Maiden flight!

 


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Fuselage, part 2

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Now that I have the two matching fuselage sides I started to plan the structure. I've never built such a structure before the part that seemed difficult was creating the sharp breaks in the longerons.  I started with preparing the two main formers, F2 and F3. Instead of 1/8" ply I used 1/16" and reinforced the top and bottom with a 3/32" hard balsa strip: For the initial structure setup I followed the build article and carefully cut the longerons behind F3 and in front of F2. Then lined up the sides, top-down, on the plans and glued the former:   Once the glue cured I pulled in the back of the fuselage and then the front over F1, which I cut from 1/16" ply and hollowed to allow room for the battery. I took the precaution of wetting the doublers before attempting to bend the fuselage sides, this allowed the longerons to have a sharp bend while maintaining flexibility of the 1/16" doubler sheet: I filled in the notches in the longerons by gluing in thin balsa...
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Covering

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I selected Esaki tissue from Peck Polymers; picked blue and orange that best fit the end result I wanted to achieve: colors that are close to the actual plane and a covering material that will highlight the model's structure. These are the horizontal stabilizer and elevator fins covered in orange tissue with two coats of sealer: After practicing on the stabilizers, elevator, and rudder I turned my attention to the fuselage. The complex contours posed a challenge that I wanted to tackle first and here are some results. The windows are covered and cut away after applying a coat of sealer to the covering, leaving the cross members covered: A view of the internal setup and a top view of the battery hatch: The battery hatch is located at the bottom of the fuselage behind F3. The hatch is secured with a simple swiveling latch and a silk strap:  
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Fuselage

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I was not familiar with this type of fuselage structure and building process. Every RC plane I've built so far has a simple box fuselage built with flat balsa sheet sides over formers, with more sheets covering the top and bottom. The Chicken Hawk was only a slight deviation from this method. I typically start by building the wings, but this time I went for the fuselage first. It will help put the challenging piece behind me much sooner and perhaps also help with figuring out CG and balancing; something I can do with a complete fuselage and tail section in place. I'm not sure about that but it seems like a reasonable expectation. Learning an important lesson from building the Chicken Hawk, I carefully read the building article and building log on RC Groups. My plan is to follow the more experienced builders' methods and adapts I progress. This is the first side structure that was built on top of the plans. Wax paper separates the structure from the plan and clear plastic w...
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