Supergee type DLG build

[joe]

First half of the fuse mould glassed. Now we wait.


Wings sanded and trimmed. 140grams. Not bad for first go.

[billscottni]

Nice work Joe.
I made something similar a few years ago, but went without flaperons and increased the wing dihedral to give me a R/E ship and made the pod using the lost foam method rather than going thru all the hassle of moulding for a one off.

I'll dig the model out of the garage and take some pics...... when my back stops playing up and I can actually get out of the house! :!:

[joe]

Sorry to hear you back is giving you trouble again Bill.
They are a nice project alright. I have/am considering a R/S version. It would need a least 10degrees of dihedral i reckon to be responsive with rudder only. Thats a lot of dihedral! It would look a little extreme. Polyhedral looks better to me. But you would have to reenforce where the outer panels join which would add to the weight lost by not having any servos  :?:
Well I have 4 booms and will have a fuse mould soon so I can make a straight one and a poly one!  

[joe]

So half of the mould and the canopy is now done. Getting there

[johnfireball]

Hi Joe,
        Whats the order of wing layup? Does  the mylar go on first or after the cloth?
John.

[joe]

Hi John.
The mylar is there to give a smooth surface so you have foam, fibreglass/carbon etc then mylar.

When you are doing the layup you actually do it onto the mylar and then set the core down on the bottom mylar and place the top mylar on top making a  sandwich with the wing core inside and all that goes in the vac bag. It gives a really nice smooth shiny finish like a moulded wing.

[Alan_Perse]

I assume you peel the Mylar off when the resin has set?

[joe]

You assume correctly Alan. Very satisfying it was too. Thankfully  

[johnfireball]

Hi Joe,
        The penny has dropped. By the way does the mylar conform properly to the airfoil in all directions ie does it stretch in all directions or is it rigid and behaving as a sheet of paper would(creasing at wingtips).
Thanks John.

[joe]

It's very rigid John. Think laminated business card type rigid. Leading edge to trailing edge is fine as are rounded corners like the DLG wing. It won't conform to a square tip or crease would probably just crush the corners a bit. Depends on how much vacuum you are pulling i suppose?!

[Richard Boyd]

Hi Joe , very interesting build.
You are a young man of many talents.
The wing came out really well and at 140g it is a good weight , my blaster 2 is 138g flying weight and I acheived this by using 2 servos in the pod. This gave me more forward weight and reduced the amount of lead I had to use up in the nose.
I also went rudderless  (6.5g) and used a spring pull elevator(7g).
I also shortened the boom by 22mm, my launch heights improved and the plane turns alot better in low tight thermals.
This all helped to elimate adding weight up front to correct the CG plus I have a plane that thermals alot better in low light lift.

[joe]

Hi Richard.
So far so good. The idea was to build something that was at the standard of an entry level DLG and then try build better, stronger, lighter as I go.
138grams flying weight? just for the wing right?? similar weight but, your blaster wing will be twice as strong as my wing

interesting stuff Richard. I'm not going crazy trying to keep the weight down but i will save it where it's easy to do. Want an average build as a reference and i need to leave room for improvment!

Mould's done. Came out fairly good. One side is good and the other needs a little touch up. Can see where i went wrong. Lesson learned(hopefully)

[Richard Boyd]

Very nice indeed Joe !
I had some ideas on a dlg a few years back but it really is difficult to work on such simple yet complex planes.
I had thought about cutting the wing in half (on the length) and milling out triangular sections and then fitting the spar and sandwiching back together and glassing, I reckoned you could save 30g plus and improve the wing strength.
My old blasters are used on the sand dunes and sea walls around the North Coast, as you live beside the sea you will have hours of fun with your proto type. But be careful you mite get hooked on HLG  :wink:

Keep up the good work.

[joe]

You're right Richard they are simple but not easy to work with. The cores are thin and delicate and it's a bit of work just to get something fairly standard like mine but, it is satisfying when they come out usable.
Plenty of small coast sites here when we get some sort of easterly alright.
Was kinda planing on getting hooked to be honest. Wanted to do a lot more thermal flying this year. Was flying yesterday in the field beside me and caught a few small little thermals. More like neutral air really. Have a really old hi-start/up-start type affair that an auld guy gave to me years ago. It's standard household bungee cord and is fairly shite. It only stretches about twice it's length so launch height was about 20 metres :-( Am waiting on some rubber from hobbyking. If i can get a decent launch height i'll get into using it i'd say. Then it'll be time to build a TD/F3J type affair!
Have a few machines that should work ok off the hi-start. Between them and the DLGs I should be good.....for now

[Fred]

Looking good Joe!  :clap:  :clap: