The first NWC wing half is born!!!

A happy family with their new born.... :P




The first winghalf released cleanly from the mould, after som very creative persuation to get the wing joiner out of its pocket. Some joining bog had entered the pocket and locked the joiner. Spent 1.5 hours to get it out..No damage done thankfully... The finish is good, and even more shiney than I tought it would be.. My chisel accident left a minor mark in the skin, but it is small, and the mould is ok. The wing came out quite light at 530g after trimming... I think it is possible to get this layup bellow 500g and get it even stiffer with some minor modifications.. -I think it is also possible to build a wing with 160g carbon to a weight of 550g. I have bought 5m for my next wingset, but I`m already thinking of 80g spread tow... (But, I`m out of money to spend on composites right now..)

So, what have I learned from this prototype wing? :

-Use 2k. paint instead of Vorgelat.
-Be carefull with the chisel...
-Make sure that the bog can`t enter the joiner box.
- Use more carbon in the spar at the tips, the center is stiff, but the tip a bit flexy
-The 38g "disser" is hard to work with, but gives an excellent torsion stiffness.
-Measure the balsa for the spar better, to avoid having to use to much glue when joining.

First winghalf joined..... :P

Too much???



I joined the first winghalf tonight. So now we have to wait 2-3 days before I open the mould. I`m very excited to see how the finish and stiffness is... I`m also a bit nerve wrecked, as I managed to cut through the top skin when I made the slot for the sparcap. The chisel hooked on a lump of epoxy that had seeped through a tiny hole in the Herex.. Hope I didn`t damage the mould... We will see...

You can write down your guess on the weight of the finished wing panel on the rcgroups thread located here

I need to mould the topskin for the other panel, but have to wait with it until I can get hold of more foam rollers.. All the shops here in Tromsø seems to be out of them. I guess we don`t need to wonder where John Rasmussen is spending his holiday any more... (Joke, John is a part of the excellent Spline team...)

Now I`m going to get some sleep... (like that will ever happen.... :D )