BUSA SE5a, etc. Build

[piker]

Still plugging away on the SE5a build and I'm still enjoying it very much   

My goal was to be finished the wings, fuselage, and tail surfaces by the end of November.  Well, I'm one day late, but I can't complain about that   

The lower wings are mounted and I'm in the process of mounting the top wings with proper alignment and incidence.

Robert

[wollins]

Ooh that looks sharp, Rob! It's come a long way since we (you  ) laid the first side of the fuse down on the plans! 

Colin

P.S. Still waiting on my first "kit" to arrive ... CL-415 ... woot woot! 

[Gregor77]

Wow, you did a lot in a short period of time.. I am actually a bit disturbed that I am not further now. 

[Michael]

Nice!

[gordonbw]

Ooooh, pretty!!!!

[piker]

Thanks guys.

Just did a bit of bending and soldering (tacking) last night for the cabane struts (between 11:00pm and 12:00).  Great care has to be taken to get the upper wing incidence correct and aligned properly.  The kit has us build a simple alignment jig for doing this as you can see in the picture.  I borrowed a digital level from work.  I was aiming for a 1.5 degree positive angle relative the the bottom wing (the instruction call for 1 to 2).  In the set-up shown in the picture, the bottom wing is at plus 0.4 degrees, hence the plus 1.9 degree showing on the level.

The wires are all just tack soldered right now and the framing is already very rigid.  I'll wrap with fine wire tonight and solder for real.  Then I can bolt the top wing on and work on the interplan struts.

Robert

[bfeist]

I'm calling unfair use of inclinometer. You should have to get that right via crashing like the rest of us.

Ben

[piker]

Crashing is what I'm trying to avoid by (hopefully) getting it right the first time... but you knew that.

BTW, I've never thought about the incidences on biplanes and how / why they're set-up the way they are (or at least the way THIS one is).  The idea is to have a different incidence for each wing (doesn't matter which is higher) so when one wing stalls, the other wing hasn't yet, which prevents abrupt tip stalling.  The result is a lossof lift on the stalled wing, but maintained lift on the other wing.  The second wing doen't have enough area to keep the plane flying at that speed, so the plane transitions into a gentle drive, which increases airspeed and gets the stalled wing flying again.  A cool benefit of having two wings   

Robert

[bfeist]

Interesting. I guess that also means that top speed is limited because a faster airspeed would cause the wings to pull apart/squish together because of the different angles. Bipes are slow anyway so I guess that isn't much of an issue.

[piker]

Progess has been a little slower over the past week, but I'm still working away toward getting the SE5a ready for covering.  I'm getting close!

The wings are all mounted with the cabane struts and interplane struts all soldered up and ready to have the wooded fairings added to the wire.  The instruction list this function to be done after covering, but I'll probably add the firings before so I can get a nice, precovering photo.

I'm working on the underwing belly pan currently.  Will have that done tonight.  And on Sunday I completed some of the tail end details in the steerable skid (see below).

All that's left to do, after the belly pan, is to solder the landing gear and add the fairings, add the fairings to the other struts as mentioned, build the engine details, mount the servos and other radio gear, and create the mount for the upper wing gun.  I'll also do some cockpit work before covering too, while I still have pretty good access through the uncovered fuselage framing.

I have the new motor, esc, and BEC.  I have a 23x8 prop on it's way.  I received the kit for the Lewis machine gun, and some instruments for the cockpit. Gettin' there!

Robert

[Papa]

Great looking carpentry work. Very neat.

Jack.

[piker]

No pictures for today, just an update:

Landing gear wires are soldered and mounted, and the three tail servos are mounted in the fuselage, so all servo mounting is in place (including ailerons).  I chose to put the servos at the front end of the lower wing mounting portion of the fuselage so I have clear access and so the servo arms are as low as possible in the fuselage in an effort to keep the pull/pull wires below the pilots seat.  Tonight I need to run some representative wires to get the exit holes in the fuselage sides located properly.  Properly for function, not scale location.  As it turns out the rudder horns are at about mid rudder location and the elevator horns are at mid elevator half location requiring all sorts of pullies and access holes.  My rudder mounting will be below the stab, as that's where the kits hard point is, and I can't be bothered changing it, and the elevator horns will be close to the root, as usual for models for simplicity of cable runs.  Not scale locations, but I think it'll still look cool, and you probably wouldn't have known if I hadn't just told you 

Robert

[wollins]

Man!  You're like a man possessed!  I've never known you to make such fast progess on a build. 

Colin

[piker]

Thank you for noticing 

I'm really enjoying the build and feel motivated to work on it whenever I can.  Not only do i want to have this plane finished for the Spring, I also need to finish off my Water Bomber and perform some TLC on my other planes to get ready for the Great Summer of Float Flying to come!

I'm actually really re-energized when it comes to building.  "Back in the day" it was standard practice for everyone to use the winter for their annual build then at the summer fun flys we'd see the great creations that everyone would show up with.  That was the most exciting part of the hobby for us.  I personally have gotten out of the routine of building to a point where I couldn't imagine getting through a build within a building season, so I wouldn't bother trying.  I've come to realize now that I CAN find the time to get through a building project and enjoy every minute of it.  And if I can find the time to build a plane, anyone can.  Remember, I work close to 70 hours a week... every week.  But even by tackling a small job each night, the work accumulates and you can see the result.  Much more satisfying than spending the winter watch X Factor!   

I'm looking forward to having more people learn / relearn the joy of building...

Robert

[piker]

My SE5a is getting closer and closer to being ready for covering.  I decided it was time to do a little detailing before the covering stage.  These thing do not need to be done before the covering process, but, as I mentioned before, will make that "just before covering" photo more interesting.

After finishing the lower wing belly pan, I moved onto the engine details as you can see below.  I still need to do some filling, and then, after covering, will seal the wood grain, prime and paint, and add some more details.  For now, I'm done...other than making the mounts for the exhaust pipe that run down the fuselage past the cockpit.

Next up was the top wing mounted Lewis gun and mount.  I ordered a kit for the gun from BUSA and built it as you see here.  The mount is built per the instructions with the plane, and I had to figure out a way to mount the gun to the mount so it could be removed for safe transport.  I used our trusty magnets for that as you can see.  The mount is removable too.  I figure it worked out pretty good.

The gun build was a lot of fun and rather challenging, but once I dove into the operations that were described in the instructions, it worked out quite well.  For example, the flared and hollowed end of the gun had to be turned on a lathe (drill press) from a piece of dowel.  The cocking handle and the larger handle at the rear were turned the same way, from pieces of dowel, the metal straps had to be cut, bent, and drilled from strip stock, the bullet magazine had to be stacked and have all the vertical embosses added separately, and the mount guide rail had the be laminated and drilled very carefully.  The pieces that the mount attaches to the top wing with had to be shaped, drilled (for strengthening dowels) and mounted as you can see in the photo.  When I do the finishing stage, everything will have the be sealed and painted to look like oiled steel.   

Last picture is just of the servos mounted as viewed through the lower wing saddle ready to have the pull/pull wires attached during final assembly.

Next up will be the wooden fairings on all the metal strut work.

Robert