Newcomers

Newcomers

Bob Underwood 32 Hollandbush Ct., St. Charles MO 63376

IT'S BEEN a few months since your Almost Ready to Fly (ARF) first tasted air, and you're beginning to feel comfortable with it as you ply the sky. Takeoffs have become routine, and landings no longer cause palpitations—except on those crosswind days.

Now each flight tends to include a new maneuver or two. Loops were easy—haul back on the elevator and hang on.

However, the first roll looked a little like a pretzel! The combination of a trainer wing, a lack of coordination with the elevator when inverted, and minimum surface throw really made it exciting!

Thank heavens for altitude.

You've recently noticed at club meetings and at the field that the same question has been asked. It follows along the line of, "What are you building?"

The answer has been that you aren't building anything! You have come to the conclusion that you should try your hand at putting a kit together.

You've noticed a few kit models at the field that fly nicely. Several of them could use the same-size engine you already have in the trainer.

A week of pouring through magazines and catalogs has narrowed the field to several kits. A call to your original instructor resulted in some suggestions for an airplane that is a little more maneuverable, but still in the range of your present capabilities.

A visit to the local hobby shop narrowed the choice to one, after you talked to the helpful owner. As you drive home, the box rests comfortably on the backseat of your car. When you made the decision to buy it, you were asked if you wanted to get all the other "stuff" needed to complete the kit. A flock of things were listed, including adhesives, covering materials, and hardware.

Included with the kit was a list of everything that would be needed. Not surprisingly, all of this other suggested "stuff" was brand-name items from the kit manufacturer!

Since this was your first attempt at building a model from a kit, you elected to get some basics, but not all the additional items, thinking that the people in your club would share some ideas about brands from their experiences.

So here you are. The box is in front of you, the kit is opened, and it's time to get on with it.

Several people in the club, as well as the shop owner, had filled you in on the tools and supplies.

You already have a nice, straight building board, a blade holder and #11 blades, pins, a razor saw, sandpaper, epoxy, cyanoacrylate glue (CyA), aliphatic resin, and other necessary items for building.

But before you stick a pin, cut a stick, or glue a single joint, read all the instructions in the kit. Also look at each section of the plans and note the comments made there.

Check to see if everything is in the box. Most kits now contain a list of the materials. They often give wood dimensions, including the length of sticks and sheets since many modelers custom-cut them.

Hopefully your kit will package things neatly in sets, so they are easy to identify. If the kit contains die-cut parts, check not only the quality of the wood, but also whether or not it is warped. Die-cutting, especially in older kits, is often referred to as "die crunching." As the dies age, they tend to crunch rather than cut.

If the parts don't separate easily from the sheet, sometimes a light sanding on the back will help the situation. Plywood parts often have this separation problem.

As you are checking the size of the sheeting and sticks, you will notice an interesting problem. The kits are often assembled overseas, and the wood dimensions may vary somewhat from those listed on the plans.

You may learn that "1/4-inch thickness" is not 1/4 inch. It will probably be the closest metric equivalent.

Although this may be somewhat disconcerting as you place the piece on the plans, it shouldn't have a profound effect on the final product unless the sticks and the slots they fit into result in a sloppy fit.

You've determined that everything is there. Now check all the wood parts. Match up similar items, such as wing spars. Are they straight? Are they of similar hardness?

Do the same thing with any sheet balsa that might be used for fuselage sides. Hardness or stiffness is especially important there, because you probably have to bend the pieces to join at the tail.

With different stiffness on one side, it's easy to produce a "banana" if you aren't careful. Should you replace some of the wood if it's badly warped or not the appropriate hardness? Yes! Why fight it?

Getting started — basic guidelines

There are a few simple guidelines to follow.

• Don't throw away the scrap pieces from the die- or laser-cutting. Some of it may be useful later, and you won't run the risk of throwing away an actual piece.

• If the instructions suggest an order to follow in the building process, follow it! It's amazing to see how often newcomers get into trouble by jumping ahead (or around) while building. The later step is often successful only if you accomplished the work to precede it. Just wait until you can't get the fuel tank in because you skipped "step six."

• Remember the old adage "measure twice—cut once"? That hasn't changed. It's still true! Or as I'm prone to suggest, "You can't cut a piece longer!" And when you do the cutting, move the wood to a place where you won't hack up the plans.

• Gluing can be a sticky proposition if you try to fill gaps with fast adhesive. When you cut a piece of wood to fit against another, make certain it fits that way. Don't expect the adhesive to bridge a gap and really do the job. Typically, it will run from the joint and never really make a well-bonded connection. And glue adds weight—quickly.

• Watch how you pin the pieces. If you can, put pins alongside the wood to hold the pieces in place on the plans. That way you don't run the risk of splitting the wood.

• Keep it square. Having a variety of items available to check whether ribs are vertical on the building board or the fuselage sides are square is important. These right-angle makers could be various-size drafting triangles, a carpenter's T square, or even smaller items cut from a balsa sheet.

• Sometimes the "right" (correct) angle... isn't square! Be very careful fitting pieces around the nose and firewall section. Since many models use some small amount of right thrust and/or downthrust in mounting the engine, the firewall or engine mounts may not be "square," or at right angles, to the rest of the fuselage.

The instructions will usually caution you about this, but it's easy to overlook if you're not careful. Correctly placing the proper amount of thrust isn't always easy. It's usually in the 2–3° range. That's why it's hard to measure. Don't get too excited if it comes out a tad more or less. Using washers or wedges in the engine mounting later on can correct the problem.

• Did you remember there's only one right side? How embarrassing—you made two fuselage sides and two wing panels, and they are both "rights." That will take all the fun out of your day!

• Did you remember to put the necessary blind nuts in the firewall to attach the radial engine mount and nose gear? Put a little epoxy on them so you won't accidentally push them out later. Check to see that they don't extend through the hole and project beyond the flat surface of the firewall face. And don't get glue in the threads.

• Do you have the correct amount of dihedral in the wing? Most joiners will automatically set that amount, but measure to be certain.

• Are the hinges on the centerline of the wing/aileron, stab/elevator, and fin/rudder? Do the surfaces move without binding?

• Have you figured out the servo position, pushrods, battery location, etc.? Their locations will have an effect on the center of gravity. Remember that a nose-heavy model flies poorly; a tail-heavy model flies once!

• Fuel-proof the engine and tank area with resin or epoxy. You may have to repair something, and fuel-soaked balsa doesn't do well.

• Do you have the switch and charging jack away from the exhaust side?

• Have you aligned everything?

I'll spend some time next month discussing the ways to measure, rather than just using a "look-and-hope" routine.

There are many more things to consider, but now you've got the swing of the question/answer/do-it routine.

What a pleasure it will be when you finish that first kit-built model. Here's pride in having a product of your own hands. MA

Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.