r/BalsaAircraft

Saito FG-40 going up front. Promodeler 180 servos. Making up my own wing wiring harnesses

Things had not gone as well as I hoped over the weekend and the wing frame was all I did, but Don B. finished his and brought it to the OFFC meeting this morning. Being Don, he attached the wings with magnets and double covered the flying surfaces so it came out a bit heavy at 15-1/2 grams but it flies. The one trimming difficulty was getting it to turn, not a good thing for a model intended for an indoor contest. It seems a bit nose heavy but he chose a 6 inch Peck prop rather than a 5 inch which is a gram and a half lighter so changing it may solve the trim problem.

There was some discussion at an OFFC meeting, last month, about a one design contest later in the year. There were several opinions about what design to use.

Some years back I downloaded a plan for the 1939 D5 Cruiser from Outerzone and I thought that it might be a good choice. I redrew it to contemporary standards with a one piece wing and stabilizer, rear peg moved forward and one piece wire landing gear struts. Dave G. Suggested we build some prototypes first then I could laser cut some parts sheets and pass them out to the club members who want to compete. I cut four parts sheets for myself, Dave G., Don B. and Rob H. With 4 different people building prototypes we will see if they are easy to build and if they fly well.

Hi All,

I hoping you could help me with this:

A year or two ago, I had completed a Guillow’s Super Piper Cub 95 kit (a kit that I’ve always loved since I was a kid) and decided to cover it with Monokote Lite.

I went ahead and put the decals on it and left it since then, but I would like to cover the decals with some clear protective spray; however I don’t know what I should use since I’m afraid of ruining the glossy Monokote Lite cover itself and the decals as well.

Looking online has been giving me mixed information, so any help from here would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

This is the second airplane I ever covered with vinyl. It started with a vintage Cannon RC setup, but I eventually changed it to FM, then at some point, I changed it to DSM. I built this in 2007, and I still have this model.

I have been working on this Sterling Aeronca C-3 for a while. I got some colored tissue from SIG. I used a glue stick on the edges of the wing then after the initial tack, I brushed on a 50/50 glue and water to wrap the edges. Should I go ahead and give it a light coat of polyurethane? I got the spray can stuff, but I also have a pint of the brush on poly. Im interested in trying the poly because it seems like an easier option than using dope. Any suggestions are appreciated. Thank you.

Hopefully balsa and carbon construction is permitted.

Waiting for the glue to dry. This my first time using aliphatic glue, so I’m not quite sure what to expect. I tried not to use too much, and found I had to use a little bit of tissue to break its surface tension to get it into the joints.

Had fun designing and printing some little rib jigs to help keep things square and in place before gluing up.

Hopefully I haven’t glued the wing to the tape too 😬

A Herr Piper Tri-Pacer.

This was the first plane I ever used vinyl covering on. I started covering the empennage first, and I thought it was really difficult, but I kept at it and made it work.

I had no idea I was supposed to peel the clear layer off before applying.

I covered the rest of the plane with the clear coating peeled off, but I left the coating on the tail because I had already glued it on LOL! This was 20 years ago.....

And i'm making so many stupid mistakes lol

Hello everyone! I’ve made progress on building the airplane. I’ve completed almost all the components. I figured out how to attach the wing using a rubber band inside the fuselage. But I don’t know how the tail assembly is usually attached. Is it normally glued on? Or are the fin and stabilizer rigidly glued together and attached to the fuselage in a different way? Or are all the parts attached in such a way that they remain movable? What is the correct way to attach the tail assembly to the model?

Thanks for all the advice i received on my previous post, i'll defintly apply them on my next build

I haven't had any plane before, so this is my first, and i'm having a great time building this mini stick so far :-)

I'm working on getting another one of my late Dad's old balsa planes flight worthy and noticed that the right aileron has a millimeter or two of upwards deflection at the wing tip. These are full span ailerons on a low wing nitro sport plane so I'd like to get everything as true as I can before I take it out for a maiden flight.

My current plan is to use a combination of gentle clamping and some pins to push the Ail a millimeter or so in the opposite direction to the current warp, give it some time to settle and then work the clamps back until it stays straight. Alternatively, I can just build a new aileron but I'm avoiding that because of the hinges are epoxied into a pocket in the center of the wing and aileron.

I fly with ELRS and am trying to avoid using a gyro so that I can use flaperons instead of having to install split flaps or air brakes. That said, I am doing everything I can to keep myself from crashing a balsa plane so I might just swallow my pride and use a spektrum rx with AS3X just for extra stability (but not until I get it trimmed out).

I'm gobsmacked. The detail of the laser cutting on this TEENY TINY little airframe is unbelievably GOOD.

I've only seen one ever actually fly, so I'm not holding out a lot of hope for how it flies,

but if you ever want to build a tiny balsa airframe (even for static display) grab one of these.

(and some tweezers 🤣 )

straight as an arrow!

(bangood / ali etc)

Slowly rebuilding my fleet after a house fire. Scratch built P-63 from Model Aviation magazine. Only real changes I made from the first one are removable wing, horizontal and vertical stabs and spruce stringers on the fuselage sides as I crushed a few balsa ones hand launching. Went with Russian livery as I believe they were the only ones to use them in combat.

Some more Top Flite Spitfire progress.