Aprilamille's (Mike's) VPModels' Cubic build

[Wayne]

Thermal is a flying challenge.. Lots to learn there. You picked the right plane, it will make you look much better. LOL

Don't worry too much about things not being perfect. Perfect is always a good goal, but don't let it add stress to the enjoyment of the hobby. I think we have all flown some tired old abused plane and blown away with how well it flies despite being far from perfect. Far better the find enjoyment in a build.

 

[apriliamille]

i had a day off today and my friend came over and we did some work. We rough sanded on the boom and the fuse cleaned with acetone and we used a 30 min epoxy with milled fiberglass shards and mounted the boom to the fuse. We then put in the control horns. We both did a set and of course he did a better job than I did with dremelling and I tagged all the way through the one aileron
these were put in with JB Weld and the one i messed up by going too deep is going to have a blackish grey spot on the top side of the aileron from the seepage.

we then decided to start looking at what we are going to do with the rear feathers of the plane on the boom and my friend showed me something that would never have crossed my mind. never ever in a million years so i am glad his knowledge is here to teach me. You will see that the elevator 3d printed mount is flat / straight across the surface but the elevator has some curve and a space gap of light can be seen in the picture. We put seran wrap and tooth picks in the screw holes and rubbed up most of the area with Vaseline and made a medium of jb weld and Cabosil to build up the area. it was hard to get a photo of what we did you but can see a light grey area filling in the gap. We are going to let this dry and cure for 24 hours then ill do some work on the Reichard Rapid and maybe start on the wings of the CCM Toy. Next week we will probably be going to his shop that has way way more room than my living room and hobby room combined so we can put the wings on the glider and start tinkering with incidence meters and what not to get the elevator and rudder hard mounted.

 

[apriliamille]

started on the linkages. one thing noticed was there is not much up travel built into the flaps but i can more than likely make it go past -90 degrees. the servo is not hard mounted yet so i can take the arms off and tweak and what not while putting the linkages together. this is a video you have to open and hit play arrow. This is my first time working on flaps that started with an offset servo arm. i didnt have to do this with my extreme flight bushmaster as i wanted equal throw both ways. it was an interesting and not entertaining session of figuring out what needed done to do the offset of the servo arm

 

[Wayne]

Yes, with this one you only need down flap. You can have a little up travel for speed (camber) when flying through sink but not much at all is needed. Offset flaps can get confusing when doing the radio programming. Proceed with caution so you do not run your servo up against the mechanical limit of the flaps.

p.s. You will love what you can do with massive flaps!

 

[apriliamille]

This makes me feel better Wayne. I also did a mechanical offset to start with on the flap servos to get more throw going for the down flap position

 

[apriliamille]

Holidays done.. NOW GET TO WORK !!!!! Today we started on the elevator. I didnt get a lot of cool detailed pictures but you might find some interesting stuff in the back ground. My friend's family are statue makers. The little elevator mount that i forgot to get a picture of was not flush from the 3d printing when we tried to mate it up to the constantly smaller diameter carbon tube. We propped up some identical sized blocks and put one incidence meter on the wings and then did an incidence meter on the elevator and then we weight everything down so it wouldnt move once we matched up the incidence between the wings and the elevator. We also dremeled the slot in for where the elevator control rod will exit. we did a mix of 30 min epoxy and milled fiberglass shards and made a paste. we bolted the elevator to the 3d print mount and then used the paste to get everything set at identical incidence the distance from each elevator tip to the wing tip ended at like 1/32 or what not variance as it was getting annoying doing it over and over while the paste was drying and resetting incidence every time we tweaked on the distance. The bottom of the elevator has some curve to it so it kind of made it interesting. Its curing so next week we will do the rudder. If you are curious about what you see in the back ground. yes they are THAT BIG and here is a link to the end deal on some of the mock statues you see in the back ground. The cowboy with the whip in the last pic right side is front and center on the image link

Google Image Result for http://www.boodyfinearts.com/page_images/firstnational/full/pioneer18.jpg

images.app.goo.gl

 

[Wayne]

First off - great job! Yes, getting the wing lined up is always a pain. It can test your patience. Your jigging efforts should have helped. Good thing you had a nice larger build area.

