Author Topic: Ercoupe Build (slow) (Read 58261 times)

wwwarbird · « **Reply #100 on:** February 07, 2019, 08:14:07 PM »

Quote from: Tim Wescott on February 01, 2019, 08:40:54 AM

I just got word that Ziroli models was able to pull the canopy on my form! So that's a worry that I can put to rest.

Did I miss something here? Does Ziroli do this as a service?

Tim Wescott · « **Reply #101 on:** February 08, 2019, 10:05:47 AM »

Quote from: wwwarbird on February 07, 2019, 08:14:07 PM

Did I miss something here? Does Ziroli do this as a service?

Yup

Tim Wescott · « **Reply #102 on:** February 10, 2019, 05:10:50 PM »

Experimenting with paint. Got some advice to sand the outside of the canopy & apply clear dope; here's my first semi-successful results. This is clear over a surface sanded with 600 wet, and another one with 1500 wet (I was told to use 1000, but I seem to be fresh out).

It's not quite as clear as the original stuff (on the left for comparison), but it's not color sanded or rubbed out or anything. I think it'll do, since there's not going to be a cockpit interior anyway.

Tim Wescott · « **Reply #103 on:** February 18, 2019, 07:25:10 PM »

After letting the dope cure for week (while I was just barely healthy enough to report to work, work, get home, and sleep), the doped-over canopy material looks pretty good. So, I have that part covered.

I decided to 'glass the fuselage with 1/2 ounce cloth, both to get a nice easy finish, and because it makes it all-over fuel proof. I think I'm not a fan of fiberglass cloth, but what the heck.

The two weights are before I started adding 'glass, and the weight after the cockpit and one side was done, but not the other.

It's now sitting on my bench with the epoxy slowly curing. I need to bring it in here. And -- oh ****! I need to wipe down my scissors with solvent! I forgot last time, and had to scrape the epoxy off with a knife, to the detriment of the knife, and probably the scissors, too.

Tim Wescott · « **Reply #104 on:** March 02, 2019, 07:28:32 PM »

Been busy and under the weather, and sanding is boring. So not much to show.

It's been sanded to a fair-thee-well. I just painted it with nitrate, and put on putty to fill the low spots. Yes, I'm probably committing a sin to use lacquer putty for this, but I grew up in a body shop and it just seems natural. The long swipes of putty are because there are some long skinny low spots where the sheeting joins -- clearly I need to up my game when it comes to joining sheeting.

The plan is to fill the serious divots, then go with a couple of coats of dope + zinc stearate, then sand, then get back to covering the wing. I want to get all the bits fairly well finished before I assemble, then I'll spray with silver (and probably exclaim in dismay), and finish up the finishing.

Tim Wescott · « **Reply #105 on:** March 03, 2019, 02:55:05 PM »

Sand, examine, curse, fill, let dry, repeat.

The circled area is a particularly frustrating divot. I forgot to change out the waxed paper on my bench after 'glassing the fuselage. The divot under that filler was from pressing the thing into a dried drop of epoxy. D'oh, d'oh, d'oh, and in French, for emphasis, t'oh.

Tim Wescott · « **Reply #106 on:** March 10, 2019, 05:15:40 PM »

No picture, because the contrast between tissue (yes, tissue) and balsa isn't at all high. I'm repairing the divot in the repair of the divot in the repair of the shortcoming in the original construction that left divots in the fuselage skin.

One of the low spots was bigger than I thought. So I filled it, with some cursing and sanded it flat (dammit!). And, sanded through the fiberglass in four spots surrounding the divot. So I covered that with tissue, silently accepting that there would be one odd rippled spot in the finished product. As of last night I had decided to go into full "FIFI" mode (F*** It, Fly It) -- then I noticed that I had sanded through the tissue into the balsa along the ridge where two sheets of balsa join (which joint was the cause of the first divot). So I'm @#$% well going to fix that, and then I'm going to declare it FIFI. Or I'm going to start collecting empty beer bottles, or something.

Grr.

Still hoping to make it to the Regionals...

