Top FLite Elder 40

Purchased in Toronto, I brought this boxed kit through customs under my arm.

Stuffed into the box with the basic kit were all the extras: fuel tank, engine, several rolls of covering (Hangar 9 UltraCote) and so on.

Conventionally framed up out of 1/4x1/2" balsa, with the curved sections laminated from die-cut 1/8th sheet, I used a little CF tow to reinforce the curved sections.

The cross-braced ribs are 1/4-square balsa with 3/32" cap strips deliberately raised above the flat surface of the stab. This to give a pronounced ribbing effect after covering.

I went with the scalloped control surfaces, but elected to scallop in line with the ribs rather than in the recommended pattern.

Fin constructed in similar vein to the stab. Again, curved sections reinforced with a little CF tow in the lamination. I'm concerned for the health of the fin in the event that I manage to nose-over this model and 'hack' the ground with the fin!

Notice a little step at the bottom rear, just in line with the slot in the rudder? This is not given in the plan, and in the photos in the instruction booklet that accompanies this kit, this step is conspicuously absent. But without it...

...the tail group would not fit together!

I had to cut away the base of the fin trailing edge so the components could be assembled.

This shot shows the parts being test-fit together. They have a sort of organic shape, don't you think? Like some sort of marine creature...

This photograph shows the wing on the bench in the earliest stages of construction. Guages hold the ribs perpendicular to the bench as they are glued to the bottom main spar. The top sub-spar is also in place.

This picture shows a close-up of the structure of a finished wing panel. Conventional construction is used, with upper and lower hardwood main spars, vertical-grained shear-webbing, and sheeting on the leading and sub-trailing edges of the wing. Balsa sub-spars are concealed beneath (and support) the leading-edge sheeting.

The wing tip is shown here in finished form. Construction is quite simple. A shaped balsa bottom-panel gives the wing tip it's shape in planform, and four vertical tip ribs radiate from the main spar to support the covering and give the wing tip shape in depth.

The fuselage requires a pair of longerons nearly 49" long. These had to be constructed from 36" hardwood by using scarf-joints. Built alongside a straight-edge to avoid "The Banana" effect!

It is a good thing I thought about this before following the instructions which accompanied the kit! Their instructions would have left me with longerons 1/2" too short!

This photo shows the right-side of the fuselage under construction. The side is made of hard 1/8th balsa, with the die-cut parts edge-joined and laminated as per the plan. Note the triple-thick balsa in the area of the undercarriage-mount doubler.

Clamps hold the hardwood longerons in place while the epoxy cures. The scarf-joint in the top longeron is clearly visible between the two leftmost black clamps. You may just be able to see that the upper longeron extends forward of the side sheeting. This will allow for the support of the built-up cowl/front-end.

Die-cut slots for the formers can also be seen in the side panels.

The same fuse side, showing the rearward portion. Note how both longerons extend towards the rear. These will form the rear portion of the fuselage when properly cross-braced and gusseted.

Also visible in this photograph are the 1/8th ply formers and the firewall (which is laminated from more 1/8th ply). Little tabs cut into the former sides match the die-cut slots visible in the fuselage side-sheeting.

With both sides complete, we next place them back-to-back over the plan and add the five vertical longeron braces with epoxy. This structure will be the rear of the fuselage when the model is completed and I intend to fuel-proof it with thinned epoxy anyway, but never the less, I used plenty of alcohol (as you can see) to keep the structure as clean as possible.

Plenty of scrap-wood shims and pins and clamps (I need more of these clamps!) to keep everything in place as it dries, and plenty of kitchen wax-paper to stop the epoxy from going where it shouldn't

This photo shows the formers and firewall being attached to the fuselage right-side. I used white glue for the formers, but 30-minute epoxy for the firewall.

Orange plastic guages keep the formers perpendicular to the fuse sides. The firewall is mounted at a slight angle so as to introduce engine right-thrust. It is also not parallel to the formers in a vertical orientation, so as to introduce down-thrust.

