Well I would really like to start building the Cozy right away. But life simply won't allow that. My wife and I have made a commitment to use all of our financial resources to achieve a couple of goals. It hasn't been fun; our spare money is like nil, but we are seeing progress which is good. This in combined with my commission only job makes it tough. I've been at this new job for 8 months and finally in the last few months we see that I'm going to make it in an industry where 80% quite within 6 weeks.

So why build the RC airplane? Since we couldn't commit even a few hundred dollars a month to start the cozy, I decided to see what else I could do. I really did want to build just something. I get very bored, very easily. So my wife and I decided that I'd get back into an old interest: R/C airplanes. I flew them back when we were first married, but gave it up to start my pilot license. We decided that if we get it cheep and simple that it would be a nice little hobby for a while.

My First plane was a Great Planes PT-40. It really was a good first plane. Very stable, built like a rock and could take a whole lot of abuse.

Several of the guys out at the local field where flying these Morris Hobbies Profile plane. Basically the fuselage is flat. From a side they look fine, but head on they look like a pencil. The more I saw them fly, the more impressed I was. Not that other planes could do the same thing, but these seem to have a nice combination at an affordable price.

Also one of the things I want to do is to hover. Literally hanging off the propeller like a helicopter. It's all pretty cool. Check it out at:
http://morrishobbies.com/product_info.php?cPath=22_150&products_id=65

So that searching around some that's what I decided on. It's just an all around fund plane. A couple other planes that I considered was a Extra 300s and a P-51 mustangs. I may still build one in the future.

I finished the fuselage the other day. It has been a lot of fun. I tell you what, the belt & disc sander has been a HUGE HELP!
You can see it on the left.


I've been building on glass. I kind of like it. Very flat. I use 3m spay glue to hold things down. Most of the time parts pop right off. A done side is its 3/8" thick. If you don't look straight down when lining a part up with the blue-print underneath, they won't line up. Not a huge problem. It cleans up real easy too.



As you can see when I framed up the fuse, I didn't shape the front cowling. In the end, there is about 5 layers of wood that need to be lined up. So I waited until the end and sanded the shape with the disc sander. It brought then all down to the correct shape nicely.


When I installed the pull-pull housing I simply notched them with the dremel and epoxied then in place. On the left side sheeting, I did as the instructions said. I cut out a hole, drilled and routed them in. I didn't like how they turned out.

After installing the sheeting around the housing, it'll leave small gaps that'll need filled later.


You can't see it too well, but on the right side I carefully measured and drilled the holes without cutting the sheeting up. It turned out a lot nicer.



I just finished the rudder tonight and started the stabilizer.

I finished the elevator and stabilizer today. I'm glad to be done with the all the angles!! I just counted 28 pieces of 1/8 balsa framing! Many of those had FOUR angles sanded on them. That's 112 angles on 1/8 framing alone! Add on top of this all the framing needed from 1/4 & 3/8 inches. It all adds up to a lot of tedious sanding. For most angles I simply roughly marked the angle with a pencil then sanded to shape. Most of the time I would have to do it a couple of time to fine tune angle or fit. Ninety degree angel I did use a miter Gage on the sander. Someday I'll count up how many angles I've sanded so far.

Here's everything just framed up. Notice how laid the elevator directly up to the previously finished stabilizer. I then used the disc sander to sand the stab done a little to give some clearance. You can see the result in a later pic. Also you can see how I wasn't concerned with the outline. I sanded that to shape later as well.

Notice the tight joint between the two 3/8 pieces. The are not glued, but rather just butted together.

Check out how many piece of wood come together here. The lighter color wood in the middle it the hardwood piece that joins the two halves of the elevator. If I ever decide to use split elevators, I would later cut this piece. I have installed extra pull-pull housing for this possibility. The joint above the hardwood is not glued, all the rest are glued.

I use a light coating of 3m glue to hold everything down to the glass. I used a old metal ruler to help break it free. It does some minor damage to the back, but most of it is sanded away. I will only have to use some very minor filler later.

Here I've sanded the end to shape and opened the gap between the elevator counterbalance and the stabilizer. Oops sorry for being out of focus. Not good for an old wedding photographer huh??? :) I haven't finished the edges yet. I'll go back later and round the edges and the angles for where the hinges are located.

I've known that I'd be building a couple of simple jigs soon and I finally got around to it.

A reinforcement to the ribs is added. You can't see it too well, but it is CA on top of the rib. I wanted the top and bottom of the reinforcements to line up perfectly to the spar cutout. The easiest way I could figure was to sand it down to shape.

I glued a stripe of sandpaper to a 1/4 x 1/4 piece of wood. It is the size of the spar so it fit perfect. I then CA this to the table.

I then CA the slightly over sized reinforcement to the rib. Then carefully sanded it down to shape as seen here. I created a small backing to prevent the flimsy ribs from cracking.

  I created another jig to keep the ribs perfectly plum while the CA cures. I first made sure the block was perfectly square. I also cut out a small notch so it didn't get in the CA in the corner.

