Scale Aviator International Magazine Issue 3

m l g 8 9 fuselage and brainstorming a drive mechanism for the canopy. Noticing the gap between the hatch and the fuselage was crying for help I added some wood to the fuselage to close it. Using epoxy mixed with micro balloons I bedded the rest of the hatch. I piped the mixture to both the fuselage and the hatch, and then positioned a piece of wax paper onto the fuselage. I put the hatch in place, making sure the mixture evenly filled the gap on both pieces. Once cured, the wax paper allowed easy removal of the hatch. With that done, that big old gap looks like panel lines. See Photo #8 & 9 The original After Cooler Door openings were removed, relocated and fabricated. When I added up the additional weight behind the CG already added doing the empennage adding more by articulating the doors didn’t sound like such a good idea any more. With the shaping of the fuselage complete it was time to start on the wings. Hiding the control connections was far simpler here. The flap controls are hidden from the factory and I decided on Rotary Drive Systems for aileron operations. While the flap linkage is hidden, the gap between the flap and wing was massive, top and bottom. On top of that, the factory hinging made the flaps look like barn doors when open and that wouldn’t do at all. While the engineering to design scale flap operation was a bit outside my comfort zone I did arrive at a solution which provided a cantilever action to the flap. By adding wood to the wing and flap I was able to eliminate 10 11 the gap. I built hinge supports by silver soldering square brass tubing that extended the hinge point further into the flap and provided plenty of support at the wing attachment points. Once again Robart 13

Scale Aviator International Magazine Issue 3 | Page 13