Welcome to http://www.edge540.com

A sub web site of http://www.rcflier.com

This web site is hosted by Bob Hudson.

I am by no means a professional or "master" builder and these procedures may not be the best methods for you.

Carden provides a nice construction guideline and color photos as an aid to building their kits.

I have chosen to build things in a little bit different order than they lay out in their manual

Part 7 - The Wings

See the wings packed in their own box. We have to compliment Caroline for a fine packing job.

See the wing cores on the bench in their shucks

Before we "skin" the wings we need to do a few preparation jobs.

The first job is to glue in the phenolic wing tube socket

The second thing to think about before skinning is the layout of the ailerons and servos

Once you know where the servos are going to be located you can cut a slot for the servo wires

First, gluing in the phenolic tube

See the top shuck is removed form one of the wing cores. Notice the oblong slot at the end of the hot wire cut. The phenolic tube support plate glues into this slot.

See use a 1/4" drill to make a few small "funnels in the top if the wing along the hot wire groove. This makes it easier to get the ProBond down into the tube slot

See the wing socket tube end support is made of 1/8" ply, supplied in the kit

See Slide in the phenolic tube, mark the support plate for trimming, then trim it to size

Cap one the end of the phenolic tube with either balsa or ply. I use 3/32" ply myself and epoxy it on. Then trim it to the same outside size as the tube itself. The cap prevents glue from running up inside the phenolic tube while gluing the tube in place

Enter the phenolic tube into its slot up to the first funnel and squeeze ProBond down the funnel. Slide the phenolic in and out and twist it as you do this working the adhesive down the rest of the funnels. This will work the adhesive well into the tube slot completely from end to end. Finally, fill the hot wire slot with adhesive

See the ProBond in the hot wire slot and the "funnels"

See the phenolic tube with ProBond on it. Ensure the entire inside surface of the tube slot is "wetted" with adhesive

Put ProBond on the wing tube socket support and fit the support over the end of the phenolic tube in the open area of the foam at the end of the tube slot.

See Use masking tape to pull the support plate up against the wall of the foam

See the plywood sheet and a couple of foot square stones on top while the ProBond sets

See another view of the weights on top of the wing core while the phenolic tube sets

See The ply support plates after the ProBond is cured and the tape is removed

Before you do the wing sheeting you need to have a perfect idea of where you will be installing your servos, control horns (or connection point to the ailerons), and where the channel in the foam for the servo wires will be

To work this out I drew a full scale plan on a sheet of brown shipping paper (sing I had some handy...you could use white paper if you have some big enough.

Once I had some sketches made and had the full size plan drawn I on the brown paper I re-drew it in AutoCAD, saved it as a .dfx then converted it to a jpg file.

See the plan view of the wing with the aileron, servo and servo wire channel laid out

See a detailed dimensioned drawing of the JR 4721 / 8411 servos with a typical servo arm

See The servo and turnbuckle / Rocket City type fittings (the turnbuckles are the Horizon titanium ones)

See The main wing skins have been fabricated and taped together. Notice the 6" extensions on the ends of the 4" x 48" sheets.

See Put on your rubber (surgical) gloves (from Home Depot), spread the ProBond and build your "foam and balsa sandwich"

See The first wing core is in it's shucks with weights on top. Leave it overnight to cure

While this wing is curing you can start pre-fabing the other wing

See 160 Using the hot wire cutter to cut the servo wire channel

See 161 Draw the layout on the core for the channel and place a straight edge to guide the hot wire

See 162 Nice close up of the hot wire tool

See 163 Trimming the over hanging skin with a small model plane

See 166 Laying out the wing root rib for the anchor blocks

See 167 another view of the root 1/4" balsa root rib

See 168 Fin and rudder parted off. T/E glued onto fin

See 169 Ailerons parted off of wings

See 170 aileron

See 171 Robarts hinge points

See 176 View of root ribs

See 177 Another view of root ribs

See 178 Same thing again !

See 179 Pointed # 10 screw

See 180 Use a pointed screw to locate drill hole in fuse side for anti rotation screws

See 181 wing with aileron parted off

See 182 The ailerons were cut off on a large band saw. The ONLY way to do this job on BIG wings

See 183 Left wing showing aileron cut off

See 184 Left rear anti rotation / wing anchor screws and blocks inside fuse

See 185 Left front A/R block and screw

See 186 right rear block. Notice extra 1/8" ply plate across 3/8" truss verticals

See 190 Wing anchor block

See 200 aileron clamped to bench with L/E glued

See 201 same thing another view

See 202 yet again

See 203 cutting L/E for second aileron

See 204 looking down aileron cut

See 205 fin rudder rear view

See 206 finish sanding wing aileron cut off

See 207 Notice the nice straight cut from the band saw - very little clean up before gluing

See 208 checking the aileron cut out on the wing

See 209 ready to apply the glue to the wing for the T/E

See 210 Trailing edge glued and tapped onto the wing

See 211 another view of the T/E tapped on

See 212 Second aileron and both wings glue drying

See 213 T/E on wing (aileron) Notice ProBond beginning to bubble and cure