Click here for client built S60 Plan built Super 60 (4 channel) Click on any photo for a hi res version

24. Maiden flight

Pictures from the first outing. 3 flights, all lovely. Flew straight as a die. I was a bit worried as the fiin is a bit off, (moved slightly on gluing and I didn't notice. Thanks to my partner Maria, who not only came to the patch with me, took the flying shots. The romance of the  gentle purr of the diesel soon ended when I had to clean it down.

23. Complete Model

All ready to go. Balances with a 4.8V pack. When the weather changes I'll post some flying shots.

22. Complete Model

Radio installation, the plug in the foreground is the Asjlok connectot for the ailerons. Tail end showing complete elevator servo and tailwheel with links. The tail wheel is s free castor.

21. Assembly

The model painted in Klass Kote matt blue. I messed this up on the first go, Thought it was too much trouble to get the spray equipment out so attmpted to paint it. Ended up with brush marks in the finish. Now this was nothing to do with the Klass Kote paint and more to do with me rushing things & not mixing the paint to the right consistancy. Ended up sanding it back as far as I could and spraying. Tail end showing elevator servo and tailwheel. Couldn't resist putting it altogether

21. Assembly

I just love the Ashlok connectors, It makes assembly at the patch just that bit quicker. The middle picture shows the final aileron linkage. I like to use these turned aluminium horns. Not cheat (about £1 each but do make a neat job. Undercarriage bent up and soldered. The joint is secured with some tinned copper wire, fluxed well, and soft soldered with a 110W iron.

20. Covering

Wing covered, just waiting for the ailerons, and the fuselage ready for a final sand prior to covering, the servo and switch plates are fitted.

19. Hinge points

Some scrap wood to make the hinge points stronger. Both of these are now ready for covering.

18. Wing Mounting

Holes bored to take the wing mounting 'Hard points' I have to be honest here, I drilled the wing mounting holes in the wrong place, this is my recovery. With the wing jigged up and clamped onto the fuselage I drilled through the hard points to the plate, and fitted the captive nuts. I don't rely on the spikes to hold them in, I use epoxy as well. The Heath Robinson contraption you see is a way to tighten the nut and pull it into the plate.

17. Engine mounting

With the engine mounted on its Tufnol base, the next thing to address is how to fix it to the bearers, it will not be posible to get nuts on the bottom, nor hold the screw from below, and the thought of self tapper is not a good one in my opinion. I'm using an old control line trick where the screws are hidden behind cowl cheeks on a profile model and soldered a piece of piano wire across the screw heads, this will let me tighten the nuts without a problem. There is still some shaping & sanding to do on the nose block.

16. Wing fixing to fuselage

As I've said before, had I thought about this sooner I'd have moved the fuselage former forward a bit do I could join into the fuselage at that point. But I am where I am. I have already fitted compression blocks in the wing, so the wing bolts will have to line up with these. To strengthen up the fuselage in this area I have fitted a 1/8 light ply floor which will also take the rudder & throttle servos & switch, and tied the top into this area with 1/4 sheet behind the cabin. You can just see in the second picture where I have slotted the fueslage side to take the 1/8 Ply & 1/8 lite Ply wing mounting plate. This mounting plate will take the 2 captive nuts for the wing bolts.

15. Wing servo installation

I have made a 1/8 sub rib from light ply giving a total of 1/4 to mount the servo, which is fixed with 4 standard screws. The servo extension lead with heat shrink to hold the plug / socket together I have uses extra wide capping stips to further strengthen the mount, and on the bottom, to provide the servo exit. Currently there is no provision to easily replace the servo, but in all honstly how often have most of us had to change a servo, and it will be an easy matter to remove a panel of covering to get it them.

14. Final alignments

With the fuselage clamped in my Great Mate, I'm able to set the wing incidence

13. Yet More wing build

Thats it, too cold to work in the workshop now. I have the wings nearly done there are the bottom capping strips to do. There wont be much progress now, not until it gets warmer.

12. More wing build

On going wing build - some rear sheeting to tie in with the rib capping. I did not read the plan properly and started sheeting the bottom of the wing, and it was too late before I realised that only the to was to be sheeted, This will make my wing 1/16 deeper that required, but hey ho.