Tim Wescott · « **Reply #107 on:** March 13, 2019, 10:35:30 AM »

Quote from: Tim Wescott on March 10, 2019, 05:15:40 PM

No picture, because the contrast between tissue (yes, tissue) and balsa isn't at all high. I'm repairing the divot in the repair of the divot in the repair of the shortcoming in the original construction that left divots in the fuselage skin.

Gouge out the divot, lay down a 1/2" by 3" strip of Esaki, dope, sand, putty, sand, more putty dammit, sand, and dope.

OK. Now I'm just going to put on the filler and sand.

With my eyes closed, so I can get this plane done.

Tim Wescott · « **Reply #108 on:** April 27, 2019, 12:02:04 PM »

Note to self: never, ever, sand a profile fuselage with an idiot board* once you've started finishing it. The patch didn't work. I've been distracted by paying work, but over the last week or so I scuffed up the remaining coating (probably 90 to 95% of the surface still has glass on it), and I've covered it with good ol' silkspan. So the finish on the fuse is basically a kinda good idea at bottom, then a terrible mistake, then an attempt at a fix, and then a fix that may be adequate.

But, if you're at the Regionals and you see a scale plane in the circle trailing streamers of its fuselage covering -- that's me, with adhesion problems.

* At least, that's what they called flat sanding boards in my dad's body shop. Can't imagine why...

Tim Wescott · « **Reply #109 on:** April 27, 2019, 02:36:00 PM »

Engine "compartment" mockup and balance mockup. That boat anchor in the front is a Fox 40. The big weight over the wing opening is about three ounces heavier than the current wing (nearly 10 ounces, and I only have half of it in silkspan, and roughly at the wing's CG. The nut about halfway back is an ounce of weight to simulate finish weight. The pen about 15% back from the wing LE is the balance point.

So it looks like I'm in the ballpark, although I suspect that in the end the weight box in the back will remain empty, and I'll be scratching for space to put weight in the front. But I'll roll with what I get.

Too bad the AMA won't let you use metal props -- I could get one made out of brass; that'd bring the CG forward nicely!

Tim Wescott · « **Reply #110 on:** May 27, 2019, 11:38:35 AM »

As a couple of you noticed, I did not have an Ercoupe at the Regionals. Here's the servo installed. I'm going to put all the radio equipment on the in-circle side of the nose, with the servo lead coming through a slot that goes from the servo mount.

I realized about three weeks ago that (A) I needed to enclose the radio equipment, and (B) time was short, so I came up with an ugly box to put it in. I'm going to replace that with something nicer (but keep it as a backup, just in case). Current thought is trending to something that looks sorta-kinda cowl like, and screws onto the left side of the nose. That should provide easy access to the radio, and look better than the crate that I have built.

Tim Wescott · « **Reply #111 on:** May 27, 2019, 07:55:27 PM »

Progress on the fake cowl radio box. It's ready for planking.

Tim Wescott · « **Reply #112 on:** May 29, 2019, 10:53:53 AM »

Oh, so that's why I don't plank. Right. I forgot how freaking tedious it is -- at least, when I have to watch the clock and cannot just lose myself in it.

Tim Wescott · « **Reply #113 on:** May 30, 2019, 10:41:23 PM »

Planking proceeds, ploddingly.

A bit faster once I got around the tightly curved part and started using half inch wide strips.

Tim Wescott · « **Reply #114 on:** June 01, 2019, 11:17:53 AM »

Oooh, this looks much nicer. Finishing this is going to make me want to finish the plane, not throw it in a dumpster.

I will need to un-round the edges of the fuselage where the box is, though -- there's some epoxy/microballoon mix in its immediate future!

Tim Wescott · « **Reply #115 on:** June 01, 2019, 02:08:21 PM »

Test fit radio. As a bonus, there's much more room than in the ugly box.

Tim Wescott · « **Reply #116 on:** June 01, 2019, 10:09:32 PM »

First, if you guys notice me doing something stupid, like, say, building a plane that doesn't comply with the rules, then by all means speak up! Part of doing a build thread is so that folks can point out that I'm on the wrong track. The stunt guys have absolutely no problem with this, BTW.

