ICE_MAN

Well Here you are if your interested.. DENNIS C. Took these pics of his Chip Hyde 34% Extra 300L ARC for me.

Dennis I hope you don't mind my posting these.

The fuse has been seriously swiss Cheesed.

homeblt38

My Feedback: (13)

So far I am learning that "yes, its possible" to buy a kit thru Carden
or Aerotech and with these steps I can reduce the RTF weight.

~weigh all wood and substitute accordingly
~add lighting holes if needed
~use minimal glue

Or, as Dick proposes to build airframe yourself and follow some
sound engineering practices. I only wish that I was half the
craftman and engineer that Dick appears to be. (an a great motor
man from reading other threads)

My goal still remains to buy a "kit" from someone and use it as a foundation and make some sound choices as listed above to ultimately have a plane below the normal weight that will fly extremely well at my altitude even on HOT days.

Are there other ideas out there to achieve this goal?

ben beyer

My Feedback: (23)

So, what about building the plane per plans and doing something like that on any flat surface or on the control surfaces? This would include leaving the wings alone and just doing the rudder, elevators, probably the ailerons, and any flat surface of the fuse like the sides and bottom.

ICE_MAN

Huh? I didn't understand the last post Ben, could you explain?

ben beyer

My Feedback: (23)

Yeah, you build the airplane just like how the plans and directions say. But then you "Swiss Cheese" everything you can. I would leave the wings alone, but "Swiss Cheese" the rudder, elevator, ailerons, and any flat surface on the fuse like the flat sides and bottom. Here is a pic from earlier in the thread of kind what i'm talking about. Basically, my fuse would be built per plans, but then I would cut out falt surfaces in diagonal patterns so it will look like the Chip Hyde fuse with the "Swiss Cheese" effect.

rmh

That works pretty well -As a suggestion -on the picture shown, the wood grain should follow the trailing edge of the rudder -then add a round small CF rod and cutaway wood n foam right up to the rod--- if it is a sharp TE
Proper grain placement can do a lot for keeping swiss cheese setups from twisting under high plastic film tension
I find it best to use a thin (1/64" ply-or hard thin balsa ) cap strip over the lightened control surface sections -which simulates ribs and greatly increases rigidity
Entire tail groups under 10 ounces on 33-35% models is possible and practical
Some 35% BARFS I have assembled have 21 oz stab/elevator groups.

ben beyer

My Feedback: (23)

So, what you're saying is to put a CF rod for the trailing edge and cut away everything up to that point?

What if I did something similar (that's not me in the pic) to the picture but left out the CF rod, would that be rigid enough or would you need something else?

rmh

"something else"? would be-what?
spruce is a very good edging material--what you are looking for, is to make a stiff perimeter-then if possible triangulate the structure with light cap strips .
imagine the rudder made from posterboard - now think of how you could stiffen it .

ben beyer

My Feedback: (23)

By "something else" I was asking that if you cut out a few triangles in the surface as in the rudder above, would it be stiff enough or would you need to brace it with something.

Could you explain the 1/64" Cap strips some more? I.e. do you sand down the balsa so they're flush? Do you put them across the diagonals?