Scale Build-Off – 140" C-47 Foamy

[ScottyWarpNine]

I hate to say it, but I think I'm going to call off the retracts. I'm not quite happy with my design and I don't feel I have the time required to perfect that let alone the mechanics of the servo and linkages in less than two weeks. I'm going to build a fixed wire landing gear as per the ziroli plans so that I can move on and get this thing done. If it survives this year, I'll try to have retracts for next year. I would just hate to have the whole project unfinished by flite fest because of the retracts, or inversely, have a failure do to a rushed solution.

 

[Joker 53150]

Sounds like a smart move. Retracts can be a real pain!

 

[wilmracer]

Sounds like a smart move. Retracts can be a real pain!

Ain't that the truth :black_eyed:

Fixed gear will be fine for now.

 

[ScottyWarpNine]

I have 6 days left now. Elevators are done minus some filling and sanding, the stabilizers still need to be glassed. The rudder is a very difficult mechanism. I think I have it set pretty well, but I may need to put a little more work into it. So the tail is just about done.

I made up some wire landing gears and have them just about ready to mount. The motor pods are also made and ready to mount once I finish routing wires. Tomorrow I'm going to start thinking about making cowls.

(My Mom wouldn't be too happy if she knew I caught a picture of her mid sentence)

I still need to make my battery mounts. I may just cover that area over and revisit it at the end after I cut out the hatch. I need some time to think about it still. That's a lot of weight that I need to keep stationary.

Things are moving slowly, but surely. I will have it at Flite Fest, done or not. Heck, I don't even know if I will have time for paint, but I guess we'll just have to see.

I haven't had time to prepare my other planes. Right now my only aircraft are a UMX Radian and a micro quad. I'd like to build another one of my Bonanzas if I have time, and I may build a nnDLG at the event. I suppose that's plenty of planes.

I can't wait, but I still have so much to do!

 

[AkimboGlueGuns]

Regardless of the "finishing" state, it'll be awesome to see the big bird in the air. There is a bunch of us that are bringing big builds to FTFF and this is most certainly one of them!

 

[SOOFLY]

The plane is looking great. What did you use to band the landing gear together with?

 

[ScottyWarpNine]

The plane is looking great. What did you use to band the landing gear together with?

Everything is made of 5/32" rod. The main axle mount is a 1/4" collar that I drilled holes in to accept the main gear wires, which are soldered in. The back support arm is made from two wires, bound together by copper wire and soldered together.

 

[wilmracer]

Looking fantastic. really excited to see this one in person!

Are you going to have time for a maiden before FF?

 

[ScottyWarpNine]

Looking fantastic. really excited to see this one in person!

Are you going to have time for a maiden before FF?

I really doubt it, nor do I really have a space large enough to do it. There is a public park nearby with 5 or 6 soccer fields of room, but I don't feel comfortable flying a lawnmower over people.

I will maiden it when I get there on Wednesday at Furey Field if it is ready by then. In fact I may snag Josh B. for a moment if he is there to maiden it for me.

 

[ScottyWarpNine]

Standing on her own.

Planking and glassing like a mad man over here. It's time consuming but I have all day today and tommorow to work, the. After work Monday and Tuesday. I think she will be flying at FTFF

More updates to come later tonight. Sorry I haven't been posting much. Hope everybody is having a great holiday!

 

[willsonman]

Sureprised you are not doing a spackle coat prior to glass. You are setting yourself up for a lot of sanding on that glass.

 

[Joker 53150]

Or ARE you spackling before glassing? You'd probably go through a gallon of it, but it works great in smoothing things out before glass.

 

[ScottyWarpNine]

Sureprised you are not doing a spackle coat prior to glass. You are setting yourself up for a lot of sanding on that glass.

I am doing a sparkle coat. Working on that now. Still going to be lots of sanding regardless I think. I couldn't get the sparkle to stick very well so I'm thinking about making a slurry of sparkle and WBPU. Should spread pretty well. I gotta have the fuselage glassed and curing by Tommorow night

I got a cowl made, so that's pretty cool.


I had to make a new linkage for the tail wheel because it wouldnt steer with the weight of the plane on it

Speaking of weight, the fuselage as it is is 15lbs, not including batteries, motors, wing panels, etc.

 

[Joker 53150]

Did you try mixing the spackle with water? Just a tiny amount worked great for me.

 

[willsonman]

Oh, well good! The impression your post made was that you would be glassing immediately. I thin my spackle with WBPU. Makes it more paste like and just a wee bit harder. Prevents me from being too overzealous when I sand it out.

 

[wilmracer]

Looking great! Keep up that pace!

 

[ScottyWarpNine]

After a lot of filling and sanding I was able to get the top half of the fuselage and the motor pods glassed, as well as most of the nose. That is with the heavy glass. It definitely stiffened things up quite a bit. I had a hard time smoothing the surface before glassing, but I'm pretty happy with how it is, and besides, real DC-3's are dented and dimpled from years of abuse, and I wanted to capture those details

She is upside down again as I focus on the bottom. I'm doing the last of the sheeting now that my tail linkages are just about finalized. I've decided to ditch the hidden rudder linkage. There is just too much play and I don't think it would be reliable enough. So I'm going with the tried and tested external control horn method. These servos have quite a bit of gear train play, but I think I can use mechanical advantage to keep that to a minimum.

After work today the bottom is getting filled, sanded, and glassed, and my wing mounting system will be made.

Crunch time!

 

[Troutbum24]

Wow this is an awesome build... Following this one for sure!

 

[Michael9865]

Awesome. I can't wait to see the finished plane.

 

[ScottyWarpNine]

At this point I'm just trying to get everything out of the way that would be difficult to do at a camp site. I'm going to be hinging and doing linkages there, as well as installing the motors and esc's and doing some final soldering. Friday is looking like it will be the only day with the possibility of being dry unfortunately, so that is probably when I will maiden it, so lots of people will see the crash

My wing mounting tubes seem to be working quite well. I wrapped the PVC pipe spar with plastic wrap and that with fiberglass cloth and resin and shoved that in the wing to make a nice strong mounting tube. I'm going to have to drill a hole for some kind of wing mounting bolts to keep it from sliding out.

Sorry again for no pictures, I've been working on it pretty much non stop and I have only had time to post while at work.