Second -- I can't make the fuselage wider than 1 1/2" in profile. Dangit. So the radio needs a different home. It'll fit -- barely -- into the wing, so that's where it's going to live. My first big problem is routing the servo wire. I have some phenolic tubing that I bought a long time ago for coil forms for radios. I've used maybe two inches worth of it, so I can use a four inch piece for a wire guide, right?

So, one wire guide (which doesn't intersect the bellcrank which, thankfully, lives entirely in the left wing panel), and a hole drilled in the fuselage to intersect with the wire guide and the well for the servo. Voila -- the servo wiring can be done. There's a picture of the test fit. As long as I don't goober that area up with glue when I assemble the wing to the fuselage, I should be fine. I'll probably make sure to insert a pull string.

Third try at a radio box -- woo hoo! OK. some things go easier if you draw up detailed plans first.

Tim Wescott · « **Reply #117 on:** June 30, 2019, 01:31:22 PM »

Here's a bit more on the radio box. Because I didn't plan ahead, I needed to drill a hole in the already-completed fuselage. Had I planned ahead I would have done it before the plywood doublers went on -- oh well. Drilling the hole after the fact means that I have this hole in the very bottom of the fuselage that I need to fill.

Tim Wescott · « **Reply #118 on:** June 30, 2019, 01:33:38 PM »

And -- I got the other half of the wing covered. Finally. I need to patch the silkspan over the plug for the radio wiring hole and paint the cockpit area with flat black. Then I just need a few more coats of clear and I can start in with the sanding sealer already.

Chris McMillin · « **Reply #119 on:** June 30, 2019, 04:50:20 PM »

Cool man, keep on truckin'.
Chris...

Will Hinton · « **Reply #120 on:** July 02, 2019, 09:47:48 AM »

I'm lovin' it!!!

john e. holliday · « **Reply #121 on:** July 02, 2019, 11:18:27 AM »

Keep up the good work. Also thanks for making the mistakes for us. Nothing like experience.

Tim Wescott · « **Reply #122 on:** July 02, 2019, 11:31:28 AM »

Quote from: john e. holliday on July 02, 2019, 11:18:27 AM

Keep up the good work. Also thanks for making the mistakes for us. Nothing like experience.

Learning from your own mistakes is good. Learning from someone else's is much, much better.

Tim Wescott · « **Reply #123 on:** July 02, 2019, 11:34:38 AM »

Quote from: john e. holliday on July 02, 2019, 11:18:27 AM

Keep up the good work. Also thanks for making the mistakes for us. Nothing like experience.

Overall, I'm having fun with this build. My day job is product design, where you have to sweat every detail long before any metal is cut or bits downloaded onto processors (because when you have to do the sort of "oops, gotta throw that away and start over" mistakes it means that 1000 units have to be reworked). So just launching into a build without thinking about every freaking step ahead of time is kinda nice, even if I've probably done enough rework to account for mild to middling crash.

Tim Wescott · « **Reply #124 on:** July 07, 2019, 04:11:20 PM »

I'm literally papering over my errors. I had to plug the hole in the bottom of the fuselage from drilling up to the servo box, and I had to plug the hole in the side of the fuselage from my plan to have a radio box as a cowl (which would have been illegally wide).

Both were plugged with balsa glued in with Super Fil, both have been doped, and both have been covered with paper -- Esaki in the case of the side hole, and silkspan in the case of the hole on the bottom. Sand, paint, sand, paint...

I'm hoping that covering the small divot with Esaki is a good idea. It does seem to be getting shinier faster than the silkspan; we'll see what the long term results are, well, in the long term!

Tim Wescott · « **Reply #125 on:** July 07, 2019, 04:18:27 PM »

Sand, paint, sand, paint.

I think I'm going to spray on the last few coats of clear -- it should go faster, and be smoother.

My overall strategy for this is to finish getting enough clear on, then finish out the cockpit, then install the canopy, then put on sealer, then sand as individual bits. Once I'm happy, then I'll assemble the plane (yay!), and finish out the fillets and any bits & bobs.

