Alright! The wings are finally glued onto the body and I must say, she looks good!
And to give you a sense of scale of the size of this thing (and a sense of one very happy me):
Ok, so that was the good news. Here comes the bad:
It's *way* too heavy. I think I blew the weight budget on the wings as well, so now the weight will definitely exceed the thrust provided by the motor....... so, I'm going for a bigger one!
Instead of being powered by a 1100kV motor at 11.1V, spinning a 13x6 inch prop, I'm now gonna put on a 500 kV motor at 14.8 V, spinning a 17x12 propeller! The thrust will increase from 2.5 kg to 4 kg
Now... with the new thrust, I can afford to put some more stuff on the thing, like a landing gear with a front gear being steerable and LED lights on the wings and body for some added coolness. I'm now estimating the end weight to be around 3 kg. That will make the wing loading at around 75 g/dm^2, which is... not bad. My trainer's loading is 60 g/dm^2 and an Extra 300 does around 120 g/dm^2... so no worries there.
The new motor also means that the DG will shoot up into the sky as if it really was rocket powered.
Also, the new motor (ironically) runs on a lower current then the previous one. The peak is at around 47 A, compared to 54 A and the current load once in flight will also be around 35 A and not 40 A... so the 3300 mAh battery I'm putting on will last LONGER then it would on the previous motor. Also, the cost of the new batteries and motor aren't *that* much higher then of the previous stuff. Only a couple of bucks per piece... so for the same price, I can get a bigger motor AND more flight time. For the 300€ I have allocated to the electronics, I will be able to get the motor, the LiPo charger, 3 60 Ncm torque servos and 4 4S 3300 mAh 20C batteries, which will provide at least 20 minutes of flight time.
The speed of the DG will now also increase, compared to the old motor, as will the climb rate. I now have no doubt that I will be able to take off vertically.
Also, I was a bit worried about the structure of the wings... if they would be able to survive a high G maneuver, so I strengthened them a little bit. I now feel more then confident that they will.
The plywood structure is now done. Now I need to start putting on the balsa skin and finish up the leading and trailing edges of the wings, do the vertical stabilizers on wing tips, make the elevons and rudders, run the wires for the LED lights,... and once the wood is done, I have to put the foil over the wood and make it look like a real DG. After that, I need to mount the electronics and get it flying!
I'm hoping the first flight will be at the end of August or around that time.
So............... some good news.
I'll be away for the weekend so I won't be able to work on her. Also I need to slow down a bit and think about how to wire a couple of things... like control wires for the elevons and rudders and so on... don't wanna put the skin on before I wire it up cos I need the access.