Re-thinking the landing light.

After a bit of time between coming up with the landing light, and getting ready to install it, I’ve decided to re-work the light and lens to what you see here.

I took apart one of the triple-LED flashlights I mentioned way back at the start of this blog, and made it into a more compact unit. The original had the LED’s spaced about a 1/2″ apart. Now, they’re as tight together as possible. Should look more like a single light, rather than 3 separate ones. Also, makes the mounting a bit easier with a smaller unit.
Sure is a blindingly bright light!

Note: the white you see around the perimeter of the light is glue that hasn’t dried yet. Should all be clear when finished.

Wingtip nav lights

After a few days of experimenting, I’ve come up with a nice, scale looking system for the wingtip navigation lights. First, here’s what the full-scale look like (port shown).

So, having nothing but a cutout in the wing to start with, I decided to try some of the heat-forming I used when I made some of the Cub’s details.
I had already wired the wings and they now have the superbright LED’s soldered in.
Next, came the lens covers. I used a piece of dowel, rounded at the end. Using a heat-gun, I took some thin clear plastic, heated it up, and formed it over the dowel.
Then, I wasn’t sure how to “tint” them, but my loving wife actually came up with the idea of using this:

This is stained-glass paint. It takes quite a few thick coats to get the saturation, but it’s a pretty slick solution. Here’s the finished lenses for the port and starboard wing tips.

Then a bit more heat-forming made the lenses. A bit of yellow zinc-chromate colored paint and here’s the result.

Of course, there’s rivets and screw heads to go, but from 15 feet it should be just the ticket.

Rudder lighting & first engine run

While waiting for the final coat of epoxy to dry, I took a look at the rudder nav light. I drilled a hole and did some digging-out of the internal balsa, and WA-LA!

These shots were both taken in the direct, early morning sun. Still shows up pretty well!

Also, I did the first run of the Brillelli 46cc engine that will hopefully power this beast. Not sure what to expect, it actually worked pretty well. With the help of my neighbor who I fly with (and also has this same engine) it took a couple dozen flips to get it primed, but after that it only took a few to start-up. It ran surprisingly well and required no adjustments from the factory settings. Now that I know it runs, and runs well, I’ll take it off the Christen Eagle and get it mounted.

Hinging the rudder.

Just worked up a simple rig to hold the rudder level.

Holes are all drilled and the hinges line up well.

The only thing that I’m going to have to do a bit of work on is the rear light. Granted, it wasn’t designed to take an actual light, but they couldn’t have placed that balsa brace in a worse way!

Landing light

It took a bit of figuring to find out just where the landing light should be. I’ve got 3 different 3-views and they all have it in different spots. This looks to be right, but if not, too late now! The servo (a mini Hitech digital) goes in the hole you see the wire leads protruding from. Below is the landing light hole with the hinge attached. Still some work to do, but it’s getting there.

The wire will supply the power to the light – hopefully!