Micro Citabria

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This is a page for the build of my version of the Citabria project. The design and laser cutting were done by Carl Martin. Wing span is 18 inches.

The pictures above are for the 7mm pager version of the plane for indoor flying. It will use actuators and a 7mm Didel blue pager geared 4:1 with a 5x3 prop. The wings are curved sheet balsa with ribs underneath and a cutout center section. The wings were laser cut by Carl, and in fact this particular wing was assembled by him too. They are covered only on the top with printed tissue and weigh 6.0g complete and covered.

Covering is now proceeding. The fuselage is done, as is the tail. Next is the covering of the cowl.

The pictures above are for the micro brushless version of the plane I'm building at the same time as as the 7mm pager version. The focus of this plane is now more to be an outdoor micro plane with spirited performance. Since the BL motor develops 60g of thrust it should achieve that.Wings are Bob Selman wire cut blue foam sanded down so after skinning with 1/32 balsa and adding LE and TE the airfoil is the same as the original foam wing. Control will be a Falcon Breeze with build in servos, a YGE BL controller and a "double whopper" Mighty Midget 5.5g micro BL outrunner.

Covering of a "test mule" fuselage convinced me that the fuselage would look nicer without cutouts in the side of the fuselage. This version of the fuselage also has Carl's new design which creates the champher on the sides of the lower part of the fuselage in the cabin area. A test mule wing panel tested the idea of punching holes in the BSD foam wings and then skinning with 1/32 contest balsa. That wing panel was capped with a carved wing tip. Covering with printed tissue tests the method and it looks good.

The final wings have been skinned with balsa, carved wing tips installed, and joined together. It is now time to begin covering with printed tissue.

More details to come ...