I had less time to hobby than I would have liked this week end, but made some good progress, largely "virtual" rather than actual building.
After assembling the first revised wing I realized some minor changes could save more a bit more weight and result in a wing that is actually a bit easier to build and easier to build true. I actually pared a tiny amount of weight out of the ailerons! For each of the 4 wings outboard the center sections I have eliminated 30.9 cm2 of paper and
.235 g. By the time I get done with the upper and lower center wing sections I'll easily have axed 1 full gram.
I also took the time to thin the airfoil sections of the tail surfaces by 25%. This is not a significant weight reduction measure, but I hope the smaller profile it will reduce drag a bit. In earlier versions, the tail airfoils were arbitrarily made as thick as the wing aileron to simplify pivot and hinge production by using just one basic pattern that was "stretched" electronically.
The enlarged rudder turns out to be weight neutral; I managed to take out some unnecessary internal paper from the internal bracing of vertical stabilizer.
I'm taking a hard look at the undercarriage, I think there may be some weight savings there too.
The individual insulated phone wires are about 1mm in diameter, I'm having trouble finding tools small enough and precise enough to make a micro wire stripper.
Ah, the burning of insulated wire....One of my many college jobs involved scrap salvage. Our crew burned a huge pile of insulated copper wire in a field. It took a while to get going, and was pleasant at first and we speculated about making smores - but the heat got so intense we had to retreat hundreds of yards. Next day we had little copper piglets in the sand. Toxic foolishness of this kind was common back then.
After assembling the first revised wing I realized some minor changes could save more a bit more weight and result in a wing that is actually a bit easier to build and easier to build true. I actually pared a tiny amount of weight out of the ailerons! For each of the 4 wings outboard the center sections I have eliminated 30.9 cm2 of paper and
.235 g. By the time I get done with the upper and lower center wing sections I'll easily have axed 1 full gram.
I also took the time to thin the airfoil sections of the tail surfaces by 25%. This is not a significant weight reduction measure, but I hope the smaller profile it will reduce drag a bit. In earlier versions, the tail airfoils were arbitrarily made as thick as the wing aileron to simplify pivot and hinge production by using just one basic pattern that was "stretched" electronically.
The enlarged rudder turns out to be weight neutral; I managed to take out some unnecessary internal paper from the internal bracing of vertical stabilizer.
I'm taking a hard look at the undercarriage, I think there may be some weight savings there too.
The individual insulated phone wires are about 1mm in diameter, I'm having trouble finding tools small enough and precise enough to make a micro wire stripper.
Ah, the burning of insulated wire....One of my many college jobs involved scrap salvage. Our crew burned a huge pile of insulated copper wire in a field. It took a while to get going, and was pleasant at first and we speculated about making smores - but the heat got so intense we had to retreat hundreds of yards. Next day we had little copper piglets in the sand. Toxic foolishness of this kind was common back then.