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May 11

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May 08

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May 05

A few more random pictures. Aileron servo linkage, spoiler mechanism, wing root to fuse connection.

 

 

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May 02

Next up blue

 

Apr 28

The home stretch, paint paint.

Apr 24

 

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Apr 18

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Apr 15

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Apr 07

 

Apr 04

 

 

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Mar 29

Cosmetic, trim and leather work

 

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Mar 25

 

Mar 23

Mar 13

Thought I would take a moment and slide some things together. The sniffer still needs a bit of work but looks good.

 

Mar 12

 

Mar 08

 

Feb 29

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Feb 27

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Feb 24

 

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Feb 19

 

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Feb 10

Wing struts, the BA will likely fly without them, but that wouldn’t be authentic. They are a nuisance so hopefully If the 4 screws get lost they can be easily replaced, of course if it was a display model I could just glue everything together

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Feb 05

 

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Feb o1

 

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Jan 16

 

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Jan 13

It’s morning here, and it snowed overnight all schools are closed. I just shoveled a path to the shop and the Chicken Run.

We have had a couple snowfalls since Christmas however yesterday most of that snow was gone. Last nights snowfall appears to be around 10 inch.

Oh well :):)

 

Yesterday there was very little snow left from the couple snowfalls we have had since Christmas. Looks to be app. 10 inches out there , oh well:):)

 

Jan 05 2016

A Model wing section for a system for attaching Solartex to an Under cambered wing

 

and some detail where the wheel and towhook get placed

 

right wing panel, and filler sheet

 

Dec 17

Nice , the plywood sheet adds more Torsional Rigidity then Balsa. Well it feels like that . 🙂

The last of the 8 main sheets is now in place. Soon I will get to sanding, shaping and attaching the aileron hinges

 

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Dec 13

It’s been 10 days I see. Most of the work recently has been related to finishing the wings and how they join to the fuse. So, not a lot of opportunity for new pictures.

Here’s a few though, hopefully showing how I decided to do this:):)

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Dec 03

Snow storm imminent 4 -6 ” snow in the hills, Colchester and Cumberland Counties in Nova Scotia. Rain today, but temperature cooling thus snow tonight.

Last year we had plenty, mind you not till the end of January.

Boom cut to required length, I’ll add a button later to close the opening.

Plans show a formed sheet that is later added to cover the top of this wing root transition

Laminated 1/8 ply for support where wing supports later attach to fuselage

Trailing edge, with under cambered wing I thought it best to make the bottom flush with the ribs, as the top is easier to sand later where the TE is thicker then the ribs

 

 

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Nov 30

Wing root fairing being set in place with support at rear where incidence pin passes through the fuse

Here with the boom removed it becomes clear how this all is coming together

Wing servo wiring and connectors pass thru the ply root ribs

The 1/64 ply on the wings trailing edge where the ailerons were cut out requires a bit of trimming. Easily removed with a plane taking care not to hook the ribs as I pass by

 

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Nov 26

I cut some tip sheet from 1/32 ply

In order to get some of the root work done on the wings, I am back at dealing with where the wing meets the fuselage. With Plug in Play wings, I need some structure to support the connector for the servo wiring as well as a fairing between the wing root and the fuselage. To complicate this all , I want a removable boom.

 

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Nov 22

Setting the leading edge ply from one of the ailerons. When the ailerons get cut out they develop a life of their own, so I made sure to add the diagonals before the surgery and then I have them held flat and straight while the glues sets

Here both leading edges have been added, they will need a little cleaning up

The wing where the aileron was removed, once this is cleaned up and flat I’ll add some 1/64 ply

Since the leading edge d-box ply hasn’t been added to the wing yet, it is still rather flimsy, so I have staked it to the board flat and straight.

Then I glued the ply to the trailing edge opening

 

 

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Nov 21

One of the ailerons cut from the wing

1/64 plywood gets added here to the face of the aileron LE as well as the TE of the wing section

1/64 plywood strips

Setting up an aileron for the addition of diagonals

Servo covers and support rails for spoilers and ailerons

 

 

 

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Nov 20

The tip ply was not part of the Partial Kit, so here are a couple of them cut from lite ply. They will later get glued into place then get sheeted with 1/32 ply

The little aileron sub ribs at the tip, just seemed a little small for the rest of the wing. Here I fashioned a couple larger ones

Here I have the Aileron TE in place and glued.

Left wing panel

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Nov 18

Aileron LE top and bottom 1/16 x 1/4 strips. These will later get faced with some plywood

1/16 ply sheer webs being added forward of wing rod tube. The wing rod tube is suited for 5/16 wingrod, and the spars are 1/4 wide.

