Aviation Concepts "1/3 Scale Cessna 185" Build

[lenb]

Back in October of 2015, Gunny Bumbers, owner, chief designer, draftsman, prototype developer, laser machine operator and chief pilot over at Aviation Concepts in Long Island NY was coerced into designing and prototyping a 1/3 scale model of the iconic Cessna 185 bush plane, The culprits of the harassment were couple local hoodlums, known to hang out on these forums.

Designing, drawing, cutting and building spanned four years, culminating in an uneventful test flight on July 3rd 2019 ( due to a personal and rather disturbing relationship with a John Deere tractor, one year was lost to courtship.)

I recently asked Gunny about the building of the prototype while he was polishing the tires on his John Deere tractor, "It took me only six months to do the build and manual once I was able to get my mind off my Deere and get back to important things" not to mention the need to make some money to pay for the corn shredding attachemnt he had on order for the tractor.

The model flew perfectly during its very first flight and soon after that Gunny had produced the first three kits for eagerly awaiting customers.


This build thread will be full of pictures I will take as I progress along on the build, but honestly the 1001 photos (not kidding) in the 170 page building manual (not kidding again) are far better detail than anything you will see here. This thread is not intended to offer any tips or tricks on building this plane, simply because Gunny has already done all that in the manual. Im just sharing my experience building the kit with you and having some fun picking on my OCD friend.


THE KIT :

In a word. ridiculously complete and more than first class. oops., darn auto correct!!

Seriously, the 4 boxes: 1 cowl, 1 wheels (option) and 2 big HEAVY boxes of balsa and plywood are jammed packed with material for the build. This is a full on kit, not a short kit where you're searching around for quality components. This Cessna 185 kit is COMPLETE the materials for the plane are obviously hand picked when you see the quality of the wood.

Onward


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A friend stopped over to see what all the buzz was about




Removing parts from the frames is the first step


It's a big plane, so gluing formers together is the only option in many cases



along with scarfing sticks for stringers and supports






Lets build something. The fuse top is the first assembly to be worked on.
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[hello82]

awesome winter project Len...love this plane...looking forward to watching it come together once again

Matt

[gunny11]

Wow Len, thanks for the kind words and for this plug... Len is going to modify his with a pair of crossover canisters. I couldn't believe how fast he has progressed in a couple of weeks time. He's pretty much has the fuselage all built. Thanks,

[lenb]

These assemblies are quick to build and a lot of fun, the parts kinda snap into place and pretty soon its onto the next one.



Preparing the tail wheel mounting. block, be sure to follow the instructions with regards to gluing and the angle of the block



The tail wheel block and plate is now secured onto the bottom assembly, Gunny uses a really helpful dowel pinning system to align parts together so dummies like me can't mess things up. (well, lets see if I can prove him wrong)




Top and bottom rear fuse assemblies ready to go,





Fuse sides being cemented together. It's a matter of putting the interlocking pieces together and gluing them. I recommend using a slow set epoxy on the side assemblies for a couple reasons.
1) it gives you plenty of time to align and weigh the pieces down.
2) 30 min epoxy ( Zap Brand ) gives you some slight flexibility with will bode well for the life of the plane. And it actually sands pretty well too.




For adding the doublers, I use West System Epoxy thinned a tiny bit with 70% alcohol, ( not Jack Daniels Tom P ) painted on with an acid brush very carefully. Don't get too close to the edges, keep it as clean as possible.


Align the doublers (again, small pieces of 1/8 dowels are used to align the parts) and weigh them down for the night.


Fuse formers were prepared when I had a moment waiting for glue to cure, now they're ready for assembly. But first.....

​Time to do a quick set of built inn's for a client. Nice 65" 4k HD system. The unit is 13' wide, 8' tall. The build presented a real challenge because the room pitched 1.25" to the right
Time for the illusion trick




Before shot. ugh.

[gunny11]

Nice, as I told Len, the beginning is slow going because of all the sub assemblies. . Then the build really takes off as he can tell you himself.

[lenb]

Now that I have most of the fuse sub assemblies glued together and ready to go, It's time to get this plane built.


The sequence of photos may be off, but you get the idea







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[gunny11]

Whoohoo! Looking great Len... Even though it's still posted in scale sailplane section! Lol

[mlachow]

He is going to slope it at Cumberland.

[Steve P]

I moved it on up to the East Side with George Jefferson.

[mlachow]

The other side of the tow rope

[lenb]

Work continues on the 185,

[lenb]

Not sure why these show up out of order, but you get the idea

[horsefeetky]

nice work we will have many tow planes this year...never a wait to go up thats for sure.. you guys are the best and the planes you build show it

[lenb]

Cessna update,
At this point the plane is covered and being final assembled. Sorry for the lack of progress on this thread.

Here are some more pics

[lenb]

few more

[lenb]

[lenb]

[lenb]