Lead weights supported by scraps of wood ensure a tight joint on the firewall.

This is a closer look at the firewall. (The photo was taken before the lead weights were put in place.) Two triangular firewall angle guages are pinned in place and protected from sticking by kitchen wax-paper. These will be removed after the joint has cured.

The blind-nuts (a.k.a. Tee-nuts) in the back of the firewall are visible. Two are behind the kitchen wax-paper. These wll hold the engine mount in place. After careful checking and measuring, it turns out that the punch-marks on the firewall that were positioned for the O.S. FS-52 are exactly correct for the Saito FA-56GK that I will be using!

Once the fuselage sides have been joined by the formers and firewall, we can attach the two 1/4" ply landing gear mounting plates. They fit into recesses in the fuselage sides, but remain 1/8" proud of the bottom edge of the fuselage sides.

Look closely, and you will also note a lip or step on the side of the fuselage where the fuselage side laminations overlap. More on this later.

This photograph shows the bottom of the fuselage after the 1/8" balsa cross-grain sheeting has been added.

The cross-grain sheeting being the same thickness as the gear-mounting plates were proud, this makes for a smooth bottom surface with the two reinforced mounting plates inconspicuous. When covered, there should be no obvious sign of them.

Again, the lip or step on the side of the fuselage can be easily seen. (Later, I said!)

Also, if you think that the front firewall doesn't look entirely straight, you would be right. Don't forget the built-in engine right-thrust!

At this stage, we also add the remaining longeron cross-braces and generally complete the basic trusswork of the rear fuselage. This was tricky work, and since it was done with epoxy, the job took a while! (I need more clamps!)

Each joint will additionally be reinforced by the application of ply gussets. I note that if I follow the instructions supplied with the kit and use the gussets as indicated, the stab will not fit flush onto the top of the truss. (The plan at least, seems to be correct.) You gotta watch what you're doing, even if it is a Gold-Edition kit!

Here we can see some of the 1/16th ply gussets added to the rear trusswork. These are laser-cut (note black edges) and in the foreground, the remaining gussets can be seen still in the sheet as supplied.

The instructions indicate that clamps should be used to hold the gussets in place while the epoxy cures. I tried a succession of clamps and clamping methods, even making a series of clamps specially for the job. These critters stymied me, because I couldn't find any way to clamp them so that they didn't slither out from under the clamp, skew into the wrong position, or raise one side or end off the joint.

I conclude the only way to do the job properly is by doing one side of the fuse at a time and using weights to hold the joint tightly together while the epoxy cures.

We are now ready to apply the wing-fasteners.

Drilling through the front sub-former, we create holes in the wing for the wing-dowels. These are not epoxied into place yet. They must come out to make the wing easier to cover.

At the rear of the wing, two holes are drilled through reinforcing ply plates and the trailing-edge spar, down into a ply mounting plate. This plate is tapped to accept the threads of the nylon wing-mounting bolts.

At the front end of the fuse, with the engine mount temporarily fitted, we can see the sub-formers, nose ring and stringers, which (along with the forward extension of the top, main longerons) form the structure of the somewhat bulbous nose. This structure extends from the second former, forward.

Somewhat flimsy as seen here, this entire area will be sheeted with 1/8th balsa which should stiffen and strengthen it up a bit. Not enough to withstand an impact, of course...

The hull of the fuel-tank can be seen being test-fitted in the tank bay (between the firewall and second former. That area has been fuel-proofed with thinned epoxy. The entire front will also be fuel-proofed once the sheeting has been added, but by then the tank bay will be inaccessible.

Do you see the vaulted space above the fuel tank, just forward of the sub-former with the two wing-dowel locating holes? I am trying to figure a way to use that space as a battery compartment in the event the model needs to have weight shifted forward when balancing. Access would have to be through the wing-saddle area with the tank inserted afterwards, since with the sheeting in place, this space won't be accessible otherwise. Before I put the sheeting on, I want to work out how the battery can be fixed securely in place, yet remain removable for servicing.

