Willy Nillies Jr. Skylark 250 "BUILD ALONG"

Turbojoe · Jan 25, 2020

So I've noticed nobody has started a build thread on this Jr. Skylark kit. What the heck. I'm waiting for some good batteries so I can finally enjoy my Willy Nillies Eaglet 250. In the meantime I decided to pull out the Jr. Skylark 250 kit while I'm waiting for some GOOD batteries ( I ordered 6) to get here as my present packs are all junk! (I forgot that Li-Po batteries have to ship GROUND

). I made a few adjustments to the Eaglet 250 per Doug's suggestions and can't wait to try them out next weekend after I have good batteries.

I have a built Willy Nillies Super sport 250 that I made WAY too many mods to so it could use UMX electronics. I haven't even flown it yet and I may tear it down to go back to NORMAL electronics....

My Willy Nillies Eaglet 250 build took WAY too long. Hopefully I can build this one in a reasonable time. All posts are welcome be they build suggestions or just questions (we all have them).

I'm adding a few pictures of the cut sheets as well as a .pdf of the wire bending file from Wily Nillies.

Joe

OliverW · Jan 25, 2020

Turbojoe said:
I may have alluded to it in some of my previous posts here but I have a back injury that at times keeps me from building, moving, walking etc. If I'm absent from this thread for a while that's why....

Anyone that has useful build info for the Jr. Skylark 250 is strongly encouraged to reply. We'll all work out any possible build kinks along the way. I'm certain Doug just sits back and let's us "think it through" before he jumps in with what he expected us to do with whatever part we're contemplating. There's just no better way to learn....

Likely not much more from me today but I hope others will make some posts of their Jr. Skylark 250 build starts. For me it's not at all about who can get the most views or highest post count. It's all about how many posts you can make that HELP your fellow modeler.

Joe

I know I just saw a thread in the balsa builders section on RC Groups

Turbojoe · Jan 25, 2020

SquirrelTail said:
I know I just saw a thread in the balsa builders section on RC Groups

In total disgust after 17 years I closed my RC Groups account a few months back. You'll need to post a link please.

Joe

OliverW · Jan 25, 2020

https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?3496675-Willy-Nillies-Skylark-250-build

Turbojoe · Jan 25, 2020

Thanks for the link.

Joe

TooJung2Die · Jan 25, 2020

Turbojoe said:
My Willy Nillies Eaglet 250 build took WAY too long.

What?!

I've taken naps that took longer than you took to build the Eaglet.

Love the USAF Thunderbird livery on it. Can't wait to see what you do to the Skylark.

Willy Nillies · Jan 26, 2020

Hey Joe!

Please post your build as you go. We appreciate your take on things and mods!

Sincerely,
Doug and Becky
WillyNillies.com

Turbojoe · Jan 27, 2020

Willy Nillies said:
Hey Joe!

Please post your build as you go. We appreciate your take on things and mods!

Sincerely,
Doug and Becky
WillyNillies.com

Be careful what you ask for.

OK so I "started" on the Jr.Skylark 250 last night. I had to fight weight location on the Eaglet 250 and really wanted to move everything as far forward as possible while building the Skylark. Over in the Eaglet thread TooJung2Die brought up moving the servos all the way forward in his Eaglet build. He did it the right way by making some servo rails. Of course I had to do it the hard way. I like putting the 3D printer to use as much as possible so I made several test servo plates until I settled on the one in the pictures. It's totally unnecessary to go to this extreme but what the heck. I got to melt some PLA today! It's kind hard to see but at the aft end of the plate is a lip to support the rest of the shelf behind it. Maybe the TinkerCad pictures will help to see what I did. I even added a tab to the 3D shelf so it locks in place. In the pictures nothing is glued yet. Just held together with rubber bands so far. Of course it will get my 3D printed nose wheel steering.

Next I'm going to make it a bolt on wing like I did on the Super Sport 250. Then maybe.............

Joe

Willy Nillies · Jan 28, 2020

Just for what it is worth, if anything... The Eaglet 250 we just finished from a production kit and flew in the videos came out spot on cg with no extra weight needed to balance.

Sincerely,
Doug and Becky
WillyNillies.com

TooJung2Die · Jan 28, 2020

That's encouraging. It's always my goal to balance CG without extra ballast. What battery did you use?

Willy Nillies · Jan 28, 2020

TooJung2Die said:
That's encouraging. It's always my goal to balance CG without extra ballast. What battery did you use?

2 cell 500 mAh

Sincerely,
Doug and Becky
WillyNillies.com

Willy Nillies · Jan 28, 2020

Customer completed Jr Skylark 250 in Idaho for inspiration....

