Traditional balsa wood free flight aeroplanes.

[chriswoody]

I've been trying to avoid buying too many new bits and bobs for these planes, it's just meant to be a bit of winter fun rather than anything too serious. So far I've been using wooden clothes pegs and elastic bands which have helped a lot, hopefully I won't have a need again for a more serious clamp.

 

[Drago]

Has anyone added the world's dullest fact, that balsa is classified as a hardwood?

My work here is done.

Yes indeed. Whether a wood is a hardwood or a softwood has nothing to do with its physical properties, but refers to whether it originates from deciduous or a coniferous source. This is wildly misunderstood in the guitar world.

Project is looking good, watching with great interest,

 

[MichaelW2]

I've my son's part assembled Keil Kraft Fairey Gannet somewhere in the garage, along with 3 finished aircraft. Rubber powered. I remember them flying quite well. I made numerous KK kits when young, you could buy the rubber by the yard in the local model shop, along with balsa, cement, dope etc. I graduated to designing my own freelance aircraft, drawn out on paper and then transferred to the balsa using tracing paper. I remember the last one I designed and built had a V shaped tail, Jetex powered. I have fond memories of building a Jetex powered Hawker Hunter and a DeHaviland Vampire*. Both Keil Kraft. I eventually managed to melt my Jetex engines when I tried producing my own weedkiller based propellant, and then I got into cycling ....


*edit - could have been a Venom, it was over 60 years ago

Fairey Gannet won in competition against the Blackburn YA7 and the Shorts S.B.3 to supply the Royal Navy with the ugliest possible aircraft.
The Short SB.6 Seamew would have won that but was built to a different reqirement.

 

[Punkawallah]

Blackburn Roc says ‘Hi’.

 

[Reynard]

I've been trying to avoid buying too many new bits and bobs for these planes, it's just meant to be a bit of winter fun rather than anything too serious. So far I've been using wooden clothes pegs and elastic bands which have helped a lot, hopefully I won't have a need again for a more serious clamp.

Serious?

Surely everyone has a bunch of different-sized bulldog clips lurking in the back of that one drawer in the kitchen that always seems to accumulate assorted random gubbins? Or am I just weird?

 

[carpiste]

I have all sorts of clamps and straps in the back of a cupboard thar have been used on various guitar projects. They always come in handy again .... eventually!

 

[Bonefish Blues]

Serious?

Surely everyone has a bunch of different-sized bulldog clips lurking in the back of that one drawer in the kitchen that always seems to accumulate assorted random gubbins? Or am I just weird?

I have 4 affixed to my desk tidy not 3 ft away from my keyboard. In case of emergency.

Or something.

 

[simongt]

Recently tried to get grandson interested in Airfix kit building, not very successfully.

Likewise. Both grandsons and grandaughter showed initial interest, but waned pretty quickly when 'other things' distracted their attention - !

 

[chriswoody]

So I've still been tinkering away at the Tiger Moth, I've built all four wings now.

There's still a little bit of work left to do, I need to trim the main spars and sand the leading and trailing edges to the correct profile. There's over eight hours alone in the parts above.

Next up was the Cabane Struts and the Decalage jigs. The jigs are to aid alignment of the wings when it all finally goes together.

The precise nature of the Laser cut parts can be seen in the photo below of a trail fit of the Cabane struts and fuel tank, the joins is barely discernible the fit is so precise.

Finally, I've built the tailplane, this was a tricky little thing to get right and the first small issue I've come across. The main spar that runs along the middle was slightly longer than the version drawn on the plan. We're only talking about half a millimetre or so, but it threw out the alignment of some of the other pieces. Lots of pinning and re-pinning of parts on the plan before committing to glue. The ribs all had to be cut to the correct length as well from a single piece of square stock. It all worked out in the end though.

So lots of small assemblies built so far, it's taken a number of hours, but all very enjoyable and lots more challenges lay ahead.

 

[simongt]

balsa is classified as a hardwood?

But has anyone tried cutting down a balsa tree with an axe - ? According to Thor Heyerdal, when they were harvesting the balsa for Kontiki, it was a sod to cut as it has a very rubbery texture resulting in the axe blows being absorbed by the fibre of the wood thus reducing the ability of the axe to cut effectively.

 

[Bonefish Blues]

But has anyone tried cutting down a balsa tree with an axe - ? According to Thor Heyerdal, when they were harvesting the balsa for Kontiki, it was a sod to cut as it has a very rubbery texture resulting in the axe blows being absorbed by the fibre of the wood thus reducing the ability of the axe to cut effectively.

Tsk. Everyone knows it's cut down using craft knives!

 

[simongt]

Tsk. Everyone knows it's cut down using craft knives!

So that's where Heyerdal got it wrong - !

 

[chriswoody]

So with all of the flying surfaces built, it was on to the fuselage where the first job was to add strengthening strips to the formers and parts of the fuselage.

With those added it was time to glue the formers in place on one side using a set square to make sure they were at a perfect right angle to the fuselage side. Then when it was all set and square I added the other fuselage side.

Then it was on to the part I'd been dreading. In order to get the correct taper at the nose and tail, the instructions call for the sides to be scored deeply and then "crack" the sides so they taper in correctly. The nose has the added complication of the fact that not only does it taper in horizontally but vertically too. Working slowly and deliberately with lots of checking for fit I finally committed to glue. The rear was completed in the same manner, but without the added complication of the vertical taper.

With that done, I ran some superglue down the score lines in the fuselage sides in order to strengthen them up again. So there we are, lots of work to get to this point and it's starting to look good. The next step with the fuselage is to trim and glue in all of the stringers that make up the top half of the fuselage.

 

[Reynard]

Looking good!

It's a right old headache when things start curving / bending in multiple planes. (Pun not intentional, might I add...)

 

[a.twiddler]

It's becoming gratifyingly three dimensional.