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Fishing Tips?


Brinky

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Hi,

I've got a "Le Fish" on order, hopefully arriving sometime soon :)

Has anyone built one with a 2 piece wing? If so, how did you do it? have you got any photo's?

I'm going to use 8mm carbon rod and carbon tube (to keep the weight down), but I'm pondering the best way of fixing the wings to the fuz. I'm thinking of making a balsa/ply wing section to glue into hole in the fuz,, then using 2 carbon rod/tubes through the middle. Or I could just chop a bit off the root of each wing and glue this in instead? Definitely got to be a 2 piece wing though.

Any suggestions, or any other ideas? I've got a Voltij which weighs a ton, so I want to keep Le Fish fairly light, so that I can fly it in 10 mph winds. Covering is going to be profilm, with small amounts of cross weave tape underneath (mainly on the wing LE and maybe along the bottom of the fuz.

Looking forward to your suggestions, hopefully some might even be useful :D

Mike

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Not quite the "Le Fish" but it's big brother the "XL Le Fish"!

I built this with a two piece wing.

As can be seen from the pics, a plywood faced recess about 6mm deep was made in the fuselage.

This contained the 10mm i.dia. carbon tube to take the solid 10mm wing joiner rod.

Also the plug and play socket for the wing flapperon, and a 10mmx4mm thick neodium magnet wing keeper.

Got no pic of the wing but this was just a mirror image with 10mm i.d carbon joiner tube, electrical plug and 10mm magnet.

It's worked a treat with no problems.

http://www.barcs.co.uk/forums/uploads/monthly_10_2012/post-1822-0-10028600-1349819636.jpghttp://www.barcs.co.uk/forums/uploads/monthly_10_2012/post-1822-0-81159300-1349819666.jpghttp://www.barcs.co.uk/forums/uploads/monthly_10_2012/post-1822-0-77868500-1349819691.jpghttp://www.barcs.co.uk/forums/uploads/monthly_10_2012/post-1822-0-39562600-1349819730.jpg

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Hi,

Thanks for the reply and photos, it's much appreciated. I didn't know you could get a Xl Le Fish...?

That's pretty much what I was thinking of doing, but with 2 x 8mm carbon joiners instead. From Le Fish photos I've seen, the fuz has a wing shaped hole cut all the way, so you just slide the whole wing through and glue it in place. Was your fuz solid, or did it have a hole cut through?

Did you glue the wing joiner tubes straight into the foam on the wings? I'm thinking of cutting a 10mm wide slot in the wing (parallel to the LE), then making up a balsa/ply block with the wing joiner tube in the middle, then sticking the whole lot into the slot. Not sure if it's worth going to that much trouble, or whether I can get away with glueing the joiner tubes directly into the foam in the wing?

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Don't know if he continued with the XL Le Fish as it didn't really seem to catch on.

Yes the fuz has a wing shaped cutout through the fuselage, with the the EPP cut out put back in place.

So I cut the width of this down accordingly, so when faced with 3 or 4mm ply it gave a recess both sides of about 6mm, so the wings sat into the recess thus giving the right incidence and no movement.

The wing roots were also faced with plywood, so the joiner tubes both in the wings and the fuselage were glued into the foam, but more importantly glued/supported by the plywood facings. (I found Gorilla type glue worked well)

IMO I don't think you need two wing joiners. The one 10mm rod is plenty strong enough, and the wing is held in place by the recess, the Neodium magnets and the plugs and sockets.

Of course if you were building a Swiss light then you would keep weight down to a bare minimum and have a one piece wing.

With a standard build this two piece wing system, I reckon, would add no more than a couple of ounces.

As said earlier, it's worked perfectly for a couple of years and is extremely quick to just "plug and play"! :)

Ps don't know if you read on RCG that LEG have closed shop for a while to try to deal with the backlog of orders- just hope yours escaped this cut off time.

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Thanks,

I think I'm going to copy what you've done. I was thinking of the ply ribs, but I couldn't decide on the best way to space them apart in the fuz. I was thinking of making a built up structure, but using a bit of foam is a much better idea and a lot simpler :-)

I put my order in at the end of August, so hopefully it'll arrive soon. Glad you mentioned that LEG had shut up shop whilst they catch up. I would have been pretty worried if I had checked their website!

Fingers crossed it arrives soon, cos I can't wait to fly it. Many thanks again for your help.

