Don Bailey's Build Log

Skins, spars and ribs-- wing construction

Work on the wings is progressing nicely.  The skins were spliced up out of three 3/32"x6"x36" balsa sheets, and then the spar cap and rib locations were mapped onto the skin with a sharpie pen.  Then the spars and ribs can be glued in place, and the wing joiner tube can be inserted into position.  The shear webbing went pretty fast, as each one required only a little touch-up sanding for a perfect fit.  One down (right wing panel), one to go (left panel).  Then I will install spoilers and servos, and get everything ready for final sheeting.  This will be one STRONG wing!  

Rudder and fin

The rudder and the fin went together as easily as the stab/elevator, with the added step of sheeting the fin with 1/64th ply.  It took a bit of cut-and-try to get the rudder spar to "cove" into the fin spar, with the ply skin overhang, but it worked out really well. 

I will cover the horizontal tail and the rudder with Polyspan (polyester matte), applied with Minwax Polycrylic.  The fin will be covered with silkspan, applied damp, with Polycrylic.  The tail feathers will eventually get primed and painted, along with the rest of the airframe. 

Now on to the wing.  Spars have been cut and spliced, and next, I will splice up the 3/32" wing skins, using 6" wide by 36" long balsa sheet stock. 

SGS 1-26E build project has begun

I received my partial kit of the new TMRC 1/4-scale Schweizer 1-26E sailplane a short while ago, and finally got everything else cleared off the building board to make room for this beauty.  Rolling out the plans, I was surprised at the completeness of annotation on every view.  It took awhile to study the section cuts and plan views, but eventually, by reading every note and examining all the detail views, the overall architecture of the build became plain to understand.  The plan sheets are a full 8 feet long, and my board is only 79", so I will eventually need to cut the plans up a bit.  Shame-- they are a work of art. 

I started out with a simple structure-- the horizontal stab and elevator.  I need to get more 3/32" balsa sheeting before starting on the wings (my usual first step), as they are fully sheeted, and my balsa stash is short on that particular thickness.  The tail feathers go together with no problems.  You do need to be sure to keep any twist out of them, though.  The cross-section is wedge-shaped, with thick hingeline spars and thin leading and trailing edges, so you can't really build them flat on the board.  I kept eyeballing the edges, to make sure everything stayed on centerline.  Also, the leading edges of the stab are thin ply, so I veneered them on each side with 1/16th balsa sheet material, so I would have more thickness to sand down to the final wedge cross-section.  I like the provision for hinge-point type hinges-- much more scale-like in appearance than flat hinges, and they are easy to install. 

Next up will be the rudder and fin, which I expect will go together as easily as the horizontal surfaces. 

Don Bailey's Build Log