Schweizer 1-26E ~ 1/2.5-scale Kit by Peter Goldsmith (Build thread by JimD)

[Steve P]

Fantastic work, Jim. Even with a superb kit, you illustrate the care and detail that will make for a great final product.

Pete finished #1 last night. I hope we see a lot of these at events around the country in the coming years.

[JimD]

Thanks for the kind words Steve.

As you can see from the picture above, the 1-26 is majestic...just imagine it in the sky!

The 2018 season is going to be awesome!

[JimD]

We finished out the stringers making sure to keep a check of the levels front and back. Don't want to build in a twist at this point!

For the bottom center stringer, we added a ply plate to the back of F5 to catch the end of this 1/4" x 3/8" stringer and to give a gluing surface for sheeting when we get to that step.

The location for the notch for the 1/4" x 1/4" side stringers was relocated after the first two kits were cut, so I had to modify F5. Looking at the original notch, we decided to add a short piece of 1/4" x 1/4" just because it looked cool! The kits will NOT have this feature.



When adding the 1/4" x 1/4" stringer to the nose, we first glued them into F3 and F4 and allowed them to be relatively straight while the glue set. Again, we thought this would help stabilize the structure before bending these stringers into their final configuration. Just taking steps to keep the fuselage as straight as possible.



The F26 axle supports were added to the keel spines.



Time to add the bottom sheeting to the keel spines. Had to modify the front to fit into the scale tow release mechanism.








And we added scrap pieces of plywood to keep the axle from moving sideways.



Then we ran the wire for the elevator servo extension back through the holes provided in the aft fuselage formers. Best to do this before the fuselage is sheeted or it will be a frustrating task!

[JimD]

One thing that I have noticed over the last number of years is that open wheel well let grass, dirt, and moisture get into the fuselage and often with aggravating consequences. So...we decided to make an enclosure for our wheel well.

All of the materials used here were scrap pieces from this kit...so you do not have to buy anything else to do this.











We put a strip of 1/4" x 38" scrap across in front of the wheel opening for the front tab of the 1/32" plywood sheet to rest against.

[ARUP]

Jim is a Hot Rodder... tubbing his Scwheizer!

[Tango Juliet]

I guess I should consider "tubbing" my T21 wheel well also. This build is really "flying" along and it looks great Jim.

[frank99]

My son in almost in your backyard, can I come up and see it in person and watch it fly? And can you build me one tooooooooooooooooooooooo, tks frank

[JimD]

Hi Frank, are you planning to come for our March event? If so, I am hoping to have this 1-26 project ready to fly...so you could see it in person.

[JimD]

One reason we put off sanding some of the earlier parts is because we were waiting on the UPS truck to bring these new toys!



Put the mini belt sander right to work doing what Jeremy thought we should do.



Now, because of the strip we added, the keel spine has a better curve.



And if we test fit some 1/8" balsa sheeting we get a pretty nice looking job!

[Steve P]

Good gets! The Proxxon handheld belt sander is only second to the Milwaukee M12 rotary tool in my shop. Incredibly useful!

[ARUP]

I keep hand sanding to try and get 'Popeye' arms but all I have to show for it is 'Brutus' belly fat! Proxxon tools... good score!

[Soarntz]

That is a Sweet looking plane and an excellent build thread Jim

[JimD]

Thanks Dave, looking forward to the March event!

[ErichS]

Looks as if we will need to come up with a different type of mounting system as to make the release removable. After boxing in the sides you will not be able to remove the unit for service. Not the best thing to have.

[Tom]

Looks as if we will need to come up with a different type of mounting system as to make the release removable. After boxing in the sides you will not be able to remove the unit for service. Not the best thing to have.

What’s there to “service”?

[JimD]

Tom, that was my feeling. Not much can go wrong under normal use. If it gets abused, then the wood structure around it will likely be abused as well.

[JimD]

Peter supplies a simple and functional wire loop with pull pin release for this model. He uses the same setup in the Swallow. I built the Swallow using the stock release but wanted to use the scale release here because it just looks cool.

Obviously, the model does not require the scale release to fly, but it is kind of like a scale pilot...

Simple wire loop installs like this (and requires no extra cost):



Compared to this with the scale release:



This is the Swallow release:

[JimD]

Turned the fuselage back right side up and inspected the wheel well. This was constructed from scrap plywood in the kit.





installed the elevator servo in its mount.

[gunny11]

Looks as if we will need to come up with a different type of mounting system as to make the release removable. After boxing in the sides you will not be able to remove the unit for service. Not the best thing to have.

Although in almost 200 flights of my 1/3 scale 2-33 Erich's units has worked flawlessly..... I do know one person had to remove it for minor work. But I must agree with Erich. The unit should be removable for service. I only removed it once from my sailplane for inspection and cleaning of the unit.

Now, Erich, we don't have to redesign it. You know it's hard to keep it simple sometimes, so on the second attempt I came up with a simple retro fit thin gauge steel strap. Just drop the unit in like a cartridge and don't use the side mounting flange bolts, but leave the side flanges. Then slip on the thin gauge steel retaining strap with 2 screws.

these can be easily cut out on my access to a waterjet.

[gunny11]

The wheel well came out excellent Jim.
that is a must have item.

[Tom]

Although in almost 200 flights of my 1/3 scale 2-33 Erich's units has worked flawlessly..... I do know one person had to remove it for minor work. But I must agree with Erich. The unit should be removable for service. I only removed it once from my sailplane for inspection and cleaning of the unit.

Now, Erich, we don't have to redesign it. You know it's hard to keep it simple sometimes, so on the second attempt I came up with a simple retro fit thin gauge steel strap. Just drop the unit in like a cartridge and don't use the side mounting flange bolts, but leave the side flanges. Then slip on the thin gauge steel retaining strap with 2 screws.

these can be easily cut out on my access to a waterjet.

You sure are putting a lot of faith in those 2 screws! The only part of the unit that is not assessable is the pivot bolt thru the arm.......odds are the pivot arm or it’s bolt will never be a problem........the only part that could possibly be damaged is the “hook” itself and the bolt holding that in is readily assessable as it hangs below the unit itself. The only other possible problem would be the linkage and that is assessable from inside the fuselage.......you’re coming up with solutions for a problem that statistically will never happen!

[BryanB]

May have to cut some G10 or aluminum for some scale wheel struts to go with the scale tow hook,, Will make the wheel tub shallower as well.