Top Flite Wristcrat User Manual
RC-35 WRISTOCRAT INSTRUCTION MANUAL
INTRODUCTION
The concept of being able to hand-launch
a sail plane into a thermal is not a new one.
While we may never know the origins of
the concept, a gentleman named Dave
Thornburg was probably the first to write
about it in the modeling press.
We believe the Wristocrat to be one of the
best hand-launched sailplane designs
available today and certainly one of the
most complete kits of its kind. With 335
sq. in. of wing and a subsequent low wing
loading, it will work the lightest of lift.
With practice, realistic launch heights of
35 to 45 feet can be achieved by persons of
average build, resulting in "dead air" (no
lift) times of 40 to 60 seconds per launch.
By learning to launch your Wristocrat over
lift generators, such as baseball dia-
monds, tennis courts, etc.... (patches of
land with dark, contrasting topography),
experience the thrill of hooking and riding your first lowlevel thermal.
The Wristocrat isn't just a thermal ship, you'll find it
excellent on the slope as well. It's aerobatic and the
airfoil allows it to be flown in a fair wind. Installation of
the optional towhook allows the use of small hi-starts
for even greater heights on flat land. It's a versatile
model and a lot of fun on trips such as vacations.
You'll note on the plans that we've even shown a flap
option. This additional control function is easy to build
and makes your Wristocrat even more versatile in the
performance department! This simple option is
explained well in this manual and on the plans, give it
some consideration.
Choose your radio system carefully for
there are several factors to address; size, weight, etc. As
shown, our prototypes are being flown with Airtronics
#501 servos, standard six-channel receivers and SR 300
Mah battery packs of either square or flat configuration.
There are several systems that will also work; Futaba,
your Wristocral,
you
can
Cannon, Tower "Mini Flight Pack", etc. We do urge you
to have the radio system that you plan to use available to
you before you start construction.
Build your Wristocrat to the plans and instructions
provided and you are going to have a strong, light model
that is up to the task it was designed for.
Included in this kit is a 1/4" scale model of the same
airplane, the Wristocrat II. This model, when built
properly, can provide your children or grandchildren
with hours of enjoyment and help them to understand
some of the simple laws of aerodynamics that apply to
models as well as full-size aircraft. We urge you to take
the time to work with that special child in your life on this
project and to take them with you when you fly your
Wristocrat. We believe that you'll be amply rewarded with
not only the flight characteristics of this small model,
but also with the time spent together. While the
instructions provided with the Wristocrat II are simple,
your own special input to your child can be an
experience that will be long remembered. Sharing the
wonders of model aviation with a child is its own reward.
TOP FLITE MODELS INC.
1901 NORTH NARRAGANSETT AVENUE • CHICAGO. ILLINOIS 60639
IMPORTANT NOTE:
TOP FLITE MODELS, INC. certainly recommends the
Wristocrat as a first R/C aircraft. However, if you are a
beginner to the sport of
seek and use experienced assistance in constructing
and flying this airplane. Again, if you are new to this hobby, consider this:
Flying this or any other radio-control led model aircraft is
a PRIVILEGE and not a RIGHT and this privilege begins
with the utmost safety considerations to others and
yourself as well. An R/C model airplane in inexperienced
hands has the potential of doing serious personal or pro-
perty damage. These safety considerations start at the
building board by following instructions, seeking com-
petent help when you are confused and avoiding shortcuts. These considerations have to be carried over to the
flying field where safety must come first and limitations
cannot be exceeded. We urge you to:
D 1. Send for and obtain your AMA (Academy of Model
Aeronautics) membership which will provide insurance for your R/C activities — DO NOT RELY ON
HOMEOWNERS INSURANCE.
D 2. Join an AMA sanctioned R/C flying club in your
area where you can obtain competent, professional instruction in trimming and learning how to
fly this model.
Check with your favorite local hobby shop for the
required AMA forms or the address where they can
be obtained.
A radio controlled model is not a "toy." Care and
caution must be taken in properly building the
model, as well as in the installation and use of the
radio control device. It is important to follow all
directions as to the construction of this kit as well
as installation and use of the engine and radio
gear. The advice and assistance of a well experienced builder and pilot is highly recommended. Don't take chances! Improper building, operation, or flying of this model could result in serious
bodily injury to others, yourself, or property
damage.