Wow, they are very talented with their craft! Simply beautiful!

 

[apriliamille]

we worked on the Rudder today. we found top dead center via a dial indicator. There are two holes in the bottom of the rudder that last week while we were gluing in the elevator mount we glued in two pieces of carbon rod. We drilled 2 spots for those to go into the boom and then sanded the boom and used another batch of epoxy and milled fiberglass shards and mounted in the rudder. The rudder itself is a what i would call it since i have no idea the name: an "aerodynamic surface" aka its not a simple flat up and down vertical rudder surface. we then taped angle rulers to blocks and made a scientific guess with 2 pairs of eyeballs looking for an identical air gap on each side and then taped down the rudder while it cured.

We totally forgot to "clear" the pre drilled hole inside the elevator mount from last week's epoxy session. And realized it after the rudder "cured" I had to take some finger drills to get in there and clear the hole after the fact.

I cant remember where i got this tiny finger drill thingy as I got it like 2008 ish. but man I wish I could find more of these to keep on hand as im slowly breaking the tiny drill bits.

 

[Doc J]

we worked on the Rudder today. we found top dead center via a dial indicator. There are two holes in the bottom of the rudder that last week while we were gluing in the elevator mount we glued in two pieces of carbon rod. We drilled 2 spots for those to go into the boom and then sanded the boom and used another batch of epoxy and milled fiberglass shards and mounted in the rudder. The rudder itself is a what i would call it since i have no idea the name: an "aerodynamic surface" aka its not a simple flat up and down vertical rudder surface. we then taped angle rulers to blocks and made a scientific guess with 2 pairs of eyeballs looking for an identical air gap on each side and then taped down the rudder while it cured.

We totally forgot to "clear" the pre drilled hole inside the elevator mount from last week's epoxy session. And realized it after the rudder "cured" I had to take some finger drills to get in there and clear the hole after the fact.

I cant remember where i got this tiny finger drill thingy as I got it like 2008 ish. but man I wish I could find more of these to keep on hand as im slowly breaking the tiny drill bits.

Is there so much work required to complete this model?

Or is this all mods by Aprilia?

I'm quite surprised.

Doc

 

[apriliamille]

there was nothing really pre prepared on the back end. they literally handed you a carbon tube for the boom and the pieces with no actual reference points on the tube. the spot for mpx connectors were indented but we had to dremel those out as well. as to why. i have no idea

 

[Doc J]

there was nothing really pre prepared on the back end. they literally handed you a carbon tube for the boom and the pieces with no actual reference points on the tube. the spot for mpx connectors were indented but we had to dremel those out as well. as to why. i have no idea

Not for the beginner, I think.

Doc.

 

[apriliamille]

Not for the beginner, I think.

Doc.

Well, it definitely is not an ARF. Considering my prior build experience with PAU, Quique Aircraft, Aeroworks and Extereme Flight 25%-36% gassers and Sig MFG and this Reicherd Rapid, I would definitely be lost without my Glider friend and the suggestions given already on this thread.

Personally, with it being a $900 U.S., dollar plane and not a $2500 GCM Vertigo, CCM Liberty or an ungodly amount of money for a Samba Prestige, I am in no position to complain about the level of completion of what was delivered in the box.

This one is the Rohacel D-box carbon plane and their all carbon is what... $1100 ish? So i assume tons of hand building will need to be done. Unfortunately I am unable to pay the "price for admission" on the ahem "hard core" planes.

Besides, I want to learn about thermalling and its probably a good thing I cant afford the high dollar ticket items. I remember wayyyyyyy back in 2007 ish when i kept damaging my Sig Kadet LT40 as i was advancing into hovering torque rolls etc etc which a trainer is not designed for. My initial RC trainer or Mentor would say "Welcome to modelling now lets go learn how to fix it". I am learning alot about the process on this glider.