Cockpit "finish" is just going to be flat black -- if I'm reading the rules for the event right I don't need any detail at all, and the way that I've cut out the interior of the cockpit should look pretty close to an empty airplane from the side.

After all that, I'll put a coat of silver on it (remember, this is my practice for doing a Stunt Finish), then I'll probably be depressed for a few days, since the silver will do such a good job of making all of the mistakes apparent. Perhaps I'll take up skateboarding or golf.

Once I get over that and return to modeling, I'll scuff up the silver and paint it white, then put on the trim. Easy peasy. At the rate I'm going, maybe I'll make the next Regionals!

The pictures show the sum total of my modeling efforts for today, which was to make a mount for painting the fuselage, that uses the engine mounting bolts. It's made out of scrap aluminum, but I've seen people use all sorts of things.

Tim Wescott · « **Reply #126 on:** July 14, 2019, 09:19:13 PM »

The last coat of clear was shiny when it dried! I think I'm pretty much done filling the grain of the silkspan!

Tim Wescott · « **Reply #127 on:** July 17, 2019, 10:52:18 AM »

More random bouncing around in the build order. Since the fuselage seems ready for the fill coat, it's time to "detail" the cockpit -- which for this plane means painting it flat black.

I wanted to have a vent to the outside, to minimize the puffed canopy effect. I also wanted to do it without filling the cockpit with castor. For sport planes I usually just drill a tiny hole in the back of the canopy -- this time I decided to drill another unscheduled hole in the fuselage, and vent the thing out through the wing (which will get a matching hole, and I'll have to be careful not to fill it all with glue when the wing goes in).

And because I hope to keep the balsa dust out of the canopy (insert hollow laugh here) there's a filter. It's just a bit of Q-tip fluff glued into a section of aluminum tube, but as long as it passes air and not balsa dust, I'll be happy.

The canopy paint was a lovely collision of screw-ups that turned out right: I wanted flat black, but didn't have any. The can of black dope that I got from a friend is dry. But I have this 20-year-old bottle of Aerogloss, that's been thinned with regular lacquer thinner. I'd never trust it on the outside of a plane -- but inside a canopy should be safe!

So I unlimbered my new (to me) air brush, and sprayed it on expecting shiny. Because it's in such crappy condition, I got flat black! If I'm lucky, it won't all flake off the first time I start up the engine.

Tim Wescott · « **Reply #128 on:** May 19, 2020, 08:50:12 PM »

Well, it's been less than a year.

Canopy glued in. All the previous pictures have been with the "trash" canopy. I got the "good" canopy out of the stash, scuffed up the inner edge around the perimeter, and glued it is -- with some work.

It's glued in with epoxy that has some crushed charcoal mixed in for color, so that it doesn't show against the black of the cockpit interior (it's a boring cockpit).

I was paranoid about smearing all that dark black glue on the inside of the canopy, so I made a scissors-action spreader by taping a stick of wood along the bottom outer edge of each side of the canopy, then taping sticks onto the canopy so I could squeeze them and spread the canopy -- and it works! The third picture shows the canopy spread out ready for installation.

The final picture shows the canopy all glued down, clamped firmly, and waiting for the glue to dry. I messed up the contour of the back of the canopy vs. the fuselage. It would have been better to work over the fuselage more -- instead, I just clamped the canopy in place. The second picture shows a clamp stop that prevents the clamp from slipping.

So tomorrow I can take the clamps and tape off, and see how much balsa dust there is inside.

Tim Wescott · « **Reply #129 on:** May 20, 2020, 01:08:53 PM »

Tape off. Just a few minor boo-boos. I think I'm going to try the black glue method again at least once, but it does have the obvious (if only in hindsight to me) flaw of not having a way to rework smears & errors on the inside of the canopy. The really bad one is an area that was going to get painted anyway; there's a smudge where I started with the canopy too low and then brought it up; for that one I'll probably just cheat the beltline of the cockpit up a bit from scale (it's not like I'm expecting to win).

