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Building Tips and technical articles. => 1/2 A building. => Topic started by: Dennis Leonhardi on March 14, 2022, 11:49:15 PM
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Just acquired a kit that's missing the wing braces - out of curiosity, what are they? I'm guessing 1/8" ply perhaps, the brace on the inboard wing doubling as leadout guide?
TIA!
Dennis
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D-Man,
They are firm 3/32" balsa in the kit. Used as a rib near each wingtip to help stiffen the wing chordwise. As you suggest, the inboard one is also the leadout guide. Simple to make and add on. I've flown one for years as a trainer and the balsa has held up. The plans show eyelets glued in for the guide.
Something that works pretty well on these is to glue in some 1/4" triangular stock above the wing and under the tail at the fuse as "fillets." Much more durable.
The Divot
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Thanks Dave!
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One of the guys wanted to see what the "fillets" on my trainer plane looked like. Let me try to add a couple of pictures here. Now, remember that this plane must be 10 or more years old and has seen use in a hundred beginner training flights--so it ain't pretty any more! But, ironically the worst damage to it came from rolling off a table at a training session, and from being smashed as I closed the lid on my truck....
Dave
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This picture shows a smaller "fillet" under the stabilizer. Apparently, I used square stock for this, which has worked out fine.
One other thing I might mention: since our field is asphalt, I put landing gear on this plane so we could take off and land, hopefully in one piece. You can see the tailskid in the picture. For the main gear, I cut a piece of 1/16" plywood to the outline of the firewall, then cut a square notch in it from the bottom. When the engine is screwed down, this creates a pocket which the wire landing gear can plug into. It works fine, but I have come up with an improvement, should I build another in the future. That is, make the pocket narrower at the bottom and make the "loop" in the wire gear tapered to match so it will hold itself in better.
For training flights, I use a huge fender washer for tip weight, and fly on .008" x 42' lines. It keeps the rotation rate down, and the line tension is good, even in a decent breeze.
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I always discovered the Achilles heel is the nose of the Skyray, it breaks off right in front of the leading edge.
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Just acquired a kit that's missing the wing braces - out of curiosity, what are they? I'm guessing 1/8" ply perhaps, the brace on the inboard wing doubling as leadout guide?
TIA!
Dennis
I guess they are anti-warp devices and also to make the two sides symetrical.
This is the thicker and bigger doped wing that replaced the warped FasCaled wing.
I covered mine in plastic, which was a mistake that caused warping. Dope from now on.
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One of the guys wanted to see what the "fillets" on my trainer plane looked like. Let me try to add a couple of pictures here. Now, remember that this plane must be 10 or more years old and has seen use in a hundred beginner training flights--so it ain't pretty any more! But, ironically the worst damage to it came from rolling off a table at a training session, and from being smashed as I closed the lid on my truck....
Dave
Hello Dave
I love the rivet detail on the wings. I need to build a Skyray and will build one when my grandson which is 3 now gets to be 5 years old, maybe sooner since he has shown potential swinging around in a circle a Fisher price plastic toy jet plane that I had tied a string for him to pull around.
Juan
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D-Man,
They are firm 3/32" balsa in the kit. Used as a rib near each wingtip to help stiffen the wing chordwise. As you suggest, the inboard one is also the leadout guide. Simple to make and add on. I've flown one for years as a trainer and the balsa has held up. The plans show eyelets glued in for the guide.
Something that works pretty well on these is to glue in some 1/4" triangular stock above the wing and under the tail at the fuse as "fillets." Much more durable.
The Divot
Great idea! Should work on a lot of profile models. By the way, when I saw "Skyray" I thought of the navy interceptor the F4D-1 "Skyray" AKA Ford.