Jtec Radiowave 2.8m MX2 Build(s)

[Scrappy]

I got both wing cores mostly done over the weekend with the phenolic tubes, false ribs and root ribs glued into place and will take some pics tonight of where things are at, kind of hard to take any during this as it is pretty busy to get everything covered in Gorilla glue, put in place, taped up, and in the shucks with wax paper. It goes as per the instructions and is straight forward.

Went up for a visit to Gordon's to see his build (aka work of art!!) in person Saturday. While I am confident my plane will be straight & sound seeing the craftsmanship of what Gordon does is inspiring, he does awesome work and things are so "clean", hardly even a glue dribble on his work! I am getting better as I go but Gordon could cover his plane in clear Monokote as a showpiece of how to build....

Seeing how his cowl modification mates up to the fuselage I am going to do the same thing as this improves the look and makes the beautiful lines of this plane even nicer.

[tbrum]

When we were in Toledo this past weekend, we saw the bigger brother of yours on display (The white/red/blue scheme). Looked good. I'm not a huge fan of that scheme, but I really like the lines of it.

If I do another 180-200cc, I would love to build the 3.1 version after seeing it.

[Scrappy]

I take the precise placement of every stringer very seriously.... NOT

After seeing your plane Saturday I think you do!!!

[Trumpetman]

When we were in Toledo this past weekend, we saw the bigger brother of yours on display (The white/red/blue scheme). Looked good. I'm not a huge fan of that scheme, but I really like the lines of it.

If I do another 180-200cc, I would love to build the 3.1 version after seeing it.

I've been thinking the same thing. My Dalton is flying well but it is getting a little long in the tooth. If I like how this MX2 flies (all reports are really positive) I'm thinking of building the 200cc version this fall.

[tbrum]

Ya!!! And lots of nice schemes for MX2's !!!

[jtec/radiowave]

Ouch,

That was our plane on display!!

Al

[tbrum]

Al... please don't take my comment personally about not being a fan of the scheme... I didn't explain the joke... a bunch know I've had an F16 in that scheme sitting in my house for nearly 1.5 years and getting tired of it being here, LOL.

I really, really liked the lines of the MX2. We spent some time looking it over and the shape is very cool and lots of scale schemes out there that I really like.

I would really like to try building one of these in the future!!!

[jtec/radiowave]

tbrum,

No problem, just playing around and looking for a reaction!! LOL!!!!, not insulted at all. Sorry we didn't get to meet. Kevin and I were up there all weekend. mostly hung around in the DA booth as we have a close relationship with them. ( Kevin use to work there and they were our landlord once upon a time ) The Pitts that was next to ours was another close friend and he won the class.

[Scrappy]

Been busy and delinquent for posting up!

Last week I got my wing cores prepped for sheeting by gluing in the (capped!) phenolic tubes, false ribs and the root ribs so the first few pictures show the wing bolt tee nuts being added to the root rib, I capped the inside of the larger front blocks with 1/16" balsa and used tape over the smaller rear blocks to keep the GG out of the threads. Once they were set and the foam carved out for them to fit everything was given a good dose of GG, a spritz of water, covered with wax paper where needed and in to the shucks under about 50lbs of weight, the wing tube inserted and left to cure overnight. I was happy with the results of both wings coming out of the shucks and after I removed the tape sanded them a bit as required to remove any high spots. I also slid the cores onto the wing tube on the fuselage and was quite happy with the fit!! I need to add a 5 inch long piece of 1/16" balsa to the rear of one root rib to close up a bit of a gap but sanded most of it away as the gap was minimal!

The purple/pink lines are where I laid down the carbon fiber tow and tacked the ends of each in place with a bit of "Foamtac" as the LHS was out of foam safe CA, seemed to work fine.

Saturday I took the wing cores and sheeting up to Gordon's and we got them all glued up and under weight for the night. He has some 1" MDF cut to wing plane shapes and is set up nicely to do this step and it went pretty smoothly! I picked the wings up Sunday morning and they came out looking great!

[Scrappy]

And in between and after trips up to Gordon's over the weekend I got the V-stab glued into place with GG and got the T-deck glued into place also with GG, I was very pleased with how the turtle deck turned out!! Gordon (again!!) lent me the v-stab tracing he had done using the solder wire trick to use to cut out the rear of the deck to fit and I cut it short on purpose and did the sand/fit repeat 100 times until I was happy with how things lined up, very little foam left at the very rear inside the balsa and you have to be careful handling this area.

I used some 1/4" x 3" Hemlock strips I had on hand (Combat SPAD spar material!!) to clamp up the sides to hold the t-deck in line with the fuselage sides with some wax paper sandwiched in. I clamped in the rear of the hemlock and taped everything down and used a couple of sand bags (doubled up HD freezer ziplock bags with about 5lbs in them) and left it to cure over night. it came out pretty nicely and a bit of sanding, mostly for GG ooze out and I am happy with the result.

I will do the final filling and sanding later on.

Getting there......