Time to put this one to bed

Last year I cut out parts for two airplanes to use the Cox foam wings, one for a TD and one for a Black Widow.  I built the TD version as seen in this thread, and put the Black Widow parts on the shelf.  From time to time as I was cleaning up or looking around for things, I’d see the parts and think about finishing the second plane, but there was always another project to get to.

Well, lately the Churchyard field across the street from my house has been dry and brown from the hot weather.  I’ve not been wanting to fly there, as I could just see me starting a grass fire with one of my nitro engines.  Burning down a churchyard.  REAL bad mark in my folder on Judgement Day…  So, I figured I need a good 1/2A size electric plane other than my “just adequate” electric coroplast PT-19 Trainer.  I’d thought about using some Cox wings for an electric, so I went ahead and pulled the FW-190 parts off the shelf and got back to it, deciding it was time to finish it off and put it to bed.  Nothing fancy, just a single color fuse and the wings.  Just something Quick and Dirty.  Out came the parts and the plans:




Finishing out the fuselage I cut out, I started with the doublers.  The plans call for ½” balsa blocks for the cowl blocks, but I decided on 1/16” ply doublers instead.  After gluing those in place, I aligned and glued in the wing spars.




The plans call for a bellcrank in the wing, and that’s what I did the first time.  But I wanted to emphasize the “quick” part.  I like the Cox plastic wingtip, and the inboard one has the leadout guides molded into it, so I’m going to use that.  ‘Sides, it saves me the time of cutting out and shaping balsa wingtips.   On the Cox ME-109 Super Stunter, the lines go above the wing into the fuselage instead of through the wingtips and into the wing.  So, I’m just going to externally mount the bellcrank.  I chose the location for the bellcrank and drilled the spar for the mounting screw.




Next step was to fabricate the pushrod.  Here’s the method I like to use.  First I make lines on the stab to match the sides of the aft fuse.  Next, I mount the control horn on the elevator.  Then I tape the elevator to the stab and put pins along the lines I drew.  The pins jig the stabilizer straight and square while I’m marking the pushrod.





Then I mount the bellcrank to the spar and center it, slide the stab into the cutout in the fuse, and put one end of the pushrod through the control horn with the elevator held in the neutral position.  The pushrod already has the z-bend in the elevator end, and a dogleg bent into it for later fine adjustment.  I then lay the pushrod on top of the bellcrank and mark the location of the bellcrank hole on the pushrod with a black sharpie permanent marker.





Once I have the location marked, I remove the pushrod and use my new favorite tool to put in the z-bend.  This is the tool I should have had 25 years ago.  It makes a perfect z-bend.





Then I cut off the rest of the rod with a Dremel tool, and here’s what I’m left with.




Last thing for tonight is to mark the hinge line on the 1/16” tail surfaces, insert and glue in place the thread hinge, and then glue the stab/elevator in place.  I’ve never really found a good thread I like for the thread hinges, although I’m coming to love thread hinges for my 1/2A control line models.  So, I’m now experimenting with using 10# Spectra for the thread.




More to come…
The Cliffhanger Mark