Scale Wendell Hostetler 30% PA-28 Cherokee Build

[TonyHallo]

Ordered the landing gear yesterday, plans show Sierra gear, I'm going with Robart. Had to order the fixed yoke style (No. 684) for the nose wheel due to the wheel diameter shown on the plans. Will need to make a trunnion and linkage to make it steerable, some lathe and milling machine work, can't wait. The nose wheel is mounted on the back side of the firewall so this work needs to be done early in the build stage. Thinking of using UHMW polyethylene bar for the trunnion much like an old Fults Nose wheel bearing, just a little bigger.
The mains are No. 604, they may need shorten a little. Same style used on the old Cherokee flown over the past seven seasons so I know they will work well.
Helping a friend side his rental property, would rather be gluing wood!!!

 

[TonyHallo]

FedEx was here today. These appear to be a magnitude of order larger then the 1/2" diameter used on the original, good for 25 to 50 pound. just collecting parts right now, putting together a RC Guys 150 Cessna to finish out the season plus helping a friend side his rental, not enough hours in the day, how did I work a full time job? makes one wonder!

 

[TonyHallo]

As a note the Cessna 150 and the Cherokee shared the same crappy stock nose wheel, need to do a little lathe work. These are photos from a friends Cherokee that a brass bushing was installed to eliminate the slop in the stock nose gear, need to do same for the Cessna,

 

[TonyHallo]

Started gluing wood tonight. I read somewhere that parchment paper works better than wax paper so I giving it a try, we shall see. Been using wax paper since 1966 for building model airplanes. The backbone structure is 1/4" square balsa sticks which the formers are glued to then sheeted with 1/8" balsa sheet. The straight edges are screwed down, hopefully I can build the second side over the same parchment paper.

 

[BalsaDust]

I've been using parchment paper for the last 6-7 years and I think it works better. Against epoxy or wood glue they are both basically the same but with CA parchment paper lets go easier. My advice when using CA is try to remove to part within an hour though or the CA will finally soak in and bond it to the wood.

 

[TonyHallo]

More gluing, added the vertical members. I also lengthen the rear of the fuselage by 1 1/4", I plan to use a stabilitor rather than the traditional stab/elev shown on the plans. I plan to use a carbon fiber tube running in a laid up fiberglass sleeve bearing. The original Cherokee had a carbon fiber tube running in two plastic bushings pushed in the fuselage sides. There was a little slop even when new however it worked flawlessly for 7 years.

 

[TonyHallo]

I have the first side completed and removed from the bench, it came up easy so I think I will switch to parchment paper in the future. I was able to reuse the parchment paper so both side should be identical since the straight edges were not moved. The second side is started, should finish tonight.
I made this little widget to mark the 1/4" balsa for fitting the miter cuts. Three pieces of scrap wood.

 

[dhal22]

Balsa/wood tools are a lot easier than machining tools. I make all types of sanding parts, angle plates and sticks. Anything to make sanding easier.

 

[TonyHallo]

Started framing the fuselage, the 1/4" square balsa is a little skimpy. I broke at three times while fitting the cross pieces. Hopefully once everything is sheeted with 1/8" balsa it will not matter.

 

[dhal22]

Dro's on mill and lathe. Nice....