There's definitely some smudges on the outside that I'm going to need to deal with -- for those, if the beltline doesn't cover it I'll probably go over the thing with fine sandpaper and polish out the resulting scratches.

Tim Wescott · « **Reply #130 on:** June 08, 2020, 09:02:19 PM »

Various voids in the first cut of gluing have been filled, sharp edges sanded, and a layer of dope applied to the raw epoxy. There has to be a better way to do this...

Once it's as smooth as I have patience for, I'll mask it off and paint a strip of black to define the canopy. This violates the "darkest color on top" rule of painting -- but from the inside of the canopy, it will be the topmost coat. Hopefully the silver will mask it (or gray, if I do this the Phil Granderson way).

Tim Wescott · « **Reply #131 on:** June 09, 2020, 10:06:11 AM »

This is out of order of the actual build sequence, but I realized I didn't have a picture of it. Here's a shot of the leadout guide mount on the bottom of the wing. The pic is a bit too close to show context, so the included shots are that context.

Tim Wescott · « **Reply #132 on:** July 01, 2020, 05:39:37 PM »

Paint, sand, paint, sand.

I'm probably doing this out of order (I said I'd do the black surround on the canopy), but I'm starting the build up on the fuselage. I'm using someone's suggestion to put a bit of white in the clear, to give a bit of cover. Which means that I really should do that black surround sooner than later...

It's actually looking like it may end up smooth and shiny, possibly before the 22nd century.

Tim Wescott · « **Reply #133 on:** July 09, 2020, 07:03:24 PM »

Look! A wing! I've only got about a square foot sanded on the first coat, but it's coming along well.

(In case anyone's wondering -- I purposely chose a scale subject with a shiny new paint job, because the other reason I'm doing this is to practice a Stunt Finish. The project is just taking longer than I thought it would.)

Tim Wescott · « **Reply #134 on:** August 01, 2021, 09:08:33 AM »

Paint, sand. I got everything covered and was going great painting & sanding, then got too enthusiastic & sanded through the silkspan in spots. That, plus a couple of puncture wounds in the wing got me so disgusted with myself that I put it up for a while.

Back to it -- it'll be a patchwork underneath, but hopefully it'll look good on top. And I'm slowly (very slowly!) learning not to sand through the silkspan.

Tim Wescott · « **Reply #135 on:** August 05, 2021, 01:28:31 PM »

The current project phase is "get this plane out of my shop!"

Posting a picture of one of my building surfaces -- I love doing final assembly on glass, because -- flatness. It seems that the standard assembly/paint sequence is to get the plane all assembled earlier in the process than I have. But I'm almost there with the assembly, and I have this fear of ripping a rudder off while sanding it.

I'm probably going to get the rudders married to the stab and the wing in the fuse, then do a few coats more finish before putting stab & fuselage together.

Tim Wescott · « **Reply #136 on:** August 05, 2021, 05:28:19 PM »

Gluing the fins onto the stab. 1-2-3 blocks seemed a nice way to get right angles.

I'm using SuperFil, because (A) it ought to be strong enough, and (B) the far side of the elevator pocket in the rudder is just covering material; I wanted to fill that hole up nicely without having lots of goo dribbling out of the rudder holes.

If the rudders come off in flight, I'll know it was a bad idea.

Tim Wescott · « **Reply #137 on:** August 06, 2021, 06:33:21 PM »

Well, it's not quite ready to go fly around the shop. In fact, the wing is freshly glued, and I shan't touch the plane until morning.

The second picture shows the wing ready for glue. This is a technique I learned from someone here -- you glue the wing in just three places each, top & bottom, with "dots" of epoxy. That's more than enough to hold it on, and in the unlikely event that you need to tear the plane apart, it's just those six strong points that you need to saw off. Which I'll then defeat utterly by putting on an epoxy-microballoon fillet.