The tubes are flush to the forward face of the spar, and proud at the rear.

Underside of wing panel at tip

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Nov 17

Shear webs, after ripping them to the width I cut them to the height. I need some 40 of them for both wing panels

 

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Nov 16

The notches needed to be cleaned up on the ribs, and made a little deeper to accommodate the 1/4 x 1/4 spars and allow the 1/32 LE Ply to overlap.

Some choose to use 1/16″ sheeting, I’m not sure how well these ribs would work If you have to remove 1/16 ” from the top and bottom of the ribs, and then change the notch at the LE.

The ribs for the tapered portion of the wing also need some clean up, and deepening

I’ve decided to add some sheeting over the 1st two ribs at the root behind the main spar, so I have to remove material from the top of the 1st two ribs and add some notches for a drag spar.

 

Notches for the spoiler sub spar

 

The right wing panel, with most of the ribs in place. The spar is also shimmed up 1/32 from the building board

 

Left panel

 

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Nov 14

Notching the trailing edge of the inboard section of the wing, I had marked them previously with the lower spar material, and run both pieces between blocks to control the depth of the cut. Later I pass a file thru to clean out the slots and check for rib fit.

 

Quite a kink in the LE where it transitions from W10 to W12, and it can be seen when the ribs are stacked

 

I’ve changed that and modded both W11 ribs

Also a little concerning with the length of one of these ribs, as it really doesn’t fall in line. I’ll have a closer look at this when I get the TE for the aileron in place.

W10 shown here 3rd rib in from the left also needs to be trimmed up a little

There much better, now the LE will sit in nicely in all the ribs. Laser cut ribs.:):)

Trailing edge of the aileron, and last one third or so of the wing. It gets glued together in two places

D-Box sheeting

Most ribs out to the bay with the aileron servo, need an extra hole for servo wires

It would have been nice If I could have notched the TE of the Ailerons, that looks like it won’t be the case though.

Maybe I will consider a Gusset where there are no diagonal braces

 

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Nov 13

Fuselage wing rod tube, square and perpendicular and all that jazz.

And now onto the wings. a lot of layout work here before I can secure anything to the board.

I discovered as well the TE supplied for the ailerons is a little short compared to whats on the plans. It seems the last bay is a little wider at the tip. I’ll make the pitch between all ribs more or less the same. when I add the tip ply, I’ll extend that slightly to get back to the same wing length.

Also the chord is a little greater on the plan then what the ply root rib cap will cover. I will set the 1/4 x 1/4 spars as shown, and move the TE for the inboard section of each panel a little forward.

I have marked the lower spar wood as well as the TE 1/4 x 1  for the rib locations on both panels. I can’t imagine one wing panel being different then the other:):)

 

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Nov 7

2nd set of root ribs for wing saddle. The plans don’t have a lot of information for wing to fuse connection.

I’m gonna make the wings plug and play with the supplied 5/16 wing rod. The boom will be removable, however the wing rod tube will be fixed to the saddle as well as the boom.

That means the saddle will be attached to the boom, and when removed the servo harness to each wing must also be removable and stays with the fuselage.

I reckon in most cases though the boom can be left on for travel to the flying field as the tail feathers are removable.

The root rib cannot be tight against the boom as I need room for the harness connector that goes to each flap and aileron servo.

The boom is held to the fuse with a couple 8-32 bolts and t-nuts.

 

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Nov 4

Stab cable exit from boom, which than terminates within the lower fin at the belcrank

My solder of choice for cable ends and terminations, a Silver alloy solder which requires a little more heat and special flux.

Rudder in place also showing rudder cable exit from fuse tube

 

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Nov 1

Lurking in the Weeds.

The tail group is together and fitted to the boom. I still need to add some brass tubing for the stab pivot pin. However it has come together rather nice.

 

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Oct 30

I cut a new set of root ribs for the fuse, something tells me these will allow me to blend the wings to the fuse a lot nicer.

