Minimoa Rescue

[mlachow]

One of the projects in the basement isa Minimoa I picked up last year. This is a scratch-built model, and it was built probably in the 80's's. The fuselage was complete with some nice Ace servos, The fuselage looked OK. Just a few minor dents and I think it's finished in an automotive paint. It is missing the forward part of the canopy. The tail was still Monokote covered but the wing was stripped. It had some repairs over the years looking at the sheeting. So this is going to be a vintage mode of a vintage sailplane. I also have the original "scale documentation" notebook from back when there were contests for scale sailplanes.

Is it worth rebuilding? I put the model together and loaded over 20 lbs. across the wing panels. Bounce it up and down a little watching the wings flex. No snap, crackle pop self-destruction. I guess the glue isn't too bad.

The model was built with aileron servos and pull string for the spoilers in the fuselage. The wing wire was not regular servo wire, but it was through the wing LE part. That needs to be replaced. Spoilers were missing so they will have to be built. One piece of LE sheeting on top was really suspect. That wonderful potato chip look in certain areas,

I decided to start working on things, so the first step was stripping that front sheeting piece. All the glue joints looked good when I cut and removed that sheet. It also provided a good look at the main spar construction. The main spar was built first. Spruce top and bottom and 1/16 ply webs. Epoxy glue to put it together. I think the spar is good. I also got to practice pulling the old aileron wire through using it to pull in some new wiring.

[mlachow]

I stripped the rudder today. It is all balsa and has a nice laminated balsa outline. One bad glue joint on one rib. It really is quite light since it's all balsa. But it still is stiff enough. The model as all white so the actual structure did not matter as much for scale look. So there is no sheeting on the front of the rudder and none of the ribs are capped. Fortunately it has the big robart hinges with the removable inserts.

When I stripped the stab, it had similar construction. I wanted it to be a little stronger torsionally. I applied 1/20th balsa sheeting and caps following the full scale sheeting outlines. The cable used for the elevator pushrod seems to be fine. It doesn't stick.

[mlachow]

I'm making progress on the rebuild. I put in blocks to mount aileron hinges. I suspect the original was just monokote hinges. I also made some new aileron horns and cut out the old servo mounts. I also put in some mounts for spoiler servos in the wing. New spoilers were built and are covered and hinged. The wings just need a final sanding and covering can start.

I already recovered the rudder.

A new ply servo mount was cut out for the fuselage to mount the rudder, elevator, and tow release servos.

[mlachow]

If you want to be entertained with pictures. Check out a full size restoration project.

[mlachow]

Making some progress. On to new covering on the model.

[mlachow]

The elevator had a ball link setup on the elevator horn. I didn't like the idea of hooking up a ball link when I put the tail on. I already have to remove the rudder to put the stab on. It's a Minimoa thing.

I used a ball link in the end of a brass tube in the fuselage. Then I made a plate with a steel pin to bolt to the elevator cross connection. I used a similar setup on my Zugvogel.

Old elevator horn and ball link.


New linkage in the fuselage. Pin ready to bolt to the elevator.

[mlachow]

Servo install day Seven new servos instaslled. JRDS198 on the ailerons and spoilers. Aileron linkages are complete, I just need some servo covers. Spoilers servos installed, I need to add control horn and pushrod to finish the wings.

Tow release servo worked fine with old tow release. Seems to work reliably on ground testing. New elevator servo installed. It takes a long arm the way the elevator pushrod and cable is set up. Replaced the pull-pull rudder cables with new cable.

[mlachow]

And it winch launches.

The first was a quick hop using the aerotow release. Release worked fine.

On to a few flights using the towhooks mounted on the sides of the fuselage under the wing. Not that high a launch since I was only using a 150M F3j line on the winch. It really needs 250m of line to get a decent launch.

A flying vintage model of a vintage sailplane.

[mlachow]

Googling away, I found out some history on N2664B. It is now back in Germany as D8064. Here is the history.

https://minimoa.de/historisches/historie-der-d-8064/