Top Flite Metrick User Manual

Product Support

(Do Not Remove From Department)

METRICK

RC-29 SAILPLANE INSTRUCTIONS

INTRODUCTION

There is no question, two-meter sailplanes have arrived
in the mainstream of the modeling community and show
every sign of remaining for a long time. The reasons why
are many and varied but the fact that they are easier to
build and still provide every bit the flyability of the larger
Standard Class and Open Class sailplanes should not be
overlooked. Until quite recently, the designs available,
either in kit or plan form, have generally reflected the
"floater" approach, with emphasis on very light con-

struction yielding exceedingly low wing-loadings. Air­foils on these aircraft have usually been variations on the
ever-present Clark-Y The models themselves have been
typified by a kind of back-to-basics look as opposed to the
considerable design work showing-up in the Standard
and Open classes. While these "first generation"-type
two-meter designs filled the initial need, competition has
begun to disclose the drawbacks to lightly loaded and
constructed models especially those using airfoils which

TOP FLITE MODELS INC:

1901 NORTH NARRAGANSETT AVENUE • CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 60639

do not provide penetration in anything less than no-wind
conditions. It was inevitable that designers would begin
to explore the sophistication of two-meter sailplanes and
their resultant designs are now beginning to show-up on

flying fields. These designs are now being referred to as

"second generation." Your Top Flite METRICK two-meter

sailplane definitely falls into this category.
The METRICK is the fulfillment of several important

design criteria that we felt a second-generation two­meter sailplane should possess:

1. The ability to be flown in a wide variety of wind
conditions and yet remain competitive by virtue of
airfoil efficiency and relatively clean aerodynamics.

2. Airframe strength to survive and even take advantage
of high-velocity 12-volt winch launches.

3. Expandability to allow the use of spoilers, releasable

and captive towhook systems and room for reason­able ballasting as desired by the pilot.

4. The ability to accept and use today's radio equipment
including the standard configuration 500 mah battery

pack.

5. An overall appearance that is as pleasant to look at as
it is efficient.

In our opinion, the METRICK not only has met these
criteria but in actual practice has exceeded them. In
contest situations the METRICK has been launched with a
12 volt winch into 15mph+ winds, penetrated forward
from launch about 1/4 mile and completed the 10-minute
task with a high 90's spot landing—all of this in a 31
ounce, unballasted condition! It is interesting to point out
that in this particular contest, all other 2-meter designs,
and many Standard class entries either folded their wings
on tow or were blown so far back off of launch that they
were forced to land well down-wind of the landing site.
Since very few of us have anything to say about the
weather conditions that a given contest is going to have,
the METRICK had to handle the worst and still come out
on top. What about light or no-wind conditions? Your

METRICK will really come into its' own on these types of
days! The design has a longer than usual tail-moment
which dampens the usual low-speed porpoising tenden­cies associated with newer second generation two-meter
sailplanes.Stalls, the nemesis of
up much hard gained altitude, are very shallow with the
METRICK. The glide in these light conditions is nothing
short of incredible. The airfoil used on the METRICK
allows you to cover so much sky with such a minimal loss
of altitude you will no longer have many excuses for
missing thermals! When the nose is trimmed slightly
down the design will accelerate rapidly with a very flat
glide rate, getting you from point A to B faster than you

can believe at virtually the same altitude you started at.
The METRICK can be launched using any one of the

commercially available hi-start systems as well as 6 or 12
volt winches. The design also slope soars beautifully and
has an .049 engine set-up shown on the plans. You will
find, no matter what configuration you set the airplane
up with—engine or unpowered—your METRICK has
hands-off performance, making it an excellent choice for
a first R/C ship and an equally smart choice if competition
is your goal.