Uh-oh! By following the instructions 100%, I have screwed up the aircraft! I glued the wing bolt mounting plate in place directly under the 1/4-square upper longerons. As the photo shows, with the wing bolt mounting plate in this location, the aileron pushrods will foul the plate preventing the wing from being attached.

I contacted Top-Flite who say that I should have received an addendum to the instructions and plan (I didn't) unless the kit was an older one (I presume it is). The plate is to be glued in lower in the fuse.

This would solve the problem, except the plate has already been glued in place with 30-minute epoxy and it ain't coming out in one piece! So I guess I'll have to manufacture my own plate and hack the original one to bits to get it out.

I hacked the old plate out (remanents still visible under the longeron) and made up a new plate. Epoxied into place with extra doublers for additional thickness where the wingbolt threads are cut, it is a tight fit between where pushrods must run (below) and ailerom torque rods must swing (above).

The tank bay is carefully fuel-proofed in expectation of the odd dribble. Soft balsa blocks are added to hold the tank snug. The grey outer-tube of the throttle pushrod is visible under the righthand (upper) spacer-block. Blind nuts for the engine mount are visible between two balsa struts that form part of a clever batterypack holding device that hopefully, I'll never have to utilize!

Now comes the fun bit! :-/

Sheeting the nose section requires multiple curvature, loads of clamps, and lengthy soaking in a mixture of ammonia, alcohol and water. It fought like a snake! But it went into place eventually...

Here, another section of the sheeting is applied. I don't know what I'd have done without all those cute little clamps, because it did not cooperate!

The completed sheeting-job doesn't look too bad, after a bit of sandpaper has been applied! Not a particularly easy job, this, and it's a good thing I had a bit of extra balsa in my scrap box!

I think I'll fuel-proof under here with some black epoxy-based paint. That should make the enginemount less conspicuous, and make a good setting for the Saito Golden Knight engine!

Always mindful of the fact that the Elder (like the Magnatilla and various other Eindecker clones) is plagued by a short nose-moment, I considered that some lead may be needed noseward. In order to cater for this possibility, I used the remainder of the die-cut sheets from which the nose-ring was removed, and cast two lead weights that will fit directly behind the nose-ring if needed.

Now we need to 'fair' the wing into the nose section.

I started with a triangular brace or rib to support the former, and shaped all so that it fit together when the wing was attached via dowels and bolts.

Sheeting this section called for a bit of effort with scissors and card to get the correct shape for the balsa, but it ends up looking OK, and a bit of lightweight filler in the cracks will make it perfect!

I prepped the gear wire for soldering and went off to Rudy's house, with jigs and everything, so as to borrow his blowtorch to silver-solder the gear together. It all seemed to be quite a nasty and difficult job to me, and I would think soft-soldering would have done an adequate job, but Rudy tells me the silver-soldered gear is now indestructible.

Note tailskid wire below wood-block!

The actual outer nut that holds the wheel to the gear was soft-soldered into place. the gear should not fall apart now, but if I need the wheels off, I can desolder the nut and remove the wheel.

Here we see the main gear, fitted to the ply mounting-plates inset into the bottom of the fuselage. (You may just be able to distinguish the ply plates from the balsa sheet by the slightly darker colour of the ply.

Also note that the engine bay has been fuel-proofed with black, two-part epoxy (automotive) paint. I used black paint rather than clear, thinned epoxy because I thought it might disguise or downplay the mechanical workings under there. Note that the engine mount is virtually invisible in this photograph. I expect the black of the Saito GK engine will also be camouflaged in this way, with only the gold of the rocker covers visible.

And here we can see the tailskid attached to the rear of the fuselage with thread wrappings and adhesive. Hopefully, this will withstand the battering of many an ill-advised landing! Certainly, it should be easily repairable. The skid is made of hard piano-wire and should be fairly resilient, and the rear of the model should be fairly light.

