Kit 308 Beachcraft Musketeer Questions before I get to deep

[joecrouse]

Before I get to deep into this thing Does anyone wanna share any Warnings, issues or outright obnoxious parts of this build that I should know about?
I did a cursory look and hadn't seen much on the actual BUILD of the thing and very little on any issues that are known for the kit. I am not building the laser cut kit the store didn't have one however the wood on this kit is very very nice having put together the innocuous parts like the tail plane and the vertical stabilizer. Everything came right out of the wood with very little in the way of crunch.

I am going to be building this Musketeer for Free flight , I MAY at some point rebuild it for 2 or 3 channel RC in the future (or build another one) but right now I just wanna get the feel for it.

I've build ALL the 500 kits (The Junker and the TBF avenger kits were obnoxious to put together. they may have just been bad kits) and all the 900 series kits as well as the Cessna 170 300 series. All of those planes I have gotten to at least sort of fly. *the junker doesn't fly well at all)

[joecrouse]

Here is where I am at So far,
I got the wings together and sanded as you can see they came out pretty nice.
One thing I noticed... I did have to very very slightly (Saw kerf width) adjust the channel for the main spar to make everything fit. The fit on the parts was beyond that almost perfect.

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[joecrouse]

I did the Horizontal and Vertical Stabilizers for Free flight so I did not adjust them for the scale that is optional in the plans

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They came out magnificently nicely aligned and the part fit was again excellent.

[joecrouse]

I got the one half the fuselage done
Parts fit again was very good It was tricky getting the very large (tall/wide) formers aligned I wound up using a Drafting triangle pinned into place holding each one vertical while pinning the sides.
The Wood is very light but hard and flexible

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The Right hand side is currently in progress as you can see the right hand side there is a slight (looks about 1/32 or so) gap at the very bottom of B2. However it measures up pretty close measured with a pair of compass/dividers.

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[npazzin]

Nice work, will be lookin forward to more progress pictures. Good luck with the build!

[BillParker]

Looks good!

questions?

[joecrouse]

Well Mr Parker I am just wondering if there are any really tricky or obnoxious parts of the build.

[BillParker]

Other than it's so little... I doubled it and flew it roundy round style...

[akofly]

Joe, my Musketeer went together well. See my Musketeer in a previous post. I did make a few changes. I replced some of the heavier wood for my own stock. Mainly the top, bottom and side keels and the rear formers from behind the centre of gravity. I reduced the number of wing ribs (not sure by how many cause im not at home at the moment to check). I also sheeted betwen the stringers behind the firewall back to former 2 (I always do this to all my builds as they always tend to need nose wieght so this adds wieght as well as strenght). Also i added another stringer above the cabin windows to give the curvature of the fuslage roof a bit more shape. I built mine with the free flight dihedral and free flight tail. Test glides are proving troublesome. Balanced without propeller it glides ok for a very short distance before droping out of the air nose down. This one may need to be a fast flyer cause she's not a floater. Still need to try mine under power so i'll let you know how i got on. Daryl

[joecrouse]

I was looking at Mr Parkers build and I was thinking allong those same lines adding a few stringers in spots
I am also going to use the larger 6 inch prop from my 172 that met an early and nasty end at the jaws of a wonderfull yet toothsome black lab that shall remain nameless. For some reason my kit came with a standard 5 inch prop.

(In defense of my dog, she saw something that flies fall to to the ground and tried to retrieve it and bring it back to me like she was trained to do But large black lab teeth and tisue/balsa not a good combo she now knows the difference between ducks geese and model airplanes)

[Wildpig]

Joe,
I hope you weren't to harsh with your dog. I had two black Labs. They were always trying to help. One time, I was building a shed or something. There was this long board, I needed. I picked up one end and one of the Labs came over and stood on the other end and just wagged her tail, with that "aren't I being good doggie" look on her face.

Pardon me, a moment, but....

Daryl,
Check your c.g. on your Musketeer and do you know how much it weighs?

[joecrouse]

Wasnt harsh with her at all. Patted her head told her good dog. (she did as she was trained and I am not going to break that kind of training retrieving and mouthing but not destructing are highly developed instincts in her). Refining the training was needed She now chases the plane stands next to it and barks (makes it easy on me finding them after they have glided out of sight.

she learned that tissue paper tastes NASTY and when wet with dog drool sticks to fur. (btw HILARARIOUS to watch almost as funny as giving her peanut butter)

A tiny drop of VERY high test capsicum oil in the dope does wonders. Now airplanes smell funny. Ducks and Geese do not. The side bonus is that the dog now will not go into my pepper plants.

[joecrouse]

Ugh...

I screwed this up.

I was trying to beef up the Front end, using some of the spare Heavy stock. And I broke the B2 frame.

Ill post photos of it tomorrow evening.

Edit As promised

photos of the fix in progress and how badly I bollixed it

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The partial fix.

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[akofly]

Wildpig, my Musketeer wieghs 51 grams without rubber. I added around 10 grams of clay to balance on the point shown on the plan without the prop on. Regardless of adding or removing wieght i had to give it a decent chuck to keep it flying with similar results. It will fly but it wont be a gentle floater.

[joecrouse]

Small modification I made to the that might help align the B3 Former with the correct spot on the plans.
this SHOULD make the cocpit area stronger as the formers b3 are basicaly free floating.
A Stringer going left to Right through the fuselage where B3 should fit and align with the cockpit section
Pictures forthcoming as glue dries.