Riley Model B - Series 11 - Fuselage Construction December 22, 2016 Fuselage construction (ready to paint) will require about 80 hours. Note: Some of the pictures are from earlier editions. The text has been updated and is accurate for Series 11 construction. Order of Fuselage Construction 1. Apply paper template to flat building surface and set jig blocks in place. 2. Prepare all fuselage formers. 3. Glue all forward stringers to rear stringers (sticks) at scarf joints. 4. Depending of which engine is to be used, set F2 in position with (4) designated forward stringers. 5. Install pull-pull cable tubing. 6. Mount and glue all remaining stringers, including short pieces F15-F16. 7. Cut off “legs” from all lite ply formers (F6-F14). Leave all other legs in place. 8. Apply balsa planking, shape and sand. 9. Apply 4oz fiberglass cloth and epoxy resin to planking. Paint epoxy inside of engine bay. 10. Apply basswood, mahogany, or other veneer. 11. Cut and trim cockpit opening, rear scallops, bottom of engine bay, and holes for Camloc mounts. 12. Apply cap strips to rear stringers. Install balsa fill pieces at tail wheel mount. Assemble tail wheel forks. 13. Form pull-pull cable tubing exits. 14. Dress veneer seams (if needed). Sand entire fuselage to prepare for varnish and covering. Glue gas cap mount in place. 15. Varnish veneer and instrument panel. 16. Complete and sheet stub wings. 17. Cover the fuselage, stub wings, fin and stabilizer. And while you’re at it, you might as well cover the wings, each elevator and the rudder through one coat of nitrate dope (but not painted yet). 18. Install headrest. 19. Mount stabilizer and fin to fuselage. 20. Form wing fillet and tail fillets. 21. Prepare to paint. 22. Paint. 23. Install fuel and smoke tanks. General plumbing. 24. Install all radio control electrical. Install pull-pull cables. 25. Cockpit combing. Windshield. Gas cap. 26. Hinge ailerons, elevators and rudder. 27. Install flying wires 28. Motor install. 29. CG check. 2 In order for the fuselage to be straight and true, it must be built upon a flat surface. A plain door panel works well. If in doubt, check for twist with a level. If the reading is the same on both ends, obviously, you have a flat building board. There are two ways to mount the paper template to the building surface. If you have an extra set of hands you can probably lay down the template in one piece. If not, draw a straight-line on-center on the building board. Cut the template into smaller sections. Apply each section in alignment with the datum/reference line. Apply 3M#77 adhesive to the paper not the building board. Glue 3/4” x 3/4” x 1-1/2” jig blocks to paper template. Use Titebond glue; CA glue will work, but it will likely soak through the paper and stick to the building surface and be very difficult to remove. Make sure jig blocks are drilled according to the instructions on the template! 3 Mounting the Formers to the Jigs There are various ways to mount the formers to the template jigs. Screws or clamps all work well. The important thing is to align each former laterally on-center as shown on the template. The holes in the formers are designed to allow some adjustment. The holes in the jig blocks are drilled so that a #6 sheet metal screw goes in easily. Any #6 screw and washer combination should be fine. Keep in mind that the jig blocks are glued to paper and the paper is attached only with adhesive spray to the building surface. Make the screws snug, but there is no need to over tighten. The jig blocks have plenty of strength to keep the formers in alignment while the stringers are added, but they can become detached from the paper template with rough treatment. Be gentle. The larger formers, if not careful, can easily tip over before they are secure. The “legs” on each former are strong enough to do their job –they will be cut away later –but they can break if you are not careful. 