fredo

Few more pics from horizontal stab build. The plan says to make sheeted version but I've chosen to have open structure. Keeping tail feathers light could give me an opportunity to mount the rudder servo further aft and still be in balance. I'm planning to use carbon rod across the long ribs to keep it more rigid.
The trailing spar is glassed from inside for more strength.

maekju

I've never worked with carbon fiber before but heard you can cut the rod with a dremal or fine tooth hack saw. What do you use to cut the cloth? I noticed in your pics the edges seem to fray like fiberglass cloth.

fredo

I use sharp blade for long straight cuts or scissors for curves or smaller applications. There is no problem cutting CF. I find it easier than glass cloth. Does it fray? Of course it does. That's why I have to cut it oversize. I smear the epoxy with a piece of plastic (old credit card works great) on the application first, then lay the cloth and with gentle stroking, let the epoxy saturate. If it isn't enough, I simply add some more on the top until every corner is wet. After this I cover it with baking paper, followed by some flat piece of wood and weight on top. Let it cure over night. The edges will now become very sharp and I have to be careful not to cut myself. Wearing gloves is a good idea. I usually trim it with a sanding block. I'm not sure which pic you were reffering to but it's more likely unfinished job.

fredo

Here is nearly complete horizontal stab. Few things I have to do to finish it off. Fit the surface area to mount horn on either each elevator half or make a joint wire with a single horn. I'm undecided in that area. Next is to round the edges off, fill any imperfections with balsa filler, cut elevator halves, cut holes for hinges and dry fit them. Also I will glue some triangle pieces of balsa at the root of the ribs I will continue on all this after the fuse is in one piece, so that goes on a hook for a while. My next job will be cutting the rest of remaining formers and wing ribs. This is quite time consuming, when you cut it all by hand.
One thing this hobby taught me, is patience. I was hopeless before. I guess that comes with age.

fredo

Making small progress. All ribs are made of 3mm balsa except W1 at the root, which is ply and W6, the biggest one, will be laminated with CF cloth. You can see my bottom wing spars, I made earlier.
Still waiting for the wing tube. I didn't end up buying the one with the sleeve. Instead, I decided to make one up for each wing.

Calvinman

Looking good Fredo, very clean looking build. Yes it all takes patience, but it looks like the results will be worth it!

fredo

Thanks Calvi, always nice to hear. Well, today I was looking at the wing ribs trying to trim tabs so they look nice and even at their leading and trailing edges when standing upright next to each other but then realised, this is not the way I want to build this wing. relying on outlines of the ribs to form a nice even surface is a fiddly task mainly if you are cutting them by hand. Also because I'm using 3mm balsa it's too sharp for the covering. So I have chosen a more common method. This of course meant, I had to trim all my ribs (from W3 onwards) so they can accommodate strips between upper spars and trailing edge sheet top and bottom. The end result is, it looks neater and it hides small imperfections made by me. Ribs W1 were drilled with 1" hole saw while they were bolted together. Now they become
reference for the rest of the ribs, where wing tube sleeve will go…up to W6. They will have to be lined up and trimmed again.

Billy J

My Feedback: (4)

very nice plane flew one years back with coverite/ painted with G 62 perfect match ! good luck

fredo

Thanks Billy, still a long way to go. I've been trying to get major components for the main wing ready before I start assembly. I have finally received my wing tube (very good quality) so my next task was to see if I can make some sleeves. After couple of attempts with glass cloth, I ended up using gyprock paper tape. Yes, it's porous and the epoxy just soaks in. Here is how I did it. First of all, I have rolled a piece of baking paper nice and tight over the tube and secured with masking tape at the end. Next, I rolled paper tape in spiral, again nice and tight and secured with masking tape. Made up some epoxy and with the brush let it thoroughly soaked into the paper, you can tell the colour of the paper will change. After this, while still wet, I rolled couple of turns of fiberglass lining cloth. It's a very light weight, porous material. With brush, I worked the epoxy right through and finally, tightly rolled a piece of baking paper over it and secured with masking tape. Now, I had to let it cure overnight. It turned out a very light weight, yet strong enough tube sleeve, which will be further supported by wing ribs. The rib No 6, which is the centre of each wing was laminated with carbon fibre to add strength for support of wing bracket hinge points. I'm yet to make another sleeve and finish of making aileron ribs.