PRE-CONSTRUCTION NOTES:
The Wristocrat, 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 cutthrough on the dies. Parts which oppose one another
and must be precisely uniform—such as fuselage sides,
R/C
flying, we would urge you to
WARNING!!!
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 block with 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 in various grits
• Hand-held hobby saw, such as an X-acto
• Dremel tool or power drill and assorted drill bits
• Straight-edge, preferably metal, at least 36" long
• 90 degree triangle
• Soldering iron, flux (silver) and solder
• Carbide cut-off wheel for wire cutting
• Small power jig-saw, such as a Moto-Saw
• Razor plane
• Tapes such as masking and cellophane
Our Wristocrats' were constructed using a variety of com-
mon hobby adhesives including 5-minute epoxy and
Cyanoacrylates. Since all of us have our own construction techniques and favorite adhesives, stick with the
ones that you are familar 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 Wristocrat
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 Monokite or plastic food wrap an commence construction.
FLAP OPTION
This is the point that you must make up your mind about
the installation of flaps or whether you are going to use
your Wristocrat as a purely 2-channel sailplane. If you
want the flaps then you should take the time to study the
plans to see how we've accomplished this mechanism
2
with our prototype machines. Essentially, the flaps
themselves are nothing more than the hinging and
subsequent control led movement of the 1" trail ing edge
stock itself. As shown, the flap extends from the polyhedral break, inboard to the point shown on the plans,
next to the fuselage. You will need to pick yourself up
some Sullivan #507 cable and tube material (one
package is all that's needed) from your local hobby
shop. The rest of the items needed are either in the kit
itself as scrap and /or common household items.
The need to understand the drawings provided is essential — study them. The flaps are hinged from the bottom
and driven by cable through the top of the wing. At the
exit point for each of the cable housing tubes you will
need to replace the stock balsa cap strip with a wider
one (about 1/4" - 5/16" will do ) to anchor the tubing. Also,
each wing rib end must be trimmed 1/16" cap that is glued
in place instead of the trailing edge stock itself. Note
that we've also added 1/16 x 1/2" balsa sheet, top and bottom, to each inboard wing panel, at the trailing edge for
strength and to facilitate covering The flap control
horns were made and mounted in the same manner as
was the rudder horn, and the connectors are also made
from a common paperclip, as was the rudder connector.
The flap system is driven by a single servo that is
mounted, as shown, in the wing's center section. This
servo protrudes down into the fuselage itself and is con-
nected to the receiver's "throttle" connection.
Therefore, on a typical Mode II transmitter, where
aileron (rudder) and elevator are on the right stick and
throttle is on the left, the positionable throttle stick
becomes your control over the flaps. Our prototypes
have been set-up so that "full throttle" (stick all the way
up) and full down trim is "neutral" flap— in other words,
no flap, up or down, what-so-ever. Therefore, by moving
the throttle stick downward, the flaps come down also,
to whatever desired location. Moving the stick back up
to "full throttle" moves the flaps back to neutral. The
flaps can also be "reflexed" or moved upward forgetting
quickly through "sink" or down air or for compensating
for high winds, by moving the throttle trim lever upward
to whatever desired position. On our Airtronics equipment, we typically can achieve about 6 to 8 degrees of
reflex, which is more than sufficient to make our
Wristocrats really scoot!! Honestly, you can't begin to appreciate what an incredibly useful tool this system is until you've tried it.
As you can see, the flap servo, at least in our prototypes,
is mounted in the wing's center section, with the output
arm literally inside the structure. This means that the
two center ribs,W-1, must be cleared out, at this point, to
allow the servo to be mounted in place. The best time to
do this is after the two inboard wing panels have been
glued together and before the top, rear center section
sheeting is installed. In fact, it is at this point that the en-
tire system is installed, tubing, cables, etc... Note that
the drive system in the wing's center section is essentially a "blind mount". This means that all of the connections inside of the center section must be fitted to the
servo's output arm before covering it up with the top
sheeting. Afterfitting and making sure that the servo, by
radio command, does indeed actuate the cables in the
correct direction, with no binding, and that the geometry
is correct, then and only then can the servo be removed
from the wing and construction proceed. Later, after
covering, the servo is carefully installed, screwed in
place and the last connections are made to the flaps
themselves.