Just visible is some of the inter-truss rigging. See next photograph...

The rear trusswork is "reinforced" with rigging wires that triangulate the trusses and add strength. In actual fact, these rigging wires are non-functional. They may look like the piano-wire used to fabricate the tailskid, but actually these rigging wires are made from elastic cord and play little or no part in strengthening the structure.

In fact, this rigging is likely to add to the drag coefficient of the aircraft, and possibly obstruct free movement of the pushrods (not yet installed). If they don't wear out they will certainly perish quickly in the tropical environment, so I don't think they will last long, one way or another. And when they go, I doubt I'll bother to replace them.

But they look good, and I'll have them in place for the photo-shoot! :-)

Here, the machine is put all into one piece, held with tape and rubber-bands. This should give us an approximation of the final balance. Two slings under the main spar, and it balances quite level. The plumb-bob gives the exact CoG which differs from the recommended location by a small amount only. Good enough! We will continue with construction and check again after covering.

The Saito GK is actually held onto the mount with two #64 rubber bands! I'll locate and drill the mount holes after the model is more complete and has been balanced again.

This is the secret to a reliable CA hinge.

Naturally, you slot the wood first, then apply the covering. Here, the sub-trailing edge has been covered. Two small pencil marks allow us to find the slot with our fingernail. Then two slits are made in the covering, on either side of the slot. The strip of covering material removed only need be 1/16th wide.

When you insert the CA hinge through a single slit, the covering touches the hinge on either side. This prevents the CA from 'wicking' into the slot properly. The double slit eliminates this problem.

Uh-oh!

When I went to glue the stab in place, I discovered that I'd built a banana! Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa!

There is a warp in the rear of the fuselage that I have no intention of trying to fix. Instead, I have glued the stab on so as to be in alignment with the wing rather than with the fuse in the theory that the latter may be unsightly, but the former more likely to result in a flyable aircraft! It remains to be seen if our Safety Officer will pass the aircraft for flight!

:-(

Anyway, this photo shows the stab being held in place with several lead bricks as the epoxy dries. Incidentally, this design doesn't actually allow for much stab-to-fuse gluing area. Nor fin-to-stab, for that matter.

A close-up of the stern-post, showing the control horns attached to ele and rudder. Keepers not yet in place, as some adjustment is still expected. tail-skid clearly visible, as are the pushrod wire-ends.

Here is a close-up of the rear truss-work. You can see the bracing 'wires' and one or two of the short bamboo sections I added to function as guides for these 'wires' and also as internal gussets.

The crossed wooden pushrods are clearly visible passing down through the section. It took some jiggery-pokery with the rod-ends to get these rods in place without them fouling each other or the truss-work or rigging.

Look closely at the forward tip of the stab, just visible on the right. Notice it doesn't align with the top longerons of the truss? It does align with the wing, though. This unsightly mess is a result of the bent fuse mentioned above. I could kick myself! I took sight-lines and measurements all the time I was constructing the fuse, and all was straight and true. But when I inserted the horizontal braces (one visible just ahead of the stab) I just took it for granted that the sides would bend/bow out the same amount and never checked. Obviously, I was wrong!

Here are the servos, with the inboard ends of the pushrods visible. The bending of these pushrod ends to ensure the pushrods themselves don't foul each other may not be aparent; you are looking down on the pushrods which are bent away from you. The bend is more noticable on the rudder (bottom) servo/pushrod, since that pushrod passes below the other one, and the bend is more severe.

The wing-mounting plate which gave some trouble earlier, is clearly visible behind (left of) the servo bay, with the pushrod wires diving down under it to join the wooden pushrods themselves, with black heat-shrink to keep the join secure. Throttle servo is shown forward, but no pushrod in place as yet, as the engine has not been mounted at this stage.

