New guy, Canada (well, tbh, re-new, I used to do this 25 years ago. Wow are things different now.), FT Explorer

[vish]

wow how things have changed,
foam board and a hot glue gun sure beat all the hours spend cutting sanding and glueing balsa.
Comments / questions about the FT explorer.
1. I am flying it with the stronger motor pack (the prop that comes with the C pack is a 10"... i had to get another one)
2. I also had to dredge up the epoxy for the firewall. the CA glue just snapped on the vibrations (when I had put a piec of foam board to see the direction of the spin)
3. my main problem now, after day 1 of flying is that the the main dihedral is wobbly, looks like i need to do some surgery to insert reinforcements, whats is the SOTA for this?, i was thinking of making a 1/4 inch incision that is 1/2 an inch deep and 5-6 inches wide and to glue some wooden spar in it.

 

[BATTLEAXE]

Hello and welcome to the forum family my friend and fellow Canadian. Happy to see your going with the Explorer. Are you going with the 3 or 4 channel? If you did RC flying 25 years ago I imagine it's a 4 channel. I believe the spar in the wing is a sandwich fold 2 layer kind of operation, if it is there is a better box spar that is stronger and could be reinforced with popsicle sticks on the front and back of the spar. I ask 3 or 4 channel because if it is a 3 channel I would suggest building a 4 channel wing with ailerons with the suggested improvements. The original design is notorious for wing folding under positive G's. a box spar is the way to go.

I think cutting into the outer skin of the wing will further weaken it despite your effort to strengthen it in different ways then the initial issue. Just my opinion. How does it fly otherwise?

 

[Merv]

Welcome to the forums. Your spar idea will work fine. If I were to change anything, I’d make it longer & try to locate it over the webbings.

I like high energy, high G manures, I install bamboo BBQ’s skewers as spars on ALL my planes. I have folded wings with 2 skewers, 1 on top & 1 on the bottom. So far I have not been able to fold a wing with 4 skewers. I separate them by an inch or more & try to get the top ones directly over the bottom ones, I always add a foam webbings between the tops and bottoms.

 

[buzzbomb]

I have folded wings with 2 skewers

You sir, need more video!

wow how things have changed,
foam board and a hot glue gun sure beat all the hours spend cutting sanding and glueing balsa.
Comments / questions about the FT explorer.
1. I am flying it with the stronger motor pack (the prop that comes with the C pack is a 10"... i had to get another one)
2. I also had to dredge up the epoxy for the firewall. the CA glue just snapped on the vibrations (when I had put a piec of foam board to see the direction of the spin)
3. my main problem now, after day 1 of flying is that the the main dihedral is wobbly, looks like i need to do some surgery to insert reinforcements, whats is the SOTA for this?, i was thinking of making a 1/4 inch incision that is 1/2 an inch deep and 5-6 inches wide and to glue some wooden spar in it.

And Welcome to our Forum Family! I agree with both @BATTLEAXE and @Merv. Not that my opinion matters, but really, what have you got to lose?

Do your surgery and strengthen your plane. It works or it doesn't. One of the things that this hobby has taught me, and possibly the main reason I love it so much? I guarantee you. The flight will not be boring, either way! Enjoy the heck out of it. I wish you luck and happy flying!

 

[vish]

Hi all and thanks for the responses,
3ch
I didn't finish building the 4ch wing yet, i took it out as soon as i had something.
I'll have some time during the weekend to both complete that 4ch wing and try to fix the old one.
@Merv Do you add the skewers on the outside or the inside ? what holds them in place the hot glue seems too weak? is it ?

(in the old days of balsa wings with spars and profile you wouldn't get a dihedral collapse that is wobbly, if a high g maneuver broke your dihedral, the plane with half the wing would crash down, hopefully somewhere recoverable, and the other half wing would waft down like a leaf turning over and over as it fled downwind. )

 

[Merv]

Do you add the skewers on the outside or the inside ? what holds them in place the hot glue seems too weak? is it ?

The skewers are imbedded in the foam. Hot glue is plenty strong enough but I use polyurethaning glue (gorilla glue) as it gives more working time than hot glue.

 

[vish]

The skewers are imbedded in the foam. Hot glue is plenty strong enough but I use polyurethaning glue (gorilla glue) as it gives more working time than hot glue.

this ? https://www.homedepot.com/p/Gorilla-Glue-18-oz-Original-Polyurethane-Adhesive-50018A/205813786

 

[Merv]

Yes, that is the type of glue I use. There are several different brands, they all work about the same. I use the brand that is on sale.

 

[Headbang]

wow how things have changed,
foam board and a hot glue gun sure beat all the hours spend cutting sanding and glueing balsa.
Comments / questions about the FT explorer.
1. I am flying it with the stronger motor pack (the prop that comes with the C pack is a 10"... i had to get another one)
2. I also had to dredge up the epoxy for the firewall. the CA glue just snapped on the vibrations (when I had put a piec of foam board to see the direction of the spin)
3. my main problem now, after day 1 of flying is that the the main dihedral is wobbly, looks like i need to do some surgery to insert reinforcements, whats is the SOTA for this?, i was thinking of making a 1/4 inch incision that is 1/2 an inch deep and 5-6 inches wide and to glue some wooden spar in it.

As others said skewers work great. Also run 2" packing tape from tip to tip on the bottom of the wing, this is how we did it 30yrs ago on foam core wings. Worked great then, still works today. 4" strip of thin fiberglass cloth wicked with foam safe ca or epoxy on the center joint is also old school and works.

Oh and welcome to the forums! Always need more of us Canadians! The explorer is perfect for us, it takes off and lands on snow like it was designed for it!

 

[BATTLEAXE]

As others said skewers work great. Also run 2" packing tape from tip to tip on the bottom of the wing, this is how we did it 30yrs ago on foam core wings. Worked great then, still works today. 4" strip of thin fiberglass cloth wicked with foam safe ca or epoxy on the center joint is also old school and works.

Oh and welcome to the forums! Always need more of us Canadians! The explorer is perfect for us, it takes off and lands on snow like it was designed for it!

True Dat! On a few levels there. I like your fibreglass/CA trick. might use that sometime

 

[vish]

As others said skewers work great. Also run 2" packing tape from tip to tip on the bottom of the wing, this is how we did it 30yrs ago on foam core wings. Worked great then, still works today. 4" strip of thin fiberglass cloth wicked with foam safe ca or epoxy on the center joint is also old school and works.

Oh and welcome to the forums! Always need more of us Canadians! The explorer is perfect for us, it takes off and lands on snow like it was designed for it!

My the dihedral got wobble on the top, here is what i did, first i removed the collapsed foam, then i hot glued some skewers like this.
then my son flew it through a fence and the wings stayed back in two parts.
but while it lasted, this was solid.

 

[BATTLEAXE]

My the dihedral got wobble on the top, here is what i did, first i removed the collapsed foam, then i hot glued some skewers like this.
then my son flew it through a fence and the wings stayed back in two parts.
but while it lasted, this was solid.

So you are ready to build a new wing now