Trekie

The slab-wing is bevelled at the leading edge to give it something that a fool might call an airfoil section. Tape protects the main surface of the wing from the sandpaper while the bevel is applied.

The wing halves are joined with epoxy and thin ply doublers. A centrally located aileron servo uses bicycle spokes to actuate the torque-rods I made from brass welding-rod. Might actually work!

Front stablevator pivots on an axle made from another piece of (thicker) brass welding-rod. Axle supports cobbled together from scraps of ply and balsa. Bellcrank is cut down from a T-Tail unit, and a bicycle spoke pushrod leads aft, through a balsa bulkhead, to the elevator servo which is mounted under the hatch.

When this photo was taken the pieces were not glued into place, but simply test-fitted and held with pins.

Here is a look at the basic aircraft, with all the external parts laid out in their relative positions. This gives a first basic impression of what she might look like. Mostly just pins and tape holding this together right now.

There is supposed to be a rear pod to contain the engine, but since this is a slope-soarer I planned to just leave it off. But I was forced to add one simply to carry weights to replace the engine and give decent balance.

Looks slick, don't you think?

The bellcrank, axle and actuator-wire for the stablevator in their final form. The fuse is starting to go together and the nose-block (not shown here) is rough-shaped and fitted to the front of the fuse.

Here the main bulkhead has been added. It is a balsa and ply laminate for extra strength. This is amidships, with the cockpit hatch forward, and the wing aft. A single dowel in the wing locates the front of the wing and at the same time holds in place the hatch (shown here partially completed).

The two rear bulkheads are shown. At the very rear is a 1/8" ply bulkhead, to which the pod had to be attached. Forward of this is a balsa/ply laminate attached to a 1/4" wing-mounting plate which carries a 1/4" blind nut for the nylon hold-down bolt.

The starboard side ply doubler has a circular hole cut in it to accommodate the Switch-Jack from Hollyday Designs (an excellent switch from an excellent company with customer satisfaction high on their list). The hole will be cut right through the balsa to the outside at a later stage.

The front of the wing is located in the main bulkhead by means of a hardwood dowel. This also holds the hatch in place. Shown here with the two inner "duct" walls installed. The top of the dowel-block is a thin ply doubler, for strength. This is where the duct is screwed into place. The original plan calls for it to be glued into place, but doesn't explain how the aileron servo (HS-300 in the upper right of the photo) is to be adjusted thereafter. With hindsight I realise I should have modified the design and mounted the servo upside down, instead. But by the time I thought of it the torque-rods were already in the wing...

Given that there is supposed to be a 0.15 cubic inch engine (and fuel tank) bolted to the back of this thing, is it any surprise that it turned out way nose-heavy? A rearward fuselage extension or "pod" had to be manufactured, because with the Rx and battery at the very rear it was still heavy in the nose. The pod is located with three small dowels and held by two 4-40 bolts (not shown). The top is in the form of a hatch which is held on by the wing.

This two-part fuselage proved to be a very bad idea. The fuse now had a weak-spot right at the join, and just loves to snap at that point.

This photo shows the Switch-Jack from Hollyday Designs in it's place.

Finally, completed!

With the fuse and rear pod covered and assembled, the foreplane and nose cone attached and the wing bolted into place, the Trekie is ready to go!

(Straight down, as it happened, but that's another story).

A combination of bad balance, and insufficient elevator throw made the first flight a short one. Too short even for a photograph! She came home in bits, which was a bit disheartening, but at least the bits stood still for a picture.

The entire tail extension snapped off at the bulkhead, and the nose block sheared away and embedded itself onto the razor-coral. Also a few scrapes and dings in the fuse and wings, particularly at the wingtips, but nothing to worry about, really. Oh, and a fin sheared off too.

Actually, it went in at considerable speed and if you had seen the impressive explosion of bits you would have expected more dammage!

With the application of glue, it all went back together again Only a small section of balsa in the front of the fuse had gone "fuzzy" and had to be cut out and replaced.

So with the model re-balanced and extra throws available on the elevator, it got lobbed off the cliff again. A blustery, grey day, but plenty of wind blowing. And she flew, as the photo will show. Not well, but she flew, and has flown several times since then, Unfortunately, this aircraft has a tendancy to break into pieces on landing. :-(

Well, it was a load of fun to build it, and it did fly. My first-ever all-from-plans model. Very futuristic and sexy it looks, too! I found I didn't fly it often, however, because of the almost inevitable repair-bill that follows anything but a perfect landing. As a result, I decided to retire this model after it's last flight/crack-up, and recover the gear for use in other models.