Short lengths of brass tube, and ends of pushrod wire are used to fabricate turnbuckles and anchor-points for the rigging 'wires'. These are fabricated out of hat elastic, and the turnbuckles crimped into place, and simply hooked over the anchor-points which are CA'd into the wing.

The recommended wiring scheme calls for four wires from the center of the aircraft, out to each wingtip, top and bottom. I decided to use a snakes-tongue, branched wire layout, with two wires running ourward, and then splitting into four, closer to the tip.

As this photo may indicate, making the wire harnesses is a time-consuming job. The distances were measured on the plan, allowance for the elasticity of the 'wire' was made, so as to get the correct length, when the wires were stretched by 50% to give a constant tension in the rigging.

Twenty four turnbuckles were used, and each one was a PITA to get the doubled 'wire' through for crimping, and half of them gave the additional pleasure of having to be correctly located for length. As usual, I always regret having decided to add the scale details when I realise how much extra work it means....

The left wingtip from above, showing the rondel, and the two snake-tongued flying wires in place, and attached to the four anchors glued into the wing. You may also notice that the covering job isn't the best. I admit, I'm fed up with this aircraft, and want to hurry it off my bench so I can work on something else. And I only have a limited quantity of the covering material. So I am not entirely concerned about wrinkles and other 'uglies' in the covering. If it will fly (and that remains to be seen, given the bend in the fuse), that's all I want.

The flying 'wires' aren't actually fixed at the inboard end. Each 'wire' is double-ended, and is attached to each wingtip to maintain tension. At the center, the 'wire' passes through a guide (made from a split-pin), at the tip of a king-post. King-posts are constructed from some pieces of dowel, and are joined together and fuel-proofed with epoxy. Attachment to the fuse is with CA, and the joints strengthened by toothpick dowels. The lower king-post shown here was much easier to attach to the flat fuselage-bottom, than the upper king-post was to the curved surface of the upper wing!

The Saito FA-56 Golden Knight engine sits securely in the mount, piped and linked and ready to start. The black finish on this engine camouflages it neatly, so it is not visually prominent against the black, glass-filled nylon mount and the matt black paint applied to the inside of the cowled area. If only I had black, fuel-proof tube for the carburettor line (yellow) and the exhaust pressure line (pink).

You can just see the needle-valve behind the muffler (near the pink tube) and the extension wire is just visible to the lower left of the muffler. Between and behind the gold tappet pans, you can also see the throttle pushrod, with a right-angle bend in it. In order to clear the side of the fuel tank, the pushrod had to run close to the side of the fuse. After exiting firewall, this bend was necessary to bring the end of the pushrod in line with the carburetor arm.

Sitting in the cockpit is Group Captain Sir Stephen Schnozz. Ready to join combat, his Vickers machine gun is fully loaded and ready to fire. The rigging wires can clearly be seen extending away from their anchor point atop the King-post.

(The chain belongs to Flight Mechanic Sergeant Dotty.)

Essentially flight-ready, with the throws set, and in the balance-rig, with the wheels and tail-skid a few inches above the ground. The plum-bob points to the CoG, and it was just right. I thought I'd have to add lead under the cowled front, but the addition of a heavy, brass spinner-nut brought the CoG exactly on target.

Here she is, ready to fly! I must say, to the casual eye, it's an attractive looking aircraft. The flying wires and bare-bones trusswork at the rear really do add a dash of vintage spice to the model, and the spoked wheels and wood scimitar prop also look the part.

Another view, on her traditional landing surface. The military cream colour scheme is quite fetching. I feel rather sorry for this model, now.

This is the worst model I've ever built. What I mean by this is, I did a terrible job on it. The fuse is bent, the covering is wrinkly, the paint-job on the pilot and Vickers gun is poor, and generally, I screwed this job up more than any other model I've ever butchered. A break in mid-build of nearly a year (death of a relative caused a changed in the amount of leisure time I had to spare) didn't help, and by the time I finally got back to it, I'd lost all interest in this model.

