rcspaceflight
creator of virtual planes
Brief Backstory: For the longest time I've been wanting to get into building with balsa. To be perfectly honest, a balsa kit is a bit out of my price range and cutting out balsa pieces from plans seems both time consuming, and still a touch expensive. So I've decided to experiment with a new build material and method. Bamboo Skewers. I can afford bamboo skewers.
The New Style: Bamboo and Paper. Stick building. Pretty much the balsa route with the clear down side of not being able to do anything other than stick building. My airfoil is going to be the "FT style" and blocky. My covering is going to be printer paper. Why? Because I can print off the plans, glue the bamboo skewers directly onto the plans, and it's already covered.
Pros and Cons: Bamboo skewers are cheap. I estimate that this build will be slightly more expensive than Dollar Tree Foam Board, but cheaper than balsa. Even though I will have a paper covering, it should still last a lot longer than a DTFB plane. My control surfaces are going to be taped on with packing tape, which makes them easier to do and without the problems of DTFB planes. This should be a much faster build than a balsa plane, but slightly longer than a DTFB plane. One big downside is the limitations of "stick building". I can not cut out perfect airfoils. I'm limited to a bunch of straight lines.
Why the Curtiss Robin?: I was struggling with deciding what plane to base this build off of. I want something simple just to test the new build method. A Cub seemed too... obvious(?). A Das Ugly Stick seemed too... ugly. A Stuka or Corsiar seemed too complicated as a test build. Mostly I went with the Curtiss Robin because it's a very simple plane that you don't see much of. Plus it's what Douglas Corrigan flew from Los Angels, to New York City, to Dublin Ireland.
Plans so far: As much as I'd love to fully mock up the plane in Sketchup, it seems redundant because all I really need to do is draw lines to show where I want to glue the bamboo skewers. I'm going to add "X" braces between the airfoil ribs and the fuselage is going to be a lot of "X"s for strength. I've decided for the aileron control surfaces I'm going to make them flat instead of copying the airfoil for them. Making them flat will help them flex better because it will better stay out of it's own way.
I wanted to be further along before sharing this build, but the entry deadline is a month away and I can't see myself building it until closer to nice weather. (I still fully plan on completing my first entry. Again, I don't see the point in building until I can fly.)
The New Style: Bamboo and Paper. Stick building. Pretty much the balsa route with the clear down side of not being able to do anything other than stick building. My airfoil is going to be the "FT style" and blocky. My covering is going to be printer paper. Why? Because I can print off the plans, glue the bamboo skewers directly onto the plans, and it's already covered.
Pros and Cons: Bamboo skewers are cheap. I estimate that this build will be slightly more expensive than Dollar Tree Foam Board, but cheaper than balsa. Even though I will have a paper covering, it should still last a lot longer than a DTFB plane. My control surfaces are going to be taped on with packing tape, which makes them easier to do and without the problems of DTFB planes. This should be a much faster build than a balsa plane, but slightly longer than a DTFB plane. One big downside is the limitations of "stick building". I can not cut out perfect airfoils. I'm limited to a bunch of straight lines.
Why the Curtiss Robin?: I was struggling with deciding what plane to base this build off of. I want something simple just to test the new build method. A Cub seemed too... obvious(?). A Das Ugly Stick seemed too... ugly. A Stuka or Corsiar seemed too complicated as a test build. Mostly I went with the Curtiss Robin because it's a very simple plane that you don't see much of. Plus it's what Douglas Corrigan flew from Los Angels, to New York City, to Dublin Ireland.
Plans so far: As much as I'd love to fully mock up the plane in Sketchup, it seems redundant because all I really need to do is draw lines to show where I want to glue the bamboo skewers. I'm going to add "X" braces between the airfoil ribs and the fuselage is going to be a lot of "X"s for strength. I've decided for the aileron control surfaces I'm going to make them flat instead of copying the airfoil for them. Making them flat will help them flex better because it will better stay out of it's own way.
I wanted to be further along before sharing this build, but the entry deadline is a month away and I can't see myself building it until closer to nice weather. (I still fully plan on completing my first entry. Again, I don't see the point in building until I can fly.)