There are no guarantees that your particular radio
system will work this option and you therefore need to
determine this for yourself by first making sure that the
shape and dimensions of the servo you plan to use will
indeed fit as shown. Then you need to find out if your
radio system has the capability of offering you "reflex"
flap off of the throttle trim lever (some systems don't).
Our opinion is that even if you can't get flap reflex, due to
the type of radio you have, the flap option itself is still
worth the extra bit of work.
With the proceeding information still fresh in your mind,
we'll now move to the wing construction sequence of
this manual. The following assumes that you are
building the stock, non-flapped wing.
WING CONSTRUCTION
Be sure and protect your plans by covering them with
backing from a roll of Monokote™ or a material such as
clear food wrapping. Take a minute to study the plans
and understand them. We suggest building a right and
left wing panel, starting with the inboard sections first
and then joining these two completed structures at the
appropriate time in the building sequence. We'll start
with the left wing first. If you're planning on the flapped
version, it is at this point that you'll start adding the
structures shown (dashed lines) on the plans.
D
1. From the
cut, fit and locate over the plans, the bottom
leading edge sheet (use a long straight edge to
develop the correct width and to true-up the
edges). From the 1/8" x 1/16" spruce spar stock provided, measure and cut the required 15" length for the
bottom spar, set this aside for a moment. Now cut
and locate over the plans, the 11/4" x 1" length of
shaped trailing edge stock. Now cut and glue the
bottom center section sheeting in place tothetrailing edge stock and the forward bottom wing sheet.
Cut, fit and glue in place the six bottom 1/16" x 3/16"
cap strips from the stock provided. Using one of
the die-cut W-2 wing ribs as a location guide, the
bottom spruce spar (cut earlier) can now be glued
in place. Lastly, note in the cross sections that the
leading edge of the bottom wing sheeting needs to
be lifted up and supported in order to match the
bottom contours of the wing ribs, forward of the
spar. This is best done with a length of trailing edge
stock.
D 2. Note that we've provided you with "tick" marks
just infrontof and just behindthewing paneldrawings. These correspond with the rib locations. Use
a straight edge and a soft lead pencil to now mark
the rib locations directly on the leading edge and
center section sheeting. The first wing rib to be installed is the first W-2 rib, inboard from the polyhedral break (the inboard end of polyhedral brace
1/16"x
3" x 30" sheeting provided in your
kit,
3
W-10 will butt against this rib when it is installed).
Continuing to work inboard, toward the center, install the next three W-2 ribs. From their die-cut
sheets, remove ply dihedral braces W-8 and W-9
and polyhedral braces W-10 (balsa). The two remaining inboard W-2 ribs must now be cut to compensate for the installation of the W-8 and W-9
dihedral braces; use these braces as a thickness
guide and trim the ribs as shown on the plans.
Finally, root rib W-1 must also be trimmed into two
pieces also to fit in front of and behind the dihedral
braces. Once this is done, again use W-8 as a
guide, by holding it in place, and glue all of the re-
maining forward rib ends in place to the bottom
leading edge sheeting; remove W-8 from the structure. Using W-9 as a guide, glue all remaining rear
rib ends in place and remove W-9 from the structure. The remaining outboard W-2 rib must be trimmed in a similar manner since it is intersected by
polyhedral brace W-10. Using the same procedure
as described, trim this rib into a front and rear piece
and glue in place using W-10 as a spacer; remove
W-10 from the structure.
D 3. Cut, fit and glue the 1/4" sq. leading edge in place.
D 4. Carefully remove this structure from your work sur-
face. Use a sanding block to lightly sand the out-
board edges (the polyhedral break) smooth. Place
the structure back on the plans and block up the
center
2-11/2".
