Engine - 29 cc weedeater engine
Weight - 26 pounds
Comments - Everything was built by me, from scratch.. The engine is a 29 cc weedeater engine. I built the hull out of 1/4" plywood with lots and lots of lightening holes drilled in the ribs & stringers. The bottom and sides are planked with cardboard to keep the weight down, while the top is 1/4" plywood. The top had to be plywood to accomodate the blind nuts for the cage and railing mount screws. The bottom and sides were fiberglassed with two layers of heavy glass cloth and polyester resin, while the top was covered with one layer of glass cloth and polyester resin. The inside of the hull between all the ribs & stringers was also fiberglassed with one layer of heavy glass cloth just in case any water penetrates into the inside of the hull. I didn't want the cardoard to cause any problems!! I made the cage the same way you did. The cage and deck railings were built from 3/32" round brass stock bent and sottered with solid sotter. I decided to make a custom exhaust pipe to replace the muffler that originally hung off the back side of the engine. The reason for this was because I wanted to allow for maximum air flow through the head fins and to get the maximum air flow to the the custom 14 X 7 three blade pusher prop. (The original muffler was the same size as the entire engine basically.) I built the exhaust pipe from 3/4" copper plumbing pipe all brazed together. Obviously it had to be brazed and not just sottered. The rudders are made from 2" balsa airfoil stock (Purchased preshaped from the local hobby shop) and covered with Monokote. The total weight has come out at approximately 26 pounds. That's about it, I still haven't installed all the radio stuff yet, but I am really proud of the way this "beast" has come out!! The radio is a Futaba pistol grip two channel radio. I removed the spring from the throttle in the carburetor so I wouldn't have to upgrade my servo. Much better that way!!