sail

planes since they

eat

PRE-CONSTRUCTION NOTES

The METRICK, like other Top Flite kits employs the use of
die-cut wood to ease the task of construction, parts fit and
identification. The dies used for this kit have been rigor­ously checked for absolute accuracy and should provide
you with excellent fit. Die-cut parts should be carefully
removed from their sheets by first lightly sanding the
back of each sheet of parts and then carefully removing
each part. Use a light garnet paper for the sanding and
keep a sharp hobby knife with an X-acto #11 blade or

equivalent handy for assistance in removing any parts
that might not have been completely cut-through on the
dies. Parts which oppose one another and must be pre­cisely uniform—such as fuselage sides, ribs, etc...—
should be carefully "matched" after their removal from
the parts sheets. Matching is the process of holding the
opposing pieces together with either pins, tape or spot
gluing and lightly sanding the edges of the parts until
they are identical. A sanding blockwith light garnet paper
is most useful for this and other phases of construction.

Your building surface should be at least large enough to
accommodate the wing panels. This surface should be as
absolutely flat as possible and yet be able to accept pins
easily. We have found that a product such as Celotex fiber
board works quite well for this purpose. Another good
surface can be found in most well-stocked hardware
stores, this is a 2' x 4' fiber board ceiling tile—these are
quite inexpensive and can be used for several airplanes
before needing replacement.

As with most R/C kits that are constructed from wood, a
selection of tools—most of which can be found in the
average workshop—are a must to do the job correctly:

Hobby knife and sharp #11 blades

Single-edge razor blades
T-pins
Sanding blocks in assorted sizes
Sandpaper—220, 320, 400 and light garnet paper
Hand-held hobby saw, such as an X-acto
Power drill and assorted drill bits
Straight-edge, preferably metal, at least 24" long
90° triangle
Small power jig-saw such as the Moto-Saw
Tapes such as masking and cellophane.

Our METRICK's were constructed using a variety of com­mon hobby adhesives including 5-minute epoxy, Cyano­acrylates, aliphatic resin (such as Titebond) and 1-hour
epoxy was used to secure the main wing wire tubes in the
wing roots. Since all of us have our own construction
techniques and favorite adhesives, stick with the ones
that you are familiar with and prefer. However, in certain
areas there will be callouts for certain types of adhesives
and we urge you to try not to substitute since doing so
could possibly cause problems structurally later on.

The last thing we should touch on before we begin actual
construction is the sequence in which the METRICK is
assembled. The sequence given to you in this booklet has

been proven to be the most straight-forward and pro­vides the finished components in the order that you will
need them to progress to the next assembly phase. Try to
stick with the building order presented here to avoid
mistakes.

Spread the plans out on your work surface, cover them
with a clear plastic material, such as the backing from a
roll of Monokote or plastic food wrap and commence
construction.

2

FUSELAGE ASSEMBLY

1. Remove die-cut fuselage parts; F-1, F-2 (ply) and
F-3—do this carefully and, as mentioned earlier, use
an X-acto knife to expedite this. Start construction,
by gluing (we used contact cement) the F-2 fuselage
doublers to the F-1 fuselage sides. Do this as accu­rately as possible, lining-up slots and holes for the

wing mating points and making sure these doublers
are flush with the top edges of the fuselage sides—
MAKE A LEFT AND RIGHT FUSELAGE SIDE.

2. Glue the 1/16" balsa F-3 doublers in place onto the

F-2's, again lining-up the slots and holes and making
sure the top fuselage side edges—allow to dry.

3. Using the 1/8" x 1/4" x 36" balsa stock supplied, glue the
bottom fuselage longerons in place, starting at the
front of the F-2 doubler, pinning and gluing as you
work aft. Note that you will need to add an additional
1-1/4"

full-length bottom longeron.

4. Cut and glue the top rear 1/8" x 1/4" balsa longerons in
place. Note that this longeron extends from the back

of the F-9 former position to the leading edge of the
fin location where it is cut on an angle to match the
fin.

of

this

longeron stock

at

the rear to complete

5. Using a sharp pencil and a straightedge, mark the
locations of all fuselage formers; F-4, F-5, F-6, F-7, F-8
and F-9, including the location of the rear 1/8" x 1/4"

fuselage uprights, behind former F-9—mark these
locations on the right fuselage side. Holding the left
fuselage side to the right, so that they are accurately
matched, transfer the former locations to the left
fuselage side.

6. Now accurately glue the 1/16" x 1/4" balsa "former
locators" in place on each side of the former F-4, F-5,
F-6 and F-9 locations. Use a scrap piece of 1/8" wood to

simulate the thickness of these formers, ensuring an
accurate slot and therefore a good fit.

7. Note the 1/8" x 1/4" balsa "nyrod spacer" at the rear of

the fuselage, directly below the leading edge of the
fin. Cut and glue one of these to each fuselage side.

to

3

8. You will now need to drill an angled hole in the left
rear fuselage side for the red outer nyrod rudder
pushrod. Note the location of this on the plans. We
used a piece of sharpened brass tubing that was the
same diameter of the outer plastic tubing, in order to

get a good fit. Be sure to keep the location of this
pushrod as low in the fuselage as possible to avoid
any interference from the action of the stabilator
bellcrank.

9. Pin, tape or lightly spot glue the two fuselage sides

together, with their outer surfaces touching—align
them to each other very carefully. Using the sanding
block, sand their outer edges to match them identi­cally. While the sides are still together, carefully
match the main wing tube holes and the access
slots—the main wing tube holes must line-up accu­rately.

10. Remove both W-1 ply wing root ribs and both F-11
fuselage root ribs carefully from their sheets.
Remove the main wing tube holes from each of the
ribs and the access slots from the F-11 ribs—use a
hobby knife to assist you. Take one of the F-11 ribs
and locate the indentation at the back, called out with
an arrow. Drill a 1/8" dia. hole in this rib, at 90° to its
surface—this rib is now your "drill guide" for the rest
of the ribs. Insert one of the main wing wire tubes
into the hole in the "drill guide" rib, letting one end of
it extend out from the rib about 1/16". Now drill the 1/8"
dia. hole needed in the remaining F-11 and W-1's, by
placing the rib onto the wing wire tube, lining up the
rib to be drilled with the "drill guide" rib and drilling
the hole—repeat this process until all four ribs have
accurately aligned and drilled holes. Use the same
procedure on the now matched fuselage sides; insert
one of the main wing wire tubes into the hole in the

fuselage side, slide an F-11 rib onto the tube and
down flat against the outside of the fuselage side,

position as shown on the plans and drill the 1/8" dia.

hole. Repeat this process with the other fuselage
side.

11. Remove ply tailskid F-12 from its sheet. Position F-12
in place on one of the fuselage sides, as shown on the
plans. Mark its forward edge location on the longeron
in pencil. With a single edge razor blade, remove

approximately 1/32" of the thickness of the longeron,
forward to the pencil mark—this becomes half of the
slot that F-12 will fit into. Do the same thing to the
other fuselage side.

12. Lay the right fuselage side on your work surface in

front of you with the inside facing you. Take one of the
servos that you plan to use and position it between
the F-5 and F-6 former locations. Note the position of
the output arm. With a pencil, mark this location on
the 1/16" x 1/4" upright former locator in front of F-6.

Remove former F-6 and F-9 from their sheets and

position them in place on the fuselage side. Mark the
location of the output arm on F-6 and mark the
location of the red outer pushrod housing, shown on
the plans, on F-9. Sand or file a 3/16" slot on each side of
these two formers so that the red outer pushrod can
fit with the formers in place.

13. Remove formers F-4, F-5, F-10 (ply), F-7 and F-8 from
their sheets. (Note that formers F-5, F-6 and F-9 are
the same width—stack them to be sure and use a
sanding block if needed to get them that way.) Glue
formers F-5, F-6 and F-9 in place on the right fuselage
side. Apply glue to the opposite edges of these for­mers and position the left fuselage side on them.
Tape and/or pin this structure so that it is absolutely
square and allow to dry completely.

