Sport Beautifying the Beast

[Krazy Kanuk]

Well now that the cool weather is here, it's time to start my winter build.

This year I lost my great Carf Extra 330SC with a Valach 120 4 stroke. I wanted something to replace it as the motor makes such an awesome sound in the air and it came out of the crash undamaged. This years plane had to be something different, there are just too many Extras, Edges and Yaks at any of the fun fly's I go to.

I decided to go with a biplane and picked the Hanger 9 Beast after reading the Build Thread on GiantScaleNews and also because the cowl is wide enough (14") to accept the Valach.

But after watching the plane fly in the air and listening to others complain, I realized the colour scheme was not for me. It's just too difficult to distinguish the top from the bottom when its flying. On the ground it looks fantastic! So I am going with a high contrast yellow black (or maybe dark green) look. I also want to improve upon the difficult assembly of the lower wing at the field.

So off came the covering and with the plane down to the bones, it's time to start the modifications.

 

[Krazy Kanuk]

Covering the Beast!

I plan on using Yellow Solartex as a covering and then spray painting the additional colours.

I picked Solartex because of how well it resists puncture's and when applied it NEVER wrinkles.

Trevor spoke highly of his success in using this covering when building his Gee Bee.

I plan to completely finish the total assembly of the engine and all of the electronics before starting to cover the plane. It certainly is much easier to place the wires and other items into the body when the covering is off.

 

[Krazy Kanuk]

FIN & RUDDER

On this part of the plane Hanger 9 used flat hinges with a wire that goes thru all of the hinges. This makes it easy to do any repairs in the future, as it is easy to take off the rudder now that it can be separated from the fin. I plan to do the same for all of the other flying surfaces.

Once the covering was off, I noticed that some of the glue joints were weak, so I used some bamboo skewers and pinned the critical areas. I also used a couple to increase the lateral stiffness of the fin. The very small weight gain was easily offset in the increased stiffness that I gained.

 

[dhal22]

I'll watch here vs elsewhere.

 

[pawnshopmike]

I thought I wanted a Beast until I help a fellow club memeber assemble his at the field. By the time we wrestled the Beast together we were both too tuckered to fly.

Looking forward to watching you "Tame the Beast".

 

[Terryscustom]

Sweetness! I've got a recover project this Winter as well, very curious on the Solartex / Paint!

 

[Pistolera]

I know what you mean about the original Beast colors. Beautiful on the ground but hard to see orientation in the air, which was one of the reasons I sold mine. Fun plane to fly though!

 

[Terryscustom]

So I am curious with the solartex, does it have a visible fabric print and if so how do you get rid of most of that effect?

 

[Matt]

I know what you mean about the original Beast colors. Beautiful on the ground but hard to see orientation in the air, which was one of the reasons I sold mine. Fun plane to fly though!

Earle I don't know what you are talking about... It shows up fine, at 10 feet away! And it only takes 25 or so minutes to put together...

 

[Pistolera]

Earle I don't know what you are talking about... It shows up fine, at 10 feet away! And it only takes 25 or so minutes to put together...

Har Har