The last picture shows a good part of the wing all set up, ready for glue. The fuselage has notches filed into it so that I can inject glue into the wing-fuselage gap. The wing is pinned at the spar on both sides to locate it laterally in the fuselage. The fuselage is wedged (you can see one of the wedges sort of between the back two glue stations; there's one on the other side). The wedges keep the fuselage upright with respect to the wing (you can see the square I'm using as a reference). Not shown are the fact that the wing is blocked up level, with styrofoam blocks about halfway out. Also not shown are little tick marks on the wingtips, at 28 3/4" out from the fuselage -- these are my reference for measuring the wing for squareness with the fuselage, by measuring the triangles from the stabilizer platform to the tick marks.

For glue I used epoxy with just enough microballoons so that it won't dribble out of the wing joint. I used a syringe to inject the epoxy into the holes; it looks like I have nice little pads about 1/2" in diameter on all three of the top glue points -- I'll glue the bottom tomorrow, after the top has set.

This thing is as square as I can get it, the glue is setting up, and as long as there's not an earthquake, it'll be that way in the morning, too.

Tim Wescott · « **Reply #138 on:** August 07, 2021, 01:18:39 PM »

Fillets on Ercoupe rudders is definitely not scale -- but it needed fillets there, or I needed to bolt the fins on (which is what the original did, with a cute little bracket that shows from the outside).

I'll find out just how "too tight" these are in a year or two, when the finish either does or does not bubble up. I have a model that I got from a friend, that has practically no fillets on the rudders and which isn't showing signs of problems. But then, that model has too much plasticizer in the dope, so maybe it's not a good example?

Tim Wescott · « **Reply #139 on:** August 08, 2021, 07:29:19 PM »

More non-scale fillets. I'm not going to try to do the trailing edge fillets that should be there (Walter, pay attention -- you can use that against me).

It's almost like some Stunt guy is attempting scale...

At any rate -- I realized part way through that I was using a skill that my dad taught me; to make a sweep out of a bit of trash sheet material and use that to make some profile. He used it for fiberglass work on cars; I'm using it here.

Stuff's put on rough with a stick, then swept to mostly-round, then finished off with a finger dipped in denatured alcohol (I wear a rubber glove, cuz -- epoxy). The alcohol is very compatible with epoxy, and will, hopefully, be flashed off before it has a chance to screw up the cure of the epoxy.

I probably added 10-12 grams to the structure (oh no!) -- but it's a half an ounce of curvy prettiness, so I'm not complaining.

Tomorrow it'll be back to sanding and painting, on the fuse-wing assembly and on the tail assembly (they're not yet married because the more I assemble the thing the more delecate it'll get. Although I'm thinking that if I'm really careful with the glue joint, no fillet at all would look more scale than a tail with a fillet. Hmm -- gotta think about that).

Tim Wescott · « **Reply #140 on:** August 14, 2021, 07:17:57 PM »

I've been juggling how many scars I want to finish at the last step of the game vs. how much I don't want to sand on those rudders when they're attached to the plane (the sound of "crunch -- @$#%!" is running through my head). It's past time.

Stab's on. Measured every which way, and installed. Glue's on, and no doubt setting up at a sprightly pace, because it's over 90 outside, and probably above 80 in my shop.

I got to this point and realized I really didn't have a nice way to clamp it up. Fortunately, someone (probably stunt-obsessed) decided that this scale plane needed a weight box in the tail. Even if it never gets weights in there, it's a delightful place to put a clamp -- so, I'm happy with past me.

john e. holliday · « **Reply #141 on:** August 15, 2021, 03:39:35 PM »

Haven't checked on this til today. Like you explanations on why you do things and hope to hear the flying results as well as the finish.

Tim Wescott · « **Reply #142 on:** August 15, 2021, 06:43:32 PM »

Fillets on the stab, too. At least from a scale perspective, these are a bit more hidden. Again, stunt guy building a scale plane; I wanted the paint to stick at the joint. I could see going over the top on this with a really detailed scale plane and bolting the stab onto the fuse. Even for a profile, if you could figure out how to do it (and you were going over the top).

Nuh uh -- ain't going to do it. It's just a pretty Ercoupe model, lacking some of the trimming.

