*Unofficial* Mini Pietenpol

[Grifflyer]

Those look great!!

 

[Earl Turner]

Model A Ford details in foamboard, drinking straws, wire, heat-shrink tubing & elastic band.

Two additional details added: I showed the above pictures to a friend of mine & he said "where is the Cambell's soup can?" I took that as a challenge & so added one - it is the carb-heat muff. The scat tubing is also made from a bendable drinking straw. I also added the "Ford" emblem.

 

[Tonero311]

Got question for those more knowledgable and hoping I'm putting this in the right place.
I'm considering leaving the wing straight instead of giving dihedral and making ailerons in the wing. Just going to glue the servos down at the end of the wing spar.
How big/wide would be a good starting point for ailerons? Which servos would be best to use, es9051 5g or could I get away with lighter ones?
This is the second build of the pietenpol and done everything I could to save weight this time. Switching to PVA glue everywhere I can. First build was a proper and didn't fly brilliantly to weight savings was my main goal this time.
Thank you for all help and suggestions provided. I'll get photos of the current build progress up later today. Happy flying everyone.

 

[Grifflyer]

Got question for those more knowledgable and hoping I'm putting this in the right place.
I'm considering leaving the wing straight instead of giving dihedral and making ailerons in the wing. Just going to glue the servos down at the end of the wing spar.
How big/wide would be a good starting point for ailerons? Which servos would be best to use, es9051 5g or could I get away with lighter ones?
This is the second build of the pietenpol and done everything I could to save weight this time. Switching to PVA glue everywhere I can. First build was a proper and didn't fly brilliantly to weight savings was my main goal this time.
Thank you for all help and suggestions provided. I'll get photos of the current build progress up later today. Happy flying everyone.

I would use the 5g servos, and do full length ailerons about 3/4 in. wide.

 

[Tonero311]

I would use the 5g servos, and do full length ailerons about 3/4 in. wide.

Sort of flaperon like, similar to bushwacker setup with out seperate flaps? Thanks for the reply and suggestion. Now I have a starting point for the ailerons. I think it looks a little better with a straight wing. Pics up later.

 

[Tonero311]

Would a 2a bec be enough to run 4 5g servos? Not having much joy finding esc's with anything bigger. Or small enough form factor to fit in the power pod behind the firewall.

 

[Tonero311]

Fuselage mostly done. Front to get poster board to get on and sort the landing gear out. Wings ready to have ailerons cut, but I'm going to wait on getting the servos. Give me a chance to plan it out right and line everything up.
Just esc, servos, bigger wheels and a lighter battery. Then this will be ready to chuck in the air. Happy flying and building.

 

[Geebee1204]

Received my speed build kit on Friday, built it on Sunday. (was otherwise busy on Saturday) This was my first Flite Test style build and the build video really helped. I have done scratch builds with foamboard before, primarily in the Experimental Airlines style, so I wasn't unfamiliar with scratch building with foamboard, but this was my first Flite Test one. A couple things I noted:

1. The engine pod is a smidgen too wide. At first I though I had accidentally done a "B" fold instead of an "A" fold, but after double-checking I confirmed that it was folded properly. Not too big a deal, I just had to carefully shave down the mounting location on each side with a sharp razor blade to make enough room to fit it prior to completing the model. Again, not a huge deal, it's only slightly off.

2. The holes in the radiator and faux engine for the "straw" are too small. I had to use a 1/4" drill bit (held in my hand) to core out the holes to be large enough. Again, not a huge deal, but it did make the holes a bit sloppier, if that sort of thing matters to you. I didn't really care all that much.

3. Because the motor pod is a bit to large, I had to widen the motor mount point in the front cowling. Because of this the faux engine would not friction fit at all, and was in fact quite loose. I solved this by carefully driving a third bamboo skewer through the cowling (had to make a small hole in the paper on both sides) and through the lower part of the faux engine to hold it in place.

4. I also drove a small bit of bamboo skewer at a diagonal through the upper rear of the faux radiator and down into the straw. This is to hold it in place without having to glue it in. With this plus my change in #3, I am able to easily remove the faux engine to get at the motor and wires and then easily replace it while still having a nice tight hold on the faux engine so it won't blow off in flight. NOTE: If you do this with your own build, remember to cut the skewer off and push it in FLUSH with the back of the radiator. Otherwise you will have to notch your wing center to make it mount properly. (Ask me how I found that out.)


5. You may want to have a supply of your own popsicle sticks for the cabaines. The ones I received were ever so slightly warped (pretty common with popsicle sticks) and as such I had some issues mounting the wing as some of the sticks wanted to bend inwards towards the centerline or out away from it rather than just sticking straight up. NOT a huge deal, but it did make mounting the wing harder. If you have your own supply of sticks you can pick out a bunch of perfectly straight ones.

It should be said that none of the above issues were severe or serious. If anything they are really "nitpicky" given how perfectly everything went together. Overall the build was a great pleasure, and I found myself wanting to just keep going and keep going on the build. Of course, as a family man I couldn't do that, but every spare moment on Sunday was spent at my bench working on it and having a great time. I started the build after breakfast, and finished it up at midnight, with a total of probably 6 hours into the build. A more experienced builder would probably have built it much faster, but I was intentionally going slow as I scrubbed back and forth on the build video. All that hard work paid off, it is nearly perfect. Now it just needs paint!

On first flight mine snapped hard to the left be aware