Sandringham Repair

[Papa]

Having some experience with the 1/2oz. I would not use it again. It's too flimsy and difficult to work with. Next time I will use 3/4oz. or even 1 oz.

Jack.

[piker]

I bought 4 yards of 1.2 oz., fine weave, fiberglass for the Sandringham.  Essentially the same stuff I glassed it with when I built it.

[electroflyer]

Watching you repair that Sandringham from Sunny Antigua. I just want to say that you sicken me making it look so easy .....well done|
  Glenn

[piker]

You sicken ME posting from sunny Antigua 

Great to hear from you... and thanks 

[wollins]

This, as with the fuselage rebuild was a little stressful as there's the risk of rebuilding it crocked.  I think it's pretty good, so I assembled the plane to review the overall alignment before I move on.

Thing looks as straight as an arrow. Great job.

Colin

[bfeist]

You sicken ME posting from sunny Antigua 

Great to hear from you... and thanks 

Don't worry about Glenn, it was probably the open bar talking.

[electroflyer]

Sorry boys, wifi was a little squirrely down here. Anyways looking forward to seeing more progress on the Sandringham, and Ben was right in the assertion that my being easily impressed with the quality workmanship was proportional to my trips to the bar!
Glenn

[Andy Hoffer]

You can't help but be inspired by Rob Pike's passion for float flying and his superb skill at repairing, let along building fabulous hydrophillic RC planes.  With the "black water" season just around the corner, I thought you'd enjoy some related material.

Boeing 314 Yankee Clipper NC 18603
http://www.panam.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=179:marine-air-terminal-laguardia&catid=100:people-places&Itemid=523

Boeing 314 Yankee Clipper NC 18603 - Video
Boeing 314 Yankee Clipper NC18603

And maybe we (Rob) could do something like this (http://www.panam.org/images/PeopleAndPlaces/lga_mat_1940-aerial-view-45.jpg) at Frenchman's Bay!

Andy

[Papa]

Since we are on a historic note follow this link and learn how flying boats led to the creation of a famous Irish Drink.

http://www.flyingboatmuseum.com/irish-coffee/

Jack.

[piker]

Sorry boys, wifi was a little squirrely down here. Anyways looking forward to seeing more progress on the Sandringham, and Ben was right in the assertion that my being easily impressed with the quality workmanship was proportional to my trips to the bar!
Glenn

Wait!  Are you saying you have to be drunk to appreciate me?!!!  Beer goggles, eh?

[piker]

Just a short update, but no pictures as there's not much to see yet.

Progress has been slow on the Sandy repair lately, but I'm still moving ahead.

I've been reinstalling all the internal bits and pieces that were torn out in the crash.  Last night I remounted the bulkheads that are used for attaching the tail section (the stab and fin are one removable piece with self contained servos), and the section of the fuselage top between the front of the wing and the cockpit.  I held off on adding this section of the fuselage until I had finished working on the inside, so I had access.  I also remounted the battery box and test fit the wings and tail last night.

Just one more bulkhead and some doublers to add back in, then I can start the filling and sanding process.  Although the sanding process will be a bit messy, it'll be nice to start getting the rough repair job smoothed out and looking pretty again.

[Andy Hoffer]

Just a short update, but no pictures as there's not much to see yet.

Progress has been slow on the Sandy repair lately, but I'm still moving ahead.

I've been reinstalling all the internal bits and pieces that were torn out in the crash.  Last night I remounted the bulkheads that are used for attaching the tail section (the stab and fin are one removable piece with self contained servos), and the section of the fuselage top between the front of the wing and the cockpit.  I held off on adding this section of the fuselage until I had finished working on the inside, so I had access.  I also remounted the battery box and test fit the wings and tail last night.

Just one more bulkhead and some doublers to add back in, then I can start the filling and sanding process.  Although the sanding process will be a bit messy, it'll be nice to start getting the rough repair job smoothed out and looking pretty again.

Would love to see photos of these details.  They would be very instructional for us less skilled construction wannabe plebes.  The devil is always in the details.  There is often more to see than you realize.

Waiting patiently......

Snowballs Hoffer

[piker]

Alright.  I'll take some pictures tonight.  I know you guys are more the "graphic novel" type

[piker]

I'm embarrassed to show too many pictures of the Sandy at this point as it's still very ugly, and the inside is even worse.  It's always been rather "rough" on the inside, but even more so now after the damage from the crash and the sloppy regluing to get it back together.  But ultimately, it's the outside that has to be pretty, so I'm not too concerned about the way the inside looks

Anyway. Andy asked about the set-up I had built into the tail end, to have the stab and fin removable as a single unit with self contained servos.  This set-up has worked well for years and makes the inside of the fuselage (toward the front) an empty shell that only holds the power batteries.  Everything else (Rx and four ESCs are fastened to the bottom of the wing at the center section.  See pictures below (sorry about the poor image quality)

With this plane, I experimented with the foam shell with foam core bulkheads technique.  So, the bulkheads that you see are black (because it looked nice) foam core.  The bulkheads at the LE of the wing, and the one that is yet to be added at the mid-cord point of the wing are still foam core, but I faced  then with 1/64 ply to help stabilize them a bit (as they were a bit banged up after the crash), and to help make them look a bit better.

The last picture shows the left side of the fuselage that had a lot of crushing damage from the crash, so I cut out the bad stuff and glued in a new chunk of pink foam.

All this external rough stuff will be filled in, sanded smooth , re-glassed, then painted like new... I hope 

[wollins]

Nice pics Rob ... REALLY interesting to see how you set up the servos/control surfaces etc in the tail.  Very efficient.  Its funny how from the out side it looks very "traditional", however when you "raise the hood" it's really cool!

Colin