D25 Build Progress

Ok, so here go! Picture time...

 

This are the only four parts that have to be cut  to shape other than the motor mount. Four ribs.

Here we line up everything according to the plan. Spars have been cut to size as per plan. These spar are 6mm carbon tubes. Here I used rods but they should have been tubes. I got these from Radicalrc.com

Here we make sure everything lines up and that is not twisted.

 

Here we cut and glue the trailing edge. This trailing edge should be made out of hardwood or a nice stiff balsa spar. I used some soft balsa and I believe this could be improved on a next build.

 

Here are the leading edges cut and positioned and glued to the front of the ribs. These are 5mm carbon tubes. 

 

Here wing tips have been glued. I also made a mistake here and used balsa. On a next build I will use hardwood. I chose balsa at first for the trailing edge and tips because of weight concerns. I think the extra weight should be minimal with hardwood. 

 Motor mount cut and glued to main ribs or fuse sides whatever you wanna call them.

Here the bottom part of the fuse has been sheeted with 1/16" balsa. The sheeting goes all the way from the trailing edge to the leading edge.

Here the wing has been sheeted on the top from the trailing edge to the back spar. And from the front of the motor mount to the back of the motor mount. I could've just left the motor mount without sheeting but I wanted it to be as streamlined as possible.

Here's a shot of the whole thing on it's way

Here I wanted to see how everything fit inside the plane. Plenty of space I would say.

The electronics you see are a Mega brushless motor 16/15/7, 1800 Mah Lipo, Jeti ESC and a castle creations stamp receiver ( recently got into 2.4 GHZ and I hate the long antennas now)  This motor is not a high RPM motor it offers like 1250 KV if I'm not mistaken so not a lot of speed but it should be plenty of power to move it around. The prop is a 8X4 Apc prop.

Here I made a hatch to cover it all up. On a later picture this hatch has to be modified to acomodate servos. I moved the servos way to the front so Cg wouldn't be a problem with this setup. On a future build I will move the servos to another location and make a neater job at the hatch. I don't like the actual hatch contraption that I had to improvise. My bad, poor planing on that part. But hey we still need to find out if this thing will fly!

 A little more detail on the hatch. Like I said before I had to modify it (butcher? ) to accommodate servos.

 

I think it's looking nice. Hope it flies as nice as it looks.

 Some covering on it. On this type of airplane a high contrast scheme works best. I had this covering lying around for years and decided to use it. But high visibility colors in contrast work best for top and bottom. I'm not to worried about it because with the current setup it shouldn't be the screaming demon I hope it to be on the future.

Weighed the whole thing stuffed. Came out at 16.06  OZ Not bad for 287 Sq Inches I guess.

I dunno, this is embarrassing. This could've come out better. But for now this is it.

That's all for now. I hope to finish it this week. So if you like it, stay tuned. Hopefully I will maiden it this next weekend and post video and a report on how it came out. Like always, keep flying!