skyrider
Member
Hi,
I recently purchased a Pulsar XP from a person in South Austrlia (1300km or so from me) and made the mistake of having them pack the aircraft for transport. The fuselage was packed and secured reasonably well at first sight on arrival but as I removed the covering I discovered the fuselage had been supported well away from the tailwheel and rear bulkhead resulting in the fuselage self destructing in transit.
Rather than scrapping the Pulsar I have decided it might be possible to construct an airframe from 4130 tube and use the wrecked fuse as a plug for a fibreglass shell mould, much like the Australian Lightwing Speed aircraft. While I'm at it 6 extra inches of cockpit width would be nice.
So I'm no aeronautical engineer by any stretch of my imagination and have been studying some different types of truss designs in order to come up with the best package I can.
I have a set of Sonerai 2LTS plans I purchased a while ago and think that concept can be tweaked a little to fit the fuse dimensions of the Pulsar ( bearing in mind the difference between a tandem airframe and a side by side configuration) but after looking at some constructions photos of a DR 107, I'm wondering which truss design offers the most strength. The DR 107 uses a truss similar to my workshop roof trusses with the web components meeting the upper and lower cords at 45deg whereas the Sonerai truss uses vertical members with adjoining components intersecting like this l\l\ (best way I could describe it without rattling on). Also the distance between contact points on each longeron, what is better closer contact points resulting in more web components or longer contact points with less components.
Weight and balance will also probably be effected as well, but Im sure things can be moved around a little to fix that.
I like the lines of the Pulsar and reports Iv'e read tell me they fly reasonably well. But there are still some grey areas.
Am I wasting time even considering a tube and fibreglass construction method, so before I jump in boots and all could the experienced people offer some advice??
Thanks in advance.
Rob
I recently purchased a Pulsar XP from a person in South Austrlia (1300km or so from me) and made the mistake of having them pack the aircraft for transport. The fuselage was packed and secured reasonably well at first sight on arrival but as I removed the covering I discovered the fuselage had been supported well away from the tailwheel and rear bulkhead resulting in the fuselage self destructing in transit.
Rather than scrapping the Pulsar I have decided it might be possible to construct an airframe from 4130 tube and use the wrecked fuse as a plug for a fibreglass shell mould, much like the Australian Lightwing Speed aircraft. While I'm at it 6 extra inches of cockpit width would be nice.
So I'm no aeronautical engineer by any stretch of my imagination and have been studying some different types of truss designs in order to come up with the best package I can.
I have a set of Sonerai 2LTS plans I purchased a while ago and think that concept can be tweaked a little to fit the fuse dimensions of the Pulsar ( bearing in mind the difference between a tandem airframe and a side by side configuration) but after looking at some constructions photos of a DR 107, I'm wondering which truss design offers the most strength. The DR 107 uses a truss similar to my workshop roof trusses with the web components meeting the upper and lower cords at 45deg whereas the Sonerai truss uses vertical members with adjoining components intersecting like this l\l\ (best way I could describe it without rattling on). Also the distance between contact points on each longeron, what is better closer contact points resulting in more web components or longer contact points with less components.
Weight and balance will also probably be effected as well, but Im sure things can be moved around a little to fix that.
I like the lines of the Pulsar and reports Iv'e read tell me they fly reasonably well. But there are still some grey areas.
Am I wasting time even considering a tube and fibreglass construction method, so before I jump in boots and all could the experienced people offer some advice??
Thanks in advance.
Rob
