SHORT SOLENT MARK IV – 2014 WINTER BUILD

[Papa]

I have one piece that's about 1/4" square by about 12"


Jack.

[wollins]

Thanks Jack but looking for something quite a bit smaller ... somewhere in the neighbourhood of 4 to 6mm (tops)

C.

[Papa]

You might be more successful finding aluminum or brass. At that size in a model this big the weight should not be a factor.


Jack.

[wollins]

Put in six hours on it today but unless you're really paying attention to this build not much looks different!  Anyway, I redid all the fuse formers to get the rounding effect I wanted. You may recall in this post (http://temac.ca/smf/index.php/topic,4888.msg31690.html#msg31690) that I initially did them incorrectly. (by not carrying them up far enough.)

BTW, I sourced the CF tubes that I wanted online so now I'm gonna redo all that brass stuff in the tail feathers cause the fit is just not as good as I want them to be. (Notice a trend here?  It's no wonder my builds take so freakin' long!  )) Anyway better to pay the price in time and effort now than at the field when I might just be in a hurry to fly and I have to fight with "fit" when assembling.  These big planes take long enough to set up without me adding some more time and effort to that process.

Colin

[wollins]

Started on the Chine rails flare mod today. Just used strips of balsa along the entire bottom outer edge of fuse frame. Tomorrow will then install triangular standoffs to seat the curve of the sheeting. (transitioning from the fuse frame onto the strips.)

Also took some weights today ... fuse frame as we stand now is 12.1ozs and tail feathers are 4.6ozs. Almost a pound and a half total. Don't know what those numbers mean in terms of where I should be as yet but will try to compare to the CL-415 at this same stage and make some rough extrapolations.

Colin

[wollins]

THIS is why I record the seemingly insignificant stuff in my builds!  I was able to find a couple of pics of the weight of my CL-415 (post 42 in that thread) at almost exactly the same stage as where I'm at now with the Solent.  This allows me to make a rough comparison. 

Well, I'm not too thrilled with what I found since I'm more than double the weight of that plane at this stage ... and this plane is not double the size of that one!  Anyway, there's a lot more wood to this plane so it's to be expected I guess.  Not that I'm obsessing too much about weight (who am I kidding?  ) but the CL-415 ended up being 91.5% over it's recommended AUW of 4.5lbs. Course 4.5 pounds for a 74 inch plane is a bit ridiculous! 

I'm hoping to come in about 75% over this plane's recommended AUW of 7.75lbs (again ... ridiculous for a 100" plane) or in other words 13.5lbs. So, I'll have to be more careful as I go along now that I've seen this pic.

Colin 

[piker]

Ya but weight doesn't grow directly in proportion to size.  Otherwise, my 1/4 scale biplane at 16 lbs would only weight 64 lbs in full size 


I'm sure you're fine.  That's a nice light build so far, and it's looking fantastic!

[wollins]

Ya but weight doesn't grow directly in proportion to size.  Otherwise, my 1/4 scale biplane at 16 lbs would only weight 64 lbs in full size 


I'm sure you're fine.  That's a nice light build so far, and it's looking fantastic!

Yeah I hear ya ... just can't let that weight slip away from me this time cause then I would have made the same mistake twice.

C 

[piker]

I'm more concerned (a bit) about the weight of my Stranrear.  It's construction is a lot more substantial than yours.  But I'm not aiming for a wimpy 6 lb flying weight.  Mine will fly like a real plane at 16-18lbs 

[wollins]

So I'm helping my kids clean up their toys and came across the perfect Solent spinners.   EASTER EGG CASINGS/SHELLS!  Upon close examination and comparison to the full size spinner shape I've concluded that I will be heading to the closest party supply store sometime in the near future.    I could never produce spinners that perfect a shape and size for this project. lol! 

See for yourself ... I'm specifically looking at the one next to mine. To make the situation even better, the pink one fits perfectly inside the one I like so I can use that size to reinforce my blade cutouts! Woot woot!

Colin

[wollins]

Started on the Chine rails flare mod today. Just used strips of balsa along the entire bottom outer edge of fuse frame. Tomorrow will then install triangular standoffs to seat the curve of the sheeting. (transitioning from the fuse frame onto the strips.)

Done with this stage. Next will start work on the upper fuse/nose area.

Colin

[piker]

That's a lucky find with the spinners!  Just make sure they're secured well at the back plate to ensure they don't blow apart at speed.

[wollins]

Good point ... extensive "out of plane" testing will be performed on all aspects of the propulsion system ... before hand. Got my props (APC 10X6's) ... just waiting for my Esc's and motors.

[piker]

Are these 4 bladed props?

[wollins]

Course, we wanna be scale.