I will sand them and add the holes later

I wasn’t happy with the light ply stab horn, so I put one together with a couple pieces 1/16″ ply and some CF in between

Some may run the stab rods straight thru the ply horn, however I’ve added a couple pieces 1/8″ brass tubing to increase the bearing area.:):)

Overkill perhaps

I have a nice stash of old dental bits and they come in handy when I work with the CF, in this case a slot in the tail of the boom to accept the stab horn

Here the sub fin is in place

Next the upper fin portion, this is looking really pretty

 

Oct 23

 

1/64 ply sheeting

 

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Oct 22

LE to TE Joiner, the plans show the trailing edge formed with 1/16 wire, so a little improvisation is needed:)

adding the trailing edge, as the stabs are built flat, I’d reckon the flat side is down when put onto the plane

Stab tubes and rods are added separately as they are not part of the kit, I am going to add some filler between the spar caps and the tubes add the root end

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Oct 21

I put the 3 pieces of the trailing edge together for the stab, of course this was done twice, and they where both done on the same setup for accuracy. It appears best to notch them in 3 places to accommodate the 3 ribs

The 1/8 tubes are in a different spot then shown on the plans , however that should not present a problem. Maybe convention says one rod should be in the same plane as the spars and that’s why this was done

I’ll mark the lower spar strips later for locating the 3 ribs

 

 

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Oct 19

A little change in scenery here this morning, snow over nite :):)

 

 

Forward 1/8 brass tube in fin keel in place

Rudder trailing edge , 4 pieces get glued together

I held the rudder post down and secured both ends of the TE  at top and bottom.

adding lower two horizontal ribs which needed to be trimmed as they were to long

Upper two horizontal ribs

Diagonal ribs

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Oct 17

Fin and subfin constructed of balsa and lite ply. Brass tubing and music wire not included in kit.

There’s also a Crackerjack bellcrank for the stab, that finally is hidden in the subfin, but being made of lite ply as best suited to use as a template, If you find it has the proper pitch between the Pivot points.

 

three ribs and keel glued together, the diagonal 1/8 dia hole for the rear brass tube has to be added before assembly

Fin upper and lower ribs as well as post

For some reason, all the holes cut into the ribs for the 1/8 tube are correct except the hole in rib 2 which is too big

 

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Oct 16

The cockpit section, requires a stringer on either side, and a couple cheek pieces at the rear to accept the stringers

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spruce reinforcement blocks in place where t-nuts and bolts come thru to hold boom to fuse

 

 

 

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Oct 09

wheel in place, keel cut to facilitate, and room forward of wheel for the towhook

 

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Oct 08

Fuselage removable Hatch cover. The formers needed the notches filed/ cut in for the lower spar, and it appears one set of notches are out of place for the balsa spar in one former.

I also added a couple gussets at the forward end of the spars where they meet the former..

 

 

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Oct 04

Next two formers get glued in place as I move forward

Final two formers in place and glued, I added the marks on the spruce spars pror too placing them, and the come in handy as a referance at this point so that one side is like the other

 

 

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Oct 03

1/16″ plywood former at right for rear of removable cockpit section

Keel gets glued into place at rearmost formers

 

 

 

Tow hook and wheel showing their close proximity

 

Forward lower formers slid into place

Wheel axle transoms in place, keel section in between will be cut out later

 

Servo rails added here

Forward lower formers get glued in

 

Coming together

 

Spruce side  spars get glued at rear

 

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Oct 02

Wheel transoms further formed and drilled for axle. Not sure yet how to deal with the tow hook, I’d like to get it as near to the front edge of the wheel as possible, There’s a lot of lumber there though, and the style of tow hook I have needs to drop thru the base slot from above, :):)

Reinforcement above wheel with arch cut out

3rd full former top to bottom in place, well glued at the top any way from this point I’ll have to glue the keel piece in 4 places and then add the half formers forward of the cockpit area

Plywood former behind the seat is shown as 1/16 ” ply on the plans however is not in the kit. I will cut it to the shape of former f7

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Oct 01

added some glue, the plywood fuse extension is in place and the two rearmost formers are glued to the top fuse spar. I have a couple squares in place to get a correct setup. It should all pull together nicely later. Hopefully I have caught the mods to these parts and or can do them later as needed.

Wheel axle transoms. The keel gets cut to accommodate the wheel and the transoms are on either side for the axle to pass thru

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Sept 20 2015

I’m going to add info to the top here from now on as I work my way thru the build..

Sorry for the confusion, at least though there will be no more scrolling to the bottom

I need to add a couple rails and a servo tray for the stab and rudder

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Hawley Bowlus design
Based on the full size sailplane

The model will have a CF Boom

– 122″ or so wingspan

Mr Bowlus also created this travel trailer.

The Road Chief

The original Bowlus Road Chief was produced in 1934. It was designed by Hawley Bowlus, a pilot, sailplane enthusiast, aircraft designer and builder of the “Spirit of St. Louis” – the airplane made famous by Charles Lindbergh’s first solo flight over the Atlantic in 1927. Being the brainchild of an aircraft designer, the Road Chief was, not surprisingly, based on aircraft principles with a streamlined aluminum body. Unfortunately, it wasn’t very successful. Only 80 Road Chiefs were built

Bowlus built several different series of streamlined travel trailers.

