Willy Nillies GLH

[rockyboy]

Our club is getting ready to do some pylon racing this summer (after the Covid is gone and the county lets us reopen the field) and the plane of choice is the WN-GLH. So of course I had to get in on this.

I'm about 3 hours into the build this evening, using thin CA rather than waiting for my slow set aliphatic glues. It's just been a tough couple weeks and I wanted to see something I created and get that feeling of accomplishment a little quicker than the slow burn enjoyment of a multi week build.

Here's about an hour in - fuselage together, motor mounted, thinking about servos.

Wings press fit together - no glue yet.

Glued together with sheeting and putting in holes for the servo wires to come out the bottom

Wings all set for final sanding and covering, top view here with servo arms coming out the bottom.

And servers in on a couple scrap balsa rails.

I'm almost ready for covering now - just two questions to figure out before final sanding.

First question is what are these pieces for?

Second question is where do I run the rudder control rod, or is it even worth bothering with a rudder?

 

[OliverW]

Our club is getting ready to do some pylon racing this summer (after the Covid is gone and the county lets us reopen the field) and the plane of choice is the WN-GLH. So of course I had to get in on this.

I'm about 3 hours into the build this evening, using thin CA rather than waiting for my slow set aliphatic glues. It's just been a tough couple weeks and I wanted to see something I created and get that feeling of accomplishment a little quicker than the slow burn enjoyment of a multi week build.

Here's about an hour in - fuselage together, motor mounted, thinking about servos.
View attachment 163556

Wings press fit together - no glue yet.
View attachment 163550

Glued together with sheeting and putting in holes for the servo wires to come out the bottom
View attachment 163553
Wings all set for final sanding and covering, top view here with servo arms coming out the bottom.
View attachment 163552
And servers in on a couple scrap balsa rails.
View attachment 163555

I'm almost ready for covering now - just two questions to figure out before final sanding.

View attachment 163557
First question is what are these pieces for?
View attachment 163554
Second question is where do I run the rudder control rod, or is it even worth bothering with a rudder?

Those pieces go on thr inside of the last rib on each wing. And I flew one that had a rudder, and at full throws it had little to no effect. I think it may be due to the sharply angled hinge. You also really will only be flying it bank and yank

 

[Willy Nillies]

Yep, what SquirrelTail said... for pylon racing forget the rudder, you'll never use it. Even with our company demo GLH (it has rudder) we just don't use it and the people that have flown it usually comment once it's on the ground "oh! it has a rudder!" The weight of servo, pushrod and linkage just might make the difference in a race. ;-)

Those are tip rib braces. If those aren't installed the tip ribs will bow in when you shrink your covering.

Great work and fast build!

Sincerely,
Doug and Becky
WillyNillies.com

 

[Willy Nillies]

Just a couple of tips... we normally just glue the elevator servo to the fuselage side. Simple, effective and lightest solution.

On the aileron servos... install pushrod in the innermost hole that you can. Very little aileron throw is needed on this plane and when you put the pushrod in the inner most hole you will have much better precision and centering. 1/8" up and down are all we recommend on the ailerons.

Sincerely,
Doug and Becky
WillyNillies.com

 

[chris398mx]

Those pieces go on thr inside of the last rib on each wing. And I flew one that had a rudder, and at full throws it had little to no effect. I think it may be due to the sharply angled hinge. You also really will only be flying it bank and yank

I am sure you are past this point, but if not, here is a pic of what it looks like. I had the same question on my Hummer 250.

 

[Keno]

The original Ace GLH did not have a rudder. Only two servos one for ailerons and elevator. Although I like the changes made, the GLH is great pylon plane and fun to fly, launch and hang on and you will enjoy this one.

 

[rockyboy]

Thanks for all the great info guys!

I've installed the wing tip bracing properly now, pulled out the rudder servo, and glued the vertical stabilizer and rudder pieces together to make one bigger stabilizer. I'm going to leave the elevator servo on the rails - I prefer installing servos with screws as I've lost one of my foamy plane when an elevator servo pulled free, and glued at least three or four servos into non-functioning solid blocks of plastic when glue leaked into them.

Final sanding all done - time to go re-read that thread on using doculam...

 

[Hanapi]

I have a question
What do you use for hinges??

 

[rockyboy]

On this build I'm going to use cut up pieces of floppy disk for hinges, but little bits of tyvek from shipping envelopes, 3M medical tape, fishing line, or straight up covering hinges would work great too.

So far using doculam for covering is going great! Cranked the heat on the iron to the top, put the shiny side up, and a quick firm pass sticks it down and turns it clear all at the same time! Rudder complete here - you can sort of see the reflection on that compared to the flat

 

[TooJung2Die]

I think once you get the hang of it you'll like doculam. The big Ah-Ha moment for me was when I figured out that when it didn't have enough shrink I could stretch it tight over curves like wingtips using a heat gun. It resists a lot more heat than conventional films.

 

[rockyboy]

I just did my first wing section, and yeah - just using the iron didn't do much for stretching. But it's going on pretty well so far - wing pictures coming soon.

 

[Turbojoe]

Following your cover and paint with much interest!

Joe

 

[speedbirdted]

Looking good! I need to try Doculam again sometime.

 

[rockyboy]

So far I'm a big fan of doculam at this point. Using the 17mil on a plane without compound curves has been easy peasy. Didn't even pull out the heat gun - just a slow pass with the heel of the iron tightened things right up!

Installing floppy disk hinges - glue in one side first, wait to dry, then glue in the other side.

Beauty shot!

Here's another keeper

Using those left over servo horns as hatch latches.

Yes that motor looks huge, but it's just a 2204 2-3s 2200kv Black Widow with built in ESC. This is the last one in my drawer from when HK had a clearance sale on them a couple years ago. I thought it would be handy on this build to have the ESC weight way up front

Next up is the control horns, receiver, and then something needs to be done color wise for orientation....

 

[Turbojoe]

Sweet! Looking forward to your doculam paint tutorial.

I've finally gotten most of the problems sorted on the PSM Cessna 182 fuse and it's getting close to being ready to cover. Maybe with doculam?

Joe

 

[rockyboy]

Electrolytes all installed and configurated. Not a lot of throw distance with the recommended setup, but I'm going to trust Doug knows what's he doing with these measurements.

With the ESC built into the motor base there is plenty of room in here! I do need to throw it on the balance points and see how she's doing in that department.

Next I'm going to find a scotch pad to rough up the doculam and figure out how I want to mask off the wing pattern....

 

[Willy Nillies]

Looks great!

You'll probably find you are nose heavy with the bigger motor up front.

Nose heavy isn't fun either because you won't have enough elevator to pull up to slow her down for landing. She really is a slippery thing... As you will soon find out 😁

Sincerely,
Doug and Becky
WillyNillies.com

 

[Keno]

Looks great!
How well I know!
You'll probably find you are nose heavy with the bigger motor up front.

Nose heavy isn't fun either because you won't have enough elevator to pull up to slow her down for landing. She really is a slippery thing... As you will soon find out 😁

Sincerely,
Doug and Becky
WillyNillies.com

 

[rockyboy]

I want to leave most of the plane clear, but make the right wing distinctive for orientation help. I also got a roll of masking film for my vinyl cutter recently, so it's time to get a little fancy with the paint!

First I masked off the outer third of the right wing. Then I used 600 grit sandpaper to rub down the covering where it's going to be painted, and give it a final rubbing alcohol cleaning.

Then I lightly dusted on two coats of red, and once that's very thoroughly cured (a couple days), I'm going to add the masking film pattern, give another red dusting to seal the masking edges, and then shoot the white graphic layer on top.

Once the white cures for a day, I'll pull up all the masking and hope it's a triumph of a white star & checkers over a red background and not a tradgedy. Probably do a clear coat to protect the paint job too.

 

[Joker 53150]

Very cool, that vinyl cutter must be a lot of fun for projects like this. Some day I'll accidentally pull the trigger and get one for myself.