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Building Tips and technical articles. => Building techniques => Topic started by: Paul Smith on September 18, 2008, 06:29:04 PM
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This plane fits in so many categories, I don't know where to post it. Could be OTS, Classic, Racing, Open Forum.
I didn't design it. It's built from the Giant Kingpin plans by Walt Musciano, but after the wing was framed up, I decided to make it a "scaled up" 1/2A Gulf Hawk, as is the local practice. However, at that point the "World Wide Wingmaster Woundup" was announced, so I redid the wingtips, rudder, and tail to qualify. Basically, it's close enough to a Cosmic Wind to pass for Foxberg. I know of two other Galaxies in town. If they have a flyin, this could qualify.
Here it is with the major subassemblied complete and the silk dyed. Ready for covering.
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The painting part was posted on the "paint & finish" board. Once the wing and fuse were covered, I assembled it on my glass top assembly table using two pieced of foam dunnage toi level the wings.
The fuselage was held square-vertical with some oakwood fixtures I made. The tool blocks with the blue arrows are glued-solid to the two ski-bars. The opposing block is free to slide and is secured with the gum bands.
Finally, wing and fuse were squared up with drafting triangle.
It was tack-glued with a few drops of Prop Shop CA. The wing-fuse gap was stuffed with scrap balsa as much as possible. Then the joint was secured with 15-minute expoxy mixed with microballoon and heated witha heat gun.
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Here the tailplane is being installed. The same two dunnage blocks are used to level the wing and tailplane to each other. As before, the part is tracked with CA, then epoxied-solid later.
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I've always felt that three (Classic) CL sport (profile) designs stood way ahead in multiple ways, and they are the Flite Streak, Galaxy, and CG Shoestring.
But whatever the design, it is greatly enhanced by the Gulf Hawk styled finish (really nice, I love it).
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Thanks, Detroit has always been Flite Streak country, with George Aldrich being our favorite designer.
This is really just an LA 25 Sport Racer with a straight leading edge and a tapered trailing edge.
I was sort of poking fun at the dilema:
If I say: "I designed it myself", somebody says: "no you didn't, it's just modifed Ringmaster, Galaxy, etc".
But if I say; "It's a Ringmaster", they say: "no it's not, the airfoil's too thin".
So it's composite of several planes, but I did design the landing gear, fuel tank and shutoff.
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Can you tell me more about the shut-off? There have sure been times that I could have really used one. I can see how it works, but how do you trigger it?
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The shutoff worked GREAT! With it, I was able to win the 1400 Lap (100 mile) Race with 30 required pit stops.
The second and third place entries lost because their shutoff failed in the long run, resulting overruns and ragged laps as the tank sputtered dry.
My shutoff is triggered by a quick shot DOWN elevator. An .014" trigger wire from the control horn pulls the trigger (.045") out of a notch in the plunger (3/32" wire). The shutoff is reset by pushing done on a wheel collar. The shutoff is powered by a coil spring selected from the assortment at Aco Hardware.
The body of the shutoff is two hardwood blocks epoxied the plane during construction. They are faced with thin alumimum plate.
The two photos show two different ways of containing the trigger and trigger notch. On the new model, the trigger is sandwiched between two plates. On the older one, a brass bushing is notched for the trigger.