More on Triumph Profile....

LAST EDITED ON Aug-02-03 AT 04:10 PM (CDT)
 
Thanks for the words of encouragement when I posted earlier the pics of my Triumph design, and the fuse under construction.

Over the past few weeks, I have cut the wing ribs, and finally today, I got the opportunity to frame up the wing. I used the jig method described by Lucky Pyatt on his Next Step construction article in Model Aviation. Things went together very quickly, and so far the wing does not appear to have any warps. I sheeted the lower leading and trailing edge before removing it from the building board.

As of now, the wing weighs absolutely nothing... It only lacks capstripping, upper sheeting and tips to be complete.(yup, a ways to go)

The fuse is much heavier however. I have decided to trim the nose back 3/4" for starters to bring it closer into balance, as so far it does appear that it will come out noseheavy.

I have not decided on a final bellcrank mount, but there are several designs that will fit the holes I cut.

I will keep posting my progress as I go. My goal is to have this plane ready a couple of weekends before the funfly in Millington TN.

Yesterday afternoon, I had the opportunity to cut the flaps and the tips. With them in place it is finally starting to look like an airplane.....

After fitting the wing into the fuse, I have found that I was not as accurate as I thought with the saddle cutting... Time to get out the sandpaper....

Nice work!

Is the gear in the wing or fuselage? (I'm rooting for the wing..)

Keep posting your progress.

[photo not recovered: 3e69bb3870f12ad5.jpg]

"Do not learn more than you absolutely need to get through life." -Karl Kraus

Jeremy,

Are you going to have it ready for the Fun-Fly on the 27th of September? If you need help with first flights, let me know.

Larry, personally, I like the toughness of fuse mounted gear and the looks of wing mounted gear.....

I have a set of wing blocks already cut with the gear groove in them, I just have to make a decision before I sheet the top of that wing.......

Louis, yes, my goal is to have it flying before your fly in. And yes, I would like to take you up on your offer of help:)

Back to sanding.........

LAST EDITED ON Aug-05-03 AT 11:06 AM (CDT)
 
I am glad you are going to make it to the Fun-Fly. Bring all your friends that fly C/L and even those who don't. Maybe we can convert them.

I will bring both of my SPAD designs, the .40 size "Circle Jerk" and the .020 size "Baby Jerk". Remember, the "Baby Jerk" was the one you broke the motor off of at SMALLS. I am toying around with a .15 size SPAD trainer design based on Tatoo's Gnat. Of course, I will call it the "Junior Jerk". Should be a durable stable trainer.

The "Baby Jerk":

I got out the landing gear mounting blocks I had (million year old top-flite package) and laid them on the wing... I guess I will build it with the gear in the wing. Similar spacing to the Mo-Betta....

Louis, you better watch out with that little .020 plane, I just picked up a new .010 that might find its way into a tiny stunter just for your fly-in.....

Also made lotsa balsa dust fly this evening and cut the nose back. Looks much more 'balanced' now.

The challenge is ON!!

Love the look of your ship...all lean, mean and fast! I am looking forward to further installments as you progress.

Thanks Glenn!!

As for progress, like everyone, I have been working on it when I can (10mins here, 10mins there).
Last night, I capstripped the bottom of the wing and sheeted the center section of the bottom of the wing. I also got the gear mounting blocks installed in the wing. I need t make some rib doublers to beef up the mounts, but the blocks are square and solid in the wing. Should result in a nice stance.

I also sanded one side of the fuse. To make it easier to sand the ply doublers precisely without taking away too much balsa, I ended up clamping it to my workbench with a Jorgensen clamp. Then I was able to take the 100grit to it using a t-bar. This made it a lot easier to sand without the chance of damaging the balsa parts.

I plan on mounting the bellcrank and threading the leadouts this weekend, and from there I can sheet and capstrip the top of the wing.

I will get some more pictures when the wing is sheeted....

Well, I did not get the wing sheeted on top, but I did get the bellcrank mounted and the flap pushrod in.

In running the leadouts, I used .027 Sig leadout material and mounted them to the bellcrank by running them first through some 1/16" brass tubing, and then back down on itself. I wrapped 1" with copper wrapping wire, then ran the leadout back on itself again and again wrapped with copper wire. I finished it by soaking them in epoxy.

The belcrank is mounted on a 1/8" ply platform which butts up agains the landing gear block, a rib and the shear webbing. It is also mounted to the floor sheeting as well. I may have overdone the bellcrank mount, but this is the most foreign part of the project for me so far.......

Sheeting, capstripping and shear webs will go in tomorrow night if possible.....

OK, I got the sheeting and capstripping on the top of the wing. I also got the wing saddle fitted to the wing and shaped the leading edge (bout wore out my balsa plane doing that....)

