OV 10

[octagon]

I ordered a short kit an OV10 Bronco from Park Flyers Plastics in Texas. It arrived yesterday and I got to work on it this morning. Well, actually last night I punched out and labelled all the parts, putting them in baggies to separate what goes with what. A good suggestion from Michael.
The first picture is the wing overall. the next is the shear webs. I normally find shear webs to be tedious, but I spent a lot of time with rib spacing and it paid off with most of the ribs being equal spaced and so the webs were easy to cut and install. I like the ailerons leasing edge to engage a groove in the trailing edge of the wing. This is different than the plan, so different ailerons will have to be fashioned. I used a piece of Duragrit sanding sheet over top of a piece of leading edge to form a valley into the trailing edge, and will use the same leading edge as the forward surface of the ailerons. With the hinge sunk into the leading edge of the aileron, the axis of rotation is moved back and I can often make it so the hinges are not even visible.
Tomorrow I will start the ailerons.

[octagon]

Had some time this afternoon to continue work. Sheeted the TE in front of the ailerons. Wasn't really happy with the built up ailerons as per the plans, so I took a piece of leading edge and glued it to a piece of trialing edge. Clamped it and when it was dry trimed the le to match the front face of the te. To lighten the thing I drilled holes in it and then sheeted it with 1/32 balsa. then trimed and sanded and the result is a good fit of the wing and aileron.

[octagon]

wing is now finished and ready for final sanding. I am happy with the way the ailerons came out, and I only cracked one rib handling it the whole time.
There are no instructions so it requires careful thinking and studying of plans in order not to make a mistake.

[octagon]

started working on the fuse today. Just got the basic shell formed. I am going to incorportae retracts, which the plan does not account for as it was drawn before servoless retracts were available. Or at least not easily avalible. It means making up as I go along. the nose gear will close forward and so the bulkheads have to be modified.

[octagon]

Worked on the steerable, retracting nose gear today. I used parts out of a dear departed Viper, and basically the same system Eflite uses. Seems to work well. I made the steering servo in a little bracket so it can be removed. I am almost ready to move onto the side pods.

[octagon]

Been a while since I posted any progress. The engine pods are done with the main gear installed. The last remaining bit is the vertical stabilizers. I have been in touch with Keith Sparks who designed the plane and he told me that where he flies there is seldom cross wind landings where he flies in Texas and so he doesnt use rudder much. Well, we know ROGO and if there is one thing that is pretty consistant is cross wind landings. Also, by sad experience, if the stab is a bit off the 180, it makes things difficult, especially with big tails. I think that led to the demise of the CL 415 I built.So I decided I needed to build rudders.
1. I had to first build a box for the elevator servo.
2. Sheeted over and hard points added to rudder for the control arm for the servo. I will use a link between the two rudders as in a biplanes ailerons
3. The finished stab and rudder, now I need to make a second one.

[octagon]

Been a while since I posted. We were in Florida for March. Anyway, getting back on the OV10. I am using Park 480s from Eflite and 40 amp Eflite escs. The wiring will come up through the nacelles and in through the fuse. The plans did not call for rudders, but I got in touch with Keith Sparks, who designed the model, and he said he rarely has crosswinds at his club. We all know crosswinds are the norm at Rogo, so i decided to make rudders for the plane. Quite a bit of extra work but it should pay off. I took the cockpit and pilots and interiour away with me to Florida and on a rainy day worked on them. I spent a fair amount of time today with an incident meter to try and get the suggested angles, and think it is pretty close. If nothing else, I love the look of the plane. I messed up painting the canopy, so Keith kindly shipped me another one at N/C.

[octagon]

Covering has begun. Took a couple of hours to do the first boom. You can see wiring that is required. The plane is small enough at about 47 inches that I will not need to dissassemble for transport. bit if needs be, I have made it so it can fairly easily come apart. The colour scheme is that of the California Fire patrol.

[GuyOReilly]

Great colour choice!
Looking forward to seeing it fly.

[octagon]

Me too Guy. I am tired of building it. The plans were drawn 20 years ago for geared motors and no retracts, so there has been a lot of engineering from the original idea. If it flies as well as I have been told Brocos do it will have been worth it.

[bfeist]

I spotted one of these guys taxiing past my flight on a recent trip to El Paso, Texas.