By Bob Benjamin – bob@rcmodel.com Let’s talk about that different technique of sheet balsa covering an open/stringered model airplane structure to create a better scale representation of a full scale sheet metal aircraft surface. I touched on the …

By Bob Benjamin – bob@rcmodel.com Last month we ran out of page space with all panels of the wing framed up, ready to be joined at the correct dihedral angles to prepare for a sheet balsa covering job …

In the last print issue of Fly RC (April 2017), we got to talk about the Paul K. Guillow Company, examining what they have done as part of the history of American aeromodelling and what they have to …

Skies are blue, winds are low so let's jump right in and look at some important characteristics of an appropriate, first 3D aerobatic plane

I remember with great clarity the first time I saw a competent 3D pilot in action, performing wild tumbles and inverted harriers and hovering within inches of the ground. My jaw hit the floor and my concept of this hobby changed forever.

The Stinson SR-9 project is getting very close to the time for me to begin covering and finishing, but there are a few installation details to be completed before I will actually be ready for “closing up” the structure.

The Stinson SR-9, like most high-wing, single-engine monoplanes of the 1930?s, relies on external strut bracing to stay together in flight.

Now we can get started doing wheel pants. They are provided as half-moldings of ABS plastic.

The kit designer chose to have you build up a four-piece windshield supported by discrete structural framing and a molded front cabin top to replicate the formed sheet metal on the full-scale airplane.

The focus of my attention this time will be the engine cowl. This is going to be a big deal no matter what, since this airplane, like all Stinson SR (Reliant) models, features a big round radial cowl loaded with detail in the form of eighteen rocker box cover blisters along with exhausts, access panel and various fastenings that we may or may not want to replicate.

“You’re gonna put working cabin doors on that new scale job you’re building? And, you’re planning on taking it out and flying it, and flying regularly, not just once to prove you dared to? Yeah, right...”

Now it’s time to close up the bottom of the fuselage with sheet balsa. This part of the building sequence offers me a fine opportunity to talk about one of the choices of design and construction technique that went into developing this kit.