Not that the model itself helped! This model fought me like none other that I've ever known. Everything was a major chore. Even the simplest jobs turned nightmareish. Four hinges in each aileron. Three slide in fine, and one refuses to go in. After 45 minutes, you finally get them all in, and glued, and turn to the other aileron. Three hinges slide right in and the fourth refuses...

The whole model was like that. Not the fault of the model, but still a pain in the ass.

Finally, after three trips to the field, waiting for a good day, she has flown!

This is a great photo of the Elder making a low pass over our strip. The sunlight glints on the covering of the tail, the cowled front and the heads of the Saito. The wire wheels are a joy to behold, really adding some vintage class to this model. The sky and clouds are clearly visible through the open trusswork of the rear part of the fuselage. Pilot and gun are visible, and both king-posts and both sets of flying wires are easy to make out. The cap-stripping gives the tail that 'starved-horse'. ribbed look. The tail-skid can be made out against the clouds, and even the criss-crossed bracing 'wires' in the tail trusswork is visible.

Lovely!

First attempt to take off, resulted in the aircraft turning sharply left and stopping it's engine in the long grass at the side of the strip. This is with full right rudder! I switched rudder to high rates (which were about double the throw recommended) and tried again. This time, she climed away easily, with the Saito hardly doing more than idling, and immediately tried to turn left. Damned bent fuselage! I held in a lot of right rudder and aileron, and allowed the aircraft to complete a left hand circuit, while pushing on all the trim levers. I soon had her flying fairly straight, but she felt twitchy. David was snapping photos the entire time (We eventually took 71), and advised me that he had found conditions 'bouncy' when flying his Avistar, earlier.

Here is a shot of the aircraft climbing out after a low, downwind pass. David shot this over my shoulder, catching the tranny antenna in frame.

Seen here, making an approach, low and slow, over the wild tamarinds.

This is a draggy airframe, what with the flying wires and cockpit details. With the throttle at idle, she has a very steep rate of descent. Even with the throttle open, she is a slow mover, very typical of the period she was built to commemorate. And with the flat-bottomed section, it doesn't take a lot of throttle to keep her flying. At half throttle she flys with real authority, despite the slow pace. Sam, of course, kept telling me that it should fly even slower, like I want to mess about risking a stall to achieve scaleish speeds, on a first, proving flight!

After about ten minutes (estimated by all three of us) I handed over to Sam, who had a putt-about for five minutes or so and insisted on doing a couple of loops, even! Sam seemed quite happy with it, didn't change anything, and pronounced it to be a stable flyer. I took this photo while he was on the sticks.

Taking the sticks back, I enjoyed about five minutes more flight, before deciding to make an approach and land. I made one low pass to see what the landing characteristics would be, followed by an abort and climbout. Then, with the engine running at even lower RPM than ever, I made an approach. She slid over the field at less than walking pace, gradually settling lower and lower, until her wheels kissed the ground as gently as a butterfly alighting, and completed her roll-out in a few yards. The guys hollered their appreciation, then suggested I turn her and taxi back. No dice! I couldn't get her to turn. Remember: She only has a fixed tail-skid.

I was very pleased with the first flight, particularly given the bent fuse, and don't hold it against her that I couldn't get her to turn for the taxi! And she is very economical, too. After approximately twenty minytes in the air, the tank was still half full...

No complaints here!

It isn't always plain sailing, though!

This photo shows the result of an emergency landing, required when the Saito shut down at the upwind end of a low pass. I know they say you shouldn't turn back, but I did anyway, in a tight right hand circuit, intended to bring me back over the strip. I alllllllmost made it, too!

A less draggy airframe and I would have been fine, but with the steep angle of decent, I just couldn't get over this hump of grass.

This photo was taken with the flash. A look at the distant sky shows that this was probably a little too late to be flying anyway!

Fortunately, there was no damage done. The grass bank proved to be a soft place to put it in, and it was going pretty slowly anyway.

If only they were all like that!