Using the same construction as
described earlier, the outer wing panel is now built
directly over the plans and directly to the inner
panel. Take pains to bevel the trailing edge butt
joint for a good fit. Be sure to install W-10 first
before the front and rear segments of W-2, followed
by W-3, W-4, etc.
D 5. With all of the ribs in place, cut, fit and glue the top
spruce spar in place from W-7 to the W-2 at the
polyhedral break. From your parts bag, locate the
bundle (10 provided) of vertical grain shear webs.
Carefully trim one of these to fit precisely between
W-3 and W-2 and against the spars and W-10 with
the top flush with the top of the
spar. Once
satisfied, glue this web in place.
D 6. As shown on the plans, the 1/4" sq. leading edge
must now be sanded down to match the top contours of the ribs. The judicious use of a razor blade
followed by using your sanding block to finish the
job is the way to go here. Once you're satisfied you
can cut, fit and glue in place the top 1/16" leading
edge sheeting (note that this top sheeting is plac-
ed slightly forward on the top spar thus creating a
bit of a "shelf"). Lastly, cut, fit and glue in place all
of the top 1/16" x 3/16" cap strips with the exception of
the one which will cover the W-2 ribs at the
polyhedral break. Remove the thus far completed
left wing panel from your work surface. Use your
sanding block to smooth the outboard face of W-7
in preparation for the wingtip. Inspect the bottom
polyhedral joint and lightly sand as needed to
smooth it out.
D 7. The right wing structure is now built using the
same procedures just described.
D 8. In this step, we're going to join the right and left
wing halves together. Preparation for this requires that the two inboard ends of the wing
halves be sanded smooth and beveled to create a
good, straight fit. Do this now. Pin or weight one
of the wing halves (let's use the left) flat to your
work surface. Next, make sure the rib curve in the
bottom leading edge sheeting is supported with a
length of trailing edge stock. With everything
secure, trial-fit the right wing half in place with
it's polyhedral break supported
2-5/8"
off of the
work surface. The resulting butt joint should be
as flush fitting as possible and the leading and
trailing edges of both inner panels should be
straight; take your time here and ensure that the
fit is the best you can produce, with all parts
lining-up correctly. Once satisfied, apply a thin,
even coat of glue (5-minute epoxy is great here) to
the inboard end of the right wing panel and
carefully fit it to the pinned down left panel, again
making sure the right panel is raised
2-5/8"
polyhedral break. Carefully wipe off any oozing
adhesive. Now fit W-8 dihedral brace in place,
trimming if needed for a good fit. Glue W-8 in
place. Cut, fit and glue the left panel's spruce
spar in place. Rear dihedral brace W-9 can now be
glued in place.
D 9. With the left wing still down flat to your work sur-
face, locate the vertical grain shear webs
balsa). Cut, fit and glue these in place between
the remaining W-2 ribs, out to the polyhedral
break.
D 10.
Remove the joined wing structure from the
bench. Pin or weight the right panel in place to the
bench and glue the remaining top spruce spar in
place followed by the remaining vertical grain
shear webs.
D 11.
As you did with the tip panels, carefully shave and
sand the inner panel's leading edges to conform
with the top contours of the wing ribs. Use your
sanding block to lightly sand any high points on
the panel's top surfaces. Once you're satisfied
that the inner panels are ready to sheet, pin or
weight one side or the other in place on your work
surface. Cut, fit and glue the leading edge
sheeting in place (again leaving a bit of a "shelf"
at the rear edge of the top spar). Cut, fit and glue
the center section sheeting in place using the
patterns shown on the plans. Finally, add all of
the remaining 1/16" x 3/16" cap strips out to and including the polyhedral break. Repeat this procedure on the opposite wing panel.
D 12. Locate and remove wingtip parts W-11 from their
die-cut sheets. Sand their inner edges lightly to
render them flat and straight. Note the tip reinforcement option shown on the plans. This addition of a length of
1/8" x3/16"
spar stock really
serves
to "beef-up" an otherwise accident prone area,
you might give it serious consideration. Glue the
W-11 wingtips in place as shown on the plans
("End View of Wingtip", left panel). Also as
shown, cut a few scraps of 1/8" balsa to fill in the
4
at the
(1/16"
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