6-2023 Building a replacement 6-3-2023 Steve Shumate Fokker Dr1 Tri plane Sport

[Neons]

Here I am creating a replacement Steve Shumate Fokker Dr1 Tri plane Sport. I built my past Fokker Dr1 in 2008. I had many flights and crashes over the years, I always got it up there again. The planes wings were always getting the worst damages. I found that the original Steve built was almost 3D flite. Built wit 2mm Depron with weight savings and it was a potent model doing stunts. I fly my models in average winds in the summer at 15-20 MPH. I want my sport Triplane to be heavier for the fight with wind also. I used originally Home Depot 5mm Z-fold foam that was smooth. No more now. It is junk with less strength and rough.

I suggest using Loew's Z-Fold blue. It is smooth and very close to the original Pink foam I am using here. I only have a few prized old foam left from all the years now. Depron is not available in the USA anymore. I still have some though. From the cockpit back fuselage top use a 3mm foam. In the bottom up to the lower wing use 5-6mm. Behind the lower wing use 2-3mm foam. The reason is that if you build that section above and below the fuselage with the heavier foam you will have to add more lead in the nose. Refrain from that. In another important ccouple of changes I skipped the plan in the nose length and landing gear.

A 1/2 to3/4" longer nose is beneficial for the final C/G balance. I moved the wheel axle forward more in this build also. Why? To help stop nose over landings and C/G also. Because I am flying with a heavier plane now as a Sport flier I used a larger motor,ESC, and battery. My new lipo tray is bigger on this plane now. Now that I explained a few things here I am showing relative build sequences and links to Steve Shumates plans that can be printed in multiple sheets with a home printer. I also in addition give you the build log and plan download.

Here part way down you will see all the PDF tiled plan download along with the insignias and decals for printing.
This link is the RC Groups pictures that were posted in the Group Build Log:
https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/thumbga ... y&t=425387

This is the Steve Shumates Build Log for building the plane.
https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthr ... ost4419460

In the build log there is a demo video. The plane will fly this well only if you use the strict build procedure Steve uses to build as light as possible. Here is a video of the light version flying:
https://vimeo.com/5317239

[Neons]

I started with the fuselage sides that are old Z-Fold pink foam The motor bulkhead was hot glued in place after the sides were put together and match them with sanding. Further in is the next bulkhead forward of the cockpit area will establish the width and the length of the battery I want to fit in that area. I last used a 2700mah 3S lipoly to fly my plane. I pinched and glued the rear fuselage after alignment. The bottom of the floor in the battery compartment is in place.

[Neons]

Now I want to get the wheels and struts in place. i used my crashed plane wheels here. They are 1/8" plywood that has a ridge cut in with a Dremel all the way around the circumference. I used automotive vacuum hose cut to fit and hot glued in place. It is hard to fin "O" rigs over 3 inches. From the plan templates I traced the landing gear struts and planned on using my old plywood O-ringed wheels and axle. I used a good aircraft plywood.
I arranged the struts forward and checked the angles for alignment carefully. I tack glued the struts in place. The struts were always a weak point in the plane build if you crashed. I added 1/8 wood slats to strengthen them longitudinally. Because the struts go into the fuselage on angles it needs to have foam angled fillers between the fuselage and the strut wood. I added a plywood bulkhead for later mounting the motor. The motor is not set in the picture. It will have a box extension about 5/8 inches thick.

[Neons]

Now I want to get the top wing strut in place and almost a similar way of mounting them like the wheel struts. The struts are cut out by tracing and using a jig saw table by Craftsman. Angled foam was glued inside the fuselage and the strut ends. You can get a glimpse of the wedges I used on the wheel struts. Buried under those angles is the pieces of 1/8 inch longitude strips. The battery box is coming along also.

[Neons]

Now in the next photos I got a few items done. I added internal triangled foam 3/4inch to the bulkhead firewall and joint of the fuselage sides. Then I covered the nose top section with a hatch to drop the battery in place. Next I used the box ply extension to move the motor forward another 5/8 inches. The motor is centered in place. I did not have to use washers to angle the motor right and down a degree for torque thrust. The extension was sanded to the angles and epoxied in place. Here is another item I did throw in the the trash. My mind clicked and I grabbed it out of the barrel and placed it on the nose. It is a Ziplock microwave tub. It damn near fits. I cut it away to look like a DR1 cowling and shaved about 1/2 inch off the lip to get it to sit back and give propeller clearances. Looks good to me. It is a go. The plane is not scale anyway. Looks good in the air. This saved a lot of time laminating the foam cowl and sanding.

More to come as time alots me.

[Neons]

A NOTE of importance was that I had to remove the wood "V" upper wing struts until I actually have the mid wing in place. I mounted them prematurely. Only then it will go back in place. I added cowling mounts and a couple of fuselage formers to stiffen the fuselage. Today I was able to get the rudder and elevator glued in place. I also have the pushrods ready to mount on the servos. That will be next. All my electronics salvaged from the previous plane are going in place and tested . The tail skid is in place. I had some foam reddi-board so that was used to make the rudder and elevator. Just a change I want to try as it is smooth for the finish. I suggest at least use a carbon arrow tube or dowel by choice to join the elevator two part control surfaces before hinging them in place. I used my Dremel and a flat disk to slot through the carbon tube or dowel to push the hinges in and glued.

