Highlander EPP Glider

Here are some building hints and photographs for building the Mad Aircraft Highlander EPP foam glider.  The manual is lacking in photographs, so we thought you might find this pictorial useful.

How to use carbon fiber to reinforce the wing and save weight and get a better covering job...

Other Highlander sites to check out...

Dave Cole

Cliff Schwinger

 

Here is the cutouts for the battery, elevator and rudder servos, and the receiver.  

Leave the nose a little flat.  After determining the proper amount of lead needed to balance, burn holes in the flat nose to insert the lead.  Then carve a small balsa nosecone and glue it to the front.  It makes for a much nicer nose job than just foam.

We used standard-size FMA ball-bearing servos for the elevator and rudder.  There was not room to cover the servo holes with foam plugs.  We just taped over them.

Plugs were replaced on either side of the receiver and battery.

Slots for the red cable was made with a soldering iron.  Rather than cut slots for the wiring, we joined the various compartments with small tunnels drilled or burned in the foam.  If a straight shot was possible without accidentally touching anything you don't want melted, a hot Phillips screwdriver worked best.  However, most of the tunnels were made with a 1/4" piece of brass tubing that had teeth filed in one end and placed in a drill.  It drills a quite clean hole. Just stop periodically to clean out the center of the drill rod.  Use a wire or smaller tube as a ram rod.

To get the wires thru the small holes, remove the connectors.  Remove only one connector at a time so you have an example for proper reassembly.  The wires can be easily fished through the holes by temporarily tacking them to a fish wire with a dab of lo-temp hot melt glue.  Be particularly careful with the battery leads so that you don't create a short.  I taped one lead with masking tape before fishing it through the hole.

No switch is used.  The battery cable is connected to the receiver thru an aileron extension cable.  Small holes were cut in the receiver plug, allowing the connectors to be outside the fuselage.

 
Here is the tow hook plate assembly.
Here is the hole for the tow hook plate, with the hole for the wing bolt (view from the fuse bottom).
Tow hook plate installed.  We attempted to drill an hole through the whole fuselage for the antenna.  We made a mistake and the hole came out the bottom of the fuse.  We simply drilled back into the fuselage bottom to the rear  tow hook cutout, and drilled another hole from the front of the tow hook cutout to the receiver compartment.  Note the fish wire glued to the antenna with hot melt glue at the right of the picture

The foam plug shaped and ready to be glued in place.

 
Wing alignment plate installed.
Before installing the wing alignment dowel, chamfer the edges with a pencil sharpener for easier insertion.
We made stick balsa feathers to replace the Coroplast.  They are a lot lighter--after covering they weigh about half of what the Coroplast weighs..  The plane required only 1 oz nose weight.  The solid center section of the horizontal stabilizer should be about twice as wide as this one to allow for easier covering of the bottom.

Rather than use tape for hinging control surfaces, we used standard CA hinges, then covered the gaps with Ultracoat.  It should last longer than the packing tape recommended by the manual, and I have to get more use out of that Slot Machine I invested in.... 
Here are the bottom of the fuse and wing after taping.  Get both 3/4" and 2" strapping tape.  The 3/4" was great for taping along the trailing edge, and around the wing leading edge area of the fuse.  

We had trouble finding the tape at the home improvement places or department stores.  Turns out the grocery store had it.

Note the aileron servo position.  It is not clear from the Highlander manual that the servo and control rod mount below the wing.  See below for a close-up of final assembly.
Wing top and fuse side after taping. Note the wires are covered with masking tape to keep glue off of them
Taping around the wing leading edge area if the fuselage.  Tunnels were burned into the receiver compartment for the aileron wiring.
Taping under the wing attachment area. Note the masking tape to keep the glue off the tow hook.
Aileron assembly detail, underside of wing.   Note that Ultracoat is used to cover the hinge gap.  In this picture the gap is covered only to the left of the control horn.

We used FMA S80 servos for the ailerons. 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

© September 04, 2002 by PDA