The wing is going together nicely. Its great to finally do something different then all the miters!!! I thought I was done and ready to start the wing when I realized that I hadn't built the Ailerons. I made the first cut and decided I had enough of that for while. So on to the wing. When attaching the sheeting down to the glass, I simply used thin CA. It's stuck really good, almost too good. I'm worried around removing it. I think I'll wax the glass and see if that'll help. I do like using just CA, it's a little less messy than the 3m glue. The wing hasn't taken much time. The cap stripes and sheeting is done first then the guts and finally the other sheeting. I had the bottom sheeting and cap strips laid out in one evening. Today was slow at work so I did the ribs and almost finished with sheeting one wing. I just need to put the cap stripes on and sand the front edge and it'll be ready to flip over.

When it came time to put the sheeting on, I used masking tape to hold the shape. The directions says using a stray bottle to mist the sheeting will help it bend easier. I couldn't find the spray bottom, so I used an ice cube Worked great. As you can see in my typical fashion, I've not even tried to make the ends line up. I'll go back later and sand everything at once down to the correct size. If you look at the third image, the sheeting at the other end is not quite long enough. It will all get sanded down to create the leading edge. If I'd do it again, I'd make the sheeting a little large just in case it's not big enough.

Tonight things in the shop went less than perfect. Among other things I CAed my thumb to the wing and I mean good. I pulled it off, but it made it sore. Also my earlier worry about the wing being CAed down to the glass to much proved true. Popping the wing off the glass did some damaged that needed repaired. Some of it I'll be able to fix with filler before covering. I'll definitely be waxing the glass next time. I may experiment with RainX or just paraffin wax. I finished the wing tonight after making the minor few repairs. Sanding the ends did go well. I roughed sanded the end close the end rib. Then I sanded it down to shape with 100 grit sandpaper. Work fine. Also I had to make a change before sanding the leading edge to shape. I had to add a small wedge to fill the gap that didn't totally cover the LE as shown in an earlier picture.

 On the first image you can see a small square near the inboard trailing edge where I had to repair damage from poping the wing off the table.

I mentioned earlier that I might wax the glass before building the second wing. I wasn't happy with how the first wing pop off. It did more damage than I was happy with. I did like using CA better than the 3m spay glue. It worked a little better and was more precise. So I ran a test to see what would work best. I came up with 3 possible solutions. RainX, Paraffin Wax and Paraffin Wax polished up. I also ran the test on straight glass to see the difference. Here is the test.

I cleaned the glass really good then applied the treatment. I attached the balsa with thin CA. I used and little on each and a big glob as well. The CA cures quickly. Here are the result. Notice the second picture is shot from the opposite direction, so the order is back words. RainX, Wax, Wax Polish, Nothing

You may not be able to make it out, but RainX wins hands down. It works almost too good. It barely stick, but just enough. The remits of the glue sands away easily, leaving no damage. It makes sense. The rainx fills the pores of the glass leaving nothing for the CA to grip. The Unpolished Wax was nearly as good. Downside- the glass is more opaque and messy. Still a viable alternative. The Polished wax didn't fair to good. I think polishing it just removes too much. I had damage to the balsa. That is unacceptable. Strangely enough I learned this trick from a wood working friend to protect metal tools(Table saw, Band saw, drill press, etc). I've sanded each with 400 grit sandpaper to remove rust. Then used mineral spirits to clean. While the mineral spirits residue is still there I rub on the wax real good. The mineral spirits help melt the wax a little. I then polish it up really good. Now all my tools fill like a new car, plus they do not rust. Almost make wood slide threw the table saw much easier. Back to the test. The fourth was my controlled. It stuck very good and damaged the wood when removing, leaving some on the glass. Bottom line. RAINX ROCKS 

Here a trick with fiberglass I've learned from John Slade and his Cozy. It's basically plastic peel-ply. It creates a much nicer finish. I stretched the fiberglass across the joint, then lined near the edge of it to prevent a mess of epoxy. Next I spread of 5-min epoxy to saturate the fiberglass. Then I covered the covered the fiberglass with another layer of packing tape then squeegee out any excess epoxy. I'd probably use plastic next time instead of the tape for the peel ply. After it cured I removed all the packing tape which create a nice flat surface.

I really screwed up when trying to get a perfect match with the wing halves. I tried sanding the joints to get a better fit. I ended up sanding too much and just barely left any balsa on the inboard ribs. OUCH!! I had to go back and reinforce then from inside the wing. 

With 5-min epoxy, I first set in the spar that joins the wing. I purchased a hardwood spar for this. I wanted that to be a little stronger.

Because the top side of the wing is flat and the bottom has the dihedral , I joined the wing upside down just like when the wing was built. The top turned out to be almost perfectly flat!! I also made use the spar from each half lined up perfect.

After pushing the spars into the second wing half, I used small claps to lightly pull the wing spar and the inner spar together. Then I turned the wing over to jig it flat.

Partly from my overzealous sanding, there was a gap in places between the halves. So I filled the joint with epoxy and carefully filled the joint with balsa to help take of the joint. The blue masking tape is to help from making a mess with the epoxy.

The joint sanded smooth very nicely

Then I fiberglassed the wings together using the plastic peel-ply technique which is described in the next story.

Wing assembled and ready for final sanding.