The main gear are wrapped with copper wire and silver soldered (at left) while being held in place by the fuse gear attachment points. Be sure to solder in a safe area! Calvin’s Classic Plans offers a heavy duty fiberglass cowl (above) or one can be fabricated from 1⁄64 plywood and 1⁄32 balsa as a lightweight E-option.
www.bsi-inc.com adhesives were used through out the build. You can count on BSI for fresh, high quality adhesives. You may al- ready be using BSI products, which contain the local hobby shop’s label; check the ad- dress. If you are ever unsure of what would be the best choice, contact the experts at BSI. A Robart Manufacturing
www.robart.com
part #159F steerable fixed nose gear with fork strut was used with Robart 4-inch di- ameter straight treaded wheels. The nose gear is shock adsorbing and really adds a scale touch. It is well made and has re- placeable parts! Having a quality shock ad- sorbing gear can extend the life of your air- frame on those not so perfect landings. Robart carries many high quality scale ac- cessories including their new electric re- tracts for a hassle free installation. The main gear are bent from 5⁄32 piano
wire and soldered while being held in place by fuse attachment points, then filled in with a balsa core plywood outer face. Sol- dering heavy gauge wire can be a tough job. On the Tripacer I used three high wattage soldering irons on different areas of the three-wire union which was wrapped with copper wire. The flux and silver solder worked amazingly well and I had the cher- ished shiney gleam of a good solder joint. Using multiple irons can be hazardous, so be sure to work in a noncombustible area when attempting this procedure. The wing construction is straightforward
and once the parts are cut the rest is easy. The Tripacer will have flaps and ailerons us- ing the ultra-reliable Hitec www.hitec-
rcd.com HS5245MG programmable servos. The companion Hitec HPP-21 Plus pro- grammer made setup of all wing servos a breeze. This allowed a common plywood ser- vo mount to be used throughout the servo in- stallation with the programmer being used to reverse the servo direction where needed. Hitec heavy-duty servo extensions are high
FLYING MODELS
quality, with gold plated connectors and were used throughout the installation. All linkages were constructed of Sullivan Prod- ucts
www.sullivanproducts.com using Gold- N-Clevises and aluminum ball connectors with locking sleeves for a slop free setup. The wing does not have a through spar
and the wing struts are functional. Nation- al Balsa’s straight grain spruce was used with aluminum attachment points slotted and epoxied into the strut. A heavy duty cowl is available from Calvin’s Classic Plans or a balsa and plywood version can be made. The plans show the pattern of the front
and rear of the cowl. These were made from foam board and then spaced at the appro- priate distance apart with balsa blocks to form a mandrel around which 1⁄64 plywood was wrapped and glued at the overlap with the grain running around the cowl. With the mandrel covered, the plywood was trimmed to the ends of the pattern. Next, 1⁄32 balsa was glued, again running front to back (cross grain to plywood). This creates an ultra-light and stiff structure. Balsa blocks are then glued to the front
foam pattern and sanded to shape. The rear pattern and mandrel spacer are carefully removed and the lower air scoop (which cov- ers the overlap) can be made from balsa. With the Tripacer framed up and the radio installation completed I’ll detail the power system and covering next time.
Watts New SKS Video Productions (
www.sksvideo.
com, 800-988-6488) presents NEAT 2011. The NEAT Fair is held at the Peaceful Val- ley Campground, buried deep in the Catskills of New York. The flight line in- cludes separate heli and park flyer areas, as well as six center stations for the main event. This year SKS took a look at a wide variety of electric flying as well as covering the latest in electric R/C products.
Highlights include Mike Gross’s Albatros,
Paul Weigand’s Culver Dart, Richard Lan- dis’s large scale Folker Triplane, Don Belfort’s Nesmith Cougar, Alfred Fusco’s Yak 30, Michael Krug’s Beaufighter, Jim Reith’s Twin Gremlin, Zeke Brubaker’s Hughes XF-11 prototype and Brian Eber- wein’s Hyperbipe (cover). There’s also good coverage of the thoroughly entertaining Warbird Gaggle, the indoor and night flying! Indoor features include: Stew Meyers’ Roga- lo, Jin Choe’s Cessna C34, and Pete Foss’s Flash. DVD run time is 100 minutes; Blu-ray is 107 minutes. Till next time fly safely.
PHOTO: SKS VIDEO PRODUCTIONS
Don’t miss SKS Video Productions’ NEAT Fair 2011. Plenty of great action coverage of both the indoor and outdoor flying at the Peaceful Valley site.
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