[Neons]

Hope you all had a nice holiday weekend. With intermittent rain I could not get some flying in so I attacked the Fokker Dr1 Triplane. In this et of pictures you will see I ripped the struts out as they were prematurely added. I want to get the mid wing and lower wing in place first. I did install a pair of 9 gram servos in place in the cockpit floor. I cut all three wings out from the pink Z-fold I saved for years. It is maybe 5mm thick. After cutting them all I carefully did all the measures needed to route out all the 1/4 inch carbon arrow shaft slots to give me a solid wing when they get glued in place. I labeled all the parts in the pictures.

I also made a route in the underside top wing for the aileron hinges while I was at it. My Craftsman type Dremel works good. I made the router adapter out of scrap plywood. I use a stone to cut the foam and I believe it work better and safer than a steel cutter. No dust either. I am only using the scale type ailerons on the model rather than all three wings. My choice. Do not let what I did here deter you from making a slot. You can do it with a straight edge ruler and a sharp razor and make "V" cuts.I am not following the plan exactly. I fly in a very windy area and my plane is heavier and tougher in construction. If you never made this plane follow the build site closely and measure carefully. My next step is to block sand the wings to shape before mounting and using the wing setup gauges on the plan.

[Neons]

7-11-2023
I am working on mounting the middle and top wings. It is a slow process because it requires measuring over and over again to get the jigs and positioning of the wings straight in place. After spot gluing in place all the carbon fiber arrow shafts I have to get the 2 outer cabane struts exact to get the spacing between the wings correct. I also did all the wing trailing edges with the scalloping. It give a more scale look. I used a compass to make a 3" circle and placed it on a straight line about 1/4" deep for the effect.

Next I glued the middle wing in place and used the angle and distance jigs . This was easy. After drying I placed the outer cabanes through the mid wing and snapped it to the bottom wing and looked it over. Popped them out and mixed epoxy and set the bottom wing. Flipped the plane over and place the carbon pins in the slots for the middle wing and a drop of epoxy and pinned in place until hard.

Next with the inner wing cabanes for the op wing he angles were st and the height measured to match the jig heights. The wing was scrutinized to be straight and sit correct. Remove the wing after measured and eyeballed to gue down the inner top wing cabanes struts. Now that I am here I stopped and I am now fitting a single middle servo for the ailerons. Possibly that will be done this week and then hinge the ailerons and test them. That is it for now.

[Neons]

Before I mounted the upper wing I had to make the servo and push rods work for the ailerons. I used 90 degree bellcranks on plywood bases. I got it all working smoothly with a servo tester and set midrange along with the ailerons. All very good. I then carefully lined up the wing and used minimal epoxy. It is sitting real nice now. As you can see this did not follow the original plan as I changed things for my specific use.

Next in order to cover the upper fuselage I cut the covering just oversize to trim after it was glued down. The fuselage upper turtleback cover has a radius. I am using 1/8inch Depron foam sheet. Do not look for this as it is no longer available. In order to make a flt piece of foam get a radius there is a couple ways to do it. Rather than using knife slits I used an ordinary Popsicle stick that was sanded down to a sharper edge. I then used a straight edge ruler and scribed it at taper angles to match the fuselage taper toward to the tail. I curved it more before gluing it down permanent. The cockpit is cut out after the upper fuselage is closed in. Make sure.Now for your options you can make the top of the fuselage flat and use Z-fold glued down and then block sand the 90 degree edges into a nice rounded edge and it will still look great. Another option is to remove the paper on ReddiBoard with ammonia soaking. It will easily follow the air frame radiused turtleback. After my turtleback was done I sanded the radius and used Lite-Spackle over all the joints.

My next step was to cut out the cockpit only after the turtledeck was installed. There was a cushioned edge on the rim of the cockpit. I used clear plastic tubing that I nailed and stretched to the bench. I made 2 slits the whole length. I test fit it all around and trimmed the length. I lathered the inside of the tubing and installed it in place as the cockpit coaming and let it set.. The pilot from my last Dr1 Triplane is test set in place to get the height I want. The guns are not glued until after I paint the plane later. My next project is to get the bottom covered with a hatch for all the electronics. I will after that work on the cowling and a dummy motor. Color scheme is not that far away . Maybe by the end of summer.

[Neons]

Got some time to do a little building this week. All caught up with flying upgrades and repairs for now. I ordered a nice plastic LeRhone motor for the Dr1 Triplane from https://parkflyerplastics.com/cart/inde ... x&cPath=44 . They have so many nice vacuform parts. The motor seemed a tad small from what I wanted. So I decided to make a facsimile motor out of dowels. I just needed 4 cylinders to show under the cowling. In the first picture I chucked up a short dowel and with a narrow tool started to turn the fins and then reverse them to turn the cylinder diameters. They are made from 3/4" dowel.

After they were all made I taper V"d the lower cylinders and glued them some where in a 15 to 20 degree angle. Just eyeballed the angles. I made a wood half circle 1/16 " ply front cover in a semi-circle. On the back I made a copper thin sheet half circle that was drilled to fit the E-motor mount lower screws. I also drilled the mount for 4 tiny screws in each lower cylinders on the backs. It was all epoxied to make a solid unit. I added 3 plastic tubes for simulated exhaust pipes I bolted it up in place and it is solid. Painted black and silver I can move on. This is a simulated motor.

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