These were the Road Chief, the Papoose,  the Trail-Ur-Boat, the Motor Chief , and the De Luxe Road Chief.

Bowlus’ Baby Albatross sailplane, which was one of the first kit-built gliders offered to the soaring public. Approximately 100 kits were produced in San Fernando from 1936 to 1941. This pod & boom glider is often called “cute.”

 

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Mar 25

 

 

 

The plan shows music wire for all the trailing edges of moveable surfaces.

Aileron , rudder, elevator.

However supplied with the kit are balsa cut trailing edges which get glued together.

Some ribs however are slotted for music wire, and not cut to suit the balsa supplied Trailing Edges..

So, I have some options here, I reckon I’ll go with the supplied balsa, and modify the ribs to suit.

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Mar 26

Horizontal stab

Observations

The holes for the 1/8″ O.D. brass tubes in the root rib and 2nd rib are not in the same location as shown on the plans..

I don’t know what that means yet, they may have been moved to not interfere with the vertical tubes used to secure the vertical fin.

Also the Lite Ply horn supplied for the stab does not have holes corresponding to those on the stab root rib.

LE tip on both stabs, as well as the fin is open to artistic decision, there is no parts included, I reckon a piece of sculpted 1/4 balsa will work.

 

TIP

Review these plans and review them often, compare what is supplied to what is shown and mark everything.

Don’t glue anything together until your sure how that part will impact the rest of the plane.

I’m going to enjoy this:):)

 

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Mar 28

A view of a full Scale Baby from the 1930’s. Of note is the opening behind the windscreen, it is cut lower and a little rounder then what Col. Thacker shows on his plans

Notice the horizontal line on the plane view below, really not very creative.

I really like the curved cockpit opening sides.

It appears the 2nd former from the right in picture below is missing a couple notches for stringers.( See pencil)

I haven’t been able to find any pictures anywhere of a Fuselage Build of this kit.

Missing from the kit was the nose block which is shown below as being included in the kit. I will fashion a new nose out of some locally sourced wood

 

Also, included was a Model Builder article from Sept 1975. The complete write up is not there as any text from page 83 on is missing

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July 23

Need wood, and need a parts list

Here’s a start for the wings.

It appears the the spars are about 60 inches, however the trailing edges for the ailerons are a little shorter then what’s on the plans, So I will modify to suit.

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July 25

Spars, 1/4 x 1/4 spruce 60 inch or so long, difficult to get and expensive to ship. Some like to join shorter lengths, however that’s not what I like.

I cut out 4 spars as well as the leading edge, which is shown as 1/4 x 1/4, but I like to place the d box sheeting over the leading edge, so I cut them to a size closer to 3/16 x 3/16

 

A couple ribs set between the spars

 

 

 

 

 

 

Horizontal stab spars and leading edge.

1/16 x 3/16 spruce for the spars and 1/16 x 1/4 for the leading edge.

 

 

There’s something funny about these ribs for the horizontal stab. The leading edge is shown as straight on the plans and most certainly there’s a problem here. or maybe S1 needs to be flipped the other way  ???

Also the 4 holes for the 1/8 brass tubing are also cut incorrect

 

It’s really nice to have a bunch of “laser cut” pieces but when they are inaccurate, the average modeler will get frustrated, as you’ll soon find yourself scratching new pieces, or worse yet wondering what to do and seeing your dreams on a shelf in your shop

No worries though, I’ll get this correct and all will be well:):)

 

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July 26

Fuselage assembly, this will likely be dry fitted together many times before the glue gets added. The formers are part of the kit, however all forward /aft stringers need to be added and cut to fit.

Add to that provisions need to be made to secure the

wheel

wing struts

R and E servos

main boom

tow hook

removable Cockpit cowling to get at ballast , battery, receiver and servos

and then the entire carcass needs to be sheeted.

Reminds me of a 32″ river boat I built years ago , which I sheeted with pine strips.

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July 27

Fuselage keel, laminated spruce, and slow set epoxy

Forward hatch top keel, laminated balsa 1/4″ wide strips

 

hhhhh

 

Former F5 or C on the plans, is too tall and does not conform to the drawing. I simply cut off both of the legs to suite.

Also all the top formers do not have a high enough notch to suite the 3/16 x 1/4 lower edge spar to give a removable hatch some rigidity.

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Looking sharp.

There’s absolutely no information or pieces to tie the two wing halves in where they meet the fuse at the boom.

Standby for some wild and crazy ideas  🙂                🙂

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Sept 11

Have some Goodies, including plywood, wing strut material, and fittings.