The refurbishment of a Seagull Swift 40

CarolineTyler

Legendary member
Finished off the repairs on the wings, still awaiting the servos so can't make the servo mounts until they arrive.
Moved on to filling the holes in the nose section and replacing the damaged wedge in from of the vertical stabiliser.
I'll takes some pictures in a bit to post.
 

CarolineTyler

Legendary member
Pictures as promised...

One wing needed very little work, the other needed loads and loads.
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New wedge for the front of the stabiliser
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Filler applied to both sides of the nose to smooth the filler blocks and to reduce the badly glued fix from previous owner.
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kilroy07

Legendary member
So, was this a swapmeet find?
Great job cleaning it up... I expect in the end it won't even look like the same plane! (y)

As a kid I watched too many of my tissue and balsa Guillows planes shatter into a hundred splinters on the first rubber band to "want" to get back into balsa, but reviving an old bird I might do... :unsure:

Be really interested in the end if you think it was better to do something like this or maybe just start new?
 

CarolineTyler

Legendary member
So, was this a swapmeet find?
Great job cleaning it up... I expect in the end it won't even look like the same plane! (y)

As a kid I watched too many of my tissue and balsa Guillows planes shatter into a hundred splinters on the first rubber band to "want" to get back into balsa, but reviving an old bird I might do... :unsure:

Be really interested in the end if you think it was better to do something like this or maybe just start new?
No, its a trainer plane from the flying club's shed. The club secretary gave it to me so I could use it to pass my A certificate, assuming I could get it airworthy.
I took it as a fun challenge since I have not done any balsa work, ever!
 

mayan

Legendary member
I've been gone for a while and boy @CarolineTyler you did some amazing progress. Also never would have imagined that you have never worked with balsa you seem to be handling it like a pro. I don't know if I personally would do a balsa build. That was my initial thought though when I started moving to RC that is until I found out how easy it is to work with FB :). Waiting for more pictures of the process from you :).
 

CarolineTyler

Legendary member
I've been gone for a while and boy @CarolineTyler you did some amazing progress. Also never would have imagined that you have never worked with balsa you seem to be handling it like a pro. I don't know if I personally would do a balsa build. That was my initial thought though when I started moving to RC that is until I found out how easy it is to work with FB :). Waiting for more pictures of the process from you :).
I was surprised how easy balsa is to work with. Using medium super glue makes building pretty quick too. Still awaiting the servos to come so I can't finish up the wings but now working on the fuselage, even cut some light ply this morning for it. Trying to work out the best way to make the hood removable and yet secure without having awkward screws.
 

Bricks

Master member
Just a consideration when using Super Glue it is very brittle and will not flex which is good and bad in some areas installing tail surfaces or any where there my be a twisting motion..
 

CarolineTyler

Legendary member
Just a consideration when using Super Glue it is very brittle and will not flex which is good and bad in some areas installing tail surfaces or any where there my be a twisting motion..
Absolutely, when there is stress on a joint I'm using a spot of super glue to locate/initially hold and following up with epoxy :)