Willy Nillies Eaglet 250 build. It's here!

Turbojoe

Elite member
My Willy Nillies kits have been in Phoenix since Friday but arrived so late they weren't delivered to Mesa until today and of course they were delivered right after I got tired of waiting and went to visit my daughter for a few hours. The box was pretty mangled but they didn't destroy any of the contents thankfully. I did get started on the build a bit but mostly to figure out how I'm going to run linkage to the steerable nose gear. (sorry Doug).

I've taken some pictures and will post some up after I get them all sorted out.

Joe
 

Turbojoe

Elite member
Well here's the obligatory shot of the package arrival and contents.

Joe
USPS damage 1.JPG USPS damage 2.JPG All 3 kits safe.JPG More bits and pieces.JPG
 
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Turbojoe

Elite member
I seriously thought I had taken more build pictures but I've been focused mainly on the nose gear and whatever mods I may need to make my hair brained idea work. There's so much room available I may go ahead and beef up and reprint the nose gear. We'll see. It'll work as is but why not complicate it a little more. LOL. One thing for certain is I have to mount the rudder/steering servo inverted. That hopefully causes very few complications for the rudder pushrod.

Note the main gear mount. It faces forward as you see it with the ply part to the rear. You could put it in the other direction but you'll find the bottom sheet is cut out for it to face forward as shown. It could save you some grief later in the build.

. Steerable Nose Gear.JPG Nose gear and motor mounted.JPG Main gear mount.JPG

If I was really forced to nit pick a beta kit the only "problem" I've seen so far is that a lot of the tabs are just slightly bell shaped enough that I gave them a light kiss with a fingernail sanding board to get a perfect fit. So minor I hate to even bring it up.

Joe
 
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Turbojoe

Elite member
I'm not in a mad rush to be the first to finish the build. Next up is to figure out the rudder pushrod. That will probably take some head scratching and several failed tries. Luckily I have lots of music wire on hand......

Joe
 
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Willy Nillies

Elite member
I seriously thought I had taken more build pictures but I've been focused mainly on the nose gear and whatever mods I may need to make my hair brained idea work. There's so much room available I may go ahead and beef up and reprint the nose gear. We'll see. It'll work as is but why not complicate it a little more. LOL. One thing for certain is I have to mount the rudder/steering servo inverted. That hopefully causes very few complications for the rudder pushrod.

Note the main gear mount. It faces forward as you see it with the ply part to the rear. You could put it in the other direction but you'll find the bottom sheet is cut out for it to face forward as shown. It could save you some grief later in the build.

. View attachment 154498 View attachment 154499 View attachment 154500

If I was really forced to nit pick a beta kit the only "problem" I've seen so far is that a lot of the tabs are just slightly bell shaped enough that I gave them a light kiss with a fingernail sanding board to get a perfect fit. So minor I hate to even bring it up.

Joe

Oh boy it looks like your steerable nose wheel is going to work out just fine!

That's the 3rd USPS box that USPS has mangled in the last 5 days! UGH! Maybe that is why yours was delayed? It was stuck in a sorting machine somewhere???

Ummm.... I thought you promised to build one stock? Hahaha! :)

Aren't those motor mounts the coolest??? What'd ya think of the pilots we are making?

Sincerely,
Doug and Becky
WillyNillies.com
 

Turbojoe

Elite member
Oh boy it looks like your steerable nose wheel is going to work out just fine!

That's the 3rd USPS box that USPS has mangled in the last 5 days! UGH! Maybe that is why yours was delayed? It was stuck in a sorting machine somewhere???

Ummm.... I thought you promised to build one stock? Hahaha! :)

Aren't those motor mounts the coolest??? What'd ya think of the pilots we are making?

Sincerely,
Doug and Becky
WillyNillies.com

I promise Doug, only nose gear on this one. No guarantees on the second one though. I may be ordering two more motors soon. ;)

Those PeeWee mounts are the sweetest 3D printing I've ever seen. Flawless! Just for the heck of it I Googled pix of the different Pee Wee .020 colors and painted one of the mounts with a red tank and black back plate. I also painted the head and block silver. It looks pretty good considering the crappy paint and crappy painter. Those pilots are awesome too. Thanks! I don't think even Williams brothers sells small pilots anymore. These should be a big seller.

I'm printing up another nose gear kit right now. I didn't really change much, mainly infill at 100% for strength. I'll get more work done tomorrow. Maybe get to the wing if I get the rudder pushrod situation handled.

