Citabria Pro build

[octagon]

I have been working on a Citabria Pro for the last 3 weeks or so. The Dragon I was working on turned out to be a nasty boy and he has been sent to the corner until he learns how to play right. The Citaba  has been a fun and interesting build. It was designed about 10 years ago by Tim Hooper and featured in RCME in England. Tim has a very helpful build log with plenty of pictures, because although not a hard build, there are some challenging bits. The cabane struts are constructed on a jig. I had to make a swage block out of oak in order to form the brass strips that hold them to the fuse. The landing gear wire had to be formed. I covered the cabanes with 1/16th balsa filler with outer strips of 1.64th ply. I love the curves of the fuse, but the only way to make them satisfactory was to plank the structure. Instead of glueing all the planks to each other on their length, I planked everything and then from the inside spread a film of slightly thinned carpenters glue. It wicked it way into the joints and allowed for sanding from the outside for a smooth surface. The spats are made of 3 pieces of 1/4 inch balsa, finished out the outsides by 1/8th light ply on the inside and balsa outside. When  the glue dried I cut the rough shape out with a band saw and then using my trusty Duragrit sanding bar finished them to the state they are now. I find making something asthetically pleasing out of a hunk of balsa very satisfying. The dimple in the nose under the prop is for a "light" that was a prominent feature of the real plane. I made my from a thumb tack that I cut most of the stem out of and the lens is slow setting epoxy. It turned out quite well. Final sanding and covering will begin soon.

[octagon]

The Citabria is coming along well. Base covering is done, graphics ordered from Callie. I have to try and do a decent job of a starburst on the top of the wing, but Callie will supply the tail art and stipes and checkerboards.
I have to make the wing struts and cover them, and that is about all the balsa work that remains. The servos and rx are in it as are the motor and ESC. Fun, interesting build.

[octagon]

Almost finished, almost. Spats are secured, which required narrowing the wheels as they rubbed on the inside of the spats.,
All electrics in and all that remains are the main struts which are made of 1/8 hard balsa. The starburst turned out suprising well, but took a while to get right. All was going to well and I should have expected something would go wrong.I was holding the plane, trying to drill the brass ears I soldered onto the landing gear wire to hold the Spats. Didn't the damn thing slip out of my hands and as I tried to grab it before it hit the ground, I managed to crack the entire tail section free of the fuse. The wood under the horizontal stab cracked. but it was a clean tight crack and some medium CA and it is good as new. (I hope)

[bfeist]

Looking fantastic!

[msatin]

What a beauty

[octagon]

I got the graphics today from Callie. As usual they were top notch. The plane is finished, rates and expo set, gyro calibrated, and glamorous pilot installed. A friend suggested I have the pilot be my Daughter, and so a Walmart Barbie doll who looks a bit like Ashley is flying the thing. I have to tell you it feels kind of creepy to cut a Barbie up in a band saw. Kind of know what Dexter feels like now. This was a fun build and I very much enjoyed it.