Building the Rico-SHE LW
Part II: Finishing and Flying the Classic from Phoenix Model Products
Readers who want to know the story so far may want to read Part I of Marc’s article before proceeding with the article below. — Ed.
Last time we finished at the stage of having the the fuselage and wings built and covered with cross weave tape. The ‘to-do’ list still had a few things to tick off: ailerons, final coverings, radio fit out, centre-of-gravity (CG) balance and — of course! — maiden flight and fine tuning.
Give Me Some Direction
The Rico-SHE is a ‘bank and yank’ style of glider; the control surfaces are simply full span ailerons and a elevators on the V-tail. Note that this is not elevons/ruddervators — there’s no rudder function. The kit is supplied with trailing edge stock for the ailerons that needs a little bit of work to get a top notch build. You could use ‘as is’, but this is model engineering, not ̶r̶o̶c̶k̶e̶t̶ ̶s̶c̶i̶e̶n̶c̶e̶ ̶ Twitter, we want to do things properly!
Due to the taper of the wing from root towards the tip, the thickness of the aileron needs to reduce as it runs outboard to match the false trailing edge of the main wing section. At the same time, the actual trailing edge thickness needs to be maintained — to avoid it getting too fragile — and the plan form of the aileron needs to remain. Lastly, aileron needs a rebate to allow for travel with a top hinge†. Half an hour with the with a large sanding block and some 80–120 grit paper gave the required shaped ailerons, ready for covering.
†Word of caution: the photos show a mock up with bottom hinges.
I’ll Get My Coat
The traditional covering method for many of the PMP kits is packing tape. It’s readily available, fairly cheap, easy to apply (no special tools or irons needed) and comes in many colours beyond ‘parcel brown’ if you search online. You could also use any of the other ‘classic’ covering films or even brown paper and PVA. I’m sure they’d all work just fine. I however, instead, chose vinyl.
I’ve used vinyl on a few of my gliders over the last few years. I find it easier to apply, harder wearing, and cheaper than the ‘normal’ RC covering materials. Cleaning is easy: just wipe down with a damp cloth, or even a bit of WD40 for harder stains. For scratches, a quick blow from a hairdryer or very gentle judicious use of a heat gun will soften the vinyl and allow it to almost heal itself, much like ‘paint protection film’ used on cars. Perhaps the biggest benefit is the diamond pattern in the adhesive on the brand I use. It’s almost impossible to get air bubbles because the trapped air can escape via the groves. See photos below for further details.
When I mentioned this to others in the hobby, one of the first questions asked is “isn’t it heavy?” Well, yes and no: yes, it is heavier than typical iron on coverings, but that’s less of a concern for most of my slope soaring activities — a little extra weight normally isn’t an issue! No, 25g (0.75oz) glass cloth and the relevant epoxy, primer, some filler and paint top coat is broadly the same finished weight as the equivalent vinyl area. It might be a touch lighter, but not a huge difference.
The vinyl was cut to the rough shape of each wing panel and covering is the same process as normal methods: bottom first, then top, trim and overlap the edges. A non-contact heat source is used to activate the adhesive and ‘set’ the vinyl to the shape of the wing and can be used to stretch a little if you need it to take the form of something complex like a wing tip. Just be very careful not to over heat / rip the vinyl or to damage the foam underneath if using a heat gun as photographed. I prefer to use a hairdryer!
Next up, the fuselage was covered in a blue vinyl giving a strong contrast versus the white wings and V-tail. The fuselage is a tricky shape to cover in a single piece, so I split the job into four steps: the two side panels followed by bottom and top. Seams and overlaps are there if you look closely, but take two steps back and they disappear.
Continuing with the theme and contrasting against the white, the ailerons were covered with the same blue.
Hinging the ailerons was done with glass repair tape. It’s a flexible, strong, waterproof, and UV-resistant tape used to repair green house glass and available from most hardware stores or online. It comes in 50mm (2") wide rolls which is a bit too wide for most of my hinge needs. There’s a couple of options to trim it down: I used to lay out the required length on baking parchment and then cut in half lengthways — 25mm (1") being ideal for most hinges. But now I have started cutting the whole roll in half, in-situ. A few minutes with a new and very sharp box cutter and you can split the roll. I found the parchment would sometimes leave a residue, didn’t impact the adhesion, but it was visible under the tape once fitted.
The Home Straight
We are nearly at the end, just the radio gear to deal with now! As mentioned, the Rico-SHE is a simple elevator and aileron glider. There are three servos to fit and wire — the elevator is a single servo operating a split push rod for each surface.
I placed the servos on the top of the wing, operating the ailerons with a top hinge, allowing for a large upward operation if I want to experiment with spoileron braking while also keeping the upper surface of the airofoil a clean as possible — no large V from a bottom hinged aileron junction.
The servos fit in their pockets snuggly and are held in place with strapping (CW) tape that extends well beyond the edge of the pockets. It’s then covered with vinyl for aesthetics. Their wires are run via a channel cut into the wing and then covered with vinyl. The wire tails are routed through the wing ready for connection in the fuselage.
Push rods and fittings were supplied in the box, but I elected to replace the servo ends with metal clevises. The plastic is used on the other end as ‘servo savers’ for those high energy arrivals we occasionally have. 💥 Wires were trimmed and terminated to avoid excess in the fuselage using my favourite tool: a cable crimp tool for servo connectors!
