Bluenose changes wing Colour

[JohnOSullivan]

Last year, for indoor flying, I revived my 15 year old Butterfly, a carbon rod based model which Chris Dean and I flew years ago. It was a precursor to the Vapor series of indoor models and had a 31" wingspan. It flew very well.
Then my kids gave me a 3D printer for Christmas and my first reaction was " what the hell am I going to do with this thing?"
Well, after examining the Butterfly with its tinker toy type construction,I got the idea of reproducing it using the 3D printer to make the joiner bits.
Things turned out better than I expected. Although I had 25 years of 2D cad experience on models and geological and topographic maps, I had no experience in 3D.
I found out I could get Fusion 360 3D CAD program for free from Autodesk. After a bit of fiddling, I found it to be very friendly and just the thing for making the parts for the BLUENOSE, based on the Butterfly.
I built the model and got a couple of sessions indoor at Shearwater at which it flew very well. During the Summer I flew it outdoors regularly at Shannon Park. Everything went well until mid-summer and the very high temperatures we experienced.
On coming home one day, I found that the high temperatures in the closed car had softened the plastic of the wing joiners and they had bent up to about 45 degrees. Also, the heat had softened the epoxy of the tightly curved wingtip and the carbon rod outline had snapped in two places. Wipeout one wing. Last week I built a new wing and had it out at Shearwater. I used a bit less dihedral and it flew perfectly.
I have stl. files of all the parts, if anyone wants to build one. I am working on a building manual for it. Additional materials required are 5 mm carbon tube, 2mm, 1.5 mm , 1mm carbon rod.

[bdg]

Looks great, John!

I'm sure that everyone would benefit from the files....!

Brian