Longshot 4. Im more of a scratchbuilder guy and I like to go cheap so this is something way different than what Iv done before. Previously my most expensive airframe Iv actually bought was Tek Sumo at 20€. Longshot cost me 250€ for the airframe only, so it´s about 12 times more expensive
When it came to servos I decided to go to my LHS and see what the more experienced glider guys would recommend. I bought the Hyperion HP-DS09-SCD servos. They are 7,45g, carbon poly gears, digital servos. Price tag was 29,50€ per servo. The experienced guys referred to them as the "cheaper" stuff Then what do they call HXT900´s I wonder?!? Well since I already spent 250€ for the plane I might as well make it fly good. Bad servos can make a good plane fly bad, or so Iv heard.
Other electronics will consist of a FrSky V8R7-II 7ch receiver and 250mAh 2s LiPo. I might end up using different lipo (maybe 1s?) but those are the batteries that I have right now. Also I will use BEC or ESC to got 5V for the servos.
I bought the plane in December but Iv been swamped with other stuff, like a quadrocopter for school project etc, so I pushed the Longshot build farther and farther. To be honest at first I was intimidated by this. Its SO LIGHT! I felt like I might break it just by looking at it. But it turned out as Iv started building it that its made from quality stuff and its super rigid and strong. I can hold the whole wing from the wingtip and it wont show any signs of stress of deformation. Absolutely nice plane!
Anyhow this is as far as Iv progressed in couple of days. The setting time on the laminating epoxy is the number one thing that keeps me from building faster now (8 hours)
THE BUILD
I decided to start with the wing and then work the tail and the pod.
First I filed the hole locations to the winghalves (no pics of the sorry), making sure that the front hole is perpendicular to the bottom surface of the wing, since there is a premade 4mm metal threading on the pod for it.
The back hole should be perpendicular to the TOP surface of the wing so that the bolt will sit nice and flush on top of it. On the pod side there is no ready tapped hole so you can choose to tap your own 4mm thread to any angle you wish, I will go with perpendicular to the top surface of the wing (not done yet).
Next I epoxied the winghalves together with 30min epoxy (the instructions say 5min is enough but I wont risk it, only 30 min will be used on this plane). I didnt do any sanding, the wings sit together nice and snug already. I simply taped the bottom side with strong clear packing tape, opened the join and applied thin layers of epoxy to both surfaces. Then I just put the wing resting from its wingtips between 2 chairs and let the gravity do the work for me. I then wiped the excess epoxy that seeped from the join and let it sit there overnight. Wing came out perfect.
Before laminating the joint I drilled the holes for the screws to 5mm and cut and epoxied the provided aluminium tubing to the holes to support the screws. I also located the servolead channel and drilled a hole and tested that I was able to get the servowires through it.
Iv never used laminating epoxy, carbon or glass cloths so I dreaded the next step, which was laminating the wingjoint. It came out quite good and seems plenty strong. it aint the prettiest I know
I chose to put carbon cloth all over the wing joint. The instructions only show putting 4 pieces over the screwholes (top and bottom), but there was a mention that you can reinforce it further if you think you are flying in rough conditions. So I decided that I need the extra strenght and my friend sent me some carbon cloth so I was all set.
I cut a 5x40cm piece and I was meaning to use it as a one piece, but the tapes holding the ends intact were on the opposite sides so I had to cut it in two.
I first covered the wing where I didnt want the epoxy to go, I left about 6,5cm for the carbon cloth so it would not be too tight fit. I spread an even layer of the epoxy to the surface of the wing and some to the carbon cloth (under the tape especially since when the tape was on top, I couldnt add more epoxy to it) and lay it flat. after I got it properly fitted on one side I did the other one.
The leading edge was hard to make well, since the carbon was JUST long enough and its not really that elastic. so I was unable to get the fibers to go smoothly and meet up in the center from both sides unaided. I decided to use masking tape. I lay it so that it forced the leading edge fibers to lay flat agains the surface and then I just covered all the carbon eventually with masking tape to make it firmly flat against the wing. After 8 hours I removed the masking tapes without a problem and it turned out really nice. Its a bit thicker that I might want but the carbon cloth IS more heavier than the one included in the kit (see picture, you can see the difference in cloth pattern size).
After that I reopened the screw holes and the servo lead hole, used a bit of sanding paper to smooth some uneven spots.
Right now I just drilled the hole for the launching peg and laid carbon cloth pieces to the top and bottom and laminated them. 8h to wait until I can epoxy the launch peg in place.
Iv searched and there are not whole lot of Longshot buildthreads, which is a shame since Longshot is kins of an entry level DLG (even though the price is kinda high for me, apparently its very cheap for a DLG and it flies great, Iv heard).