Another side note. I still have that CCM 2m Toy to build and after examining what is in the box and comparing to what I have to do with the VP Cubic I am literally like "PFFFFFT... easy mode" for the CCM. But then the 2m CCM cost more than the 3.4 m Cubic.

 

[Doc J]

I'm sure it will build into a great model.

I have been doing a few tests on "hard core" wings recently, but I'm looking at CNC cores in a mould.

Interesting results.

Doc.

 

[apriliamille]

working on two planes this morning the Cubic and the Reichard Rapid since I mixed up a batch of JB weld. Working on the control horns for the rudder and elevator. For the rudder I decided i wanted to lead out from the top of the boom tube to avoid as much angle as possible (the rudder does not go below the boom like a dlg rudder might), no clue if its the proper thing to do but it made sense to me to try and avoid as much bend as possible going to the rudder. I taped the metal wire of the bowden in random spots on the rudder (i didnt take a picture of every trial and error placement) then i started with the white plastic exterior up where the elevator mounting bracket is and random slid the plastic part to the rear until the tape holding the wire piece on the rudder "let loose" I did this a few times until I felt ok with what the end result would be. These are jb welded into place and have mask tape holding them in place. I used a tooth pick and flooded the dremeled "trench" so there is a ton of jb weld in there. i actually am uploading within the first hour of doing this so in about an hour i will go check the aligments of the control horns and then retape as the jb weld sets. I have naturally shaky hands with pins internal of my thumb and pointy finger of my right hand so I was not exact and precise with my dremel making the slots.

I also shortened the wing linkage rods a little bit to give some more room for adjustments on the wings as i felt they were too long and conflicting with my clevises staying securely tight.

 

[apriliamille]

i have an urge to give an update but i am quite pissed and do not have anything nice to say so i should probably say nothing. y'all will probably chuckle and think "yeah been there, done that"
i am actually trying to do some of this without my glider guru friend but man this is kicking my butt.

The magnet trick on the wires in the bowdens was an awesome tip. I taped the magnets to the boom cuz they were fighting polarity and i was getting sick of everything bouncing around. Those are in. But I just couldn't grasp the concept of dumping a 12 dollar bottle of thin CA down the boom. So i took one of my sulliven golden rods, heated up some gorilla glue with my heat gun, sucked it up inside the exterior golden red rod and then put it deep into the fuse and blew out the gorilla glue and then i randomly blew what i thought was a tiny amount of water into the boom. Yeah....... nothing inside is going anywhere as i watch foamed gorilla glue expand out the back of the boom tube. Woops !,

You might think when you see the pictures of the bubble levels "but mike it is right there" yeah..... thats a dry run and no, its not lining up while im rushing to place it with the 30 min epoxy + fiberglass dust and after several tries its beyond hope due to the curing and removed and given an acetone bath air dried. Done this 3 times now to no success . Heck one time i accidentally some how managed to step on a shoe lace and untied my shoe and I was thinking "awe heck i cant move cuz of the levels and the epoxy. just aint my night for this. I swear this has to be some kind of sick reality show, i keep looking for the hidden cameras all i have is a phone camera so ill show you the real photos VP gave me via email if you dont want to scroll to the 1st page as my camera probably dont show what im trying to do

 

[apriliamille]

This is a numbers post. I have to give mad props to my Glider friend who told me to NOT buy a motor until we have a ball park cg weight
here are the numbers of what is pretty close to completion now. the wings are done, the bowdens are done, the fuse servo tray is done, so we put it on a the cheap cg machine for a rough idea of what we need for balancing in the front
with the talon 35 and the tw10 rx we need approx 255 grams in the front. so if we swap out the talon for a talon 60 that will equal to about 30 more grams.
i weighed a few batteries i have and came up with 90 grams.

