Saucerguy2

Ok guys, I decided since Flying Monkey was so far ahead of the contest, that I'd give Fred a run for his money, and actually start out with something cut up. Take note I do not have a girlie pink hot glue gun unlike the Monkey, this one in fact is an industrial high temp one, so I gotta let the glue cool down a bit before applying it to the foam.

I was initially thinking of making a variation of this one with swept back wings, for that's the last one I cut up for SlowJohn to have fun with, but I'm going to let him be the first to try it out with that mod and have opted to take the same cuts on the last of the last production run I did with these kits with a forward swept wing instead.

Shown is the completed plane from the kit, set up rather stock, and I even used my old nimh and brushed gear with it, just because I was sick of it collecting dust, well, that and I didn't want to yank the gear out of another plane. The other photo are the raw kit components, fins not shown, with the cuts in the wing already put into place. This should be quite a handful in the air, and I figured, since it's my first forward swept wing, no need to go too dramatic, I want it to actually fly, not just look good.

My digital camera is almost dead, so am hoping it's going to survive long enough through completion on this one. Let the games begin.

FlyingMonkey

you're a bad man...

Saucerguy2

Yes Fred, I know, but at least I'm using a "Mans" hot glue gun......

Those that are wanting to follow this one, take note, it's going to have plenty of material aft of the wing. This is typically counterproductive with a forward swept wing for they require the COG to be right leading edge of the chord, ie. much farther forward then a typical wing. The revision built into this one from the get go gives the horizontal stabilizer and elevator a lift airfoil to counter that element, and in fact, I may need to dial in some up trim.

I joined the wing halves together with my manly hot glue gun and recessed the balsa stock into the booms centered. Take note when you are cutting that area out, once you have the cross cuts in place, and pulled some of the material out of it's center, you can use the edge of the balsa stock to grind the rest of the material out underneath in short order. I'll be rounding them out to a fine taper to reduce resistance, the same with the fuse/nose section.

I was seriously tempted to just to have the wing aft and going with canards, but the fuse was too short and I'm trying to avoid adding balast. Photo's coming soon, I have to clean it off, for I got into the shop only to find muddy cat prints on my prestine wing luckily I haven't started sanding yet, so they will go away.

Photo's coming soon.

Slowjohn

Subscribin ta learned sumtin

Standing By,
SJ

Slowjohn

So how's it coming along
We wanna know ya know

Standing By
SJ

Saucerguy2

I'm still sanding and shaping, going to have it all covered before assembly, so far the wings are joined, the balsa stock is imbedded within the booms, and the latter, I am now shaping to a nice smooth round. I'll have pics soon.

Saucerguy2

I've opted to take most advantage of the forward swept wing, and am going with a canard pusher with it. I sanded one of the booms, and am using that to join the wings and the fuse. this allows the stock fuse to be long enough since the COG will require the pack to be very far forward. I also shaped the fuse a bit more to give it a more defined look to it, hopefully it might get picked in at least one category for the contest.

Saucerguy2

Progress

Slowjohn

Nice looking bird there SG

Standing By,
SJ

Saucerguy2

Thanks for the kind words SlowJohn, it's really close to completion, I want to get some ungeared glide tests in prior to committing everything into it, just to see if I gotta address any quirks. My time is going to be taxed greatly here shortly, so I figured I might as well round this one up and get it out of the way sooner rather then later.

Slowjohn

so I figured I might as well round this one up and get it out of the way sooner rather then later.[/quote] ...

...and there's that time deadline thing for the build as well, so I'm glad to see you have your priorities right , that is if I'm reading between the lines correctly . I'm still waiting on a updated email as to what's developing on that interesting situation don't cha know

I'm waiting on starting mine for several reasons but a main one is I'd really like to hear & see how your creation is going to fly before I decide whether or not to copy what you've done. I'm guessing that the pitch controls are reversed so to speak with the canard set up? Is this your 1st Canard?

Standing By,
SJ

Saucerguy2

Yeah, I suppose you are right on several areas John about deadlines and such, there is a great deal more going on in my world as of late that kind of puts things, such as tinkering with planes way,way onto the back burner. And, yeah, things are moving forward in ways I never could have dreamed of.

I'll probably slap another speed 400 on it that I have lying around here and use a nimh, just cause I have all of the rest of my good gear sitting in all of my other planes, and as stated above with you here John, there has been some far better things to spend my time on lately. I just want to prove the design, will see how it does down the road when I have time to use the better gear on it, if I have time.

The canard controls are the same as elevator controls, it is my first canard controlled plane as well.

Sky Sharkster

This thread has been closed per OP's request.
Ron