Construction Manual
www.oldschoolmodels.com
Page 13
FIFTY ONE
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Step 95 - Fuselage - Sanding
Take the time to sand the fuselage. The sides should obviously
be smooth, but the edges of the fuse can also be rounded off
nicely, due to the 1/4" inner frame-work. Don't go nuts, as there's a
limited amount of rounding you can do, but you can sand in a nice
looking radius on all four edges of the fuse.
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Step 96 - Fuselage - Attach the wing
To attach the wing you'll obviously need the wing that you built
earlier. If you haven't already, you'll need to do a quick sanding of
the wing's leading edge, from the center of the wing out about 2
inches on either side. You'll need to round off the leading edge
to the airfoil shape so it will fit correctly into the wing saddle. Also
flatten the area between the two dowels, where the wing butts-up
against F2A/B.
When finished, insert the wing
into the fuselage, making sure
the front dowels slide smoothly
into the holes in F2A/B. If they
don't fit as nicely as you'd like,
don't mess with the dowels.
Instead, file a bit on the holes until
you get the dowels to slide in as they
should.
To align the wing properly on the
fuselage, place the wing in position, then allow the wing to rest in
the wing saddle. The wing is perfectly aligned when the distance
from the port wing tip to the port stab tip is the same the distance
when measured from the starboard wing tip to the starboard stab
tip.
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Step 97 - Fuselage - Drill wing bolt holes
With the wing aligned, drill two 3/16” holes for the wing bolts,
using the pre-cut holes in WH1 as a guide. Use caution to make
sure the wing does not move until both holes are drilled.
When drilling, take your time and make sure the drill is held so the
bit is in the center of the wing holes. This will guarantee that the
holes drilled in WH4 will be perpendicular with the wing’s sheeting.
This will make it so the wing bolt goes in at an angle, but the screw’s
head will be flat on the wing surface. Remove the drill, remove the
wing and clean up around the new holes you drilled.
Run a 1/4x20 tap through the WH4 pieces so that the wing
bolts will thread into this block. A few drops of thin CA will help
strengthen and secure the threads you’ve cut. We've found this
to be a very secure way of holding the wing in place for all of our
prototypes, but... if you don't want to go this way, you can also
use 1/4x20 t-nuts (not included). If you go that route, you may also
need slightly longer bolts, but that's something you'll have to find
out for yourself.
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Step 98 - Wing - Servo wire exits
With the wing mounted to the fuselage, grab a couple strips of
tape. What you need to do is use the tape to mark the width of
the fuselage by sticking the tape onto the wing, up against the
fuse sides.
Remove the wing and set the fuselage aside. You'll now need to
make to cutouts in the upper surface of the wing for the servos
wires to exit. But, because the fuselage is narrow, you can't make
the usual, large holes. These holes will be cut on either side of
the R1 ribs and they're roughly 4" back from the leading edge
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Step 91 - Fuselage - FS6
Locate FS6 from BP9. This is glued on
the bottom of the fuselage, where the
air scoop will fit later on. It has a tab
which fits into the notch cut into the
bottom of F4 as shown here.
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Step 92 - Fuselage - FES (electric power only)
If you're powering your Fifty-
One with an electric powerplant,
locate both FESs from LP2. Note
that they're not perfect rectangles
- they're slightly quadrilateral
so they'll only properly fit one
way, allowing them to match the
downthrust of the FG (already
installed). You'll glue one of these
to the inside surface of side sheeting up-against FG - on both the
port and starboard sides.
Also locate the 3/16" x 12" sq. basswood strip. Cut two 2-1/4"
lengths, then glue them to the edge of the FES pieces you just
installed. These two pieces will give more surface area for the
electric firewall to grab on to, in the next step.
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Step 93 - Fuselage - FE (electric power only)
If you're powering your Fifty-One with
an electric powerplant, locate the FE
made earlier in the build. This is now
going to be epoxied in place as it's
the firewall for your electric motor. You
should have already installed the t-nuts
that came with your mount, and if you
remember, this piece has an engraved
arrow designating the top of the firewall.
So mix up a little 30 minute epoxy and
glue FE in place as shown here. Also
shown is a mounted
motor, with the wires
running into the battery
pocket, through the hole
in FG. No need to mount
the motor now, but use
this an example when
mounting your motor
later on.
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Step 94 - Fuselage - Battery cutout
On the starboard side of the
fuselage, you'll need to cut
away the sheeting to expose
the battery pocket. Cut out the
area between BB and BT (top to
bottom) and FG and F3 (fore to
aft).
Dont' try to do this all at once.
Make a smaller hole as shown
here, then carefully work your way to edges of the inner lite-ply
structure. Remember, it's a heck of a lot harder to put material back
on than take it off.
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