Hello!
Also be advised that if you apply the lacquer to 'to be glued surface' your joints strength would be compromised. Wood to wood glueing is to be preferred   

Roger that
Finished sanding everything to fit perfectly and dusted them well with a paint brush.
10:10pm - Planned to apply lacquer but mom chased me into the balcony.
10:15pm - Planned to apply lacquer in balcony but was attacked by several annoying mosquitos so abandoned the attempt.

Will have to do it tomo.

Quote from: rajathv8 on August 19, 2010, 10:35:38 PM
Roger that
Finished sanding everything to fit perfectly and dusted them well with a paint brush.
10:10pm - Planned to apply lacquer but mom chased me into the balcony.
10:15pm - Planned to apply lacquer in balcony but was attacked by several annoying mosquitos so abandoned the attempt.

Will have to do it tomo.

tip of the day
please keep a mosquito repellent in your rc toolbox!

Haha In my case its necessary

Applied one coat of thin lacquer + talcum powder.
Then two coats of lacquer , the third coat being very thin. All surfaces are really smooth and shiny now! Feels like glass I used sandpaper 120 on first coat, 120 and 400 on second, waiting for third coat to dry - will use 400. All 3 were dry sanding without lacquer on places to be glued.

Made a silly newbe mistake- mixed the lacquer and thinner in a plastic container The bottom just fell off, had a nice laugh

Attaching pics of the plastic

Rajath, where do u stay dude?

I stay at maruthi nagar, near old airport.

Finally completed my first chuck glider. Used superglue to fix it up. Balancing and ballast is to be added.

Attaching pics of glueing the wing dihedral : equipment used for this task alone - laptop, duster, steel scale, box of clay, sharpener and glue the pics will show what i mean.

I would like to thank VC and flyingbox car for their support and also Mr.Gupta who answered the million phone calls i made to clarify doubts

Wondering if i should paint it. Dont want to add unnecessary weigth either.

Some more (im able to post only two per post for some reason) ..

Same as above (same as above) ..

Don't the wing joints need reinforcement? Also, there should be a hook at the bottom of the fuse near or before the LE of the wing. Would be interesting to see how much this weighs.

To reinforce the wing centre joint, use a piece of silk/satin ribbon and glue it on the top, from underneath you could use full chord gussets, while using the gussets make sure that you have correct angle and it abutts the wing on top and fuse side properly else the intended purpose would fail.
As for painting, use a lil bit of paint to mark the wing/fin tips alone in a bright fluroscent colour, this helps in locating the model in case it has landed far from you and specially in some tall grasses.
If you intend to launch it as catapult, hook would be required, you can make one out fo wire and thread it on the fuse, make sure to bend the end and insert it in wood to give some more strength to the attachement.
Now take some modelling clay, find a nice place and go test glide the model.
And happy chucking   

There is no joint in the centre. The wing has three parts only. The other two joints seem pretty strong (i used quickfix) so is the ribbon necessary?
Il use it without the catapult launch for now.
Got the clay, need some rainless days. It should be slightly nose heavy right?

For balancing take mseal and balance at 30% wing chord from leading edge

the actual CG is sure to be behind this point .

when you do test glides take sandpaper with you and keep sanding
off the mseal until you arrive at the perfect balance point.

Hope you don't mind me posting one of mine - gets about 35 sec in still air

Hey thanks for the info. Im using clay for now. Im free only at night so im not able to visit the field to test. But where there is a will there is a way. So i laid a couple of mattresses on the floor (so as to not disturb the ground floor residents) and tested. Was such a joy just to watch it gently glide I chucked it with a little force, it flew almost horizontally for like 10 feet then droped to the floor in the next 5 feet. I know it isnt all that great but was awesome to watch all that work take a gentle glide  

Dropped into IMM again. He showed me how to balance,trim and chuck the chuck glider . Slowly progressed and managed a distance of 40 feet today while it was drizzling (will not get time on other days so din mind getting wet) . This little thing is a lot of fun Cant wait to try it on a nice hot This little thing can be so much fun. Determined to learn to fly it well.

Tried it at the field. Flew for about 80-100 feet as it was a little windy. The glide back to ground is a little too steep, how do i improve it?



PS: thats the sound of cranes putting together metro equipment in the background

First thing remove a little weight and try it out again if you see improvement in glide performance you are on right track, remove a bit more and try again till the time it starts stalling this is when you have removed excess weight, son now you need to add a bit back. You would need to find a good point where it does not stall but just borders on verge of stalling
Also note that nose weight would also depend on wind strength, higher the wind higher the weight, but you would be able to add only to a certain extent.
In summary you would need to find that sweet spot in terms of weight required   

I tried that already. Removing weight made it tail heavy and it stalls very easily. Will give it another try next time. Could it be that the wing is too far ahead? The plan read 5.5cm from fuse front edge for fuse length 25cm. The fuse in the kit was 30 cm so i placed the wing at 6.6cm from fuse edge. The leading edge of the wing is at 6.3cm from leading edge of fuse now (my mistake there). Will this have an effect?

Hi

check the balance (centre of gravity)
it should be around 35% wing chord i.e if the wing is
10 cm wide the plane should balance level at 3.5 cm
from leading edge.

once you get that straight - adjust the glide with
tweaking the elevator.

Quote from: rajathv8 on September 01, 2010, 11:12:44 PM
I tried that already. Removing weight made it tail heavy and it stalls very easily. Will give it another try next time. Could it be that the wing is too far ahead? The plan read 5.5cm from fuse front edge for fuse length 25cm. The fuse in the kit was 30 cm so i placed the wing at 6.6cm from fuse edge. The leading edge of the wing is at 6.3cm from leading edge of fuse now (my mistake there). Will this have an effect?

Rajath, its a good build and like VC said you bring back some memories... get this plane to fly well and learn the dynamics of free flight first... BTW.. I have a Dumas - Spirit of St Louis here with me in bahrain (my nephew started to build this had left it just at the start), actually i got it from towerhobbies but has been lying here for sometime. its a great small scale detailed model for rubber flight.. am coming to bangalore next week and if you want to give it shot in building this i will carry it with me for you... let me know???

Ever the kind hearted Sujju - absolute gem of RCIndia!

Awesome!  I would love to build that !!!   Thanks a ton

Had been to th field to try my rubber model.

These are my comments:

The rubber became very smooth after using oil. Initially i tried coconut oil but it was less viscous and most of it was off the rubber in about 2 flights. Next tried castor oil (cooking type not engine oil). It was very thick and hence stayed on for  very long and made the release of stored energy very smooth (less vibrations). I recomend it on rubber motors.
On the downside a lot of mud gets stuck onto the model because of this.
Initially i could manage only 80-90 turns when the rubber was new. Later the rubber started to ease out allowing for longer flight times.


Damages:
The nose (plastic) kept poping out but this was not a problem as it happened only when the model hit ground.
It later proved to be an advantage as placing the rubber in the prop hook  became very easy.

The wing cracked near the root but was easily mended with cellotape. Everything is an easy fix

Improvements to be made :
The wing flexes a lot when in flight. Have to figure a way to give it some rigidity.
Need to get a rubber winding thingy. Winding 200 times every now and becomes boring after a while!

Here's a video. This was just a practice run. The flight time was 1.5 to 2 times of whats on this video. Could not take video as i was all alone and my hands were oily.

Would love to try this next :