Scale RCM 1/3 Scale Champ Build

[TonyHallo]

Was a good day today, got an early start, primed the fabric parts and cowl. Let primer cure 4 hours and put the color to all the parts. Cold weather rest of week so I'm happy I got the paint work done today. Snow forecast on Thursday!
I plan to assemble the plane and check balance, going to make a Vanessa balancer to check the balance.

 

[WMcNabb]

Was a good day today, got an early start, primed the fabric parts and cowl. Let primer cure 4 hours and put the color to all the parts. Cold weather rest of week so I'm happy I got the paint work done today. Snow forecast on Thursday!
I plan to assemble the plane and check balance, going to make a Vanessa balancer to check the balance.
View attachment 117636

LOOKS GREAT!!

 

[Snoopy1]

Nice stage to be at. Just cannot wait to install a few parts to see how it looks.

 

[TonyHallo]

Snoop,
Do you remember asking about changing the cables? Your question raised some thought and I went ahead and ordered some more cable, 60# test SS coated cable , 100' for about $15.00. I am going to replace the elevator cables with double crimp the connections. The rudder cables are easy to get to, the elevator will be more challenging once covered. This will one of the first orders of business once the horizontal stabilizer is installed. Watching the grandson today and need to do a little welding work for my brother tomorrow, might start on Friday morning. Hoping to have it finished for the 7th Annual Indiana Flyers Club Summer Solstice fun fly. Wonder who is the CD for the event?

 

[Snoopy1]

Snoop,
Do you remember asking about changing the cables? Your question raised some thought and I went ahead and ordered some more cable, 60# test SS coated cable , 100' for about $15.00. I am going to replace the elevator cables with double crimp the connections. The rudder cables are easy to get to, the elevator will be more challenging once covered. This will one of the first orders of business once the horizontal stabilizer is installed. Watching the grandson today and need to do a little welding work for my brother tomorrow, might start on Friday morning. Hoping to have it finished for the 7th Annual Indiana Flyers Club Summer Solstice fun fly. Wonder who is the CD for the event?

It all looked good but in time cables all take set and do a small stretch and if they come off the sheave it would be difficult to fix but using the lighter gable and more flex will conform the sheave better and less slack and stretch in the long run .
When you say the 7th that is not April?

 

[TonyHallo]

I was talking about the main elevator cables, not the trim tab. The trim tab servo is on a spring loaded slider to keep the cables engaged in the pulley and tight as the elevator moves up and down
No 7th annual, started in 2015, the fun fly is 6/19/21.

 

[TonyHallo]

Spent a little time on the Champ today. First up was clean the paint off the hinges and ream the holes, then assemble with the brass hinge pins and cotter pins, install the trim tab on the left elevator.
Next up take the landing gear apart and final clean, lube and assemble. This is the first grease applied to the spring assemblies, work much smoother now. Didn't want any contamination before painting. There was some rust on the piston due to the acid etch, this was cleaned with emery cloth in the lathe. The gear on and the elevator is installed, need to modify the part points on the fuselage and rudder post since those were drilled for 4-40 screws, the pins supplied with the new wires are a little bit smaller than 2-56 screws.

 

[TonyHallo]

Made new straps for the flying wires this morning. The tabs on the full scale are welded to the fuselage lower longeron and rudder post, these stick out of the fabric. I'm doing the same so these need completed before the fabric is applied.

The ones that were installed were drilled for 4-40 screws, the pins supplied with the flying wires are .077" diameter. New tabs were made and installed. For the rudder post the tabs are small and takes a bit of fiddling to get it right. At any rate progress but not much to show. Family coming over today for dinner so I think I'm done for the day, back on it tomorrow.

 

[TonyHallo]

I did order a new Taranis X9D+ SE this morning along with 4 receivers so the ACCESS receivers will be going in the plane. Will use a Archer R8 Pro with a M+ redundant receiver for receiver 1 and a Archer R4 receiver 2. Both receivers are connected to the RB10 Redundancy Bus. Once registered, they can be bound and updated without the need to press any button.

 

[TonyHallo]

Rather than make the Vanessa balancer I decided to cut two 1/8" plywood plates that fit onto the spars, drilled a series of holes and use a 1/8" piece of music wire as the pivot. The plans show the balance point at 5 7/8" behind the leading edge, I getting 6 5/8" using a 1 pound weight just ahead of the rudder.