I hope that this buildthread can be of assistance for those of you who might be searching for a entry plane for the DLG world. Especially since Im not experienced with any of this kind of stuff so if I can do it, you should not be intimidated by this either
More to come as soon as possible
When it came to servos I decided to go to my LHS and see what the more experienced glider guys would recommend. I bought the Hyperion HP-DS09-SCD servos. They are 7,45g, carbon poly gears, digital servos. Price tag was 29,50€ per servo. The experienced guys referred to them as the "cheaper" stuff Then what do they call HXT900´s I wonder?!? Well since I already spent 250€ for the plane I might as well make it fly good. Bad servos can make a good plane fly bad, or so Iv heard.
Other electronics will consist of a FrSky V8R7-II 7ch receiver and 250mAh 2s LiPo. I might end up using different lipo (maybe 1s?) but those are the batteries that I have right now. Also I will use BEC or ESC to got 5V for the servos.
I bought the plane in December but Iv been swamped with other stuff, like a quadrocopter for school project etc, so I pushed the Longshot build farther and farther. To be honest at first I was intimidated by this. Its SO LIGHT! I felt like I might break it just by looking at it. But it turned out as Iv started building it that its made from quality stuff and its super rigid and strong. I can hold the whole wing from the wingtip and it wont show any signs of stress of deformation. Absolutely nice plane!
Anyhow this is as far as Iv progressed in couple of days. The setting time on the laminating epoxy is the number one thing that keeps me from building faster now (8 hours)
THE BUILD
I decided to start with the wing and then work the tail and the pod.
First I filed the hole locations to the winghalves (no pics of the sorry), making sure that the front hole is perpendicular to the bottom surface of the wing, since there is a premade 4mm metal threading on the pod for it.
The back hole should be perpendicular to the TOP surface of the wing so that the bolt will sit nice and flush on top of it. On the pod side there is no ready tapped hole so you can choose to tap your own 4mm thread to any angle you wish, I will go with perpendicular to the top surface of the wing (not done yet).
Next I epoxied the winghalves together with 30min epoxy (the instructions say 5min is enough but I wont risk it, only 30 min will be used on this plane). I didnt do any sanding, the wings sit together nice and snug already. I simply taped the bottom side with strong clear packing tape, opened the join and applied thin layers of epoxy to both surfaces. Then I just put the wing resting from its wingtips between 2 chairs and let the gravity do the work for me. I then wiped the excess epoxy that seeped from the join and let it sit there overnight. Wing came out perfect.
Before laminating the joint I drilled the holes for the screws to 5mm and cut and epoxied the provided aluminium tubing to the holes to support the screws. I also located the servolead channel and drilled a hole and tested that I was able to get the servowires through it.
Iv never used laminating epoxy, carbon or glass cloths so I dreaded the next step, which was laminating the wingjoint. It came out quite good and seems plenty strong. it aint the prettiest I know
I chose to put carbon cloth all over the wing joint. The instructions only show putting 4 pieces over the screwholes (top and bottom), but there was a mention that you can reinforce it further if you think you are flying in rough conditions. So I decided that I need the extra strenght and my friend sent me some carbon cloth so I was all set.
I cut a 5x40cm piece and I was meaning to use it as a one piece, but the tapes holding the ends intact were on the opposite sides so I had to cut it in two.
I first covered the wing where I didnt want the epoxy to go, I left about 6,5cm for the carbon cloth so it would not be too tight fit. I spread an even layer of the epoxy to the surface of the wing and some to the carbon cloth (under the tape especially since when the tape was on top, I couldnt add more epoxy to it) and lay it flat. after I got it properly fitted on one side I did the other one.
The leading edge was hard to make well, since the carbon was JUST long enough and its not really that elastic. so I was unable to get the fibers to go smoothly and meet up in the center from both sides unaided. I decided to use masking tape. I lay it so that it forced the leading edge fibers to lay flat agains the surface and then I just covered all the carbon eventually with masking tape to make it firmly flat against the wing. After 8 hours I removed the masking tapes without a problem and it turned out really nice. Its a bit thicker that I might want but the carbon cloth IS more heavier than the one included in the kit (see picture, you can see the difference in cloth pattern size).
After that I reopened the screw holes and the servo lead hole, used a bit of sanding paper to smooth some uneven spots.
Right now I just drilled the hole for the launching peg and laid carbon cloth pieces to the top and bottom and laminated them. 8h to wait until I can epoxy the launch peg in place.
Iv searched and there are not whole lot of Longshot buildthreads, which is a shame since Longshot is kins of an entry level DLG (even though the price is kinda high for me, apparently its very cheap for a DLG and it flies great, Iv heard).
I hope that this buildthread can be of assistance for those of you who might be searching for a entry plane for the DLG world. Especially since Im not experienced with any of this kind of stuff so if I can do it, you should not be intimidated by this either
More to come as soon as possible
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