My Homebuilt RC Micro Paper Se5a

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.

I'm a bit behind schedule, but then again I need to earn the money to pay for this hobby!

All the Se5a airfoils have been revised and assembled for build No. 3. I'm really pleased with the results - I've never produced such true airfoils with such consistency and ease AND they are significantly lighter. The tail foils look better svelte, maybe it will pay off aerodynamically. That's the good news. The bad news is all my old flying paper model designs are obsolete!

Going fishing on the Great Lakes until Tues. Perch are biting well, so we'll eat. Bass not so good, but hope to catch a few. Walleye - not a chance!
It's always nice to sample the local vintages on America's North Shore Riviera, so we'll drink a few.

Good trip, and we never had to motor very far. I was the junior partner, but performed credibly.

Day one was excellent small mouth fishing. Between the two of us we kept a 14, 15 and two 17 inch. A few pan fish were taken as well. A late morning 18" small mouth was released and we were at the bar by noon watching soccer.

Day two slow but steady yellow perch fishing, caught about 50, mostly small to medium, just short of the limit. Threw back a number of trash fish and an apparently functioning coaxial cable that came up with the anchor. We beat a thunderstorm to the dock by about 10 minutes.

Flour, egg, cracker crumbs, a lot of black pepper, and yes a bit of butter. Mmmmmmm. Back to the grind.

There is steady, but slow progress on the 3rd build. A lot of things are competing for my time and my studio is hot as Hades after 11:00 am. It's hard to do paper modeling when you drip all over the parts.

The airfoils are complete, and to a very high standard if I do say so myself. I built spares too. :mrgreen: The new pattern wings take a little longer to build, but they are lighter, stronger and truer. I kid you not, I would have liked to make balsa wings this true, back in the days I did this sort of thing. The svelte horizontal and vertical stabs look great and maybe they'll reduce drag a bit.

I'll probably finish the new undercarriage tomorrow. Then, it's on to cracking the old bird, salvaging the guts and putting them into a new fuselage.

Slogging thru summer.