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Building Tips and technical articles. => 1/2 A building. => Topic started by: fred krueger on November 09, 2012, 09:15:36 PM
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I have always wanted a plastic fuselage Firebaby, as it was my first airplane (1958). Mine was powered by a Thimble Drome Babe Bee. I found an identical, virgin Bee at a swap and recently I scored the Firebaby on eBay. Unfortunately, the Firebaby fuselage was warped and twisted, rendering it unusable. However, I decided to keep it and Bill Smith talked us both into constructing balsa and plywood replicas. So, we traced the parts and constructed our own versions. Bill constructed his for a Cox product engine, using a balloon tank. I did mine for the Babe Bee. Mine (red fuse) is still curing and needs the controls installed. Bill finished his and a video of the first flight can be found at:
http://youtu.be/FkP0OqqzLxk
Fred
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Nice work guys, makes me want to build one. My first loop was with a Firebaby about 1954 or so. I think mine had an OK Cub, but it might have been a Spitfire .049.
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Good job, guys!
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Fred,
Those are both beauties!!! Bring yours with you the next time you visit Bloomington. I want to see it up close and personal. ;D
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Thanks for the memories!
My first SUCCESSFUL loop was with a Firebaby!
O.K. Cub .049 & balloon tank!
"Tight Lines!" H^^
Wes
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A little note on the video. I could only find .012" x 35' lines in my junk and this was the first run on a new engine, so with the lines trailing 1.5 feet behind the plane, looping was very much out.
Next time!
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Here's the 1st flight of my Babe Bee powered Firebaby replica. Thanks to Bill Smith for his motivation and ideas on this project. Bill is also my pit man on this vid:
http://youtu.be/p4jUT5WwNKU
Fred
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Boy does that bring back memories of my very first control line flight. It was with a FireBaby also.
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Fred, Have you made templates of this plane? Great flight. I can hear that Babe Bee burping.
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Larry,
We both made templates by tracing the kit parts. The only thing we added was a 1/16" plywood spine running horizontal down the center of the fuse. Starting at the wing TE, it flares toward the front. There is a matching piece over the top of the wing. This wing support duplicates the same part of the plastic fuse version. Hopefully, the pics below illustrate the fuse construction. If you want, I can try to scan the templates and email them to you.
That Bee is still fairly new, so I set it a bit rich.
Fred
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I love it and it looks great. If you have templates, the old DOC would like a set. My address is at end of my posts.
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Fred, Wow! The engineering of that plane is really trick. Please email me the plans or templates. I think you should do an article because that plane is cool. I can see mine in the future with an OK Cub. Thanks!
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OK; here are the templates. As these are all pdf files, they should print out at the correct scale.
FYI: The wing is constructed of 2 pieces of 1/16" balsa laminated together with finishing resin, with 1/8" hard balsa LE and TE. Stab, Elevator and vertical fin are 1/16" balsa. The fuselage is 1/4" balsa with a 1/16" plywood spine and upper wing mount. Engine mount is 1/8" plywood with LG groove routed in. Triangular balsa blocks added behind the engine mount. The engine mount was offset approx. 5 deg. Front end (engine mount plywood to triangular blocks) is reinforced with light fiberglass and laminating resin.
If you choose to use an external tank, you may want to use Bill Smith's fuse design which duplicates the actual plastic Firebaby. Cut out the part indicated on the template and cover this with a formed aluminum cowl (held in place with screws). Perhaps Bill will post close-up photos of the cowl area on his model.
For reference:
The wingspan is 17 3/4"
The stab span is just under 8"
the fuselage template length is 10 1/2"
Fred
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Thanks, Fred. I go them all downloaded.
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**PLEASE NOTE**
This morning I decided to check the pdf files that I posted. When I printed them, they were undersized. I had to increase the scale slightly in the printer setup to get the proper size. So, for reference:
The wingspan is 17 3/4"
The stab span is just under 8"
the fuselage template length is 10 1/2"
Fred
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Many thanks for the drawings. Have them downloaded and also learned how to down load only the page with your wood sizes listed.
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Ty,
We are fortunate to be able to fly (C/L only) at a virtually unused tarmac at the Aurora Municipal Airport in Sugar Grove. We will eventually lose the site to Hondajet, who will be opening a sales center at that location. The airport manager flew C/L as a youth and understood that we would in no way interfere with full-scale aircraft. Thus, our club was given permission to use the site. Of course, we insure the site through AMA. We conduct 2 contests a year (one AAA and the other 1/2A); a family fun-fly and picnic; and our part of the annual Ringmaster Fly-A-Thon. Of course, our members regularly use the site for our C/L flying activities.
Fred