Test Build of F2G-1 "Super" Corsair Military Version - Page 9

**member_3** · #81 09-25-2009, 07:06 PM

You better have a video of that first flight when it happens!

**Willja67** · #82 09-25-2009, 09:29 PM

Hopefully it's not the last flight

**member_3** · #83 09-25-2009, 11:19 PM

I guess you wouldn't want to hear the story of the 1:6 scale Bf-109E-4 I designed for a friend back in the early seventies. He was an experienced RC pilot and a superb builder. The plane had retracting main gear and was beautifully painted. Came the day of its first flight and the weather was clear but with occasional gusting winds. I think the fact that most of the RC club had turned out to see it influenced his decision to go ahead with the flight. As you may have guessed, the aircraft got airborne quickly and just as he started the turn back downwind (to avoid the trees that bordered the field) a strong gust got under the wing and, in a blink, the plane was in the ground. The fuselage had cleanly snapped in two, as did the removable wing. My friend never threw the plane away as long as I knew him but he never repaired it either.

Morale of the story, Will, is test fly on a dead calm day with a mile of room in every direction!

**shrike** · #84 09-26-2009, 12:57 AM

And no one watching.

Same thing goes for testing homebuilt 1:1 aircraft. Get someone else to do it, and be nowhere within 20 miles. Sobriety is also to be strongly discouraged<G>

**member_3** · #85 10-08-2009, 08:06 PM

Well, things are finally back in motion. the next series of photos will show the skinning of the right inboard wing section.

See photo above - This is the sheet of new skins that Will sent.

See photo above - Starting the wing root intake. Portion that has been cut out is rolled into a tube to start.

See photo above - Part C4 (from the original Corsair model) gets glued to the inner end of the intake to close it off. I removed the glue tabs, doubled the thickness and, after cutting it a bit small, glued it inside the end of the intake.

See photo above - the results of which you can see here. Needless to say, all colored surfaces are to the inside.

See photo above - here the outer end of the intake has been roughly shaped into an elongated ovoid and the first of the two flow vanes is ready for installation. the thin strip with two bumps is the interface between the inside of the leading edge and the intake itself. I do not have a good photo of that at this point but will do better with the left wing.

See photo above - The first of the inner skins has been glued in place forming the top of the after wheel well.

See photo above - now the upper section of the forward wheel well has been glued in place.

See photo above - And now wrapped around and glued down. I was not comfortable with the placement of the lower portion because of the lack of positive location references. I followed a different approach on the left wing as will be seen in the next installment.

See photo above - I joined the upper and lower outer skins at the seam indicated using a glue strip of regular paper. that was the only seam I joined prior to starting the gluing of the outer skin to the inner. My thinking was that I wanted maximum flexibility in getting the puzzle pieces to align. As you can see, the intake has not yet been glued inside the leading edge.

See photo above - The outer skin has been glued in place to the lower surface of the wing, first along the wing root, then at each panel seam. In my eagerness to get the skin on I had not installed the intake. I had to do that after the skin was at this stage and that id NOT the way to do it! I'll do better on the left wing.

See photo above - Here is the intake with the upper skin held in place. It's a bit rough because of my poor installation sequence.

See photo above - All buttoned up on the bottom. The white teardrop is the location for the bomb rack and the white area at the inner leading edge will be covered with a small transition piece once the cowling is on.

See photo above - The top all buttoned up. The failings of my assembly method show pretty badly here. By gluing each panel piece down as I went it caused "dishing" of some of the panels. This is not the way to go! When I did the left wing I used the same method as on the original #57 build on Z***** and joined everything to make one pre-formed skin before gluing in place. That works much better and will be seen in the next installment. The revised wing skins all fit perfectly and as soon as I dope out the arrangement of the trailing edge pieces where the flaps will join I'll get some photos of that area.

For the designer - Will, I am inclined to install the main landing gear soon if there are no revisions to the previous installation (as on #57 and #74.) I hope to have the rear fuselage installed with tail gear and hook in time for the convention but no promises...

**Willja67** · #86 10-08-2009, 09:02 PM

Looks good Ron, i guess I better get back to work on this (Modelers ADD always kicks in).

The main landing gear stayed the same(except that I am adding the hydraulic cylinders for the gear door actuators but that doesn't affect the gear installation) but I haven't quite decided how to go about doing the tailhook yet so the tail gear might have to wait. I'll look at it tomorrow and see what i think.

I'm glad you pointed out the lack of reference for placing the top skins. I forgot on the older version that the big joiner part went printed side out so you could see where to glue everything. Do you think things need to be redesigned?

Which design do you like better the new skins of the old? Which ones look better? Is ease of construction a big enough issue you would choose the old ones?

**member_3** · #87 10-08-2009, 09:32 PM

I liked the new ones better - especially when I did it the correct way and put all the puzzle pieces together first instead of doing it on the plane. I'll have some pictures of the left wing with the preferred method once I get some other (non-paper) issues behind me. The alignment reference problem is a non-issue when done the right way. I'll hold off on the tail assembly for a bit and will work on getting the exhausts fitted and the cowling in place. I am also experimenting with carving a form to pull a canopy - more on that much, much later. The main gear looks "challenging" so I have plenty to do for the time being - plus getting stuff priced and packed for the convention...

**solo67** · #88 10-09-2009, 04:26 AM

hey ron..this is coming together very nicely .
im wondering about your color edjing method....do you use colored pens
or water/acrilic paint for that job? can you elaborate on how you go about
this? maybe you do both?
thanks

**member_3** · #89 10-09-2009, 05:22 AM

I have been using Prismacolor markers for most of the edging with a bit of acrylic paint (Tamiya brand mostly) for a bit of touch-up. I also use watercolor pencils when I can't get a color match with the markers.

**Don Boose** · #90 10-14-2009, 08:57 PM

It looks like a Corsair!

You had better bring this one to the IPMC, Ron!

Don