Gadfly scratch build (beginner)

Hi

I am a beginner to this hobby and have recently built my own personal plane (sorry for poor image quality, took them with my phone:)

Planning: it took a few months to decide what plane to build. I searched everywhere (before I heard about Flite Test) and finally came apon a site named Outerzone that holds archives of a few thousand free plans. From this site I found the perfect plane for me: the Gadfly, a 44'' wingspan aerobatic trainer that looks a lot like a Spitfire. It is a relatively recent plan (2008) and came with instructions. Here is a link to the plans,Gadfly-plans.

Parts and materials: the plan was actually printed from a A4 printer and glued together. The parts were all bought on a vacation to Durban, South Africa (we live in SA). I used a 2300 mAh LiPo 3S battery and a 40A ESC. The motor was rated at 30A so I was in the 80% rule. That, I later discovered, would be enough to hover the model! My transmitter is a Spektrum Dx5e combined with a 6 channel reciever. This would be more than sufficient as I would only be using 4 channels. Below is my setup.

Build (the good part): I started with the wing first. It is a D-type wing with a 2 servo aileron setup. It also has a slight dihedral of about 4 degrees. I also added some LED's for night flight for when I get a bit better. Ailerons are yet to be added in the below photo.

LED installation:

Next came cutting out all of the parts for the fueselage and tail, That took a LOT of time to get right! Below is a few photo's of the parts organised on the plan:

I then progressed to the tail section of the plane. The tail did not take that long to make, but did take very long to sand:)

Next came the vertical stabiliser and rudder which I later also added to the the rest of the tail and the fueselage (not the wisest of moves when it came to covering the model, but I have at least gained a lot of experience for the next build) A photo follows:

I finally progressed to the fueselage (yey). The fueselage is built upside down over the plan and the detached to build the turtle decking and cowel (of which there is not much). The hatch is built seperately over the plan and then covered with balsa wood and test fitted. Yet more photos:

Next I installed the motor, ESC and reciever. The cowel is built up around the moter and the sanded to shape. I then also test fitted the 12X6 prop:

And now for the landing gear bent to shape from the plans and fixed in place to a plywood former with fibreglass:

Now it is starting to look like a plane! The wings really make it look a lot nicer, but there is still some room for improvement:)

Much better, and some with the LED's:)

And next the hardest and last part for me: the covering. This was the first time I ever covered a plane with heat shrink plastic. I chose a high contrast covering for the plane to aid in flying it and pulling off aerobatic moves, namely blue and orange:

I wasn't quite satisfied with the covering and later decided to personalise it some more. I used paint (the computer program) to plot out the scheme. The letters were printed with Microsoft Word and cut out over the heat shrink plastic and fixed in place with masking tape. I then placed it on the plane and shrunk it into place.

Wingtips:

I also covered the cowel:

Note that I do not have a covering iron yet, but a house iron worked fine for me.

Well that is where progress stands at the moment. I have yet to get in the maiden flight (a bit scared of it at the moment to be honest), but I have taxied it a lot and it seems to be tracking straight. 

Please tell me what you think as this is my first article and I am only 15, but I guess you could have guessed that from me extensive use of pictures:)

Untill next time

Hannes

P.S. If you have any questions, you can just send me an e-mail to hanneskoekemoer08@gmail.com