Billy J

My Feedback: (4)

Great work man! My best friend 80 yrs young scratch built it as per plans
super coverite enamel spray paint / had to use a 21/10 Carbon fib prop to turn up. It's a hair under powered
but does the job / it lands so beutiful and scale I'll get you pics great build. It's been 15 years since we flew it !

fredo

I'm back again. Took me a while to finish off all my wing parts so I can finally move on to the fuse. I started making UC mounting plate by sandwiching two 6mm plies. Maybe a bit of an overkill but this is the part of plane, I like to be strong. I have drawn reference line on my working horse, then bolted the UC plate in, so the reference line runs through the middle. Using epoxy, glued two fuse sides to the plate, together with upper cross piece, just to hold it all square. At the same time, temporarily connected the rear ends with pegs, to make sure it all runs nice and parallel. I also had to make sure the tail is directly above the reference line. Now, I can start seeing what I'm actually building.

barzini

My Feedback: (4)

Fredo,
Its a nice flying plane heres a shot of mine in the air
Barzini.

fredo

You've done a great job Barzini with yours. I hope this one will fly and look just as awesome. Must admit, I'm finding this build quite enjoyable. You are more than welcome to throw some comments or ideas. .

Have a Merry Christmas everybody!

barzini

My Feedback: (4)

Fredo,
The biggest issue that I see with the plane is the wire landing gear.It gets squatty after a few flights.I think carbon fiber would be better.The only problem is the fairing over the gear might get beat up.
Barzini

fredo

Yeah, I know what you mean. There was a guy who built this plane with a spring loaded UC. I didn't want to get into that but will build it my way which is pretty close what plan says and if it doesn't prove right, I'll think of something else. It's all trial & error. I think the whole Jeep looks kind of sexy with that UC fairings but it's a very fiddly task to get it right.

fredo

Happy New Year everybody!
Ok, all family and friends visits are over and I can finally get back, where I left it. I did some small progress glueing upper formers and stiffening the inner frame with some cross braces.
I'll try to do as much as I can on the fuse before I make some room for building the wings.

Cliffc

Fredo, Happy New Year. The bird is shaping up. I do like this. Keep plugging away at it. Regards Cliffc

maekju

Really shaping up nicely. Your building the UC yourself right?

ARUP

Subscribed! I love Golden Age airplanes... especially the racing craft. Art Chester worked with Davis Aircraft for a time so you can see the Davis influence in the wings. In later years Chester's company made spinners for P-51s, too.

fredo

Thanks guys, The New Year has started and I'm getting a bit busy with work. Currently on business trip until Wednesday, so no building. Maekju, yes I'm doing my own UC except fairings and wheel spats. You can read post #6.
Arup, it's interesting how things evolve. These set of wings are quite complex to build correctly. If you are cutting everything by hand like I am, I found, there's no point building wing ribs with tabs as plan shows. Two reasons; it eats up a lot of balsa and it will never be acurate enough. Leading and trailing edges of all ribs need to be in one line. It's best to glue those tabs afterwards and then trim them to suit. At least that's what I found as a better option.

ARUP

Putting the TE on a level is a good idea. The TE sweeps fwd more than the LE sweeps back so an aerodynamic washout effect is created. I built a Coverite kit some years ago and absolutely loved the flying qualities. It was neutral but smooth. The only airplane that I think comes close in my current hangar is my Cassutt. The Coverite Jeep wing was a little complicated relative to other 'sport scale' kits of the day. It was certainly worth the effort!

fredo

Back again, today I was working on air vents. This section will get covered by balsa and the rest of the fuse shape is formed by stringers, which is, what I call, the outer shell. You can see before I glued the front side former, I have pre-cut the openings before I glued the former in place. I also glued bottom frame corner balsa strips.

fredo

And some more pics. I have added some more to the fuse. Also glued the vertical fin in position. The horizontal stab is there only temporarily, so I can see what needs to be trimmed. My next move is to make main wing strut anchors in the fuse, so I can close the front section with balsa sheeting.

maekju

Looking good fredo, great craftsmanship. Is bulding the UC the only option can one be purchased already assembled?

fredo

Maekju, yes I believe you can get the uc if you chose not to build your own. If you go to Wendell Hostetler web site and click on Jeep, there's a bunch places to contact to get the stuff from. I only bought fiber glass components but you can get uc as well as decals.