JohnT
Strong User
They said it couldn't be done. No, wait, they said it shouldn't be done. Er, uh, now I remember, it doesn't need to be done. Yeah, that's the ticket!
So, as previously mentioned, I live in MO and travel to SoCal to see family from time-to-time. I like to get in some slope soaring there and wanted to build a Micro GL with split wings. Understanding it's a small plane with a 30" wing span, that was still too big to fit into an airline carry-on. So, here's my build.
I built all four wing panels following the plan, the main difference was not gluing the center sections together.
Then, I made things hard on myself. I cut a piece of 3.2 mm CF Tube to fit across the Right and Left bays, Root R1 to the Second R1. I set the tube on top of the Root R1s, with the wing dihedral set and measured down from the ends to the bay 'floor'. Used that measurement to located a hole in the end of R1, which I drilled through. Doing this again from scratch, I would have just notched down Root R1 until the CF Tube was where I wanted it.
The next place I made things hard for myself was worrying about maintaining alignment of the CF Tube while it was glued in place. I left the tube in one piece, instead of splitting it. Then, had to cut it between the two Root R1s. Dug into the surfaces of the ribs cutting the tube, but got them apart. In retrospect, I would have been just fine to put the 1.58mm joiner CF Rod into the pieces of tube to maintain alignment. It turned out fine, as I had plans to laminate a 1/32" piece of basswood to the ends of the ribs anyway.
The CF Tube was secured by CA with balsa sawdust added. I also placed an alignment pin, adding a little balsa reinforcement inside of R1 for the pin. Drilling for that pin got a little close to the surface, but no worries, Filled in with a little CA, balsa sawdust and there will be balsa sheeting on top. Pin will be glued into the left root, to prevent loss.
CF Rod for joiner and alignment pin glued on the left side. Root ribs top sheeted. I cut new top sheet pieces to cover the basswood addition to R1, as the originals were not wide enough after adding the basswood.
Left inner and outer panels glued together, setting up.
A little spritz with some flat black paint for the wings and tail feathers and it's ready to be covered. 1mm Laminating Film will be here this week. I'm leaving the fuselage 'natural' and it will all be covered clear.
I did not think to do before and after weights to figure out how much weight I might have added with my plan variation. The CF adds less than a Gram. The paint will add a little bit.
I have a DSM2 micro receiver and sub-micro servos that I pulled out of a spare Lightning Bug DLG fuselage that I'm figuring out the placement for.
I'll post a finished picture when I get done.
Regarding flying . . . what wind range will the Micro GL tolerate? Can you add ballast to fly into stronger wind?
Cheers!
John
So, as previously mentioned, I live in MO and travel to SoCal to see family from time-to-time. I like to get in some slope soaring there and wanted to build a Micro GL with split wings. Understanding it's a small plane with a 30" wing span, that was still too big to fit into an airline carry-on. So, here's my build.
I built all four wing panels following the plan, the main difference was not gluing the center sections together.
Then, I made things hard on myself. I cut a piece of 3.2 mm CF Tube to fit across the Right and Left bays, Root R1 to the Second R1. I set the tube on top of the Root R1s, with the wing dihedral set and measured down from the ends to the bay 'floor'. Used that measurement to located a hole in the end of R1, which I drilled through. Doing this again from scratch, I would have just notched down Root R1 until the CF Tube was where I wanted it.
The next place I made things hard for myself was worrying about maintaining alignment of the CF Tube while it was glued in place. I left the tube in one piece, instead of splitting it. Then, had to cut it between the two Root R1s. Dug into the surfaces of the ribs cutting the tube, but got them apart. In retrospect, I would have been just fine to put the 1.58mm joiner CF Rod into the pieces of tube to maintain alignment. It turned out fine, as I had plans to laminate a 1/32" piece of basswood to the ends of the ribs anyway.
The CF Tube was secured by CA with balsa sawdust added. I also placed an alignment pin, adding a little balsa reinforcement inside of R1 for the pin. Drilling for that pin got a little close to the surface, but no worries, Filled in with a little CA, balsa sawdust and there will be balsa sheeting on top. Pin will be glued into the left root, to prevent loss.
CF Rod for joiner and alignment pin glued on the left side. Root ribs top sheeted. I cut new top sheet pieces to cover the basswood addition to R1, as the originals were not wide enough after adding the basswood.
Left inner and outer panels glued together, setting up.
A little spritz with some flat black paint for the wings and tail feathers and it's ready to be covered. 1mm Laminating Film will be here this week. I'm leaving the fuselage 'natural' and it will all be covered clear.
I did not think to do before and after weights to figure out how much weight I might have added with my plan variation. The CF adds less than a Gram. The paint will add a little bit.
I have a DSM2 micro receiver and sub-micro servos that I pulled out of a spare Lightning Bug DLG fuselage that I'm figuring out the placement for.
I'll post a finished picture when I get done.
Regarding flying . . . what wind range will the Micro GL tolerate? Can you add ballast to fly into stronger wind?
Cheers!
John
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and you can check one of them out here.
clear laminating film. The material that came yesterday is 1 Mil matte laminating film. Not sure it's turning out to be exactly what I want, as it does not go down on balsa sheet with a clean look - kind of silvery and shows iron tracks. It stiffens the wing just fine and it'll fly. Did end up with minor twists in both covered panels that I will take out when I get back. Never see the minor stuff when it's in flight, so, I'll just have to keep it in the air! The 1 Mil is also a little more challenging to work with than the 1.5 Mil LF!
