I have always wondered, aside from weight, if another material would be
more suited for profile fuselages. After an 8-year layoff, I crashed my Twister
on its first flight doing a figure-9. I am more rusty than I thought, and decided
when rebuilding it (the only thing salvageable was the wing) I needed something
more rugged as a (re)trainer.

I cut this out from an old Cedar 1/2" plank which had been part of a fence.
It weighs only 2 ounces more than a comparable balsa profile fuselage (I
weighed it).

Most importantly, it is far stronger and has far more resistance
to twist than balsa.

I was able to dispense with doublers, and used 1/8" aluminum engine mounts
screwed & epoxied to the nose.

I remember the Ukey 35 had a hardwood fuselage, and it it flew just fine.

While rebuilding, I also decided to use an external bellcrank and join the wing
halves with carbon tubes. The wing can be mounted without a cutout in
the fuselage, just 3 holes are needed and perfect alignment is assured.

I am not too concerned about weight, I do not expect it to be able to do the whole
pattern, just to relearn basic flight , lazy-8s, etc.

EJN,

Way to go!

Just goes to show you what a bit of thinking and enginuity will do.

What clear did you use and how do you lock the wings together? Pins or screws through the CF rods?

The Twister wing is a nice wing.

Teak wood may lend itself to that type of application and cedar. Although I don't know for sure, I believe cedar is a light wood. Once used to frame homes.

Charles

I've build a few cedar fuselages for various things. Also blue foam covered with ply and rohacell covered with carbon and glass.

If I remember correctly, weren't the old Guillows trainers created out of soft pine or sugar pine?   I know they sure took a beating.