Zugvogel IIIa

[mlachow]

I did some work on the hinge lines. It is nice to tune the holes so the hinge goes in the correct depth. The "christmas tree" bit in the Dremel is perfect for that. The taper is just about right to open up just the top of the hole to get the hinge to slide in the depth that you want. I checked all the hinge lines on the model. It is also a good time to double check the radius on the curved leading edges for proper clearances before covering.

If you really want shape slots on the rudder or some other surface, face the edges around the hinges with some 1/64 plywood. This sands to a nice sharp slot.

[mlachow]

Nose cone done. Laminated up some 1/8 balsa cut in slices. It's actually some bad 1/8 that I purchased that did the potato chip thing. So it is a nice balsa ply lamination now.

The fuselage is in the stand I made from some ply and EPE foam glued to the inside shape. I just have to unscrew it from the center board and I can attach to the fuselage carrier in the van when I take this one out.

[mlachow]

It is a simple canopy frame. The rear shape matches the fuselage and wing fairing. The front piece has a doubler in the middle since it is always a pain to glue up front and you need some place to hold the front pin on the frame. The side is some basswood. I stacked some short pieces at each end to reinforce the corners of the frame. and add a little more gluing area of for the front and rear plywood. It is pretty small. Especially compared to the big piece of plastic that I have to hack up for the small piece I need.

[mlachow]

The cover or the wing center section is built over the wing mount. It covers up the wing joiner, wiring, etc. Cross pieces get glued to the end ribs. Then the top sheeting is glued on. Finally some filler pieces for blending into the canopy and rear of the fuselage out of some balsa with creative bandsaw cutting.

[mlachow]

Some real exciting stuff...... I cleared the temporary fuselage formers from the front of the fuselage and glassed the inside. Now I have a layer of glass over and under the 1.5mm ply strips on the front end. I did add a little west systems filleting mix along the ends of the stringers to cut down on bubbles under the glass over those places.


I also have all the bits for the wing mount ready. I still need to put some of the top sheeting near the root on the wing. But it is ready to set up the wing mount. First I have to build a nicer fuselage stand to hold things while checking alignment.



Other exciting stuff is doing the graphics for the paint masks for some fuselage stripes and rudder stripes. I considered doing an orange sailplane Schwarzhornfalke. But I ended up deciding to do D-8356. Nice white with red trim. Although the red stripes on the rudder are a little complicated. I'm going to give Oratex a try.

[mlachow]

I built a locking drive for the spoilers kind of like on the commercial ones I need to finish installing it. I can remove it by pulling the two pins from the back of the box.

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[mlachow]

The leading edge was glued on and shaped. The inner 4 ft of the LE is made form some really, really hard balsa that came with a LoneStar sheet order years ago. It must be 30lb wood.
I also used a saw to clear the ribs for the spoilers. This Lee Valley plane is my favorite one for working on models.

The end result is a nice garbage can of balsa shavings.

[mlachow]

It is aircraft spruce. I don't have any G10. I do have some lexan that is thick enough. It is basically what Chris Williams builds. I think he has built a few of them. At least it isn't one of those electric spoilers I always see people repairing. If I wanted easy insurance I would just stick top spoilers in there.

[Swiss1]

A word of warning, I would replace the connection between the two spoilers with something more durable, such as G10!
Why you ask? At one time I had a glider with dual spoilers and one of the wood connections between the two spoilers split!
Save yourself a headache and change it, good insurance!

My cent's worth.

Jeremy

SCC AAA TT TN

[mlachow]

I added a few more cap strips. Tomorrow I'll rip some really heavy balsa for the wing LE.

All the spoiler parts are cut and the holes all line up correctly for operations. I just used some 1/16 dowel pins to test the alignment of the parts. I need to apply some finish to some of the parts before it all gets installed.

[mlachow]

Major accomplishment, the LE sheeting is completed. The wings look straight and stiff now. I still have a few areas to fill in sheeting and a few capstrips. The rear wing pin also needs to be installed, wiring, and I have to build some spoilers.

[mlachow]

I found some useful documentation. It starts around page 33 for the IIIa.

https://www.ig-scheibe-flugzeuge.de/wp-content/uploads/Zugvogel_01-01-2021.pdf

[mlachow]

The elevator linkage will be a cross between the setup Chris Williams uses and a Pike Perfection. I used some brass sheet and made two straps so I could solder some music wire as the control horn. The elevator is one piece and this will be bolted to the cross piece. The linkage will end up inside the fuselage.

I put the big 4mm tip on the Hakko iron and got out the flux pen. No problem tinning the wire and the solder flowed nicely under the straps and even from the wire to under the straps.



Cleaning up a little and you get a nice horn. I might need to bend a little angle in the wire.


The second piece is a length of brass tubing and a little piece of brass I machined to accept the tube on the one end. The other end is tapped for a M2 screw to hold on the ball link. The pushrod will need a support guide under it near the elevator. The elevator horn just slides into the brass tubing when the tail is installed. I will need to trim the wire length a little and the ball link i the photo is sitting 90 to the real pushrod direction since it is just flat on the soldering pad.

[mlachow]

Both wings now have sheeting on one side now. I worked on some other wing details before final sheeting. The servo mounts for the ailerons were glued in.


I also cut some balsa sheet with a nice hole and servo covers to screw on the wing.


I have to build the spoilers before I glue in the spoiler servo mount.

[mlachow]

Progress continues on the wings. The first panel now has one side sheeted and the second one is getting close to that point.



Found some nice vintage balsa suitable for the leading edge sheeting.


Both panels are off the bench so I can make sure the joiners are all in alignment.