Joe
 

Willy Nillies

Elite member
Hey Joe,

Just a thought, but maybe extend the wire to mount the steering arm above the fuselage middle crutch plate/servo tray? Then straight run for pushrod to servo. Could make like a wheel collar to lock in the gear wire at the height you want. Sounds easy. !?

And that'll leave that forward bottom bay completely open for flight battery.

Sincerely,
Doug and Becky
WillyNillies.com
 

Turbojoe

Elite member
Hey Joe,

Just a thought, but maybe extend the wire to mount the steering arm above the fuselage middle crutch plate/servo tray? Then straight run for pushrod to servo. Could make like a wheel collar to lock in the gear wire at the height you want. Sounds easy. !?

And that'll leave that forward bottom bay completely open for flight battery.

Sincerely,
Doug and Becky
WillyNillies.com

I thought about that but wasn't certain of the intended electronics layout or access hatch locations. Nothing is mounted permanent yet so I can try all kinds of things at this point. Tomorrow.......

Joe
 

Turbojoe

Elite member
A little more progress and a few more pictures.

The more I look at it I think the 1.75" wheels look a bit out of place and I'll drop down at least to 1.5". Maybe even 1.25". We'll see how it looks after completion. After getting more of the fuse assembled it was then easy to see that there was more than enough clearance to go with Doug's suggestion for the nose gear location. It'll work fine. Actually now that more of it is assembled it's easy to see that there is a ton of room inside the fuse. That Pee Wee motor mount is a must have for these birds. It just looks so cool. I've got to figure out exactly which wood to use for the sheeting/hatches. I don't want to screw up and use what is supposed to be for the wing. ;)

Hopefully I'll get a little more done tomorrow. I'm doing as much as I can but my back problems don't let me sit and work for more than a few minutes at a time. I've been putting off surgery since 2006. I may not be able to put it off much longer...:cry:

Joe

On its wheels!.JPG Nose gear will work fine.JPG Will need access hatch.JPG Lots of room.JPG The basement.JPG Strong aft fuselage.JPG Pee Wee is too cool.JPG
 

chris398mx

Master member
A little more progress and a few more pictures.

The more I look at it I think the 1.75" wheels look a bit out of place and I'll drop down at least to 1.5". Maybe even 1.25". We'll see how it looks after completion. After getting more of the fuse assembled it was then easy to see that there was more than enough clearance to go with Doug's suggestion for the nose gear location. It'll work fine. Actually now that more of it is assembled it's easy to see that there is a ton of room inside the fuse. That Pee Wee motor mount is a must have for these birds. It just looks so cool. I've got to figure out exactly which wood to use for the sheeting/hatches. I don't want to screw up and use what is supposed to be for the wing. ;)

Hopefully I'll get a little more done tomorrow. I'm doing as much as I can but my back problems don't let me sit and work for more than a few minutes at a time. I've been putting off surgery since 2006. I may not be able to put it off much longer...:cry:

Joe

View attachment 154562 View attachment 154563 View attachment 154564 View attachment 154565 View attachment 154566 View attachment 154567 View attachment 154568
Looks Great!! Keep the pictures coming.
 

Turbojoe

Elite member
Thanks Chris. I went back at it for a few more minutes. The fuse sheeting/hatch was confusing me because two of the pieces somehow got shoved under the cutting mat and none of the other pieces (wing) would have worked unless I hacked them up. I knew Doug didn't mess up so I started searching the bench and found what I needed. Crisis averted! Glue is drying now. I'll post more pix after I get back from getting some avocados and a bottle of "pain killer".

Joe
 

Willy Nillies

Elite member
Looks Great Joe!

A few pointers.... I will get some pictures posted of what I'm talking about once I get home from the airport tonight.

There are two plywood strips that are used for servo rails/doublers for the elevator and rudder servos. There are two more slightly shorter plywood strips that get used for hatch tongues.

There will be a cross grain piece of balsa that gets glued immediately forward of the landing gear. It is easily recognizable because it will have cut outs in the two corners that meet the main landing gear wires. This gets permanently glued in place.

There will be a short cross grain piece that has a funky looking slot cut out of it that fits the bottom aft side of the firewall where the nose gear wire exits. This gets permanently glued in place.

