Both wings done

Completed the ailerons on the upper wing last week, and finished the lower wing last night.  Next step will be sanding - need to sand the leading edges to shape (they're just 3/8" square stock right now) and make sure everything is nice and smooth and ready for covering later on.

Upper wing with ailerons complete

Closer view of the upper wing left half

Lower wing with main spar, ribs, and trailing edge

Lower wing is complete

Upper Wing

The Albatross kit arrived last week from AerodromeRC and I've started building the upper wing.  Below are a series a pics showing my progress...the wing is mostly finished tonight, except for sanding, install of the servo bays, and the ailerons.  It's gone together fairly easily, although the fit on the laser-cut parts could be a little better.

Kit arrived, taking a look at all the plans and parts. It comes with a stack of laser-cut balsa, two rolls of plans (wings on one, fuselage and tail on the other), and some neoprene rubber pieces which are to be used for the tires.

Here I've got the wing plans tacked down to a ceiling tile (for pinning) and some clear shelf paper over it all.  Had to cut the plans to fit on the 2x4ft ceiling tile, but fortunately both wings fit.

First night of building.  About half the ribs are in, and the lower spars and wing tips are in place.

End of the first night...most of the ribs are in place except a few at the wing tips.

End of the second night, the wing is basically complete, except for ailerons, servo bays, and final sanding.  Next up is the lower wing, which is built in two parts (each half bolts to the fuselage). 

Pietenpol AirCamper

After I convince my wife to move here (house in friendswood on a private runway with its own hangar in the backyard), my next project will be to build a full size Pietenpol AirCamper

Waiting for stuff...

While I wait for some materials (balsa, hardware,etc.) to come in for the Albatross, I've been working on getting my UAV working properly. The UAV is a parkzone radian (powered glider) with an APM2 autopilot system (from 3D robotics: http://www.diydrones.com/notes/ArduPilot) The DIYdrones group (www.diydrones.com) holds periodic contests for UAV tasks and the latest was one to fly out at least 300m, image something interesting on the ground, fly home, and repeat 5 times.

 Here is a link to my initial tries (10mb zip file) at this...images and kmz files that can be opened in Google Earth to show the flight path.

 I got 10 flights in this morning and all succesfully imaged the fish-shaped sandtrap nearby, but only 2 of the flight logs were recorded. I'll give it a try next time. Below is one of the images and a screenshot of the flight path from google earth:

The Albatross and it's predecessor

I'm intending this to chronicle the build of a 54" wingspan rc airplane model of the WW1 Albatross DVa, shown here.  It's a kit from AerodromeRC.  I've received the kit but am waiting for some additional balsa stock to arrive.



I will be using the motor (Eflite power 40) from a previous RC plane, a P40 Warhawk, that I built as a kid in the late 80's.  It was originally nitro powered, but I converted it to electric a couple months ago.  I crashed it on it's second outing when the receiver lost the signal.  Of course I managed to video the whole thing:

  

P40 Crash Movie from David Hertzog on Vimeo.

Stay tuned.  The balsa I'm waiting for should arrive this week and then I'll start building next week.