You hear about it and you read about it, and if you build enough rc airplanes, you will experience it too. Making mistakes when building a part for your model airplane is inevitable. As sure as CA glue will cure to your skin in less than a second, you can be assured that you will miss a step when building your next radio control airplane.

Now that we have established this, the real question is, what do we do about it?
Well, lucky for you, I just made a mistake while building the center section for my beechcraft bonanza’s wing and now you can see what not to do. I was moving along and making good progress and was not taking my time and thought that I could do no wrong. My clue should have been that it was one o’clock in the morning, never a good time to build, let this be a lesson to all of you out there (you know who you are ).
My mistake is your gain. Now if you encounter a similar prediciment, you will now how to solve the problem.

Here is what happened….
I have placed my ribs on top of the basswood main spar on my plans and slid the plywood spar web over them. They were laid out perfectly to the plans, so I proceeded to the next steps, gluing on the leading edge doubler and the trailing edge center spar web. I took the time to clamp all the parts down, aligned everything to the plans and began gluing it all together, feeling confident in my handiwork. This is where things went oops.

Soon after finishing gluing everything in, I found that I had not sanded the slots for the dowel doublers. Unfortunately, I couldn’t simply unglue everything and start over. Instead I needed a plan to make it work.

Here is the solution…
As with any rc airplane building project, you will come across an obstacle that no instruction manual will help you with, and most likely no book on building rc planes either. There are just too many circumstances that come about when building a rc plane (or anything for that matter). The best solution is…experience. When you have built enough model airplanes, you develop an arsenal of tricks to get yourself out of big messes (and you will get into some big messes).

Anyway, watch the video below to see how I figured out a simple way to get back on track with building my beechcraft bonanza rc plane.

It has been great getting to see what you all think of the blog. I am excited to keep adding great material that will provide a great resource for everyone to utilize when building their rc model airplanes. As promised, I will be sending out the free building tool to those who responded to the email about the blog.
I will keep providing great information and post updates about my bonanza building project. The next post is actually going to be about building the center wing section for the plane and I will be showcasing the magnetic building board system with a video and post highlighting its use.

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As the building project for the model airplane continues, I have put together several videos to document the process and to also give you some ideas as to proper fuel tank installation in any rc airplane. The first video (shown on the right side of the website), covers installing a fuel tank floor in the fuselage, this video covers the basics of where to install the fuel tank relative to the engine mounting.

In the second video I cover the parts that go into assembling a fuel tank, and a helpful tip for the tubing that comes with the tank parts. Check it out to see this helpful tip when assembling fuel tanks for rc airplanes.

The final video covers the brass tubing tip in detail and how to prepare them for bending.

Hello All,

If you are just arriving here after receiving the email about the new look, here is where you can leave comments and suggestions about the blog. We really need your help to make it look great so please tell us what is on your mind.

Everyones comments are welcome, and remember, if you post a comment about our blog as to what we should add or change, or whether you like it, we will send you a free rc building tool!

As I build my current Beechcraft Bonanaza, I realize that I have accumulated a large amount of tricks over the years to build my model airplanes. We all have the helpful tips that we have learned from trial and error, and I thought it would be a great idea to share those building tips with each other.

So let’s spread the knowledge wealth and come up with a great list of building (and flying tips) that we can all use. Plus it wont hurt to remind ourselves of the more obvious ones that sometimes we take for granted. Like measure twice cut once (still haven’t found a good way to add wood back to a part I cut ).

This will be a continuous displayed post, let’s see how many tips we can put together. As we all build a good size list, I will put them together in another post for easy access.

When it comes time to install servos I have found (after many mistakes), that the best time to install servos and pushrods, is as soon as possible. Even if the kit calls for later radio installation in rc planes, I find that it makes for a better install if you mount the servos and pushrods as soon as the fuselage frame is completed. The reason being, that I can maneuver the pushrods better and there are no obstructions which can lead to poor pushrod installation.

The pictures shown here depict the servos installed inside of a fuselage that still has plenty of open space and very few obstructions. This lead to a successful pushrod installation that minimized any binding of pushrod movement due to poor pushrod tube placement. For the beechcraft bonanza model airplane, I need 2 servos to hook up the torque rods for the ruddervator, you can see the pushrod and nylon clevis that will connect to the torque rods for the ruddervator.

Frustration Saving Tip: Whenever I install any nylon clevis, I always add a piece of silicone tubing (fuel tubing for rc gas engines works the best). This little insurance piece adds piece of mind that my clevis will never come undone in mid-air. It is a simple way to reduce loss of control in the air. So add it to your building habits and you will be that much better off when it comes to building and flying your rc airplanes.

When I was satisfied with my pushrod tubes, I glued them in place TIP (make sure that if you are using plastic pushrod tubes that you sand the outside of them before gluing them, otherwise they may not stick). I will add some pictures to this post of the pushrod tube installation when I have some more time.

To finish up the pushrods (which in this case were 1/16″ diameter metal rods, threaded at one end). The pushrod end that will connect to the servo needs some type of threaded coupler. To connect the servo arm to my pushrod, I chose a brass threaded coupler (this is pretty standard). I like using these for the simple fact they are the most reliable. As you can see in the pictures here, I have a vise set up to hold the rod while I use a propane torch to heat the coupler.