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Tuesday, December 04, 2007

DG 500 ELAN

Some more of the build thread on the DG 500 tail feathers .

After cutting the white foam cores the tailplane halves were joined and some lite ply inserts added , these will sit against the tailplane saddle. The leading edge has also been re-inforced with carbon tows (1x60k). The ply-wood saddle was made of two pieces glued together and clamped with a curve which closely matches the actual airfoil , I was lucky it dried with a curve that matched perfectly.
The third attempt at a tailplane seems to be working ,the skins are .8mm balsa sheet bagged on with a layer of uni-directional carbon cloth under neath , the tailplane was sanded smooth and then a finishing layer of 86 gram cloth and finishing epoxy layed onto the balsa.

The ply saddle was sanded and shaped to fit the tail-fin seen here from above.
The inside of the tail was roughed up with a dremal sanding tool to allow the Sika-dur epoxy to key.Carefull alignment to get a zero incedance and it was bonded in, I also used a set square to help set the level , any small adjustments to get the tailplane straight can be made later by sanding.
Clamped and allowed to cure , after which some pieces of carbon cloth and resin were layed up inside to strengthen the saddle to fin bond, at this stage the captive nuts and bolt holes could be drilled and fitted. As I am going to operate the elevator from a servo mounted in the fin once this access is cut, I will be able to work inside on the captive nuts and secure these.
The rudder post is made of ply and cynoed in place and then glassed in with 3 x 60k carbon tows running vertically and finished of with a layer of glass cloth. Into this post the hindges will be glued.
This is what the final glider is likely to look like, yesterday Evan helped me estimate some of the specifications but these are just estimates at the moment.
Wingspan 8 mtrs.
wing area 244.00dm sq
wing loading 56 gr per dmsq at an A.U.W. of 13.5 kg
aspect ratio 26.23 to 1
m.a.c.316.07mm

In the mean time I am out and about procuring needed items such as vinyl logo's , servo's,
heavy duty twisted .5mm copper wire for servo lead extensions, ferrite beads, heavy control horns , nuts and bolts etc. The long wiring extensions will be built into the wings before bagging
so some thought and planning needed for these next steps.
Cheers for now.

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