14. With medium sandpaper, completely "rough-up"
both outer red pushrod tubes. Install the stabilator
pushrod on the

right fuselage

side by

sliding it,

from
the rear, through the slot in F-9 and then F-6, so that
about Vs" of it is exposed in front of F-6—see plans.
Slot the rear 1/8" x 1/4" upright, behind F-9, just below

the top rear longeron to accept this tube and press it
in place above the rear spacer, just below the fin. Cut
off the excess tubing exactly where shown on the
plans and use 5-minute epoxy to glue this tube in
place along the fuselage side and at F-6 and F-9.
Using the same method, install the rudder pushrod
tube along the left fuselage side. Note that this tube
gently bends downward once past F-9 so that it
arrives at the rear of the fuselage, laying along the
top of the bottom fuselage longeron and exits
through the slot we drilled earlier. Once the glue has
set, use a sharp single edge razor blade to trim off the
excess tubing on the outside rear of the left fuselage
side. Use a sanding block to sand this exit smooth
with the fuselage.

15. Glue ply former F-10 in place, directly above F-6. Note
that this former protrudes above the fuselage top by
a little more than 1/8".

16. Glue the 1/8" x 1/4" balsa cross brace in place at the
bottom of the fuselage, below F-7. This brace is the
gluing "shelf" for the 1/16" ply floor, forward to the
nose and the 1/16" cross-grain balsa floor, aft to the tail.

17. Temporarily install—do not epoxy yet—the 1/4" I.D.
main wing wire tube and the 3/32" I.D. rear fuselage
incidence tube in the appropriate holes on the fuse­lage sides. Install and glue in place former F-8—this

former sits immediately in front of the rear 3/32" I.D.
fuselage incidence tube. Now cut, fit and glue a
length of 1/8" x 1/4" balsa directly beneath this tube and
against the rear bottom of F-8. Temporarily install the
channeled maple "U" block in place over the main
wing wire tube, open end facing up. Install and glue
in place former F-7 so that it fits flush to the rear of the

"U" block as shown on the plans. Remove the "U"

block and both of the fuselage wing tubes.

18. Install former F-4, holding the two fuselage sides

together at the nose with tape. Check to be sure that
the structure is still "square".

19. Glue the hardwood noseblock in place. Note that this

block fits between the two balsa fuselage sides,

immediately in front of the F-2 ply fuselage doublers.
Tape the block and the fuselage sides firmly in posi­tion and allow to dry completely.

4

20. Glue the shaped balsa forward "canopy fairing"
piece in place, on top of the fuselage directly behind

the noseblock. Use the sanding block to bring it flush
with the fuselage sides.

21. Using a piece of the 30", 1/16" balsa sheet supplied,

carefully cut and fit the canopy/hatch base. Use your
sanding block to bevel each end of this base to fit
accurately to the forward canopy fairing block and
the angled former F-10 at the rear. The base should
be sanded flush with the outside surfaces of the
fuselage sides. Remove the base and with a soft
pencil, mark the locations of formers F-4 and F-5 on
the outside top of each fuselage side. Lightly tack­glue the base back in place as it will only be removed
after final fuselage sanding.

22. Bevel the bottom edges of canopy formers C-2 and
C-5 to match the required angles at the forward (C-2)
canopy fairing and the rear (C-5) angled former F-10.
Glue these two formers in place to the canopy base
also lightly tack-gluing them to their mating surfaces.

23. Glue the two remaining canopy formers, C-3 and C-2
in place on the base, using the pencil marks you
made earlier on the fuselage sides for location. Note
that these two formers are inset 1/8" from the edge of
the base on each side.

24. Using a flat work surface, glue and pin the 1/4" trian­gular balsa stock provided to the inside top edge of
canopy sides C-1—be sure to make a right and left
side! When dry, carefully fit the canopy sides in place,
trim as needed to get a good fit and glue and pin them
in place. When dry, sheet the top of the canopy with
cross-grain 1/8" balsa from the back face of C-2 to the
forward face of C-5. Pin and allow to dry completely.
Use your sanding block to sand the canopy/fuselage
sides flush and smooth.