4 When in doubt, dry fit all joints. We are working with wood. Wood can swell in humidity. The wood itself (stringers, for example) may not have been precisely sanded to the specified thickness. A basswood stringer only a few thousands oversize, can make for tight fitting joints. Any number of factors can affect fit. Use a small flat file to open up former notches, if needed. Check everything and don’t glue until you know it is right. One more thing: Although the stub wing ribs SW3 are not glued in place until much later in the framing process, it is good practice to make sure they fit nicely to the spars of F3, F4 and F5 early on. Check the fit of the tenons at the ends of the spars of each former with the mortises (slots) in each SW3 rib and make any necessary adjustments. Do this before mounting the formers to the jigs. Important: The labels on all fuselage formers face toward the front of the model. Unless otherwise noted, right and left are determined as if you were sitting in the cockpit facing the nose. Prepare Fuselage Formers – F1 Press two 4-40 T-nuts into the 9/64" holes through the backside of F1. (The T-nut flange faces the tail.) These T-nuts, along with 4-40 socket head screws and washers, will be used later to mount the optional Power Box Smoke Pump. 5 Prepare Fuselage Formers – F2 Press four 10-32 T-nuts into the 1/4" holes through the backside of F2. (The T-nut flange faces the tail.) Make sure they are fully seated. To create the motor mount studs, insert four 10-32 x 1-1/4” screws from the rear. Add a drop of thin CA to the last 1/4” from the head. Immediately tighten the screw all the way. The CA glue will seize very quickly and permanently lock the screws in place. 6 Prepare Fuselage Formers – F3 and F4 Position and glue F3A (right and left sides at stub wing spar) to the front of F3. Glue F4A to the rear of F4. Formers F3 and F4 are glued together to make one module out of the two formers, the wing tube socket center mount, and the landing wire mounts (hard points). Dry fit first. When all parts fit together nicely, glue and mount F3-F4 to the jig blocks. 7 8 Prepare Fuselage Formers – F5 Position and glue (4) F5A to the front and rear of F5. 9 Prepare Fuselage Formers – F6 and F7 Dry fit first. Assemble the battery box that is located between F6 and F7. Insert box between the formers. Install the servo tray. When all parts fit properly and are square, use thin CA to glue all joints. 10 11 Glue receiver tray in place. Make CERTAIN that the narrow spaced threaded holes orient toward F7. Also glue the pilot tray mounts to F6-F7. Make sure that the mounts are fully seated. When finished, mount to template jigs. Fuselage Formers F8-F14 Formers F8 through F14 do not require any preparation. Just make sure that the part labels face forward. Prepare Fuselage Formers F15-F16 Insert a 6-32 T-Nut through the top side of the tail wheel mount. Glue stabilizer spar pocket to the tail side of F15. Titebond recommended. Use #2 servo screws to insure correct alignment and provide clamping pressure while the glue sets. These may be removed later. 12 Insert and glue tail wheel mount into F15 and F16. Mount the assembly onto the template jigs. 13 14 15 Notice in the previous picture that F2 is not shown. The stub wing ribs SW3 are in position to make sure that they fit nicely to the spars, but they should NOT be glued at this time. Mounting F2 The Series 11 has 1.5° right thrust and 1.5° down thrust angles built into the airframe. These angles are governed by the position of F2, which in turn is governed by four special cut basswood aligning stringers. However, some hand finishing may be required for the stringers to fit well into the notches of F2. How much is a factor of how close the stringers are to exactly 1/8” thick, whether the plywood used to make F2 is exactly 6mm thick, and how accurately the notches in F2 were sawn. Before you install F2, check the fit of all the notches in F2 to see if they will allow the stringers to angle slightly (1.5°) of square, you can do this by eye. If the fit is too tight at square, obviously the fit will be even tighter if angled 1.5°. The solution is simply to use a small flat file and open up the notches slightly. It won’t take much. Sometimes only the width of the notch of the stringer itself is all that needs to be shaped. All notches should be checked before mounting. When F2 is in place, with all the stringers and planking also installed, you will have a very secure F2 on which to bolt the engine motor mount. The fuselage construction procedure for either the Moki 180 or the Valach 120 is identical, EXCEPT for the position of F2. The F2 former for the Moki and the Valach are not the same; they are not interchangeable.