I plan to cover the wing and tail in Monokote (Hey it may be blasphemy, but I know how to do it, and it works.....), but I cannot decide how to finish the fuse. I may go with a normal dope and silkspan finish, but I don't really want to wait that long....

I hope I am not boring ya'll with this... I am really having fun on this project:)

You're not boring me at all!

Me neither, I've been waiting for each installment. Keep them coming...oh yeah....and more pictures!

LAST EDITED ON Aug-17-03 AT 03:55 PM (CDT)
 
Here are some more pics... Hot weather kept me away from the flying field today. It was a little cooler in front of the fan in the shade of the garage...

I don't know if it looks like a lot, but I got plenty done today.. The list includes:

Cut and bent the landing gear
Drilled and installed blind nuts for the engine and tank mount
Cut and installed the inboard tripler
Tapered the inside of the fuse blank and shaped the rest of the fuse
Got one coat of nitrate dope on the entire fuse
Shaped the hingelines on all the moving surfaces
Began work on the inboard tip and the adjustable leadout guide

She needs a lot more finish work, but I am getting there. Thanks to some great input on another thread, I am doing a silkspan and dope finish on the fuse and a film finish on the wings. I think I may have even come up with a color scheme....

As soon as I have silkspanned the fuse, I will get to permanently mounting the wing and tail....

Here's the pics...

Cool Plane! Cant wait to see it finished and flying! Boy do I have to get my but back to the building table! Seeing your pictures make me miss vaccuming up balsa dust at the end of the night. Thanks!

Thanks Bob.

Plenty of balsa dust flyin' in the shop lately... too much according to the wife...:^)

Something else I did when I designed the Triumph was to design a tiny version of it for the little Cox .010 I picked up from a buddy. The .010 is one of my favorite engines, and I just had to have something to beat Louis with!

I think I may finish this one exactly like the big one...

I hope you have everything ready for our Fun-Fly. The "Tiny Triumph" will be a hit.

LAST EDITED ON Aug-19-03 AT 08:45 PM (CDT)
 
Monday night found me on the phone for a few hours while participating in a conference call with people on the other side of the world..... They kept asking "Did you hear that sound, it sounded like someone sanding wood....?"

I took the opportunity to silkspan the fuse and make a flap control horn.

To silkspan the fuse, I cut undersized pieces of silkspan to cover the side of the fuse. I then held them in place and rubbed over them with a paper towel soaked in dope thinner. That quickly softened the 3 coats of unthinned dope I had put on the fuse the days before. I followed the application with two coats of unthinned dope. Tonite I applied 2 coats of 50/50 dope/thinner to the fuse. As you can see in the pics, it is finally taking up a shine, and I have a pretty good base (I think) on which to lay color. It will be few more days before I can do anything with it, so I plan to let it sit the rest of the week and cure.....

Then, I began work on the control horn. I have a couple of top-flite horns, but they are not offset horns and I don't want to 'force' them to fit. I tried a few mail-order places, but they did not have anything useful, so---- I got out some 1/4" by 1/16" brass stock and laid out the holes for the wire and the bearings. I used 3/32" music wire and bushed the holes with brass tubing the right size for the pushrods. I soldered everthing with silver solder and ground the music wire to give a good solder bond when I soldered it. All the joints look pretty doggone strong (stronger than the top-flite at least).

Do you think this horn will be strong enough for this stunter?

Has there been any progress. This is a very interesting thread as I'm preparing to build a flapped profile myself.

Thanks for askin Mike. Yes there has been some progress, but not as much as I would like- job has been he!! lately : (

What I did manage to accomplish was mostly a mess. I decided to brush 2 coats of Sig sanding sealer over the entire fuse..... It was alot like brushing on snot(will thin it more next time). It did however lay out smooth and harden to a nice sandable finish. I need to block sand the body a little more, and by then I should have my spraygun so I can lay on a silver base.....

I also put on a light fiberglass reinforcement on the center section of the wing and on the landing gear blocks.

What is left...? I need to finish sand the fuselage and mount the wing and horizontal. I also need to install the wingtips and the leadout guide. From there, I need install the control horns, put in the fillets, and cover the wing and horizontal. After that, I can paint the fuse and Fly IT!!!!

I will try to post some more pics as I get the leadout guide in place and the wing mounted....... I hope to get some time to work on it tomorrow night.

LAST EDITED ON Sep-01-03 AT 09:41 PM (CDT)
 
Here is a small update.

I added the vertical to the fuse, and hit it with sanding sealer. I need to get it adequately faired in and the rest of the fuse sanded, and then I will go ahead and permanently mount the horizontal and wing...

I also have a pic here of the center section. I glassed it and got it looking right and strong.

The blue is not the color this plane will end up as. I simply added some blue in my clear sanding coat to help me find the high and low spots... I wish I had chose a different color...