[benjhind]

I wasn't able to find anything more than rudimentary details when attempting to put a Spazzler together, so I've decided to post a detailed build thread. For anyone wanting to build this plane, I've uploaded the plans to my Photobucket page here.

Chief building supplies were the usual culprits; 2mm and 4mm coro, PVC downspout, yard stick, dowel, high-density polyethylene (HDPE) cutting board, and foam. For glue I used polyurethane (PU) glue almost exclusively, with a touch of CA in there. PU glue holds plastic and wood well, and doesn’t eat foam. When gluing coro to coro, I woodpeckered the surfaces well with a couple of pins in a pair of vice grips. This and PU glue make for a good strong bond. I used a bit of water with the PU to help it expand into the holes.

I decided to make the fuse out of 2mm coro, hoping to shave some weight off. I cut out the fuse with dimensions for wrapping around Canadian PVC downspout. For some reason I decided to cut the radio access. I glued it up, with a bead of PU glue down the corners for rigidity. I skipped the tail section so I could glue it later when I had the taper figured out.



I wrapped the PVC in cling wrap. I'd have preferred to use waxed paper, but didn’t have any on hand.



I taped it up well to keep the shape.



I weighted it for good measure.

[benjhind]

I cut the ‘V’ shape from the tail to taper the fuse.



I added a PVC backplate so I could attach an L-bracket to support the horizontal stab later.



I cut a wedge from foam to add some structure to the tail.



I glued in the wedge and taped it up. I weighted it to make sure there was good contact with the foam.

[benjhind]

I taped a yard stick down the fuse in order to put pressure on the foam wedge and keep it in place.





I cut out the tail sections, enlarging the control surfaces a bit. I came up with a way of keeping things together, which was to have the vertical stab pin down through the horizontal stab into the foam block. I used a ‘C’ shaped piece of wire to connect the two elevator halves.

[benjhind]

I used a rotary tool to dig out the slots for the vertical stab to push into.



I have used this style of tail gear before. It is simple and easy, and works not too bad.

[benjhind]

I glued the tail together, using a few supports and weights to try and keep things square.



I made up some front gear. I used blocks of HDPE cutting board to hold things in place. I’ve gotten a few miles out of these gear, and the steel is a bit weak. I put a wire across with a couple of wheel collars to keep them from splaying on hard landings.



I cut two 1” long sections of PVC downspout, and pushed them down the fuse. I glued them into position where the wing hold-down dowels would go. This took some fancy glue work (wiping the glue into place with a stick). I actually glued the hind piece in before sealing up the tail to make life a bit easier. I attached the front gear to the front PVC section for some added reinforcement.



I installed the wing hold-down dowels, and coated them in CA for fuelproofing.

[benjhind]

I wrapped the fuel tank in foam, taped it up, and stuffed it in.



I glued a 1” piece of PVC downspout into the end to reinforce the firewall area.


I made a HDPE cutting-board firewall, glued and screwed it in, and mounted the engine to it.



I made up a symmetrical wing out of 2mm coro, with 4mm ailerons. I increased the size of the ailerons a bit. I cut out the necessary piece, creased the leading edge, and glued it up using a 2x4 to keep the pressure even. A gap is left in the middle so that it can sit in over the fuselage. I made sure to draw in my spar location and left a tab in the middle.

[benjhind]

I made up a spar out of foam. I cut a slot in it to glue in a yard stick for reinforcement.



I propped the wing open, glued up the spar, and slid it into place. I made sure that the yard stick was on the top side of the wing. I held it in place with tape while the glue cured.

I placed a piece of bamboo skewer into the LE, and glued the tab down to reinforce it. To do it over, I wouldn’t have clamped directly to the coro, as I crushed it and it is visible on the top of the wing.

[benjhind]

I cut out the section of the spar that will sit down over the fuse. This is why you want the yard stick at the top of the wing.



To install the servos, I just used some tape and CA to hold sections of PVC to the back of the coro, and screwed the servos directly in.




I used two aileron servos, one on rudder, one on elevator, and a micro servo for throttle. I made PVC control horns and screwed them in with a PVC backplate on the opposite side.

[benjhind]

[benjhind]

I added some sign vinyl to spruce it up a bit and to tell up from down.




I also added a battery, receiver, and a switch because they are all pretty important. I still haven’t made L-brackets for the horizontal stab, and might still do that in the future. I marked the locations of the backplates on the outside of the fuse so that I can do that later.

I’ve had a successful maiden, but there is a lot of waggling back and forth, so I’m going to seal up the wing tips with foam or coro before the next flight. I hope that this build thread helps somebody out, this is a really cool plane but it was very hard to find any info on how to build it!

Cheers,

Ben