Stuff and such

Well I have had a lot going on. I got a new job in Northern CA in March and just focused on getting settled in for a bit. I haven't been working on the planes much at all because there isn't a club for thermal flight in the area. There is however a club for slope soaring so I'm thinking about getting a couple of slope models put together and flying with those guys.

I started working on the MBOT again and found more parts that are missing. I am disappointed because this was the first kit that I purchased from this company and they have other planes that I would really like to build. If I do decide to support them in the future I will be planning on building the plane fairly quickly so that it isn't a year or so before I find parts missing. The parts that are missing currently aren't going to be too hard to find it is just an annoyance.

On a good note I managed to score a NIB Paragon by Pierce. Super stoked, I have been looking for one of these for a year or so. I also manage to find a Sailaire by Craftair, this is a huge plane nick named the Whaleaire or monokote overcast. I'm looking forward to building and flying both of these. I might start putting a motor on my planes as I don't have a good place to set up a high start.

Hah

I made you all think I was going to post more often didn't I? Well I haven't been working on much lately and haven't had much of anything to report. I did work on the Shrike a bit and received replacement parts for the MBOT so I am starting to work on it again, Maybe I will post some pictures or something soon (ya right).

Working

Well I originally meant to update this more than once a month...

After finishing the Gentle Lady I started working on the Mini Bird of Time again. I finished the inner panels of both wings and started on the outer panels.

There's a wing in there somewhere.

Epoxy and microballoons and balsa around the brass joiner.

Epoxy curing.

Both panels together with the joiner in place.

Luckily I decided to lay all of the parts out before I started to glue things together and found out that I was missing some pieces. I read through the instructions closely and figured out that I'm also missing some fuselage parts. I have contacted the kit manufacture and new parts are being cut. There is no eta and it was like pulling teeth to get any response from the manufacture.

I have noticed that RC related businesses have terrible customer service. I was going to purchase a kit from skybench and after two months of e-mails and phone calls gave up. I guess a two minute phone call or a quick update e-mail is too much to ask for.

I decided to start the Bird of Time while I wait for the Mini Bird of Time parts. I will probably finish the BOT before resuming the MBOT as I am really looking forward to flying it. I don't have pictures for most of the work I have done so far but I do have a couple of the wing.

Rib positions marked on the bottom sheeting.

Using bb's as weight to glue the spar on the sheeting.

I decided to install spoilers on this plane. I haven't installed spoilers so I am making it up as I go. We will see if I end up with something that works or have to remake the inner panels.

Spoiler slots cut in ribs.

Pictures *cough* FINISHED!

Ok so I kinda dropped the ball when it came to posting pictures. Clearly tonight or tomorrow means next month....

Anyway I finished the plane and had some great flights last Sunday. I had a lot of fun putting this together and learned quit a bit that I can use on future builds.

Right inner panel.

Holding the polyhedral joint together while glue dries. This is the left side.

While waiting for glue to dry on wing panels I worked on the fuse. I didn't take any pictures of the fuse during construction.

I glued my finger to the fuse! Err look MAGIC!

 In order to make the wing a little stronger I added a top spar to tie the sheeting in a little better. This design wasn't made to take winch launches so I am worried about the overall strength of the wing.

Holding down the top spar while glue dries.

 I was a little upset with the super sloppy fit of the spars to ribs. This will make the wing much weaker than a nice tight fit and this design isn't super strong to begin with. I had to cut small fillers out of scrap balsa and glue in the gaps. I think I spent as much time on this as I did assembling the structure of the wing.

Gaps around spars :(

Woo Hoo! The wing and fuse are finished! Well not quite I have to test fit everything before covering.

Starting to look like a plane!

Obligatory couch shot.

Time to cover! I decided to go with Cub Yellow as I'm not super proud of the wing and don't want to show the inner off. The fuse is going to be black. I took my time with the covering and still ended up with a very wavy rudder and horizontal stabilizer. I spent around 5 hours on the fuse and 9 hours on the wing. I am pretty happy with how the wing and fuse turned out. I also learned what I did wrong on the rudder so it should turn out better next time.

Starting to cover. I forgot to take a before picture.

Finished. This took around 8-9 hours.

A Monokote monster was murdered here!

Finished! It looks really nice.

Lookin good! I could be a little biased tho.

Overall I learned quite a bit and think my next build should turn out that much better. This plane has completed its purpose and it flies very well. The first flight was dedicated to trim and dive tests to make sure the CG was correct. The second flight was 45 minutes long and my best yet! I had a blast building this and look forward to many hours of relaxing thermalling.

Wings

I decided to make the stock wing since I don't need to design it as I go along. I worked on it a little bit yesterday and got the right side panels finished. Today I will be joining the panels and starting the left side of the wing. I will also be working on the fuselage while waiting on glue to dry. I will post an update with pictures either tonight or tomorrow.

Back to the Lady

I have decided to finish the Gentle Lady before continuing on with the Mini Bird of Time. I really didn't like the stock construction of the GL wing so I decided to change it. Unfortunately I needed to cut new ribs to do this. I think I may build a stock wing as well as the modified version since I won't be using much of the original materials and I don't have anything else to do with them. I am curious to see the difference in weight between the two. I have cut ribs and capped half of the spars with carbon so far.

Old on the left and new on the right.

Waiting for the glue to dry. The spars and carbon are under there.

Inner right wing

Well after working on it all day. Maybe I should put distractedly working on it all day. I have the right inner wing panel to the point where I need to start working on the left wing panel. Everything went together fairly smoothly. I have decided to build this plane 99% stock. The only modification that I'm planning on doing is using two dowels front and rear for the rubber bands instead of one. That isn't going to be for a little while tho. I didn't take many pictures just one starting and one finished. Oh and one of Hercules waiting for supper.

Starting

Finished

"The food is in there!"