Why?

Ever since my first molded model 5 or 6 years ago the process of molding has fascinated me. Up to that date the most advanced sailplane I had seen was the MPX Flamingo of which I made three or four back in the early eighties. Needless to say the precision and surface quality not to mention the rigidity of molded F3B planes came as a shock.

Since then I have been flying several molded F3B planes, and have had the chance to take a close look at planes like the Ellipse 4, Phoenix and X-21 (these I have flown myself).

Because of the misfortune of one of my club mates I have also had the chance to inspect the Estrella at a close distance. Inside both wing and fuse actually. Poor guy!

These are all great models and I can only hope to be able to make something like that one day. Still they all had one common discrepancy from my point of view: I made none of them!

I guess you have all heard it before: “What a great idea! - The only thing wrong with it is that I did not come up with it!”

I have no illusions about this project regarding making cheaper models or getting them faster than if I where to buy them. It is the urge to make things myself and to try my own idea witch is the driving force here.

So that’s why! But how?

There are certainly more than one way to go about making a model sailplane.

This is part of the fun. If all the options where exploited then there would be nothing more to discuss, no more questions to ask = boringboringboring

The Seax is a combination of things that I have copied, begged, imitated and borrowed plus some of my own ideas. Nothing revolutionary on my part, just things that will give the model my flavor.

I could go on forever about the reasons for the different features and solutions that I choose for the Seax, but it would just be too much right now. Many descisions are yet to be made, so I will need help from all of you in the future discussing various solutions.

As of today March 6. –04 the molds for v-tail and wings are in my workshop ready for the many coats of polish to prepare for molding. The fuse masterplug is almost ready, but there are a lot of work to be done and decisions to be made before all the extra tools for the molds are in place and ready to go.

The following is a brief description of the model so far:

Wing: 

The Seax will have a two piece wing with single dihedral and only a minor upsweep at the tip.

The airfoil is the HN-787 pro.

Tail:

The tail of the Seax is also two pieces.

The airfoil is HN-481s-pro.

It will be fixed to the fuse through “pockets” in the fuse rather than carbon pins and tubing.

Fuselage:

The fuselage of the Seax will be narrow, but not to the extreme (ca 35 mm). There will be no outer cone. Access to the radio-gear and ballast will be through a side-hatch to ease loading and offloading ballast.

Approximately 1400grams of ballast will be housed in a single chamber in the fuse:

The fuse will be parted horizontally to accommodate the way the tail is fixed to the fuselage. To do this the parting-line of the mold will no longer bee a single plane.

It will have to move up just in front of the v-tail, and continue out along the leading edge of the tailsurface. 5 cm out along the leading edge the v-tail will be “cut of” and the parting-line comes back down along the trailing edge of the v-tail.

This way the innermost part of the v-tail on both sides will be part of the fuselage mold.

There will be no wing shoulder on the fuse.

The root of the Seax wing will mate to the compound curvature of the fuselage.

Norbert Habe has been very generous, providing me with coordinates for the aerofoils and hints on how to apply them to the design. Many thanks Mr. Habe.

Since I started making the Seax  the urge to make it accessible to others through the internet has been rising. The problem is that I do not have the know how to do it.

Erik Dahl Christensen is offering to do this on his pages, and I humbly accept (thus I shall remain an data illiterate for eternity)J.

Gjermund Westad

Stange, Norway March 6.-04