25. Re-install the 1/4" I.D. main wing tube and the rear 3/32"
rear incidence tube, centering them so that equal
lengths

Apply epoxy (we used 1-hour type for this) to each

end of the maple "U" block and fill it about halfway

with epoxy also smearing some on the back face
where it will contact F-7—slide this block in place
over the tube. Make sure the tube is "buried" in glue.

Now apply epoxy to the incidence tube/F-8 joint liber-

ally, again, bury it—let these assemblies dry.

26. You must now decide whether to go with the fixed
towhook provided or with a radio-actuated captive
towhook system such as the FOURMOST RACING
PRODUCTS towhook shown on the plans as an
option. If you are opting for this captive set-up, the
installation shown on the plans works very nicely and
is quite simple. In fact, when we used this system, we
slotted the ply floor, installed the mounting rails and
secured the FOURMOST towhook in place on them
and then installed the ply floor to the fuselage.

If you are installing the stock towhook, position and
hold the 1/16" x 2" x 16" ply forward floor in place and

protrude

from each

fuselage

side (about

3/32").

mark fuselage outline in pencil. Trim-off the excess
with a hobby saw. Glue the ply floor in place, from the
center of the cross brace beneath F-7 forward and on
to the nose block—tape and allow to dry. Epoxy a

length of 1/16" x 1/2" ply—provided in an 8" length—to
the inside center of the ply floor, between the cross

brace and the back of F-6, this is the towhook plate
doubler. Determine the location of F-6 and mark its

rear edge location across the bottom of the fuselage

in light pencil. Then draw a light centerline of the
fuselage on the bottom from the F-6 line back. Mea­sure

back

1-1/2"

and

drill a 3/32"
floor and the ply doubler. Epoxy the 2-56 blind
mounting nut provided into this hole from the inside
of the fuselage—use glue liberally around the nut's
base, without getting any into the threads.

27. Using 1/8" balsa sheet, cross grain, sheet the top of the
fuselage from the rear edge of F-7 forward to the
angled back face of F-10 and from the forward face of
F-8 to the rear edge of F-9. "Cap" the top of the two
fuselage sides between the two edges of the sheeting
with 1/8" x 1/4" balsa aligning the outer edges with the
fuselage sides. The resulting rectangular opening in
the fuselage top is for the access hatch.

28. As shown on the plans, the access hatch is a simple
frame made from 1/8" x 1/4" balsa, on edge. We used
scraps of bond paper front, back and on each side for
spacing while making this frame. As shown, install
two pieces of 1/8" x 1/4" balsa as shelves on the back
face of F-7 and the front face of F-8 to seat this hatch.
Sheet the hatch with 1/8" balsa, cross grain, lightly
sand the edges flush with the frame and lightly tack
glue the hatch in place for final sanding.

29. Glue the fuselage sides together at the rear, from the
leading edge fin position, back to the ends of the

fuselage sides at the bottom—keep glue out of the
slot you have cut in the rear longerons for F-12. Check
the fuselage carefully for equal bending and that the
top and bottom are aligned. Secure as necessary and
allow to dry.

30. Cut,

fit

and glue
bevel for fin fit. Turn the fuselage over and install
bottom 1/16" balsa cross grain sheeting from ply floor
back to point shown. Use a straight edge and a knife
to cut a 1/16" wide by 2" long slot in a piece of 1/16" balsa
sheet. This allows F-12 to slip in place. Glue this
remaining bottom sheet in place. Once everything is
dry, use a sanding block and medium grade paper to
sand the fuselage sides, top and bottom smooth. Pay
particular attention to the side-view contour at the
top of the fuselage where the 1/8" sheet meets the 1/4"
turtle deck. Sand the side and top view shapes into
the nose block but do not round any edges yet.

1/4"

balsa

turtle

dia.

hole through the ply

deck

in

place—note

5