Scale Wendell Hostetler 30% Piper Cherokee Glass Fuselage Build.

The door came out nice and really stiffen it up. Happy with it now. Have the 1 1/2 ounce cloth on the flat surface, once cured and trimmed the flange area will get glassed.



Cut the left aileron/flap free and installed the 1/4" balsa trail edge, once the right is cut will begin cutting the leading edges, plan to do this in the band saw so would like to have both available once the saw is set up.
Put the last pieces of reinforcement inside the fuselage, once cured the last window panel will be cut out.

Mounting the cowl today. Using a cowl ring, the top two holes will be accessible from the air inlets and the bottom four from the cabin. It was areal pain glassing the ring to the cowl through the front openings. Ended up using long reach needle nose pliers to the place the small pieces of cloth then wetted out with a long brush. Have all the windows cut out, starting to look like a Cherokee. Tomorrow I can mount the engine.

In Florida for a week watching baseball. Lots of eye candy here as I catch up.

Heading to Fla next month for a few days, painting season is not far off, would really like to paint this bird this year. Missed a great flying day today, 74f in the burg, winds light and variable.

After calculating the required length for the engine standoffs to provide 2 down and 2 right thrust I determined that I had no aluminum stock to make them! Ordered 3' length of 3/4" and 7/8" from McMaster Carr, should be here today.
Moved on to hinging the wings. The ailerons are hinged on each end, the full scale has 8 knuckles, using two DuBro quarter scale hinges on each end. The ailerons are top hinged, on the last build, used a Dremel with router attachment to mill the groove for the hinges then covered the hinges with balsa. Wanted these hinges to be installed on a shallow angle so that the leaves penetrate into the foam. Milled a slot in the aluminum flat bat at about 10 degree angle, the slot is .050" deep and capped with a piece of scrap G10, the is glued together with CA. Then the set up was changed so that flat surface that bears on the top wing could be milled. The knuckle is .110 in diameter, so started removing .060"form the surface and testing the slot cut until the hinge was flush with the top of the wing, took another .050" off to get there. Quite pleased with the result. The hinges were glued in with non foaming Gorilla glue..
On to the flap hinges. Find that Ebay is a good source for photographs of parts for sell, normally you can find several views of the part as well. There are three hinges in each flap not evenly spaced. The part on the wing will be made out of 3/32" G10 and the two parts of each hinge on the flap will be 1/16" G10. The hinge pin will be 1/8" diameter brass drilled for a 2-56 bolt about .100" long when tighten will not rotate. These will take some time.

Have the wing side of the flap hinges completed. Drilled the pivot holes with a a #23 drill and pressed 5/32 od K&S brass tube in, the tubes are cut and sanded flush to the G10 material. Made a fixture to locate and hold the G10 while the Gorilla glue foams and cures. Need to make a seperate fixture for the left wing because this will not work on the inner hinge on the left side. Didn't take long to make.

It's been a while (2004) since I have cut foam core wings, most of my builds use foam rib wings, I forgot how nice it is to have the shucks to hold thing place. The right wing hinging came out great. Hope this left does as well.

TonyHallo said:

It's been a while (2004) since I have cut foam core wings, most of my builds use foam rib wings, I forgot how nice it is to have the shucks to hold thing place. The right wing hinging came out great. Hope this left does as well.

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Hinges look good and nicely made.

Tonight was the monthly meeting for the Indiana Flyers Club. One of our members hosts the meeting every month at his under used shop, beautiful work place. He sets a table up for me every month for show and tell. Took the Cherokee and a set of scales, came in at 18 pounds as you see it, minus engine, fuel tank, eight servos, windows, paint, interior. I think I can make my 30 pound goal.

With frise type hinges on the flaps, the upper wing surface needs extended because the flap leading edge pulls away from the wing trailing edge as the flaps are deployed. Thought about how I would do this and decided to use .025" thick G10 that was on hand. Used double sided carpet tape to hold the straight edge guide in position and with the Dremel with router attachment miled the .025" off the trailing edge and onto the wing sheeting. The G10 was cut to provide a 7/8" extension. If balsa was used, would need to make the extension shorter to maintain an acceptable thickness. The extension was glued in place with epoxy.


I thought I was done making molds, not the case! Molding the bottom surface of the wing to lay up hatch covers for the aileron and flap servos.