Snipe DLG - Buildthread

xoration

Member
I was inspired by the buildthread for the Longshot 4 DLG and I promised I will do a buildthread for my new ships when they arrive. I never did a buildthread so hopefully it will be usefull to anyone and I will try to make some pictures during building. No promises though! :)

Anyway the first one arrived today and its called Snipe!
Its a beautiful DLG well manifactured by Vladimir in the Ukraine (http://f3j.in.ua/). ( I am not affiliated with them in any way...)
It costs about 700 euro. And it comes supplied with almost everything (Wing Bags and Weights cost extra).

I know that this might be a tad expensive for some people and in the flitetest forums are more cheap foamies and self built planes, but maybe this will be interesting for some people. And someone might see some new techniques whatsoever.

For the tail there were 2 metal screws supplied I will replace them with nylon screws to save some weight. And the supplied strings for the tail are well I dunno what they are nylon maybe (?) but I will replace them with 0.09 guitar strings.

For Servos I'm going with D47 (Tail) and DES427BB (Aileron) or maybe DES 281BB (Tail) and DES 427BB (ail) has to be decided and depends on where the CG will end up. It will be powered by a 1s Lipo 750 mah from HK and I'll be using telemetry.

Now its picture time:
(If anyone wants to see something in detail feel free to request it!)

Wing and fuse
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Wing
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Shiny Wing :)
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Tail set
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And now the most important thing weights:
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FAI-F1D

Free Flight Indoorist
Sure is pretty!

Several of my freeflight glider friends (and the F1C crowd) are using Vladimir's carbon for bagged wings, and I gather that it's really high quality.
 

ztoon

Gone with the Mistral
This plane looks absolutly great. But I think I'm gonna crash some cheaper ones before buying one of these. subs to the thread anyway.
 
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xoration

Member
Today I started and finnished the tail set. At first I cut the carbon for the horns with a sharp scalpel. Used building tape to clear the area.
The interesting thing they are already pre marked! The carbon is scratched where the horns are meant to be and also where the boom has to go for the fin. Awesome work by vladimir, I checked it and it was perfect.

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Then I test fittet the horns.

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Looks good lets glue them in with 5min Epoxy!

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Now for the spring I used a carbon tube to put on the endings of the spring. So it does not come through the carbon over time.

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The carbon is on both ends and will get glued in along with the wire.

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Now lets drill the holes

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And attach the spring and glue everything in

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Everything went fine so far. Just a few notes. The rohacell they are using in the tail is pretty hm well weak or I am not sure how to say it. When I was drilling the hole for the spring there was almost no resistance and not much material was drilled out. That was interesting. Therefore, one hole was a bit too big but nothing a drop of CA couldn't fix seems fine now.

To glue the spring and tubes in I used liquid CA.

Oh btw CA ye well... If your done with one piece put it away, FAR away.... somehow i managed to get a drop of CA on the rudder.... Which sucks, hard. But I was able to scrape it of again with the scalpel etc. But still if your holding it in the sun you will see it. Too bad that I am a perfectionist, but what can you do. :D

Apart from that it went well. Tomorrow when I have time and mood I will complete the wings or at least start with them.
 

xoration

Member
I didn't have time to get going with this build thread. The Snipe is already finished, I just didn't have time to keep up here.
Anyway I think it is time to do some pictures. And update this thread.

Btw, I forgot to make a video of the maidden but I want to make a video soon to show you the snipe can fly. ;-)
And I will try to go over my different settings for launch etc.

But now lets going with some pictures:

I opened the wing to install the launch peg.
You have to remove all the rohacell inside of the wing. I bent a wire so I can poke in and remove the rohacell and then used a file to really get down to the carbon. I've read some threads only were ppl did not carefully remove all the rohacell so the peg was glued to the rohacell rather than to the carbon and all it takes is a powerfull throw to remove your peg again.

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Before installing the peg in the wing I used aramid (kevlar) to put it around the peg makes it stronger and the carbon can't splice which is something that can happen with that type of peg. Actually it looks kinda worse on the photos as in real life. Its not very thick only 1 layer and you hardly feel the peg beeing and thicker than normal. But well I am looking fat on fotos as well, guess the peg is allowed to do so as well...

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Furthermore, I used a dremel to cut some teeth into the blade of the peg. Which hopefully also helps to keep the peg where it is supposed to be.

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Testfitting it seems good:
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Then I used 24h Epoxy with cotton flocks filled the hole in the wing with epoxy and the cotton flocks putt the peg in and pressed it down on the wing from both sides with some wood and foam. Foam on the inside on the wing and the wood on the other side with a bit of pressure from clamps to really no leave and airgaps in it. The epoxy will come out on the side of the peg a bit but thats fine easy to clean up.

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As you can see it gave a small dent in the wing. Which can only be seen in direct light and is very small. that what you get with that method applying pressure while curring. But I rather have a small dent than the peg coming loose later.
 
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xoration

Member
Now I just noticed I don't have a picture of the servo installation I will do that lateron. Lets just say next I installed the servos. I used hot glue to do so. But more later.
 

xoration

Member
For a DLG it is important to get as much throws as possible with the aileron travel. Now I my method, which I also only read somewhere on the internet, is as follows. At first allow your servo to travel the complete servo travel. E.g. all the 150%.

Then if you want to have 10mm up aileron at max you got and cut yourself some wood which is 10mm in length (I rather make it a bit larger e.g. 13mm) then you put it on your wing to get the aileron in its max position.
attaching the wing to the boom of course if the aileron servos are in the boom like with the snipe.
And also attaching the aileron wires, with only one end bend which is connected to the aileron, the end for the servo is still straight of course as we are searching for the optimum length.

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Now you can check on the servo side e.g. mark the wire and get the servo in its min and max position to finde the length with gives you your maximum aileron travel and you still have full brakes as well.

I just used a tape to mark the position and find the best hole (or you have to make a new hole in the servo arm)

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Now all you have to do is remove your wood and move the servo in its minimum position and check if your having full break. If not add the wood again and try a different hole etc.
If your pleased with your travel just bend the wire and the correct position

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I made my pushrods out of carbon and glueing the wire with 5min epoxy into the carbon makes them VERY stiff and the can easily be removed from the boom. Then your bending them its also quite well important or good to have a small bend in the wire as you can see so the servo arm/ aileron horn lines up with the carbon rod.
Then I simply added a heatshrink and small spring wire as a retainer so the pushrod is not coming of during flight.

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xoration

Member
After that your left with a working snipe looking like that:

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The missing pictures I will try to add soon. If you have any questions or want to see anything specific please feel free to ask! :)

And oh yeah the "important" stuff AUW is around 250g might be 255g now as I added a altimeter. CG is around 66-67mm
 
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xoration

Member
Hey guys,

I have a video where I did some throws with the Snipe while I still was getting used to it.

If anyone is interested:

The throws in the video are around 45m. Meanwhile I got used to the snipe and I am constantly throwing 50m+ highest so far 57m

Btw, is anyone still interested in that stuff? :p
Just wondering... ;)
 
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idefix

Junior Member
Yes very interested:D

Im about to order my own snipe and would like to see the rest of the build:) I really like your pictures and you show things very good.