The hatch is in two cross grain balsa pieces (both the same size) that need to be glued together, one has a tang and one has a slot. The shorter plywood strip pieces get glued on halfway on the front of the hatch as a tongue and back of the hatch as a tongue. Once covered with shrink film it will have a natural springiness that makes it curve and hold nicely and tightly to the bottom of the fuselage. The hatch does not get glued to the fuselage. It is meant to be entirely removable for battery access.

The top forward piece will only fit in the top forward position. The only piece you will have left after that is the windshield piece of balsa.

You will find 6 balsa strips about 1/4" wide. One goes directly on the aft top edge of F3 (wing trailing edge bulkhead), underneath the stringers. This supports the stringers and provides another glue surface for the wing hold down dowels.

Another balsa strip will serve the same stringer support function, but on the aft edge of the landing gear plate.

The other balsa strips get glued at the stringer cross supports, from top to bottom, forming a stick built fuselage formers. (the easy way! :) )

The rudder push rod will exit on top of the fuselage, just forward of the horizontal stabilizer. It will poke through the covering as there is no balsa sheet in that area. a piece of 1/16th scrap can be fitted there if desired, but it really isn't needed.

I think that about covers what's left on the fuse.... please let us know if you have any questions and I'll get ya some pics tonight!

Sincerely,
Doug and Becky
WillyNillies.com
 

Turbojoe

Elite member
Thanks Doug. I'm way ahead of ya for once. Servos are in WITH the doublers. I saw them in a picture you sent a while back. I changed things up a bit on that cross grain piece at the main gear. I prefer to install the gear after covering so I sanded the cutouts off so the sheet (and I cut out and glued a 10mm piece of it at the edge of the gear pocket) so I after covering I can slip the gear in and glue a "cap" to hold it in place. It'll make more sense when I get the pictures up. Nothing more than a personal preference. I likely deviated quite a bit on your intended bottom hatch as well. Sorry.

That funky looking piece already met up with the Dremel tool to mount in the same area and serve the same purpose but I rounded out an area for my nose gear to have a little extra clearance. Those two pieces that I was missing and finally found were the cowl top and windshield pieces. They'll become an access hatch for the nose gear etc. Balsa wise the fuse is pretty much done. Once I popped the tail feathers out of the sheets and mocked them in place it was apparent that the rudder pushrod would be coming out the top of the fuse like its big brother. No biggie. A few well placed bends and that'll be handled.

I don't anticipate any problems with the wing but I haven't popped a single wing part from a sheet yet. Any early tips or pictures would definitely be appreciated. I've done several beta builds and by far the hardest part of the build is not knowing for sure what use the designer had in mind for each individual part.

I'm going to take and post some more pictures and then probably take the night off to give my back a rest then hit it again tomorrow.

Joe
 

Turbojoe

Elite member
OK. S'more pictures. Nothing earth shattering but all I've got right now. I would really like to EASILY add descriptive text to the pictures but now that I've updated to Windows 10 that's no longer possible because of the new whiz bang photo editor. What happened to good old basic "Paint" that an old fart like me could use? Argh.... :mad:

Any who.... I renamed the picture file names to what I wanted to try to get across. Yet again I've made many personal deviations (that's what us deviates do :cautious:) from Doug's original design. You'll see how it SHOULD go when you build one. I'll shoot for finishing the hatch tongues and magnet closures tomorrow. Also I want to get all the pushrods bent and run as needed then tested with a RX and TX controlling them.

Health issues are taking me way too long to build such an easy to build kit and it's driving me nuts. I'm a MAJOR fan of the C.G. Eaglet and way excited to be building such a nice kit in a "legal" (screw the FAA!) size. I want it done yesterday but want it done right so I'll take the necessary time.

I have yet another Eaglet 250 kit N.I.B. That one will be desecrated. Quite heavily...... :eek:

Joe

Missing pieces found.JPG Servo doublers.JPG Modified funky piece.JPG Modified main gear sheet 1.JPG Modified main gear sheet 2.JPG Modified lower hatch.JPG
 

Turbojoe

Elite member
I'm just curious. Am I the first one to have the USP FINALLY deliver an Eaglet 250 kit in one piece or are others out there just waiting for the opportunity to start their build?

Joe
 

Duffusmonkey

Junior Member
I have a nice scar on the tip of my finger from trying to adjust the needle on a Cox .049 Black Widow about 35 years ago. Your engine mount just gave me a flashback, very cool
 

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