Akrobat
Needed in the hanger is a plane suitable for windy days. A
suitable candidate might also reside in the barn rafters that has never
been built. It is a Gary Graham Akrobat, a sport flyer with a
thicker higher lift wing but without the square inches of a
floater.
The Akrobat has been retrieved to the garage and dusted. It
appears to be in reasonably good shape following the long storage. The Akobat was kitted by a local with jig built
fuslege and wing panels. It will become the next project and will
be started sometime after an August vacation. Discussion about
putting it on the boards and the need for a motor yielded a good buy
from a fellow modeler on a never run YS 120 4 stroke that should
provide more than ample power for some great aerobatics.
Construction
As mentioned, the Akrobat was available in a jig framed version where
the basic fuselage and wings were jig built. Considerable work
remained however especially for the fuselage including building of all
the empennage, installing firewall and many parts to complete the
framing.
Framing is nearing completion.
- The firewall and motor mounts are done
- The hatch is finished
- Landing gear is mounted
- The removable empennage is finished
- The cowling is fit
- The fuselage is fitted out with various blocks and supports
- Wings are fitted and aligned and servo boxes installed
Yet to do... is Fit radio gear and control linkages, sand and cover.
The empennage
This is the first time I've done a removable empennage and while it
took
a little extra work constructing, it will save some effort when
covering because the vertical stab fairing is removable leaving all
parts of the empennage to be covered individually. The primary
purpose however is because the plane with empennage installed won't fit
in my truck.
Two custom screws bolt through plywood glued between the longerons,
through the horizontal stabilizer and then into the vertical stabilizer
terminating in a hardwood framing strip. The screws are made from
8-32 all thread, aluminum rod and cap screws and are accessed from the
bottom of the plane. The tail
wheel bracket is mounted with 8-32 screws into blind nuts so it can be
removed easily to get at the stabilizer screws.
The vertical stab fairings after fitting were glued to a single piece of
1/64" ply on their bottoms, which fits onto the horizontal stabilizer
prior to the vertical stab so as to be locked down by the vertical
stab. The vertical stab is further supported by a very hard balsa
tail post with 3/16 dowels into the aircraft tail.
