Saturday, March 31, 2007

Airplanes: Chuperosa Part 1

Here's a 1.5 meter 2Ch. sailplane currently in the assembly line. Called the Chuperosa- it's an old kit with sheeted foam core wings, built up fuse, and sheet tail feathers. Unfortuantely, I was dealt a setback the other week when I attempted to sheet the wings. I was using Dave Brown Southern's Sorghum for the adhesive and after I applied the glue and placed the top sheet on, I noticed it was a bit crooked so I attempted to re-set and destroyed the skin. It was very frustrating due to the time it took to make the skins. I do not recommend using that type of glue. Next time, (if I can bring myself to work with foam cores again) I will use the white glue technique as described here. So now, the next step is to scratch build a traditional wing using the root airfoil as my main pattern. It appears that the company who manufactured this kit is no longer around- if any of you have built or flown a chuperosa, know of any groups, resources associated with this model please post a comment. I will have several more posts on this project starting next week so, as always check back often! Below are the pics of the fuse, and tail assemblies and the front cover of the instruction manual



3 comments:

Lagunamoono said...

This sailplane originally was presented in the Jan. "88" RCM Magazine. I remember it was highly regarded in it's day. So I JUST purchased one on E-Bay. I'm going to use a super thin coating of gorilla glue on the sheeting with a sprits of water on the foam. (This settles adhesion arguments) * Let us know how your's is doing! ..ron

Matthew said...

Thanks for the comment Ron-
Your idea is new to me, have you tried that technique before? I have heard that ironing on the skins works quite well too. Whatever you go with I would highly recommend using a test scrap first- perhaps on the outside of one of the wing beds. Send links to your pics- I'd love to see them!

Anonymous said...

I still have my Chuperosa...still I the box too... You could just trace out the airfoil, root and tip and cut another wing...