He bought 2 kits, plans to make the second one a Twin!

Sincerely,
Doug and Becky
WillyNillies.com

Turbojoe · Jan 28, 2020

I considered making my Jr. Skylark a twin UNTIL I flew the Eaglet. That thing is going to be an absolute beast as a twin. I can't wait for the video!

Joe

Turbojoe · Jan 28, 2020

Willy Nillies said:
2 cell 500 mAh

Sincerely,
Doug and Becky
WillyNillies.com

The new CHNL 500 mah packs I just got from you helped my balance. Glad I bought 6 of them. Great price.

Joe

Turbojoe · Jan 28, 2020

For anyone else contemplating converting the Jr. Skylark 250 to twin I found this .pdf on one of the plan sites a while back. It's for the big Skylark but it's twin specific and could easily be scaled down to work. I'm also including the full plan for the original Jr. Skylark/Twin. Hopefully they'll be of use to someone. The nacelles are ugly as sin. I'd only do them for "authenticity".

Joe

rockyboy · Jan 29, 2020

Turbojoe said:
For anyone else contemplating converting the Jr. Skylark 250 to twin I found this .pdf on one of the plan sites a while back. It's for the big Skylark but it's twin specific and could easily be scaled down to work. I'm also including the full plan for the original Jr. Skylark/Twin. Hopefully they'll be of use to someone. The nacelles are ugly as sin. I'd only do them for "authenticity".

Joe

Thanks for finding that twin conversion plan! When I get a chance to spend some time in the workshop again that's how I plan on building mine - and probably with tiny 1106 motors and 4x3 props I'll rip out of a cheap chinesium quad I haven't played with in a couple years.

Turbojoe · Feb 3, 2020

Nobody else here doing the little Jr. Skylark?

Health and other things have been making my progress REALLY slow on this build. Because space forward of F-2 is so cramped adding steerable nose gear really isn't practical but I persevered and finally made it work. Would I do it again? NO! I had to somehow make room for the battery so it wouldn't interfere with the linkage. Doug will want to wring my neck when he sees what I did to the area between the firewall and F-2. The kit as designed is fine. Because my head isn't on straight I just had to mess with it......My 3D printed servo plate, steerable nose gear (with a LOT of work) and magnetic upper hatch mods work great. I was going to mod the wing to be bolt on but not this time. I've hacked up the poor bird enough already. Between everything I've added and removed I've added right at 3.8 grams and they're all at the top hatch magnets after weighing all changes made.

I've only been working a few minutes at a time for the last several days. The fuse is mostly done. I've kinda started on the wings. I can't decide if I want to give it a little, a lot or no dihedral. Because it has ailerons I'll likely go with "a little" dihedral. I'm sure it'll still have "sparkling" performance....

Joe

Willy Nillies · Feb 4, 2020

Oh Joe, we've come to accept the fact that you will mod away...

Medium dihedral is best with ailerons in our opinion.

Take care of yourself and keep plugging away.

Sincerely,
Doug and Becky
WillyNillies.com

Turbojoe · Feb 4, 2020

Thanks Doug.

Joe

Turbojoe · Feb 7, 2020

Believe it or not I've actually gotten some work done finally! Some final sanding and I should be ready to work on the covering. I may try to do the original red and black Goldberg theme. We'll see how that goes.

I did do some mods but nothing really crazy. I made the upper hatch full length with magnetic catch. Steerable nose wheel of course. That required cutting the "shelf" out of the area behind the firewall so the battery can be installed on its side rather than flat. It gives a LOT more room to work with. I hot glued the ESC to the opposite side of the compartment. The RX will likely end up just behind the servos for easy access to unplug aileron servos if wing is removed. Speaking of the wing I wasn't going to make it bolt on but it was just so easy that I went ahead and did it. I added a small 1/64" ply plate in the screw area for just a little added strength. I also went with the "Eaglet" style wing tips. I still had a few extra lengths of that ultra light/soft balsa triangle stock so why not? At the very tail of the fuse I added some scrap to fill in the area under the horizontal stab so there is extra glue surface. I did it on the Eaglet 250 as well.

Sorry Doug but I'm not a fan of the main landing gear. I was hoping to be able to install after covering the bottom of the wing. I realized that they are supposed to be installed during the wing build. I was able to cut/sand/shape the pieces to install to my completed wing though. I came very close to making my own main gear mounts but decided to go ahead with what was there. I just really hate having to work around something like landing gear in the way of trying to lay a wing flat or especially to cover. Most won't care. It's just a pet peeve of mine. I'd much rather be able to install the gear AFTER covering.

Joe