| I had as reference a set of very
accurate 1/4 scale Fokker EIII plans. This helped me considerably in
redesigning the elevator and rudder. While the 90 BUSA Eindecker is approximately
1/5 scale, the plans showed me that the stab-rudder, stab-elevator assembled
on the kit were more like 1/4 scale. This was not unexpected, as BUSA
planes tend to be a compromise between scale and good flying qualities,
which is just fine for their purpose, fun scale flying.
Note on the picture below the size and position of the 1/4 scale rudder
over the plans. While the stock kit has a vertical stab and rudder, the
full flying rudder, while having a similar area, has less area in front of
the hinge point, and more behind, otherwise, it would have resulted in
unstable flying characteristics.
The rudder outline was laminated balsa strips, with 1/16 lite ply
center. The elevator is built "stick" fashion, and was
copied from the 1/4 scale plans. Carbon fiber arrow shafts were used as
spars for both, with brass tubing and strip stock soldered to make the
mount for both control surfaces. |
| The turtle deck is a combination of lithoplate
and fiberglass. More skilled builders could make the whole deck out of lithoplate,
but that is beyond my skills at this time. Because it was all going to be
painted anyway, this worked out okay. For the rear deck, a pattern
was made from blue foam, and fiberglass laid over it the make the actual
piece. This is a "bass-ackward" way to do things I found
out. I should have made a female mold from my foam pattern, and laid
the glass in it. My method resulted in a lot of sanding to get the surface
smooth. Live and learn.
A card board pattern was first cut and trimmed to the desired shape,
then used as a pattern to cut the lithoplate forward deck. I had intended
to cover the whole forward fuse in lithoplate, but later decided to just
us aluminum tape. |