The three pieces under the filletted stab are cover panels for various holes (radio hatch, weight box, tail weight box) that I'd been sorta thinking "oh yes, I need to do those). I unearthed them today with a "my gosh, those aren't nearly as done as I thought they were!".

So -- lots of dope and sanding for those. If I feel comfortable about painting over nitro slobber, those may go to their first contest with a coat of clear over the sealer.

Oh -- and a brag shot that I sent to my cousin, since he sent me a picture of Guitar #6 in the final stages of getting put together.

Tim Wescott · « **Reply #143 on:** August 17, 2021, 12:25:22 PM »

I got the canopy halfway masked, and then remembered that I'm planning on painting a black band on the outside to help hide the black glue that's goobered up on the inside.

I also realized how I want to do this next time, so that the glue application can be a bit uncontrolled but will still not make as much of a mess as I have.

Basically, I'll make a groove around the inside of the canopy mount to contain extra glue. If this is coupled with glue that matches the color of the cockpit inside (and I'm going for flat black again because it hides so many sins) then -- hopefully -- the glue will be well hidden even if it's not absolutely perfectly regular.

What I really need is a way to send a pilot inside that cockpit -- then I could mask off the inside, and have the pilot peel off the tape!

Tim Wescott · « **Reply #144 on:** August 24, 2021, 09:10:16 PM »

I got the canopy all masked off, and went to paint it white. And screwed up.

I'm using a bit of white in my sanding sealer as a marking coat (seems to be working so far, cross my fingers). It turns out that sanding sealer with a bit of white in it looks just like white dope! It just doesn't cover very well at all...

Fortunately, actual white dope covers pretty well, and now my canopy is sprayed.

I marked the jar, so I won't forget...

Tim Wescott · « **Reply #145 on:** December 30, 2021, 06:56:05 PM »

And, after a good long break for work and rebuilding mowers and whatnot, I've gotten some stuff done. Tail hinged (oooh, lots of progress there).

This is getting a "stunt hinge" -- one long wire, with a stub coming out on one side of the rudder, and a big ugly gap that I'm not going to bother to fill. I'm in git-er-done mode. I may seal the gap with white Monocoat or if I can find a white "Scotch" tape I'll use that.

The scariest part for me is that the elevator only has about 15 degrees of "down". If you build an Ercoupe, and it looks scale, then it's going to have restricted elevator movement, because -- Ercoupe. Good thing I won't be trying any outside maneuvers, though.

Mark wood · « **Reply #146 on:** December 30, 2021, 09:39:11 PM »

Ercoupes are cool old airplanes. I have a couple friends that have and fly them. One guy at our airport has a very nice he flies quite a bit. I haven't spoken to him about it much though. One of the other DME guys flies his in to the school occasionally when he's giving an A&P test. His is also very nice and he restored it several years ago.

Tim Wescott · « **Reply #147 on:** December 31, 2021, 10:11:59 AM »

Quote from: Mark wood on December 30, 2021, 09:39:11 PM

Ercoupes are cool old airplanes. I have a couple friends that have and fly them. One guy at our airport has a very nice he flies quite a bit. I haven't spoken to him about it much though. One of the other DME guys flies his in to the school occasionally when he's giving an A&P test. His is also very nice and he restored it several years ago.

It's one of the few airplanes that I've built more than one scale model of -- this will be three, if you count the Bostonian.

While I've been building this, oh so slowly, Chris Cox has gotten his full-sized one in the air. I haven't seen it in person, but it does look good in pictures.

Avaiojet · « **Reply #148 on:** December 31, 2021, 01:29:28 PM »

No rudder pedals.

A beautiful aircraft for it's time and a great aircraft to model.

Charles

Mark wood · « **Reply #149 on:** December 31, 2021, 01:36:39 PM »

Quote from: Avaiojet on December 31, 2021, 01:29:28 PM

No rudder pedals.

A beautiful aircraft for it's time and a great aircraft to model.

Charles

A significant portion of the fleet have been modified to have rudder pedals. This is one airplane I have zero time in but have always had interest in flying both the original and modified versions.