Cornell Sorta #3

Well there was the original Cornell. Flew wonderfully, one of Eflite's best aircraft. She was a thing of beauty until I dumb thumbed her into the ground when I opened a loop too low.

I rebuilt her after a long wait. Greg Reed had started the rebuild. I finished her, with a slightly twisted wing, sent her up, and she came briskly back down. That was Cornell #2.

Cornell # 2 after her maiden flight crash.

A few days later I started her rebuild in earnest. I ordered new wings, which was the largest component of the rebuild. I also received the midnight blue Ulracote and redid the areas I had coted before in insignia blue. I believe the twisted right wing was the cause of Cornell #2 crashing, but I cannot be sure. I had found that the cowl is on backorder, and I did not reorder the hatch yet. So here's the rebuild!

Rebuilt the firewall and remounted the motor. Old broken firewall to the right.

Put a fresh sheet of balsa across the bottom of the forward fuse. I ended up having to grind down the forward 1/2 inch to accommodate the cowl. I also rebuilt the battery/motor/ESC shelf.

Stripped the cote, built up the fuse where the cowl screws tore it out. Did this to all 4 screw sites, 2 each side. I ended up cutting off the forward part of the shelf just because. The cowl edge (the top curved thing) was toothpicks, put it back together piece by piece with CA. Lots and lots of CA.

Recoted with the proper midnight blue Ultracote.

The other side, recoted.

Picture of the cowl after sanding. Cracked, smushed, but nothing separated. In the background you can see the old insignia blue cote on the fuse. Removed it and recoted with the midnight blue.

Using the closest blue I could find, after sanding, epoxy to the weak areas,  I painted the cowl. Not perfect, not bad at all!

Managed to preserve the numbers.

The gloss black came out great.

Finished the wing today. Installed the servos (easier, kept them on their old plates), epoxied the halves with the center spar in place.

All done! CG was a tad aft, added a little lead to the nose. Thought I had pics of rebuilding the hatch. It cracked and lost spars. Had to refurbish the styrofoam. In time I will get a nice new one.

She really looks awesome!  Not bad for a novice builder, not bad. Now I am scared to maiden her... More on that as I expect to over the weekend!