BUSA SE5a, etc. Build

[piker]

Well, I got a fair chunk of building time in this wekend (the greatest chunk of time I've had in a LONG time).  The wings are VERY close to being finished (maybe an hours worth left) then I can move onto the tail surfaces, which shouldn't take long.  There was a lot of stuff to build into the wings, but they're looking pretty good now.

I know, not much to say, but I wanted to let you guys know I'm still moving ahead 

Robert

[Gregor77]

Good stuff. 

[piker]

There's a lot of pressure to produce these days!!!  Whenever I'm building I'm thinking..."gotta get this done so I can put a new post up!  Other's are posting more than me.  I don't want them to think I'm not moving ahead.  I want to have this plane framed up so I can take it to the December Pilot's Meeting...UGH!"   

Actually, I'm motivated because I'm having fun, and it's fun to work ahead with other builders in the club.  I think having this interest in each other's projects is going to help us produce some nice, new planes for next summer.

Robert

[bfeist]

I think we need live UStream webcams in all TEMAC members' workshops so we can keep tabs on each other.

[piker]

Or GPS trakers on each member so we know if they're watching TV instead of working on a plane! 

Robert

[Gregor77]

I am all covered in saw dust.  Lol. It is fun.  Especially we are all building ww1 birds this time.  The dr1 fuse is pretty good. I am starting on the outter  wing supports soon. This frame seems to be moving a bit faster than my first one.

[piker]

Ha!  Wings are done, except for final sanding, which I'll do later.  Oh, and I'll separate the ailerons during the final sanding process.

On to the tail surfaces tonight!

Robert

[battlestu]

looking good... but why does an SE5 need three wings?

[piker]

Oh, this is a very special SE5a...

Actually, those are the wings and tail bits for my 1/5 scale Ryan ST Special (that I'll be finishing as an STM... the original military version of the aircraft) that I framed up YEARS ago.  It's on my short list to finish off.  I only have about an evening's work before I can start covering it.  I really should finish that off one day.  I'm planning to use Flite Metal (the stuff that Gordon just received) on the whole fuselage, cowl, and wheel pants, and silver solartex on the flying surfaces (I have all the stuff ready to go).  The fuselage would need to be glassed before the Flite Metal goes on.  I want it to look like this:

[battlestu]

nice... so we'll this one in the spring as well

[piker]

Umm... I don't think so.  I'll be lucky if you see the SE5a in the spring.

My goal for the spring is the SE5a and the recovered CL-215 water bomber.  Probably the Ryan for next year.

Robert

[Gregor77]

Just spend every waking hour building.  I just find that sometimes the instructions ae not clear and I get stalled.

[piker]

I'm WEAK, I tell ya!   

I went by A&J's last night (I try to support A&J's and Pinnacle equally... A&J's is relatively convenient for me on weekday evenings, and Pinacle is better for weekends) to get some more glue and a couple of sticks of balsa for my SE5a build, and walked out with a new plane as well.

Now, as spontaneous as this sounds, it's not completely without some fore thought.  As you may know, I'm now a big fan of Seagull Models.  They're inexpensive, well built, covered very nicely, are VERY lightly built (which is very important to me), and best of all, offer some interesting subjects.  So far I've had the Mew Gull, which looked and flew beautifully, the Decathalon, which I liked the least of the three I've flown so far, but I was really starting to enjoy it...especially from floats, and most recently, the Zero, which flies very well and looks pretty good too.  Well, with the loss of the Mew Gull in the Spring, my thoughts turned to the Seagull Sparrow Hawk.  I resisted buying it for the summer as I had other planes to focus on, but last night, with cash in hand, I couldn't resist any longer.  I took a look inside the box and was hooked right away.

So there you have it.  Another plane to have ready for the Spring.  The biggest challenge will be to not have it interfer with the SE5a build.  Oh the temptation!   

Robert

[Gregor77]

Oh man!  That looks great!  I hope that I don't buy something like that on my trip south!  Good stuff! 

[battlestu]

come now you could build that in a day or two and be back on the SE5 before the weekend