11. Bolt on wing mods. Cont.

The first 2 shots show the new former, I have put some triangle filets to tie the former to the fuselage sides. The 3rd picture shows how the wing will fit, there are no leading edges fitted to the wing yet, but these will stop at the former, and the former will take the leading edge across the cabin, so that it looks like the original. You can see here my method of building the leading edges, the flat face you can see is 1/16 with the sheeting running over the top of it. The LE propper will butt over this and be sanded to shape. Next problem is the wing bolts.

10. Bolt on wing mods

I've had to modify the cabin area to strenthen to take the wing locating dowel. So I've removed the exisitng top / front and made a 3mm ply former to take sits place. None of this was draw  I just measured off of what I had bilt and made to suit.

9. Wings

Made a start on the wings propper, 2 panels the cut outs on the centre ribs are for the servos, not the holes in the inboard ribs for the servo wires. Top sheeting is also on, but no photo of that. Sorry

8. All change

Looked at the fuselage today, and the front did look very wide, so pulled off the side cheeks, and re fitted tapering them fron the width of the fuelsage down to the width of the engine bearers. I think it looks better. As I said in a previous post I want to have the wings bolt on, I also want ailerons, so both of these are mods that are off plan, and will require a suck it and see approach. To this end The dihedral will have to be reduced and the way the wing is built will have to be modified. First up I've decided on about 1 degree of dihedral, this is 3/4 "  (ish). under each tip. I'm starting by building the wing centre section with a full depth wing joiner spar as well as the 1/4 " joiners as shown on the plan. Once this and each panel is built I'll be able to join the 3 together to form the complete wing. I'll then be able to see how to fit the ailerons.

7. Fuselage build

Start made on the front cowling and the in fills added to  the fuselage sides, the second shows again the modified rear with the servo mount , and finally I couldn't resists putting the pieces together to see how it looks. I have already decided to fix the tailplane and undercarriage. it now seems a shame to use bands for the wings, so I'm looking at a way to now have the wings bolted on. As wilth the tailplane it might be easier to do this if I have the wings to hand, so this it what I'll be doing next.

6. Fuselage build

Modified front formers with engine bearers and tank position. I have about 2 degrees of down thrust.

5. Fuselage build

Fuselage in the building jig. I've decided to have a fixed undercarriage which will mean a suitable mount. The third picture shows a 3mm ply doubler. I think I'll cover the front underside section in 3mm liteply, this will give a 1/4" ply mount for the undercarriage.

4. On the go modifications

The first shows thw mod to the rear to raise the tail up a bit. The joy of buildin from a plan is that you can change things as you go. I have modified the 2 front formers as shown. The large hole in the top one is for the tank.

3. Cutting parts

A few notes on how I cut my parts: Firstly I rarely sand free hand, I always use something to sand against, here I have an old breadboard that was destined for the bin, with a 1/8 spruce fence glued SQUARE, All cross members are cut too long and sanded back and patients is the key here, if you go too far, start again. All angles are done by eyes, but flat on the board so I only have one plane to worry about. For the ribs, I made a 1/8 ply master template and hand cut the rest from this. Essential here is a spar slotter..

For leading edges I have a set of bent formers of variuos angles. I simply use self adhesive sanding pads set at the correct radius.

2. Kitting Up

Another design change I'm going to make is to raise the tailpale up a little, It will be fixed not like the plan where it shows bands. I've made slow start on the cutting out of some components parts like ribs & formers and wing tips. And with a quiet hour I've got on fuselage side done too. Because of the repositioning of the tailplane, I figure this will be easier to figure out if I have it made, So I now have both fuse sides & the tailplane finished & ready for sanding.

1. Design Considerations & Tooling up

I know I still have my Enigma to Finish, & the Chipmunk, not the mention the Spitfire, but it won't do any harm to plan will it. Looking ahead I don't much like the leading edge, so this will be changed to an 1/8 false LE I'll bring the sheeting over the false LE and have a 1/4 Le. The plan also shows 2 1/4 pushrods for elevator / rudder control, I'll use closed loop for the rudder, and there looks to be plenty of room at the back for a mini servo for the elevator. Another change will be to fit ailerons, with a servo in each wing half. All the tools I need just now are a balsa stripper, xacto saw with a new blade and a Perma grit spar slotter (essential)