Glider Guider

The instrument panel is based on that of G-AGOH from the photos kindly posted by OOLILISSIMA.

The instruments were scaled, touched up and then printed out. Unfortunately I couldn’t use OOLILISSIMA’s but managed to find others on the internet.



The panel is card and the front detail is from 1mm ply all sprayed matt black.



This gives an Idea of what it will look like but it has a good bit still to be done to it.

Greyhead

That instrument panel really looks the part! The use of the 1mm ply to produce the “shaped” panel is very effective; when completed it’ll certainly enhance the cabin and is just what it needs with all that “glass”.

wonwinglo

Well done David,a few toggles and switches and it will really come alive.

Dirk

Hello again David,

please be sure that I'm following your thread even if I don't have the time to write long replies. You've done a good job so far and I'm very curious to see what you'll have done in the next steps.


Greets from Germany,

Dirk.

birdman

Glider Guider, I have recently aquired an ancient DB Auster kit similar to you. although I have built several kits including a flair brisfit I must admit this Auster kit is causing me to scratch my head somewhat! I have obtained the new wing fixing kit so I am ok there. Like you I spotted that there was downthrust built in so I assembled the engine bearers accordingly. The main point of worry is regarding the root ribs. It says in the instruction that they should be glued at an angle as per template shown on the plan. Presumably this is to give them slight dihedral to aid with stability and avoid the "drooped wing effect". The problem is that on my plan the template shows the angle of the root ribs as being 90 degrees to the spars, in other words exactly the same as the rest of the ribs. Have you any idea as to what the angle should be, or alternatively how much dihedral there should be under the wing tip. One final point is again regarding the ribs, since all the ribs in the kit are the same size I am presuming that the aileron ribs are made by simply cutting the appropriate ribs in two, using the smaller piece for the aileron and the larger piece for the wing above the aileron. Am I right in this assumption? I would be very pleased if you could find time to offer your advice on this matter.

Glider Guider

Birdman

It’s a good while ago that I made the wings and to be honest I can’t remember the details of the ribs as to whether I had to cut them to form the aileron. I know David Boddington often leaves details like that to the modeller.

I agree with the wing root rib and remember pondering over it as it is shown on the plan as right angles although referring to it as a wing root template inferring that it should be at an angle. I built mine at right angles but then glued the fuselage aerofoil shaped ply wing facer to the fuselage when the wing was assembled thus getting a nice fit.

As to the dihedral if you make the wing with its wing strut fixings and the fuselage strut fixings accurately, when the wing is assembled with the wing struts dimensioned as per the plan the result is the correct dihedral. I’ve not measured it but by eye it is about 3°.

I hope this helps.

Glider Guider

The Auster instrument panel was completed a while ago with the addition of a few toggle switches and labels.

After some repairs to my Piper Cub following a failure of my transmitter battery during a flight I will be returning to fit out and cover the Auster fuselage. Luckily the fail-safe kicked in and damage to the model was limited.

Immediate suspicion for the crash fell onto the new transmitter battery but I later found it was an ‘own goal’ as I’d fast charged the battery in the transmitter and later discovered that the in-line diode in the transmitter fools the charger into thinking the battery is fully charged when it is only partially charged.

Greyhead

Nice to see the thread restarting now that the “building season” is well and truly with us! The instrument panel looks really nice.

I use a “field” charger for the flight batteries on my electric glider but have always been a bit wary of using it to charge Rx and Tx batteries. With the very unpredictable weather we’ve had this year, which meant it was difficult to decide whether or not to charge up for flying the next day, I did start to use it for Rx batteries but continued to use slow charging for the Tx and having just read your account above I’m glad I did! I wonder how many people are aware that there is a diode in the charging circuit or what its effect can be?