Sport Racing plane for 3 cylinder Kolm engine.

[Snoopy1]

What are you thinking the final weight will come in at?

A couple of weeks ago I did weight check on all the parts that was on hand and built and that came out to be 35 lbs 4 oz. now I have add a cross brace and and bunch of small balsa parts, still need battery and receiver support. You know how it goes. At present it looks like around 36 lbs. I just hope when it is all said and done to be less than 38 lbs. At that weight the plane should have WQL of 8.6 which I would be very happy with. It will fly light and hopefully quick.

 

[Snoopy1]

Moved back to working on the wing. Busy installing the air brake. Believe this plane will need an air break our field is short and running 34-16 propeller it is not going slow down much and the plane is clean and has a low WQL. The engine is new and not sure how low I want to bring down the idle on first couple of flights. It is big air brake done this before with great success, nice to come in with the air brake down a little throttle and just cutting the throttle just before touch down.

 

[dhal22]

Just another small detail. Just the way I do wheel axles. Do not like standard wheel axels used on planes. Use an allen head bolt grade at-least 8.8 , use the following parts one bolt, 2 nylon washers, 2 aluminum washers, 1 hex nut cut in half, and 1 locknut, assemble with graphite powder. (Cut the nut down to get the wheel as close to the gear as possible).
Assembly bolt, plastic washer, wheel, plastic washer, hex nut, aluminum washer, landing gear, aluminum washer, lock nut. Then tighten the hex nut down onto the wheel just to give a little bit of drag then install the assembly onto the gear.

View attachment 124650

This is why we like small details………

 

[Snoopy1]

Ok mad a mistake purchased some G10 plate 0.025 thick for the air brake but it turned out to be too flimsy. So now glued 3 - 3/32 solid carbon rods to the air brake to stiffen it up. see how it feels when the epoxy is cured.

 

[Snoopy1]

Got all the air louvres in time consuming and took some patience. Difficulty to get every one in-line with the next one, just the smallest difference shows up. Anyway it is as good as I co do them. Also the cowl has radius which didn’t held.
Tried to shape the louvres to the cowl as well. The main thing this gives a large area to get the hot air out of the cowl.

 

[TonyHallo]

That will be fun finishing!

 

[Snoopy1]

@TonyHallo I was thinking about that and I have no idea how I am going to do it plastic covering will not work, or I should say I will not try. It works great to get hot air out but difficult to finish, I may just paint it matt black. If you have any suggestions, please let me know.
all I can say is that this engine has been a challenge from the minute I first held it in my hands, all I can say if anyone is thinking of buying one think long and hard Before you do.

 

[Snoopy1]

Did something I was not planning on doing but it just kept staring at me. So this morning I decided to cover the landing gear. When watching planes fly and you see the bottom and you see these big holes in the bottom not covered or anything it just looks bad to me. The landing gear is also something I dislike seeing everything is nicely done and covered and then a gap and no paint, four bolts just sitting there. So built a mall structure to fit over the gear and close the gap. Just need to put some covering on it and should look a little better.

 

[Snoopy1]

Not much to say except the the fuselage is done except for the battery and receiver tray. Like the louvers looks aggressive.

 

[dhal22]

What about painting just the louvers matt black?