The next step in getting this TigerKitten ready for covering, finish and flying is a process generally referred to as “fiberglassing”. That can mean a whole lot of different things…way too many for me to explain them all in this blog entry. Let’s talk about what I want to accomplish on this particular part of […]
The fuselage is beginning to look like it is really going to be part of an airplane, but there are lots of things left to be added, or stuck in place, or sanded, before we can think about heading for the field. You guys who know me already won’t be surprised to learn that the […]
There’s a lot more work to do on the fuselage, but now we’re getting to the parts I find most interesting. Let’s build a top deck. When I designed the TigerKitten over twenty years ago, I used a combination of dowel pegs and a neat little custom made tube-and-wire latch to hold the top deck […]
The TigerKitten fuselage construction is about as traditional as it gets …two identical side frames built up from balsa strips with a few shaped pieces in critical areas…but we get to combine state of the art stuff because those shaped pieces are laser cut. We could also use a more traditional adhesive like aliphatic resin […]
This one was worth waiting for. A couple of weeks ago my good friend Gary Ritchie, who does all the flight photography you see here, called me and suggested that the weather was about as good as it would ever get at this time of year and did I want to go flying? As it […]
On this airplane, the primary structure of each wing panel consists of all the ribs, the leading and trailing edges, the upper and lower 3/16″ sq. spars and the spar web inserts, and the various pieces that make up the wing tip assembly. So far I have built the and right panels in turn flat […]
It’s taken me a bit longer than I would have liked to get this blog entry posted…I bought a new computer and have had to go through the drill of learning a new operating system. Now that’s done and we can get back to building model airplanes. There are a few more details to finish […]
All the good things I promised a few months back are happening. Two of my friends and fellow model builders have formed a new kit production company, Premier Balsa Kits, and their first offering is a laser-cut short kit for theTigerKitten updated for brushless motors and LiPo power. I have agreed to build a new […]
All that’s left before flight testing is rigging. In this case that means both rigging the functional controls…hooking the servos to the surfaces…and making up the wing and tail brace wire groups. Let’s look at the servos first. I used Sullivan Gold-N-Rod splined nylon flexible concentric tube connectors (S-504) for the connections between the rudder […]
There are a few more construction tasks left before this airplane is ready for her first trip outside the shop. They may be small, but they will attract the attention of anyone who looks at the model. I’m going to finish the cockpit by adding the windshield glazing, some coaming and padding, and a dummy […]