Grumman AA5 Traveler in parallel with four other light aircraft models.
cherry wood
I have never tried cherry wood. How hard is it?
Lou
It works much like maple. Not as hard. Sands well. Easy to scorch with sanding if using power tools. Stable and strong is why I use it for thin empennage parts. I have lots of small scraps from making furniture and it is too nice to toss out.
AA5 stabilizer slot is long due to the incorporation of the stab fairings fwd of the leading edge root. Wing fairing blocks added to fuselage ready to carve.
Coming along nicely.
Lou
Fairing the fairing, as it were.
The AA5 series had a large one piece fairing at the root. It served as the walkway and covered the root spar.
The wing spar was 5 pieces of aluminum tube about 10 inches in diameter. The center section was bent to provide the dihedral and the wing root spar was a slip fit inside and they overlapped about 10 inches. Two (2) small shouldered bolds kept the whole thing together. Think about an inch long by 3/8" diameter.
Wing tips have a significant under camber. Again a fibreglass structure that was really large for a small aircraft.
Shaded the tip with a pencil and removed material by sanding until the tip was thinner and followed the upper airfoil.
Well done wing tips. The Traveler has been a favorite of mine.
Lou
Mine too😀
Fraser
The AA5 series were all of bonded construction with honeycomb panels making most of the fuselage. Hence the boxy look. None of the flight controls or wing surfaces had external stiffener's as the other aircraft in this series did. Ahhh so simple.....
Primed. Bonded construction of original makes for a nice smooth empennage.
Vertical fin, stabilizer and fuselage filled and all parts primed. Major parts mocked up together.
Next is to mount empennage and cut the wings to fit.
All are looking good.
Lou
Progress on the AA5. Wings and empennage pinned and fitted together. I took the pictures with a single light and it really makes the surfaces look like hammer work. Once they parts are glued up, i'll need to gap fill and smooth the models. Or I'll just take pictures that are more out of focus...
img 4401: Wing root pins drilled and locator pins installed to make the marks on the fairing holes. The plan is to set the dihedral during the glue up then fill the joints. I'll probably sand the finish to bare wood on the fairing joint for better adhesion.
img 4403: top rear quarter view. Sitting on the table saw, it is actually a color picture. The machining scratches on the surface of the saw look very much defined in the picture. Still need work on the model finish though.
img 4404: I've made spinners for the airplanes out of dowel on the wood lathe. The AA5 has a huge spinner for a 150 hp engine.
Excellent so far. This will make a fine quintuplet.
Lou
Thanks Lou. The goal is to get all five glued up this week.
Fraser
Wings and tail glued.
rough filler applied. Some of the tools visible include a small trowel shaped dental tool that works great in tight corners. The big end is about 1/16" across and the small end is probably 1/32'.
Major filling is pretty much done. I've been working on inlets and the ventral fin. The AA5 Traveler has a different cowl nose and a ventral fin compared with the later Tiger and Cheetah. The tail surfaces are really tiny on the aircraft and it probably needed more lateral stability so it had a small ventral fin attached.
I carved out the cooling inlets firs. Then I added the chin on the cowl that forms the carb inlet and carved the carb inlet.
I used my clamp to hold the model for gluing the parts on. I'll also use the clamp to hold it while installing the gear when the time comes.
Excellent so far. Much more detailed than my stuff.
Lou
Thank you Lou. The beauty of solid models is the opportunity for the builder to detail the model to their liking. To include more or less detail is part of the process. All of the models on SMM are testaments to the research, skill and imagination of the builder. If something is missing, the minds eye will fill it in if needed.
The last line can actually be a problem if something needed to be there for other reasons than aesthetics....like four bolts in a door plug installation. 😳
So true.
Lou
A bit more progress on the AA5.
Something was off about the lower cowl. Had to do a rework with a bit of filler, but it is on track now.
I discovered the shape was wrong as I was giving attention to the landing gear installation.
I have built up all three gears for the airplane. The Grumman series has both a rather simple and advanced landing gear system. The main gear legs are laminated fibreglass and are mounted into an aluminium fitting that is bolted the main spar center section. Th axel on the opposite end is also a fitting bolted to the outboard end.
It is amazingly light and can take a very hard landing without damage. I once watched a fellow land hard enough that the top of the main tire almost contacted the lower wing skin. Ouch! There was no damage to the gear or aircraft.
The nose gear is more like a shopping cart castor on a stick. It is a spring steel strut attached to a torque tube mounted to the firewall. Most of the up/down load is absorbed by the torque tube. The mount for the wheel is just that...a castor with no steering input. Direction control is accomplished by differential brake action on the mains. it's very effective at low speeds and above 20 kts or so the rudder becomes effective. When parking the airplane, you can apply one brake fully "on" and the aircraft will pivot around with the nose gear swivelling hard over. The nose gear is prone to shimmy on landing if the adjustment of the belville (cupped) washers are not correct.
To construct the mains I started with .025" brass sheet 1/8" wide and tapered to the wheel end to about .1" wide. I drilled two 0.020" holes, one for the mounting pin the other for the axel. Using a flat pair of pliers i gave each end a 45 degree bend. I then soldered .020" brass pins through the holes and left them long for further adjustment.
The nose gear used 1/16' rod bent to shape. the nose castor was made using 1/8" square brass tubing wth the top and bottom sanded down to a taper. This also makes the square tube turn into a nicely spaced "U" with the end still a complete square. A 1/16" hole was drilled to accept the strut and then soldered to the strut. A bit of sanding and some filler to close the open end finished to off.
I'll now have get to locating them on the airplane.
Beyond my skill level. Excellent undercarriage.
Lou
Excellent work!
Gordon