The space is a little tight inside the fuselage! Originally, I used an FrSky G-RX8. This has been my ‘go to’ receiver (Rx) for years, what with eight channels and a built-in vario. However it’s a little cramped once the battery and some foam is installed. FrSky has always had smaller Rx in their line up, but now that I have switched to a Tandem/EthOS transmitter (Tx), I can use the new Archer Rx too. Their new R4 Rx is ideal for this model: full range, four physical PMW channels — remember, I only have 3 servos! — and it’s tiny, around half the length of the G-RX8.
Maiden
After waiting what felt like weeks for a suitable weather window, the forecast suggested a showery day with suitable wind. Sure enough, the showers were there, but magically split round the hill, leaving us to enjoy a classic English autumn day with vivid greys, brilliant sunshine and plenty of mud. More about that later. The maiden flight was pretty uneventful, I picked a shallow hill to give me options, so didn’t expect much in terms of soaring; more of an extended chuck test!
I Broke a Rib after The Maiden
“But the Rico-SHE hasn’t got any ribs!” I hear you say, and you’d be right! Humans do, however, and I broke a few of them about ten minutes after the maiden. Having done the flight and feeling confident about trim and CG, I decided to move to another part of the hill for some proper flights.
Remember the mud? The hill I was flying from is an ancient hill fort. The earth banks that formed the defences are still there — think moat which is to say a very large ditch. I had to cross the ditch to get to the other launch point. It was very muddy and I knew stopping part way down the slope would be impossible. I elected to start slowly and ‘go with it’ to the bottom.
Alas, near the end, my potential energy quickly converted to excess kinetic energy and I felt myself falling forward. I chucked the gliders in my hands to the side and almost got my hands out to cushion my fall. I landed square, chest first on the ‘up’ slope of the opposite bank, fortunately, avoiding the gliders.
In hind sight, it’s probably a good thing I didn’t get my arms out as I’d likely have broken a wrist or two. Severely winded, I stayed put for a good while recovering my breath and assessing things. I think a combination of adrenalin and cold masked things and I was able to walk around and fly for a couple more hours with some aches but not thinking much more about it. When I got back to the car however, I realised just how much pain I was in doing almost anything other than standing upright. I’d broken a pair of lower ribs in the fall, my first glider related injury.
Extra Credit
Following the successful maiden flights I decided to go a bit further with this build. I’d picked up some Mylar sheet for another project that didn’t get used, so set about making some ‘wipers’ for the aileron hinges. This is a racer after all and has an RG15 section that is pretty flexible in speed range — more efficiency can only be a good thing right?
The aileron hinge gap is relatively large: ~2mm (1/10”) opening to 5mm (3/16”) when deflected up. Also, its full span, so plenty of benefit to be had. I’ve never made wipers before, but I thought I’d give it a go. I cut a rectangular section of Mylar, wide enough to attach to the wing and cover the gap when fully open. This is attached to the wing with tape and left free on the aileron side. Before fitting, the Mylar is given a gentle curve span wise to encourage it to follow the aerofoil. It’s hard to see in the photos but it’s there!
The final bit of extra credit was to sneak some decals through my wife’s Cricut \3 vinyl cutting machine (link in Resources). I found some icon vector files online that sort of / kind of looked like a ball bouncing off a surface. With a bit of manipulation, the result, I hope, looks a bit like a ricochet. Add in some lettering and then ‘print’ in red for yet more contrast and the result is this distinctive pylon racer:
Recently, the rain stopped for long enough for the sky to turn blue. I keep mentioning it, but it really has rained a lot here in the UK this winter! Light easterly winds were forecast ~8 mph so I made the trip to the hill with the Supra which can easily float around on that, but I also brought the Rico-SHE — just in case. Sure enough, there was plenty of lift and I decided to give the Rico a chuck. While not a speed daemon in the conditions, soaring was certainly possible and a few 30+ min flights achieved before the wind chill mandated a landing and warming of the hands.
If you have any questions please leave a comment below in the Responses sections. You get there by clicking the 💬 below. I’ll do my best to answer them. Thanks for reading!
©2023 Marc Panton
Resources
- Rico-SHE from Phoenix Model Products. — “a stylish 60in EPP pylon racer and sports aerobatic sloper designed to meet the demand for more crash resistant pylon racers and conform to the new 6Oin EPP pylon racing class…”
- Building Instructions — The building instructions provided by Phoenix.
- Metamark — Sign materials and vinyl supplier.
- Cricut 3 — “Cutting machines designed for home crafters. The machines are used for cutting paper, felt, vinyl, fabric…” (Wikipedia)
- Meon Valley Soaring Association — “A friendly club on the south coast of the UK. Access to the 2nd flight location is through membership of MVSA…”
- Whittenham Clumps on Wikipedia. — “A pair of chalk hills” near Oxford, UK. The location of the maiden flight, my broken ribs and a few other flights.
- How Do I Know If I Have a Broken Rib? — “The ribcage plays one of the most crucial roles in human anatomy … it creates a shield that protects hearts and lungs from trauma…”
All images by the author. Read the next article in this issue, return to the previous article in this issue or go to the table of contents. A PDF version of this article, or the entire issue, is available upon request.
