Breguet Fauvette
Posted: 21 Jan 2019, 18:08
This is from the Mike Trew plan, a 1/5 scale 118" span model of the French 50's sailplane and, apart from an aborted similar scale Minimoa from many years ago, will be my first scale glider traditional build.
The plan has been acquired from Sarik and extensively studied in order to formulate a build method, materials needed and what changes to Mike Trew's original design may be desirable. First decision was to go with a different wing section and a PDF file was kindly supplied by Peter Balcombe with the HQ rib profiles, so I should end up with a more versatile model. The pushrod activating the ruddervators will be dropped in favour of mini/micro servos, the ailerons and brakes will be wing mounted servos.
Decisions still to be made:
Colour scheme: although this can wait until later it will have some bearing on how I cover/finish the model. At the moment I'm leaning towards glassing the fuselage and filming the wings/tail surfaces.
Wing joiner: the plan shows a traditional brass box/steel blade arrangement, I will probably go with this as I can get the parts and it's what I'm familiar with.
Brakes: I probably won't do the scale blades (scale police look away now), they look like a lot of work that could be easily wiped away on a slope side landing so will either go commercial or "barn door" type diy.
I intend to fit a tow release and instead of balsa I will manufacture the nose from car body filler, this will add a lot of ding resistance and weight where it's needed.
The back end is known to be vulnerable so needs beefing up, first thought on this would be to replace the 1/8" x 1/8" top spruce longeron with a 1/8" x 1/4". Any ideas on this would be welcome! The wood is on it's way from SLEC and today I made this: 2 metres long so should be future proof
All being well I can make a start on cutting out parts next week ...............
The plan has been acquired from Sarik and extensively studied in order to formulate a build method, materials needed and what changes to Mike Trew's original design may be desirable. First decision was to go with a different wing section and a PDF file was kindly supplied by Peter Balcombe with the HQ rib profiles, so I should end up with a more versatile model. The pushrod activating the ruddervators will be dropped in favour of mini/micro servos, the ailerons and brakes will be wing mounted servos.
Decisions still to be made:
Colour scheme: although this can wait until later it will have some bearing on how I cover/finish the model. At the moment I'm leaning towards glassing the fuselage and filming the wings/tail surfaces.
Wing joiner: the plan shows a traditional brass box/steel blade arrangement, I will probably go with this as I can get the parts and it's what I'm familiar with.
Brakes: I probably won't do the scale blades (scale police look away now), they look like a lot of work that could be easily wiped away on a slope side landing so will either go commercial or "barn door" type diy.
I intend to fit a tow release and instead of balsa I will manufacture the nose from car body filler, this will add a lot of ding resistance and weight where it's needed.
The back end is known to be vulnerable so needs beefing up, first thought on this would be to replace the 1/8" x 1/8" top spruce longeron with a 1/8" x 1/4". Any ideas on this would be welcome! The wood is on it's way from SLEC and today I made this: 2 metres long so should be future proof
All being well I can make a start on cutting out parts next week ...............