Balse USA Fokker D.VIII/E.V

[Bookmaker]

I've been working on this plane fro longer than I want to admit, and have a thread going over on RCSCALEBUILDER.COM. I haven't been posting here as I wasn't excited about managing multiple threads.

I decided to post a summary of what I've done to date and post a few photos as I complete the plane.

I decided to make a few significant modifications from the kit as follows:

-Make a more scale landing gear setup, including adding a sprung axle.
-Use pull pull controls for the tail feathers.
-Try to find some way of effectively camoflaging the wires going to the
aileron servos.
-Set the motor back so that I could use the GTM aluminim cowl kit.

When I got ready to post a few early construction photos, I realized the early photos are not on this computer. So I will have to change computers to post or transfer the pictures here. In either case, I can't post them yet. I will try to get them in an hour or so.

I am real green posting photos here, so bear with me.

Dale

[Bookmaker]

My wife set up so I have network access to the photos on the other computer, so lets give it a test.

The first shot is the firewall moved back approx. 1". The box is slightly offset to allow for right trust to be built in.

The second is of the extension I made for the landing gear legs. The kit legs are quite a bit short for scale.

The third is the new subwing built using the Gary Allen Fokker D VII plan as a base.

OOPS, the third photo is slightly over the linit and didn't post

[Bookmaker]

A few more photos then I have to get to work on tax returns.

These shots show the wing attachment and how I "camoflaged" the electrical cables to the aileron servos.

I made a special wiring harness so that only 2 wires come from each wing, in the location of the full scale control cables. The positive and left servo signal wires come down the left side and the negative and right servo signal wires come down the right.

There is a small loop attached to the cables near the lower ends. The cables are tensioned by a rubber band in the fuselage with S hooks that hook on to the loops attached to the cables. There are loops in on the cables just inside the wing that attach to S hooks also. It is set up so that there is no tension on the cable connectors, and the tension on the wire is just enough to keep the slack out of the wire between the fuselage and wing.

To set upat the field, I open the bottom hatch of the fuselage, thread the cables through the openings in the fuselage sides, hook up the rubberband and connect the electrical cables. Just a couple minute task.

[Bookmaker]

Here is a couple of shots of the subwing and leg attachment. Endplates were later added cleaning up the ends.

[Bookmaker]

A few shots of the aileron wiring setup to look like control cables. THe first shot in in the wing. The second as they enter the fuselage and the final in the fuselage.

[Bookmaker]

A couple shots starting to look like an airplane

[Bookmaker]

To attach the GTM cowl, I made a false firewall ring and cut a groove in the edge for the ridge in the cowl to ride. Then the upper mount pins were installed as well as the lower brackets for the cable ends.

[Bookmaker]

Here are a couple of (not so good) shots of the cowl attached and the fittings.

[Bookmaker]

Engine mounted and cowl test fit.

[Bookmaker]

These first shot is of the rudder (center) and elevator servo mounting and the fuel tank. The throttle servo was later mounted below (actually above when the fuse is right side up) the elevator servo on the top in the photo.

The next shot is of the G10 horns I made for the elevators and rudder. Each horn is laminated from two pieces of .040 G10. Then the horn let into the elevator leading edge. The horn is let into the leading edge of the elevator leading edge.

To allow the stab to be removable, I first needed to fill the forward section with solid balsa since it is hollow. I then inlet 1/4" dowels as hard points for the bolts to pass through. I the fuselage, ply plates were added to hold blind nuts.