Original Posted By: Rick Holland
What's really good about building a mock fuselage is thatit can be put together very quickly and easily, doesn'trequire a lot of precise fitting, but gives tremendousseat-of-the-pants feedback. Very rewarding. You can useany scrap materials laying around the garage or hangar,doesn't have to be aircraft grade. Gussets can be 1/4" or3/16" plywood, lumber can be from packing crates or woodpallets, you can shoot it all together with an airstapler without fussing about the joints or worrying aboutweight. The instrument boards don't have to be perfectlyshaped or sanded, nothing needs to be exact... build itto the nearest 1/16" tick mark on your measuring tape andget some Elmer's yellow glue or Gorilla Glue (an excellentuse for it!) and wham it together in a weekend.>From there, it becomes a very useful tool for fitting awhole host of things without having to permanently changeor make holes in your "real" fuselage. You can easilytry out changes in geometry, controls, instruments, oranything else. Drill multiple sets of holes as youadjust the location of controls or fittings or mounts- itwon't matter because it was never intended to be airworthy. But best of all, you can sit in it and socan your friends, family, or visitors- and get an instantfeel for what it's like in the real airplane. In fact, ifyou wanted to, you could build it on sawhorses in the 3-point configuration or in level cruise configuration (or,if you're clever, you can mount the front on pins ordowels that allow the mock-up to rotate from one positionto the other), using an old broomhandle or piece of conduitas a pivot and having two different mounting points at theaft sawhorse. That way, you can do all sorts of other thingslike checking how things sit using different wheels or landing gear.Yes, you can even throw a coat of paint on it ;o) Pull outthat old half-gallon of paint that's getting hard in thegarage... whatever color it happens to be. That way,it can be put outdoors out of the way if you don't have roomfor it in your shop. If you have kids, it is absolutely thebest plaything they will have around, and it will give theman introduction to the cockpit without any worry about breakinganything.Go one step further? Set that old orphaned big-screen TV infront of it and pop in Mike Cuy's DVD flying scenes ;o) Walmartsells a super-dependable little Magnavox DVD player for $29that will play even the most scratched DVDs. I think you couldrig a smoke system, too...Oscar ZunigaAir Camper NX41CC "Scout"San Antonio, TXwebsite at
http://www.flysquirrel.net ________________________________________________________________________________Date: Sun, 5 Dec 2010 17:14:54 -0700Subject: Re: Pietenpol-List: mock fuselage
I am thinking I may build a few ribs for pracitcebefore I start using the good stuff.--------HOMEBUILDERWill WORK for SpruceLong flights, smooth air, and soft landings,GliderMike, aka Mike GlasgowRead this topic online here:
--------HOMEBUILDERWill WORK for SpruceLong flights, smooth air, and soft landings,GliderMike, aka Mike GlasgowRead this topic online here: