[diyengineer]

That's awesome! Especially to do it by hand, gives a real feeling of self accomplishment and pride

No, I haven't looked for any. I quit flying R/C models just before relocating here about 6 years ago and have been concentrating on other things since then. They would be fine to build one for someone else but I wouldn't want to short change my CNC addiction at this point in my life.

My part in this big model is just to cut the ribs, close-outs, and fuselage formers. Once the model is ready to prime and paint I may get called in to help with that if the usual delivery time crunch happens.

The largest one I have built from plans (for myself) was a 10' span "Real Thing" from the plans that were published in RC Modeler many years ago. I scanned the small version in the magazine and scaled it up in TurboCAD, then used the measure tool in TurboCAD to get the part dimensions. When working with scaled up pixelated drawings, I scale it up some, trace the middle of the lines for the parts I want to cut, then scale the line drawings up to the final size they need to be. I print the parts on paper, spray a light coat of 3M77 adhesive on the back side of the paper only, then stick it to the wood. I cut the wood very close to the lines with a scroll saw, then sand it on a 12" disk sander to the line. I didn't have a CNC machine back then or even know they existed.

I flew it with a 2.4 cu. in. Koritz gas engine. I used mahogany veneer door skins for the fuselage sides to avoid having to splice two pieces of birch plywood. A kit was made of it some years after that.

CarveOne

[CarveOne]

I seem to recall that someone kitted a larger version of the Real Thing for a while, but that was not me. I think the larger kit may have been around 72" or 80" or so span.

Hobby Shack sold the original kit (s) I believe I still have that issue of RCM.

A quick Google search turned up the plans (!!) Scroll down to post #13, and a couple of other photos in other posts.

CarveOne

[diyengineer]

Carve,
Wow! Didn't know those plans were so cheap! I wouldn't mind something with a 10+ foot wingspan. It's nice how it tells you how many "sheets" of material it needs. I can just throw them on the cnc table and cut them out. I of course would have to model them in solidworks, and program the cam for them, but thats another topic. haha

[CarveOne]

The model was a bit short coupled, and needed careful balancing to get it to fly properly. Under powering it is not good either. As they said in the posts, it was so ugly I had to build one.

I was flying with the Raleigh AeroMasters Air Show Team back then and intended to put a trap door in the bottom of the fuselage and make a hopper inside the fuselage. A servo would release the trap door on a fly-by, letting out a couple of pounds of candy for the kids. Never did complete that function before an intermittent receiver switch caused it to become a makeshift plow. I still have the 9" diameter baby stroller wheels made with chrome steel rim and spokes with neoprene tubing tires.

CarveOne

[CarveOne]

You know, it wouldn't be much effort to turn this ugly thing into an electric foamy yard flyer and cut it on the CNC machines.

CarveOne

[spyderxxx]

Sounds like a plan is hatching. I like it.

Ed

[CarveOne]

Shhhhh! I'm trying to hatch a plan in someone else's mind. I have too many unfinished projects right now. I did save the plans image though.

CarveOne

[CarveOne]

Just a quick note about the Allegro LSA airplane I have been working on. The weather was 102F yesterday but I went to the local airport around 4pm to wait for the airplane to arrive on two trailers, wings on one trailer and fuselage on another trailer, and help with the assembly. It had some issues with missing bolts and nuts that required someone going back to the factory to retrieve them, and some minor damage to the nose wheel fiberglass cover getting it off of the trailer, but by 9pm it was almost finished. I left at 9pm and found out this morning that the pilot flew it without any issues from Halifax, NC to Sanford, NC well after dark on its first flight. As far as I know now, it will be flown from Sanford, NC to Oshkosh, Wisconsin for the aviation fly-in next week. If any of you go, check it out.

CarveOne

[Keigger]

congrats on the plane my friend! If I know you, you had a BIG hand in the fabrication and assembly, good job carve. post a pic of the plane if you can

[CarveOne]

Thanks, I made some parts for the mobile wing holding fixture that is used while working on the wings and painting them. I machined three nose wheel strut tubes and modified some other parts as needed, then spot filled and wet sanded the fiberglass parts for my friend Cyrus to paint red or white. I helped Cyrus in the paint room as well. My part in it was more volunteer than paid, just to get the first one completed, and I will now back out of it unless they call me for something else later.

