NMPRA

While I wait for the paint to dry I went ahead and counterbored the engine mount bolt holes. I got this idea from Tom Scott. The purpose is to partially countersink the heads of the 6-32 socket-head screws allowing the engine to slip in just a little easier. According to the experts I consulted (Tom...

Fast forward to yesterday and today and I painted the fuselage. I took only one painting photo. The last couple Q40 planes I painted I used a single-stage that has hardener in it so it doesn't need a clear coat. The tradeoff is that it requires buffing to smooth out the edges where one color overlap...

I used the same technique with a paper template to mark the cut lines for the belly pan that I illustrated in the first build, then cut and fit and cut and fit until...it fit.

Before painting the fuselage I decided to drill the wing bolt holes. I'm not sure what's up with the bolt hole locations on this plane. The spacing of the front hole locations molded in the wing would put the holes in the fuselage closer to the sides than I would prefer. Surely the intended bolt hol...

I was really on the fence about painting this thing. Now that I have a few years of pylon racing experience under my belt I'm less enthused about taking the time and spending the money to paint an airplane that, well, you know. But I enjoyed my Sweet 1 that was painted black and white so much that I...

Same as the first Small Wonder, I made the parts for securing the fuel tank and glued them in with shoe goo. I cut the holes for the on/off switch wire and for the battery charging receptacle. As Dan Kane noted a couple posts back, carbon fiber is conductive and as this area of the fuselage has carb...

Next, the fuel line routing. Even though the line from the 90-degree fitting to the needle valve makes quite a tight loop after it goes through the cut wire in the engine compartment, I decided to do it this way again since it seemed to work well on my first Small Wonder. It makes for a pretty clean...

At this point I'm kind of prepping the fuselage for painting in that I'm cutting all the holes where necessary so I can do this before paint. So next I decided to set up the rudder. Instead of using an 1/8" carbon fiber pushrod for the rudder like I usually do, I used the Central Hobbies #CHMROD24 5...

Quick comment regarding charge jacks in general. The norm for several years has been to secure the connector to the tray and drill a couple holes in the side of the fuse aligned with the pins on the charge connector. This is great and nice and clean. However, carbon is conductive and if the pins on...

On my first Small Wonder I had taken an educated guess on where to position the servo tray for C.G. It ended up requiring like .35 oz. of ballast on the tail to balance, so I could have mounted the servo tray slightly farther aft. On this one, I want to use the elevator pushrod from the first one si...

Same as I did on my first Small Wonder, I cut the holes in the fuselage sides for the elevator joiner, then drilled and countersunk the elevators for the joiner screws. I also mounted the battery to the back the engine mount ring (same as before also). You can find this if you look back in the threa...

Undoubtedly, the organizers of both the pylon nat's and the world championships deliberated about the dates taking everything into consideration (including other groups that use the site) and they felt that the dates they came up with were the best (or, least worst). With the cancelation of the WC, ...

I lied in the last post. I went ahead and temporarily mounted the engine to make certain the firewall was set. With the engine and spinner in place I could see that it needed the slightest nudge for perfect alignment. NOW I'll let it sit overnight, then I'll pot the mount later.

Normally I would reinstall the engine and double-check alignment, but I don't want to smear any glue if the engine mount or engine mount ring come into contact with it, so I'll live dangerously and leave it set overnight. Any imperfection in the alignment should be able to be corrected when potting ...

Once the firewall is set, I disassemble everything, mix up my Loctite 9462 (this time I added a little Don Stegall white micro fibers), and apply to the firewall and inside the fuselage. I put in the firewall and temporarily realigned it with T-pins, then traded the T-pins for the carbon fiber pins....