Back to Basics

Thanks Colin, I use "AIL" and "AUX 1" on my Spektrum Rxs for the aileron servos. Makes setting up differential aileron throw a lot easier. Having a "Y" lead is really convenient , especially when you get old and lazy, like me.

Today I spent a short time trying to rescue the SE5As liteply wing tips. One was broken and had a piece missing, the other looked good enough to be used again. It wasn't, it had been broken and re-glued and fell apart when removing it. I used the busted bits as a template, made a sandwich of four pieces of liteply, threw caution to the winds and sawed all four pieces to the wing tip profile. I made the new tips oversize on length to enable them to be fitted to the existing wing structure. As it was designed many years ago, I assumed that the tip structure would be a simple replacement, however, with a tip profile in place, I eyeballed the end view of the wing tip and found that the tip profile has a distinct amount of extra incidence, not helpful in avoiding a stall, especially as there are four of them. A simple mod to the leading edge of the wing and the new tip section is now parallel to the centre line of the wing rib. Photos to follow, forgot to take the camera. Must try harder!

The Se5A's wingtips turned out to be easier to build than I had anticipated. The last job to do before assembling the wings to the centre section will be to replace the broken cap strips. The robust (Forth Bridge) wingtip structure will only be used on the lower wings, these are a bit vulnerable due to the narrow undercart allowing the model to tilt onto a wingtip very easily. There was a surprising amount of damage to the tips of the lower wings, complete replacement was the only way to fix them, one wing had a rib broken at the leading edge. I patched it using a balsa nose rib to hold the remaining liteply parts together. While waiting for the glue to dry, I gave the Multiplex Easy Glider (given to me by Simon) a look over. Unfortunately is has been painted with what looks like B&Q radiator paint, this doesn't look very nice, and even worse, the paint has got into the all foam control surface hinges, and virtually seized them solid. Adding to the complications, the factory fitted NiMh battery was firmly stuck in place. No point in doing anything to the model if the battery couldn't be removed. Luckily, after sawing a couple of chunks out of the top of the battery "bay", the battery gave in to the prodding from a large chisel. I'll replace the five AA cell monster with a 2S LiPo. Fortunately the battery sits right on the CofG, so no trim changes. I might be wasting my time in trying to get the paint off. The model is made of Elapor foam, I'll have to do some tests to see if its solvent resistant.

Hi Brian - Easy Glider - I take it that it's fitted with a canned motor, will you go brushless ?
Good work on the S.E.5 , look forward to seeing her finished.

Colin

I'll stick with the old set-up Colin, I think it'll be OK with a 2s LiPo. Not sure how the motor is held in, most of the assembly looks as though its held together with hot glue. Fitting a brushless motor would mean fixing a mount in the nose, which is quite narrow, not sure if it'll be big enough to take one. I'm going to see if I can fly it first, that'll be the time to make a decision, anyway it might go well enough on the old rig anyway, after all it is a glider so the motor will probably be adequate to haul it up far enough to catch the odd thermal.

A final check on the fit of the new spar inserts and with the wings set up on the dihedral blocks, I glued up the wings and centre section and left it to dry overnight. The weather made it more than overnight, at least everything turned out alright. Well almost. I'd left the ailerons in place as the covering on them was OK. I should have known better. Pulling the wing assembly into alignment had an unexpected effect on the wing to aileron clearance. The ailerons now touched the adjacent ribs quite firmly. The hinges are the pin type, no way to dismantle them. I wondered if I could slide a piece of brass tube over the protruding pin bit and perhaps be able to wiggle it through the epoxy holding it in. The tube was filed to a fairly sharp edge, and I cut a couple of shallow slots to make a crude drill bit. All I managed to achieve was a sore finger and a few crumbs of cured epoxy resin. Looked as though the only way to get the ailerons off would be to cut through the hinges, awkward due to the metal hinge pin. I wondered about ways of using the tube "drill". I soldered the tube to a piece of Bowden cable, then soldered the other end of the cable to prevent fraying. I slid on a small washer, cut the PTFE outer to slightly shorter than the cable. Hoping it would work, I held the Bowden cable in a small hand drill, pushed the tube over the exposed hinge and pushing as hard as I could on the PTFE tube and turning the drill, I began to drill away the epoxy round the hinge pin. First snag, The end bit I was holding got too hot, the cure was a drop of oil on the washer. Pushing hard on the tube and turning the handle, five minutes was all it took to release the hinge. I'll be able to insert some new balsa around the hinge area, then re-drill the hinge mounting holes about 1/32" further outboard.