Michael's Skywriter build thread

[piker]

Yes, I'm talking about the smaller dihedral brace attached to the front of the spar.

[Michael]

OK, now that I bought the Albatross kit from Colin, I want to try to speed up this project so that I can finish it first.

As suggested by Jack, I'm building the kit as close to the plan design as possible.

One change I'll be making is to lengthen the nose by a couple inches, but other than that, I'm building the fuselage as recommended.

I decided to build the fuselage before the top wing, because I'll find it easier to put together the struts and fittings to attach to the upper wing.

I was going to go flying, but because it was so windy and cloudy, I stayed home and built a good portion of the fuselage.

I'll stop by a hobby shop tomorrow and look for a motor, ESC, servos and maybe some landing gear to suit.

Once I have the motor, I'll figure out how to customize the fuselage front/cowl.

[piker]

Wow!  You're FLYING along!  That looks great!

[Michael]

I 'cheated' and read the "end of the book".

According to the final instructions and pre-flight information, the model was tail heavy and needed nose weight, and the battery hatch was too small and had to be modified.

I had mentioned I was going to lengthen the nose a bit, and here's what I did that should help solve both those issues somewhat.

I moved the motor-mounting firewall forward until right behind the round plywood base for the cowl. This moves the motor forward about 1¾", and allows that much more room for the flight battery. The attached photo shows this, and the X-acto knife is in the position where the firewall was supposed to be.

Also, I will not use thick balsa at the rear bottom of the fuselage. I will probably put some cross beams, and a few other pieces, and leave the structure open. It will be covered with film covering anyway.

The motor shown is a 1000KV motor that can use 3 or 4 lipo cells.
I'll be using a 60 amp speed control.

[Michael]

Well, since the float flying was cancelled for today, I started charging batteries to go fly at TEMAC tomorrow, and I spent a few hours on my Skywriter.

The upper wing has been started, and I did more work on the fuselage: motor mounted, front fuselage sheeted, lower rear fuselage with 1/8" cross beams and edges, cowl started, lower wing bolts installed, upper wing aluminum supports installed, landing gear installed including steerable tail wheel.

The slightly longer nose does not seem to affect the noticeable shape of the plane.

Note the lady pilot.

[Papa]

She's called the Lady Lynn EH!


Jack.

[sihinch]

Looks great. So you're not coming to class this year then?! Lol

Can I ask, have you made the wing tips flush with the underside of the wing?

[piker]

Michael's an over achiever! 


I bet he made airplane noises today   

[sihinch]

And did you make your struts and undercarriage?

[Michael]

Simon. the wingtips run from the center of the trailing edge to the center of the leading edge, with supports on top and bottom.

The cabane struts were bent from 1/16" x 1/2" aluminum rod purchased from Loews. It was easy to do; I used a pliers to bend it nearly to perfect shape.

The undercarriage was bought at the hobby store.
I have another set that I can sell cheap, if you or anyone else wants.

[Michael]

I did a little more work on the fuselage.

Top sheeting is done, as is the large battery hatch, which is the full width of the fuselage, as opposed to the half-width shown in the instruction manual, and longer due to the longer front section I customized. (The instruction manual does show a larger modified battery hatch on one of the last pages.) The battery hatch will probably be held down with magnets.

The open cockpit sheeting is done, and the wood instrument panel is in place for the photo, but not yet glued.
The 'combing' on the cockpit sheeting/opening will be made of split black insulation from old coaxial wire.

The bottom rear of the fuselage was finished with 1/8" thick framing instead of sheeting.
In fact, if one wanted, the entire fuselage could be of openwork construction instead of sheet/slap sides.

I'll work on the tail area soon, and then finish the top wing.

Then the whole model will be sanded smooth, the radio equipment will be installed, and then covered.
I'm still undecided on colours.

[Papa]

Looks Good.


Jack

[sihinch]

That's beautiful, Michael.

[Michael]

More construction progress:

1. Tail fairing finished.

2. Airfoil shaped aluminum wing struts.

3. Upper wing finished.

I'm going to construct the windshield next, and make sure it can be installed more securely then simply being glued on.

Then: sanding, radio installation and covering.

[Frank v B]

Michael,  Looks great. 
You have just been promoted to instructor.




Frank