And from the other side...
As a first trial I only clamped one of the 4 1/8inch ribs to the ply rib.
And then I did 3 in one go.
The 16 1.6mm(1/16inch) ones I did in batches of 4.
And the 2 wingtip ribs.
That was two evenings of relaxed fiddling while sitting in the salon with the family, watching
television... (little did I know what was in store for me)
The next evening, just for the fun of it, I placed a rib on the plan. To my great surprise and
consternation, the cut ribs where shorter than the wingplan ones!
The side view plan is 8.5"
But the wingplan ones' are just over 8 3/4"!!!
And what's more, the main spar and rear spar are switched, the TE measurement states on the plan 1/2",
but measures only 1/4". The explanation I got from Peter was that it was well possible that there could
be some discrepancies on the plan, as they are not CAD plans. Others have noticed it as well, and
just moved the TE up. Peter assured me that the loss of wing surface will not harm the flying characteristics.
So, on I went with the wing. As there is a slight problem with the plan, I decided not to follow the suggested
instruction of placing the TE first, and take it from there. Instead, I pinned the two wing spars on the plan, and
started from there.
But first I had to make sure all ribs have equal cut outs for the spars.
After some sanding they did.
First rib; square,
Square,
and square.
All 1.6mm ribs in place.
You can see the LE parts of the ribs are not (yet) equal.
The tip rib was glued on with alyphatic glue, to make sure I could fiddle around a bit to get it square.
LE of the ribs cut & sanded and the LE glued in place.
TE attached.
"False rib" I think it's called.
Tadaaaah! Looks similar to the plan, doesn't it?
I now placed the wingroot close to the table's edge, and lifted the tip.
To get the 3/4" dihedral. In this position I glued the root rib at 90* to the table.
Small mistake. I should have build up the rear spar to the height of the ribs before glueing the false rib. No problem
realy. Better late then never...
Another little mistake I made;
After making the ribs, I should have trimmed down the root and first ribs to accomodate the surface sheet.
Obviously, I didn't... So I sanded them down, making sure the TE and LE parts were flush.
The 1/4"x1/8" strips for the struts.
To toughen up the area where the struts will be epoxied in the strips, I put some drops of thin CA around the holes.
And here we have two wings. And would you believe it? A left one and a right one!
The Tailgroup
Starting with the elevator. First, I had to cut strips of balsa, then I could start framing the elevator
(I realy should invest in a balsa stripper).
I will build the whole horizontal stab in one piece, and afterwards I'll cut lose the elevator.
To prevent me glueing the elevator and stab together, I placed some greaseproof paper between the TE and LE of both.
All ribs done.
And the center triangle.
And now on to the rudder:
First order of the day; cutting 9 pieces of balsa.
Then cut the apropriate angle according to the plan.
Pin them to the plan and a drop of medium CA on each contact point.
Now, how to get the right almost circle shape? I traced the outline on some greaseproof paper, and cut it out.
And pinned it on the rudder frame.
With a felt tipped pen, I marked the parts that needed sanding of.
A closeup with the paper.
And one without.
Sanded.
And the rudderpost in place.
And a closer view of the medium CA drying.
The firewall
Originally the White Monoplane was meant to be powered by a speed400 in a Graupner 1:3 gear.
To mount the gear there is on the plan a horizontal ply motor plate. As I am going to power mine with
a brushless outrunner there is no need for this horizontal motor plate. Instead the 3mm balsa former
F1 is going to double as motor mount/firewall. So I replaced the balsa with two layers of 1mm light ply.
First I cut out and spray glued the design on to a ply sheet.
Then I cut out the firewall,
and used that one to trace and cut out another one.
Here's a little trick I learned. In order to get epoxy glue more liquid, so it will be absorbed into the
woodpores better I heat the bottles with a hairdryer. NOT a heatgun, or you'll melt the plastic bottles (post
your pictures on RCGroups if you use a heatgun)! An added plus is that you use slightly less epoxy,
and it is harder when dry (or so I'm told).
The two parts epoxied together. You can never have too many clamps...
When the epoxy had cured I traced the motor's cooling holes and bolt holes on some tracing paper,
and then transfered the marks on to the firewall (the paper covered side will be on the inside...).
All the holes were drilled. I also made an extra hole as cooling air intake.
Note to self: don't forget an exit hole...
After all the drilling, (and fitting) I sprayed the firewall black. I will sand it later to get a
grey-ish colour. The air intake will be covered by some kind of gauze (not sure yet how or what,
but I've been eyeing my kids fishing nets...)