I'll post some photos when I get it flying

Regards,

Mike

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  • 3 weeks later...

Woo-Hoo! Look what landed on my desk today ....

Le Fish has arrived :D

Now all I have to do is build it. Might take a while... :unsure:

p.s. No jokes please like....

"that must have been a really lousy landing for it to totally re-kit itself"

or "Ahhh, poor Fishy, it's so tired, it can't keep it's wing tips up"

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Hi Adam,

Hope you managed ot get your Fish today. There's already quite a few build logs on the forums, so I wasn't going to do a full build log. However, as I'm going to make mine a 2 piece plug in wing, (roughly following the same idea as Cliffhanger above), I thought I'd post a few photos as I go along.

First thing I've learnt is that Gorilla glue expands a lot more than I thought it would! My original plan was to cut a 10mm wide slot in the wing, then stick a vertical ply "spar" with the joiner tube attached into the slot. I used blue foam to fill in the gaps at the top and bottom of the tube, glued it all together with Gorilla glue, weighed it down with a lot of small weights and left it. Came back 2 hours later to find the weights scattered all over the floor, where the glue had expanded and lifted the foam & joiner tube off of the ply ..Aaargh!

See photo below ( it should be rotated 90 degrees so the ply is vertical) - the joiner tube is supposed to be touching the ply and it's all supposed to be a nice rectangular shape so it fits in the slot nicely. Now it's all in the bin :D

p.s. this was done whilst I was waiting for the kit to arrive. Now it's arrived, I'm going to do it a little differently. One joiner tube will be between the 2 carbon stiffening rods with a 2nd tube 75 mm further back (using the method above, but done correctly this time - hopefully!)

I'll post some photos once I've made some more progress.

Mike

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  • 4 weeks later...

Progress update...

Finished the joiner tubes,ply wing roots and have cut the holes for the wing servos. Just given the wings their 1st coat of lightweight Polyfilla. Now all that's needed is a lot of sanding, re-filling and covering.

I've also built the "joiner box" which is going to get glued into the hole in the fuz. It's just 2 ply ribs, with balsa in between (plus carbon joiner tubes).The hole in the top is to allow for the servo extension leads to come out. The sockets are going to get glued into the ply root rib, between the 2 joiners. The joiner box is also going to get small magnets front and back to stop the wings coming adrift in flight.

I've also attacked the fuz with sanding mesh/sandpaper/etc and it's nicely rounded off now, looks a LOT better! Rudder/elevator servos are installed and he fuz is stuck together as well. I've cut a hatch to allow for access to the battery & rx.

Only problem is that my garage now looks like it's covered in artificial snow! - foam dust everywhere :(

Haven't taken any photos yet, sorry. I'll take some soon and post them here.

Mike

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Yeah Mike, looking good so far!.

I've seen you've gone for the more "sophisticated" idea of two joiner tubes, now't like belt and braces! :thumbsup: .

You didn't use the supplied EPP as the basis for the "joiner box" then.

Many ways to skin a cat.

Keep coming with the pics- a 66" span model is handy having a two piece wing.

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Ah, but there's some very good reasons why I went with the 2 joiners and the balsa/ply joiner box

... (standby for the excuses!)

1. I'd already bought the 8mm carbon rod and tubes

2. I didn't have any 10mm rod and I didn't want to buy any more!

3. I didn't get the EPP cutout from the hole for the wing, I just got a hole :D

However I do admit a 10mm joiner would fit better between the 2 reinforcing spars in the wing. But (as a belt and braces man), if I was doing it again, I'd probably copy the wing joiner arrangement on my 2.5m Multiplex ASW27. This uses a single steel joiner, with 2 incidence pegs front and back to locate the wing. (see photo below). The steel joiner is actually completely free floating in the fuz and the wing just locates on the pegs, with a plastic "popper" top hold the wings on. The hole in through the fuz is (deliberately!) much bigger than the joiner. It works great!

I've also made a bit more progress on Le Fish. I've made a canopy hatch and sanded the fuz to shape. Just the tail to do and glue in the rudder/elevator snakes and it's pretty much ready for covering. See below

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  • 1 month later...

Finally  ...it's finished  :)   

 

I've been plodding on with Le Fish build. Due to the lousy weather, Xmas and lack of flying time, I only had a few bit and pieces to do, just a bit of soldering on the wing servo leads, balancing, setting control movements, etc.

