Fairchild

This is a client build from the Pillip Kent plan and the Belair laser cut kit.

RCMW 2007 Article

Click on any photo for a hi res version

31. Complete as far as I go .

Complete build (shame I forgot to fit the cowl. Ready for shipping. I've become quite attched. On the whole a good build but there were a lot of discrepacies between the plan and the laser cut parts. Some details on the plan were in the notes, and these were missed by the kit cutter.

30. Tail Assembly

Just some images detailing the tail.

29 Tail Assembly

The sequence to put the tail together is as follows:- fit the tail plane then the elevator, followed by the little spacer and the fin & rudder

28. Aileron hinging

Here we see the aileron hinge posiion and the complete hinge . The final image is of the flap hinge arrangement.

27. Ailerons

Ailerons as it turned out were the most troublesome part of the whole build, what you see here is the third attempt. The plan shows the hinge line but there is nothing to connect to and the developed radius doesn't match the hinge position. The first 2 show the aileron and the third is the method to get the hinge line in the corret position using brass tube.

26. Stringers & fuselage completion

Fuselage side & bottom stringers added. The plan doesn't show a couple of the larger formers, that have to be developed. Hence they weren't in the laser cut pack.
The doors are a tight fit in the fuselage, they can be fixed in this position or relieved a bit and hinged to make more scale. This will be up to the client to decide on completion.

25. Struts Assembly

The struts are made from 14swg piano wire, to get the exact dihedral angle there is a bras tube that is a sliding fit, it only gives a few mm of adjustment, but enough to set the wings correctlty. The remaining images show the wire supports, spruce on ply. These will have to be completed once the wings are set up, and covered in. Suggest epoxy for this. Once dried, the edges can be rounded.

24. Struts

This is the third attempt at this. The plan shows the 14 SWG silver soldered like a 'T' onto the 14 SWG brass tube. There was just no strength to this set up. I ended up using some left over strut / undercarriage brass strip, It makes for a strong joint at each end.

23. Under carriage

Another mod is the undercarriage. It was developed as I went along. 6SWG for the main legs with 8 SWG for the rear part. All silver soldered onto brass mounts. In the second pic you can see the complete main undercarriage and the bent tail wheel.

22. Struts

Some modification is required here as the build isn't going to have the scale undercarriage as per the plan, I'm going with a simpler bent wire one with some scale detailing. The front strut mounts are shown here, along with some extra beech to take the undercarriage mounting screws.

21. Tailplane

First pic shows the elevator horn - brass horn silver soldered to torque rod.

Second is of the complete tail end, the plan suggests using block to fill in, but it would mean a large heavy block of wood, I'll be sheeting where I can, with more formers and a smaller block.

The final shows the fitting detail. This will have to be fitted properly after covering

20. Complete wing

I nearly missed this, no provision is made to secure the wing to the fuselage, I've added a 3mm lite ply rib doubler with a 6mm captive nut.

Wing is now complete, just need a final sand and fill and sand.

19 Elevator & Rudder

Rudder complete less the final sanding and shaping, the second is of the start of one of the elevators. The blocks are for the hinge points. These ae now complete just waiting a final sand.

18. Wing servo mounts

First pic is of the aileron mount, the ply plat will screw directly onto it. The other is for the flap servo, this will be sheeted over with a cutout to take the servo.

The last is an ad-hoc of the sheeted wing panel

17. Wings

Servo mounts a commercial mount to suit MG996MG for the flaps, and some fabricated ones to suit Hi Tec 245's for the ailerons. The second is of the wings with the top sheeting
I've had a bit of a mare with the wings, I build a left and right panel over the plan (both wing panels are shown), but one wing is 5mm longer than the other, which left me with wings of differing spans. Solved it now by moving the root rib inboard 5mm, but it was a bit of a fiddle. Lesson learnt - don't assume the plans are correct.

16. First Look

Couldn't resist putting it together to get an idea of size. Ain't she lovely?.

15. Cowl

The front cowl coming together. 2 layers of 1/32 ply wrapped arount the formers. The third pic is of the front ready for shaping.

14. Wings

Wing complete upto the point of sheeting, the plan called for fixed wires for the wing joiners, but I prefer to use tubes and a separate wire joiner. The middle pic shows the tubes boxed in and the final is the wing strut mount point. Not shown here are the servo mounts, 2 in each panel.

13. Fuselage

Some add hoc pictures of the nearly completed fuselage. the side and bottom stringers will be the last things to fit after the wings and undercarriage.

12. Wings

Start of the wings, note the laminated wintips and formed aileron training edge. Not all the ribs are shown on the plan, and are only required eading the plan. They weren't supplied on the laser kit.

11 Cowling

Nearly there, needs a couple more fills and rub backs. the second shows the complete front section. Ready for epoxy resin to fuel proof. This will get done when I mix the epoxy for the wings.

10. Cowling

This is a slow process, getting the curves and adding strength is not an easy task. Careful cutting of wood, and clamping is the order of the day. The glue of choice is Gorilla glue. This adds imense strength and runs and foams into all the joints.

9. Cowling

Sheeting in the front cowl and creatng the tank bay. There is a lot of space and gaps up front, so its a case of sheeting it all in so fuel can't get into unprotected wood. This will get a coat of epoxy resin to seal.

8. Fuselage joining

The tank bay is built and the front nose area being built up, I have made a small change to the plan here. I have taken 1/4 balsa all the way to the rear of F1, when dry I cut it away to take the former F3, this ties F1 back into the rest of the front section, and also makes positionaing F3 easier.

The glue joints are filled with Gorilla glue to add some extra support.

The front portion being covered with sheeting.

7. Fin

Fin frames ready for joining. these will be trimmed after joining.

The complete fin. The tainplane being made in the same way.

6. Fuselage joining

From the images below you will see we have the main fuselage and the engine moutning. They have to be joined together. This took a lot of head scratching. In the end an elaborate selection of clamps and spacers were used. A case of measuring more than once. The red dot you can just see on the engine bearer, is the dot from the laser used to ensure the bearers are straight. No incidence is shown on the plan, So I drew a line to the rear of the fuselage, this gave me a measure ment from the top of the rear spar, and using the laser, I just made sure I had the same measurment.
24 hour Araldite was the adhesive used.

5. Fuselage assembly

Fuselage in jigwith the former in place. What you cant quite see is the level across the tail ensuring the 2 sides are parallel
All square - the use of squares and levels to jig the fuselage before the glue dries. Clamps are only tightened up once everything is square, so no warps or stresses are introduced.

4. Fuselage

Fuselage formers adjusted from the laser cut to fit beam of engine, Gaps filled with balsa.

3. Windows

Template cut from sticky vinyl for the rear window opening.
The window cutouts faced with balse to give a clean edge. Filler blends it all in.

3. Doors

Doors were built into the fuselage sides, and faced with ply.

2. Fuselage sides

One fuselage side was built over the plan, and the second side built over the first (left and right handed). This makes sure you have 2 identical. The plan over time and differing humidity had stretched, so assuming the laser cut parts are accurate, these were used as references to build to.
Ply biscuits were scissor cut and stuck overt the joints to reinforce.
There is some difference between the ticknesses of all the 1/4 stock. The spruce, Ply and balsa all vary slightly, A good sand and some filler will make up the difference.

1. The model

This is a client build from the Pillip Kent plan and the Belair laser cut kit.

The Belair part kit as usual is excellent, but some of the bits are missing, but because the parts are second hand its hard to tell if these were missing from the original cut parts or have been mislayed since.