The Top Xpower F2925-8 is ordered Which will eat 102 grams
Here are the numbers so far and I guess I am "ok?" with my first glider build
my initial estimate was around 1050 grams all up fly weight
the weights as of this morning are as follows

fuse/boom/rudder/servos and tray/ rudder/ bowdens 277 grams
right wing with wires, servos and horns 297 grams
left wing with wires, servos and horns 289 grams
add left wing offset balance weight? 8 grams
for cg at front (motor, firewall, battery spinner/blades_ 255 grams

total fly weight at the moment assuming the F2925-8, move to talon 60 spinner and props 1175 grams so it looks like in the end what i estimated with slop added into my initial guess. im going to be off 125-150 grams by overshoot

question if anyone has can give feed back

original left wing out of box 246 grams so i swung 2 extra grams during assembly)
with the right wing coming in at 297 grams and the left wing coming in at 289 grams. Do i toss in a full 8 grams to balance the wings?
if this was one of my giant scale gassers i would do a left to right balance via string looped the motor and the rudder and hang from garage roof and do a left right balance with the minimal at weight needed at the tip of the wing. Would i treat this glider the same? maybe goop a few pieces of tungsten into the aileron servo tray to balance.

Just want to make sure what the process is for a thermal glider

 

[Wayne]

If you put your wing weight out at the tips you may be able to get away with much less weight. Ideally you want to hold the entire model by the fuselage and see if it tries to roll to one side or not. The weight of each panel can be different, but still have a perfect balance as it really depends on where that mass is located.

 

[Tmcfarland]

This is a numbers post. I have to give mad props to my Glider friend who told me to NOT buy a motor until we have a ball park cg weight
here are the numbers of what is pretty close to completion now. the wings are done, the bowdens are done, the fuse servo tray is done, so we put it on a the cheap cg machine for a rough idea of what we need for balancing in the front
with the talon 35 and the tw10 rx we need approx 255 grams in the front. so if we swap out the talon for a talon 60 that will equal to about 30 more grams.
i weighed a few batteries i have and came up with 90 grams.

The Top Xpower F2925-8 is ordered Which will eat 102 grams
Here are the numbers so far and I guess I am "ok?" with my first glider build
my initial estimate was around 1050 grams all up fly weight
the weights as of this morning are as follows

fuse/boom/rudder/servos and tray/ rudder/ bowdens 277 grams
right wing with wires, servos and horns 297 grams
left wing with wires, servos and horns 289 grams
add left wing offset balance weight? 8 grams
for cg at front (motor, firewall, battery spinner/blades_ 255 grams

total fly weight at the moment assuming the F2925-8, move to talon 60 spinner and props 1175 grams so it looks like in the end what i estimated with slop added into my initial guess. im going to be off 125-150 grams by overshoot

question if anyone has can give feed back

original left wing out of box 246 grams so i swung 2 extra grams during assembly)
with the right wing coming in at 297 grams and the left wing coming in at 289 grams. Do i toss in a full 8 grams to balance the wings?
if this was one of my giant scale gassers i would do a left to right balance via string looped the motor and the rudder and hang from garage roof and do a left right balance with the minimal at weight needed at the tip of the wing. Would i treat this glider the same? maybe goop a few pieces of tungsten into the aileron servo tray to balance.

Just want to make sure what the process is for a thermal glider

Really enjoy your posts. I almost bought one of these but after following along I don’t think my skills are up to it yet. Its easy to see these F5J carbon wonders and think of them as an ARF plane. Just throw in the motor and electronics and fly the next day. After looking at a few at the field I thought, “you need to be an endodontist to build this”

 

[Wayne]

They really aren't that hard. I think this is rather new for @apriliamille in terms of a fancier glider and he is trying to do a very good job. It is one of those builds where small steps will get you there, no single step is too bad, but there are a few of them.

 

[apriliamille]

@Tmcfarland I am not shy or ashamed to share my mishaps and frustration (i think i sugar coated that one post to be smoother than how i really was fealing)

I am lucky to have my friend who has build quite a few gliders over the years and he is not pulling punches. I am learning and there is stuff that would never would have crossed my mind (like the elevator printed mount not being flush, who would have thought? Definitely not me). I am hoping that what i am posting helps anyone else along the way. I am sorry as I am an that evil left shoulder whispering enabler talking head. Id say get it and try. I assume what i have posted and the pictures will definitely help.