All of a sudden it's New Years day morning (Happy New Year everyone!) and the weather forecast is pretty much perfect for a maiden flight. Only snag is, Le Fish isn't ready  :(

 

2 hours later...  it's ready for action  :D   

 

 

Wiring finished, C.G. checked, controls move in the right direction, range check done, time for the maiden flight (gulp!)

 

 

It flies, Woo-Hoo   :drool:   

 

Second launch.... oops, it slipped out of my hand and cartwheeled across the slope....Grrr  :angry:   (or words to that effect)

 

 

Fortunately, no damage at all, so after a second flight it's in for a nice landing

 

 

Aaaaahhhhhh  :thumbsup:

 

Fist impressions are ....it flies great, aerobatic, but very stable, picks up speed quickly, goes where you point it, brilliant!

 

Still needs some tweaking to control surface movements etc (more aileron throw, less elevator), but overall I'm really happy.

 

I even got to fly my "new" Tragi as well, which also flies great, just does MUCH bigger loops etc   :D

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How have you strengthened the fuz near the tail as mine flaps like a Fish!!??Adam

Er, well, it IS after all... oh never mind!
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Nice work there Brinky, that's a very clean Fish :)

 

I like your 2pc wing solution. I've never received the middle part of EPP that Rog refers to, maybe it was just something Jack did on the bigger versions. I'm sure Jack would include it if asked - would certainly make things easier if building a 2pc wing!

 

Have fun with it! Make sure to run snapflaps - about 5mm each way is a good starting point, adjust as needed to taste.

Steve

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Hi Big Bear,

My Fish tail is fairly stiff, thanks  :D  

 

When I installed the carbon stiffener tube, I glued it in, so it was pretty much to the rear of the fuz as per the pic below

 

 

I did do one small modification when I installed the fin though. I just glued a piece of very hard square balsa to the rear of the fin, running from the top of the fin, to the base of the fuz (and stuck to the rear of the fuz as well). It's roughly where the red line is in the photo below. This did make covering/hinging the elevators a bit of a mare though  :(

 

 

I think this makes the fin/tail a bit more resistant to twisting?

 

Also on the elevators I thought they were a bit weak, so I sunk a 1mm carbon rod diagonally into the underside of the elevator across the tip (if that makes sense). I also cut 1/2 inch off the outer end of each elevator and replaced it with a strip (going front to back, so it's cross grained compared with the rest of the elevator), to make it a bit stronger (sorry, no photos)

 

Surfimp:

Thanks for the comments, it was really a case of rushing to get it finished it New Years Day, because the weather forecast was looking really good (for a change!). I did have 3mm snapflap programmed in, so I'll experiment with a bit more in the future. I was really chuffed with it for the first time out though, it flies great!

 

Now all I need to do is learn how  to do nice neat aerobatics, instead of the odd shapes I'm currently creating  :D  

 

Regards,

Mike

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Not what you'd call ideal conditions for a second flight either  :(

 

(photo by Phil)

 

7 mph, but foggy, meaning I had to keep Le Fish really close to the slope. Still, it flew and I could do some really tight turns to keep it in sight  :D

 

However my depth perception obviously wasn't that great in the fog, because I managed to crash into bushes (and a tree!) 3 times. No damage done fortunately  :thumbsup:

 

After the 3rd crash landing, I decided I'd used up all my luck for the day and I packed up and went home  :)

 

Oh... mental note to self:  White model and fog don't go together. Must iron on some more fluorescent yellow film!

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Hah, call that fog, looks like a nice clear day in the UK to me  :P   

This is foggy - see the photo on  

 

Lovely video though. Did you do a full "Swiss Fish" job on your model?   I just went for light weight, without being too fragile. Unfortunately it came out at 2lb 9 oz. However it still flew well in the 7mph breeze we had (with a bit of camber dialled in)

 

I can't wait for a nice sunny day....

 

regards,

Mike

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Hi, first time post on BARCS...

Just got my le fish kit from Jack, and the build looks straight forward enough (have build a couple of other fomies).

But as for finishing.... how many ways to cover a fish..think someone could write a book about it!

So from your thread I think you have used..

Lam film then pro film on the wings

What about fuz?

Did you use any cross weave?

Bryn

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