Back to Basics

Warm sunshine and the lack of wind today persuaded me to get on with the Moonglow's wing. I haven't made things easy for myself by sheeting the top of the wing first. Now I'll have to join the two halves with everything upside down. I made up two sets of cradles to hold the wings at the correct dihedral angle. These were made from scrap bits, and when the wing halves were supported on them and a straight edge applied to one main spar, the distance from the straight edge to the opposite spar was a tad over 1 7/8". The plan calls for 2" dihedral under one wing tip, I don't think the designer would quibble over 1/8". When I fit the sheeting to the underside of the wing, I'm going to try a method I saw on YouTube. In the video, the sheet was taped to the trailing edge of the wing. Lots of PVA glue was applied to the ribs and structure, the sheet was flipped over and was made to contact all the glued areas, then the sheet was flipped back and all the glued areas showing on the sheet were re-glued, as were the ribs and structure. When the glue had dried, the sheet was flipped over again, and using a steam iron and a piece of cloth (tea towel?), the sheet was ironed on. I think this must be a better way than trying to "pin-and-glue-as-you-go".

I don't know whether the following notes should be in "Tales of Stupidity" or something similar. Recently I've had a very ordinary common cold, first one for over four years. Apart from a runny nose, the only remaining symptom is a distinct loss of balance now and then. I should have known better, but yesterday I decided to transfer Moonglow's fuselage from the Winter workshop in the spare bedroom to the proper workshop (shed). I picked up the fuselage, turned towards the doorway and stepped into what seemed like a hole in the floor. Most odd! Even odder was the sight of the shattered fuselage after I'd picked myself up. Fortunately the top decking was only tack glued and ended up with only minor damage. First job will be to recover the ply formers and the engine bearers, I thought about contacting Belair to see if I could get a set of laser cut parts just for the fuselage, but I'll do that only if I can't make a decent job of rescuing the ply parts. If I have to rebuild the fuselage from scratch, there'll be one good thing, there won't be a brown edged dovetail joint right in the middle of the fuselage sides. No pictures, no point.

Brian wrote:

is a distinct loss of balance now and then..

I would be more concerned about the above than working on the Moonglow. :blink: Now you have even more problems to deal with. Although maybe your Cold has affected your ears balance "gyro"

Stories of Stupidity? Your choice.:lol:

I think you have a touch of vertigo -my wife and son both suffer from it usually associated with an ear infection - the wise thing to do is contact your GP.

Brian - Sorry to read your incident, I concur with Kevin - in the past my wife suffered with Labyrinthitus
which is inflamation of the inner ear resulting in a loss of balance and falling over.
Forget the model and get checked out.

Regards

Colin.

Unfortunately, in my state of "gloom and despondency", I completely forgot that I had no balsa stock to be able to make a new Moonglow fuselage. Fortunately, Balsa Cabin had everything I needed and the parcel arrived this morning. Tomorrow it will be well and truly "Back to Basics".
Carry on watching this space, you may be surprised at what might happen next.