Gliders > Slope Soaring
Ninja
antonio:
--- Quote from: "Fred" ---A bit late, but well done, looking very good so far :clap:
I had a Ninja a long time ago, and along with the Ridge Racer was one of my favorite glider at the time :D
--- End quote ---
Thanks, Fred. Good to know. After much reading I decided to go for an unmodified version of the Ninja, so no rudder, no separate aileron servos, just standard build. Partly because I don't feel that comfortable making mods on my first non-ARF, and partly because many comments say it's a nice fun glider that way anyway.
So the only "mods" I am planning are fuse reinforcement, based on comments about its weak spot around F3, and maybe a ballast box.
Ah, these are the Ninja instructions btw: http://www.sigmfg.com/BuildManuals/SIGRC63NinjaP1.html
antonio:
OK Keith, more pictures!
Next was gluing the two wings together. I've read every possible opinion about Ninja dihedral but I went for the suggested 1 inch elevation at the wingtip. SIG claims the foam cores are already cut at the approximate angle for that, and I found that to be quite accurate. A tiny bit of sanding and I had a nice joint, went together with 30-min epoxy and taped in place.
And then the fixed portion of the trailing edge that houses the aileron rods. This is done by driving a bent rod through a brass tube that is concealed inside a grooved section of the trailing edge. Better seen than explained:
So what I found was that even pushing the brass tube all the way inside the trailing edge piece, the tube protuded just a tiny bit. I ended up sanding a very shallow groove in the wing, it seemed easier than deepening the existing one on that tiny piece! Here are the two wings glued together, with the right side of the trailing edge already in place, and the left side with a tiny groove being sanded. Once that was done, the piece would sit tightly and aligned just as required.
antonio:
Another new task for me, glass reinforcement. I applied a generous amount of epoxy, then placed the cloth on top and squeegeed with a bit of plastic-coated cardboard. Nice finish except at the edges where I had to cut the material, then threads would come loose and become quite unmanageable once soaked up in epoxy.
Now I'm dreading the task of reinforcing the outside of the fuse as I had planned - the glass cloth I have for that is quite coarse compared to this one provided by SIG, so more chances for fibre threads to go wild. Any suggestions to keep glass cloth edges under control?
Starting to look like a wing...
Happy Days:
Hmmm, very good I must say!
So what subject are you studying Antonio? English language perhaps? You have very good descriptive skills.
After browsing through those build instructions for your Ninja I thought you might like to make use of this little tip. I use it for some of my models where the fuse and wings are retained by nylon screws.
To explain the purpose of this modification first:
I found that despite being an expert rc pilot, (okay,… so I tell lies,) there were some occasions, (read, ‘often’) when the wind would suddenly change direction just as I was landing, or the ground would suffer a minor earth quake and momentarily rise up just as my plane was about to touch down. (Like I said,…I tell lies.) The net result of these totally unpredictable occurrences was that one wing tip would touch the ground before the fuse did. This resulted in a tremendous torque being applied to the wing / fuse area often resulting in damage to the afore mentioned parts of the airframe. :evil:
Having thought about this problem, I came to the following conclusion. That Force, being the Product of Inertia times Mass. Plus the fact that every action has an equal and opposite reaction, and that E = MCC and that I was getting more and more pissed off at having to repair repairs that themselves were repairs :evil: ,…I came up with this solution.
Drill a shallow hole through the head of the nylon retaining screws. By weakening the screw thus, the head of the screw ‘pops off’ when exposed to excess stress thereby allowing the wing to separate from the fuse and saving damage to either part of the airframe. :P
The only downside of this solution is the need for a constant supply of fresh nylon screws until such time as one gets better at landing. (That’s why I’m still drilling nylon screws! :oops: )
Here’s one I drilled earlier…….
Keep up the good work Antonio,...Tally-Ho.
Keith
selleri:
Regarding the fiberglass finish, plastic bags are your friends. Not sure what the correct name is but it's the "soft" clear bags, not the ultra thin(noisy ones) but the more substansial ones.
Put them over when you've squeezed out most of the epoxy, "rub" them lightly down but beware that any crevises and folds will show up on the finished coat. This will give you an almost mirror smooth surface and help keep the edges neat.
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