https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5l...OMUxjdEU/view?
usp=sharing

This bend looks way too tight for me, for 1/8" music wire upon which a 5-
pound model airplane will land. I have visions of the thing snapping on
landing, scuffing the hell out of one wing tip or another, and possibly
making me cut into the (hopefully really nicely finished) top of the wing
to push the remains out.

I can anticipate at least 500 flights on the thing, much of it off of
grass.

What do y'all think? Bend new ones, or use what's in the kit?

--

Tim Wescott
Wescott Design Services
http://www.wescottdesign.com

Tim Wescott fired this volley in
:

What do y'all think? Bend new ones, or use what's in the kit?

Make your own. If the metal's a badly stretched as it is on the outside of
that bend, it can't help but to have been weakened AND embrittled.

De rigeur with heavier models is to bend it in a fairly gentle sweep, then
solder on a washer to act as the inboard bearing, instead of the wheel's
bearing directly on the 'crotch' of the bend. It'll turn better, too.

Lloyd

On Mon, 04 May 2015 20:46:18 -0500, Lloyd E. Sponenburgh wrote:

Tim Wescott fired this volley in
:

What do y'all think? Bend new ones, or use what's in the kit?

Make your own. If the metal's a badly stretched as it is on the outside
of that bend, it can't help but to have been weakened AND embrittled.

De rigeur with heavier models is to bend it in a fairly gentle sweep,
then solder on a washer to act as the inboard bearing, instead of the
wheel's bearing directly on the 'crotch' of the bend. It'll turn
better, too.

I needed someone to tell me to do what I knew I needed to do. I'm kinda
disappointed in the kit -- I need to build another nine scratch-built
planes until I'm pining for the "ease" of kit building again, which will
be corrected with one more kit...

It may be de rigeur, but it certainly wasn't observed by Brodak's on this
kit.

I've got a nice bender with a 3/16" diameter pin. It's a bit generous,
but I've never had a problem with stuff that I've bent.

Sigh. More time on stuff that should have been better than I could
possibly do myself...

--

Tim Wescott
Wescott Design Services
http://www.wescottdesign.com

Tim Wescott fired this volley in
:

I needed someone to tell me to do what I knew I needed to do. I'm
kinda
disappointed in the kit

I've got two kits on the shelf that have had to sit there until I get
this military project done and accepted.

I don't think I've ever built a kit that I didn't modify -- sometimes a
lot. Unless the whole thing is a botch-job, I don't really think of that
as "disappointment" so much as "improvement".

I'm partial to 3M gliders, m'self, although I have three stink pots,
still, and have flown fuel for decades. The sailplanes just seem more
"elegant" in the air, especially when you get a two hour flight off a
rubber high-start, and not a DROP of fuel!

Lloyd

On Monday, May 4, 2015 at 9:30:16 PM UTC-4, Tim Wescott wrote:

This bend looks way too tight for me, for 1/8" music wire upon which a 5-
pound model airplane will land. I have visions of the thing snapping on
landing, scuffing the hell out of one wing tip or another, and possibly
making me cut into the (hopefully really nicely finished) top of the wing
to push the remains out.

I can anticipate at least 500 flights on the thing, much of it off of
grass.

What do y'all think? Bend new ones, or use what's in the kit?

--

Tim Wescott
Wescott Design Services
http://www.wescottdesign.com

I agree, the bend looks too tight for having been bent cold. And I doubt if they heated it , bent it , and then re heat treated it.

Dan

On Mon, 04 May 2015 21:49:36 -0500
Tim Wescott wrote:

snip
Sigh. More time on stuff that should have been better than I could
possibly do myself...

I was still pretty young yet, early 20's maybe when I figured that
out...

After having to re-repair things correctly a few times, that I had paid
somebody professional to do what I thought was beyond my abilities, I
just do it myself. A Pro or manufacturer almost always has time and
material costs working against doing a perfect job. Not to mention
mostly mediocre employees (law of averages). If you care about the job
being done you won't cut the same corners that they will. Ya, I cut
corners doing stuff my self, but usually in cosmetic concerns. Not
where the actual function/purpose takes place. There I tend to go
overboard. Use better fasteners, higher grade replacements... but not
always. Sometimes good-enough is good-enough.

So suck it up, you already knew you were going to have to make things
over or better ;-)

--
Leon Fisk
Grand Rapids MI/Zone 5b
Remove no.spam for email

On Mon, 04 May 2015 20:30:14 -0500, Tim Wescott
wrote:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5l...OMUxjdEU/view?
usp=sharing

This bend looks way too tight for me, for 1/8" music wire upon which a 5-
pound model airplane will land. I have visions of the thing snapping on
landing, scuffing the hell out of one wing tip or another, and possibly
making me cut into the (hopefully really nicely finished) top of the wing
to push the remains out.

I can anticipate at least 500 flights on the thing, much of it off of
grass.

What do y'all think? Bend new ones, or use what's in the kit?

That certainly looks like it has damaged the integrity of the metal at
the kink. You could give it a repetitive bounce test, but why waste
time? If it were mine, I wouldn't take chances and would bend a new
landing gear strut for myself.

--
Try not to become a man of success but
rather try to become a man of value.
--Albert Einstein

On Mon, 04 May 2015 20:30:14 -0500, Tim Wescott
wrote:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5l...OMUxjdEU/view?
usp=sharing

This bend looks way too tight for me, for 1/8" music wire upon which a 5-
pound model airplane will land. I have visions of the thing snapping on
landing, scuffing the hell out of one wing tip or another, and possibly
making me cut into the (hopefully really nicely finished) top of the wing
to push the remains out.

I can anticipate at least 500 flights on the thing, much of it off of
grass.

What do y'all think? Bend new ones, or use what's in the kit?

It's already collapsing on the compression side, and it's seriously
elongated on the tension side. It's already lost much of its strength.

--
Ed Huntress

On Tue, 05 May 2015 09:25:36 -0400, Leon Fisk wrote:

On Mon, 04 May 2015 21:49:36 -0500 Tim Wescott
wrote:

snip

So suck it up, you already knew you were going to have to make things
over or better ;-)

It's a new (to me) manufacturer with a pretty good rep. And it's been a
long time since I've built a kit, so I forgot (or neglected to remember)
that.

Snivel. Whine. Etc., etc.

--

Tim Wescott
Wescott Design Services
http://www.wescottdesign.com

On Mon, 04 May 2015 22:02:06 -0500, Lloyd E. Sponenburgh wrote:

Tim Wescott fired this volley in
:

I needed someone to tell me to do what I knew I needed to do. I'm
kinda
disappointed in the kit

I've got two kits on the shelf that have had to sit there until I get
this military project done and accepted.

I don't think I've ever built a kit that I didn't modify -- sometimes a
lot. Unless the whole thing is a botch-job, I don't really think of
that as "disappointment" so much as "improvement".

I'm partial to 3M gliders, m'self, although I have three stink pots,
still, and have flown fuel for decades. The sailplanes just seem more
"elegant" in the air, especially when you get a two hour flight off a
rubber high-start, and not a DROP of fuel!

My current control line stunt flying buddy flies control line as his
_second_ competition event. His first is RC sailplanes, with which he
competes at the national level (he's won the Nats a few times). For a
while he was the factory rep for a guy in the Seattle area who made top-
quality competition kits, back when such things weren't all made for a lot
less money in formerly communist eastern European countries.

--

Tim Wescott
Wescott Design Services
http://www.wescottdesign.com