Here ya go.

CarveOne

[Keigger]

very nice, you guy's did a great job!

[CarveOne]

very nice, you guy's did a great job!

Thanks!

What I need to do now is to develop an R/C model kit of it about 80" or 100" span or so.

I have done some initial work on CNC cutting the instrument panels. It's on hold and is not a high priority right now.

CarveOne

[Keigger]

I see another project waiting in the "wings" (pun intended).

[diyengineer]

Thanks, I made some parts for the mobile wing holding fixture that is used while working on the wings and painting them. I machined three nose wheel strut tubes and modified some other parts as needed, then spot filled and wet sanded the fiberglass parts for my friend Cyrus to paint red or white. I helped Cyrus in the paint room as well. My part in it was more volunteer than paid, just to get the first one completed, and I will now back out of it unless they call me for something else later.

Here ya go.

CarveOne

Pretty sweet! I'd love to make a plane that big and fly it as an experimental

[CarveOne]

It's a new one for me too, and I just sort of fell into it unexpectedly. I hope they get their act together and it becomes easier for them to build the planes. Aircraft manufacturing is completely new to all of them as well.

I was told that these don't require a pilots license. It requires taking some training classes though. I haven't looked into how true that is.

It is a rather nice looking airplane, and the T tail configuration makes it more forgiving for new pilots to operate. I have been offered a ride in one by the company owner, but I'm sure that I'll never own one. Way too much expense for me.

CarveOne

[CarveOne]

I got a call this morning telling me that the #1 airplane was due to land at the local airport in 30 minutes. It came back for resolving some problems with engine overheating that needs looking into. I went to the airport and helped remove the wings and put it on a trailer. The wings are temporarily stored in the airport manager's own hanger. I got a chance to ride in it as the pilot taxied it over to where we were going to disassemble it. I asked him to not ground loop the thing. (Been there and done that many years ago in a Tri-Pacer while landing on a short strip and riding with someone else.)

The timing of this is very convenient in that I started working on the instrument panel CAD work again a couple of hours before getting the call, and I was able to resolve some questions I had about the panel. I didn't know for sure which was the front and back, one lower corner has a different shape to it than the opposite corner, and I didn't know if the instrument panel mounting holes are used to drill the fiberglass flange in the cockpit or if the locations of the holes have to match pre-existing holes in the flange. All of these have been resolved and I can proceed with generating gcode again after scaling the panel width down by 0.0825".

I'll cut a trial panel in whatever I have that is 1/8" thick (Masonite hardboard or door skin material) and will try it to see how well it fits the flange on the #2 airplane that is being assembled now. I can then add the instrument openings to the drawing. All of the CAD measurements are in metric.

I need to start buying lottery tickets so I can win enough to buy one of these airplanes.


CarveOne

[spyderxxx]

C1

You could always do what Johny Cash did.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIuo0KIqD_E]‪johnny cash-one piece at a time‬‏ - YouTube[/ame]

Ed

[CarveOne]

Sounds good in theory, but there might be some s'plaining to do as to why I have that big ol' fiberglass composite fuselage on my trailer.

Next time they go to their Sanford, NC flight training center I'll ride along and get a ride in one that actually leaves the ground. Sounds like a good exchange to me. Free rides for free volunteer work.

CarveOne

[Keigger]

C1

You could always do what Johny Cash did.

‪johnny cash-one piece at a time‬‏ - YouTube

Ed

well the x had a ball screw and the y had a thread that was chewed and when we tried to put in the bolts all the holes were wrong, so I drilled it out so that it would fit, and with a little bit of help from carve and his friends, we had that router running just like this song!

[CarveOne]

This evening I removed the shaft adapters that caused the jammed gantry awhile back and turned them down in diameter enough that the jam won't happen again. The measured working area with 1/4" of clearance all around the X and Y axis is 28" x 35". Measured using the Mach3 DROs, which are calibrated over a 20" distance.

Skydiver guy Cyrus came over this evening and showed me his video production of the July 4th jump from Jeff Foley's Stearman biplane. YouTube doesn't like the music clips Cyrus added so he won't be uploading the video anywhere (that I can link to).

CarveOne