Introducing Cornell #5!

Taking her to BMF tomorrow, see how she flies!

Cornell Cowl Completed

I completed the work on the Cornell's cowl. I have to say it came out pretty darn good for a newbie. I learned a few things I would do differently next time, but all in all, nice look! And it was a real pain in the ass...

This is what the cowl looked like after the crash. The small openings in the front are cracked and broken.

I didn't need a fiberglass repair kit, but some Bondo might have done nicely. But I would only have needed a small amount. It seemed to me that some spackle combined with epoxy might give me the strength of epoxy with the sandability of spackle. I thought, what the heck and mixed them 1:1:1, with a little more spackle.

I spread it using a popsicle stick, and let it dry overnight.

Then sanded it smooth, or as smooth as I could. There were some areas I couldn't get completely flat, hard epoxy from previous repairs. Worked awesome!

Primer gray. 

Coated with the blue paint that comes pretty close to Hanger 9 Midnight Blue.

I also did the gloss black on the hatch and the top of the cowl. You can see the imperfection where the low tack painters tape pulled off some paint on the side, even though it had dried overnight. I spackled it, painted over it later, better but not perfect.

I couldn't find any 1" tall Collegiate font sticker numbers, so I decided to use the pirate flag with the white border cut off, and used the P-touch printer to make the 87 with a collegiate font.  I covered the entire cowl with clear enamel. The cowl looks pretty darn good!

The problems came from trying to get the previous epoxy repairs flatter and smoother, and making painting mistakes (low tack tape pulled day dried paint right off the cowl, not waiting long enough for touch ups, mistaking  the need to smooth out fine bubbles in the clear enamel that would have resolved on their own had I not tried to use the foam brush I found...that sort of thing). I have extended its life again, which I hope I am done with, as a new one is still not going to be available until 1/20/12. Letting everything dry overnight, then I will re-install it on the aircraft and post pics!

Cornell Rebuild Nearing Completion

I continued work on the Cornell today. All that is left is the cowl, which is a work in progress; more on that in a later post..

To close the bottom of the forward fuse I first worked out a paper mock up of the space, including the outer (upper) edge that curves up, or as it lays here, down.

I traced the paper mock up out on the sheet balsa.

And dry fit the part. Fits perfectly!

CA'd and clamped into place.

Sanded to smoothness!

The stringers and spars in the right elevator were supported. Its still not really straight.

The fuse before coting.

Used spackle to fill in Neko's bite marks...

The bottom and side of the re-coted fuse.

The completed tail.

Nearly done!

After the failure of the Spektrum AR6100e, I installed a HK Orange Receiver with a satellite receiver. The Orange receiver can be seen in the foreground middle and the red-white wire leads back to the satellite. I chose to put the sat on the opposite side, facing down. The main antenna on the main receiver points forward. This should give me good antenna views. I also created an EC5 extender cable, seen in the upper area.

Motor and ESC installed.

I am trying something new on the cowl, something I made up that will either work great or prove a disaster. Should have more on that tomorrow!

Cornell Motor/Battery box rebuild

Continued work on rebuilding the Cornell's motor/battery box. I started with fuse work yesterday. You may recall that with Cornell 3 I replaced the box with a pedestaled motor mount and angled the battery. This worked fine, but changed the CG a bit. In this rebuild I wanted to preserve the original design of a firewall motor mount and battery box. It came out pretty good, but took a lot of time.

Building the box from popsicle stick wood.

Cut some gaps into the framework to lighten it up.

The remaining original box on the left had the corner sanded down, likely to fit under the cowl. I did the same to the right side, which is the rebuilt side.

Installed.

Under the battery shelf, the side supports sheared off.

I supported the battery shelf with popsicle stick wood cross bars.

I fit the hatch and realized I had placed the top of the firewall too far aft. Here its moved forward about 2 mm and fits nicely.

The box is done. I need to re-cover the bottom of the fuse with sheet balsa curved to fit, then do all the cote work, remount the motor and ESC, and rebuild the cowl (they are still out of stock expected Jan 2012). I won't touch the NIB Cornell as its for when they stop making replacement parts.

Burning, searing, stinky stuff

Working on the fuse frame, realizing a large portion, about half actually, of the battery/motor mount is missing. So I've been cutting and gluing. Have you ever smelled cut wood with CA, epoxy and modelling plywood? Its an acrid burn that melts your eyes and blisters your nasal passages. And my wife says it makes the house smell like "New House"... Smells like burning down the house to me.

Using popsicle sticks to rebuild the front upper cross support of the fuse. I had the old fuse and saw that the crashed one is missing the upper part of the firewall, so I scavenged it from the old one. I had to cut it out and shave it down, and that's when my eyes melted and my nasal passages blistered. I actually took it outside so I could breath, even though I was using a mask. It killed...

This is all that's left of the battery/motor mount box, the right wall and the bottom. I did some patchwork to the mount (the X).

The fuse. This is going to take a lot of time. Especially with melted eyeballs...