With work on the Elder now at the stage where daylight is needed to
continue, I rolled out the Mew Gull plans, and looked to see if there was something I could construct at night.
I decided on the undercarriage fairing and wheel spats.
The most famous and only remaining Mew Gull that is accessible to the
public is G-AEXF which broke (and *still* holds) the London to Capetown to London record in 1939. But this aircraft was heavily modified by it's
owner, Henshaw, for the 1938 King's Cup race, and subsequent attempt at
the Capetown record.
http://tinyurl.com/btoq2
Unfortunately, these modifications lead to a somewhat less attractive aircraft. The canopy was lowered considerably, and the top of the
fuselage behind the cockpit lowered to almost the same height as the fuse
in front of the canopy. Also, the fairing and wheel spats were
considerably reshaped. The model I am building is of an UN-modified Mew
Gull, and I have plans for that, and a canopy moulded to the original, unmodified shape.
The trouble is, photographs of un-modified Mew Gulls are virtually
impossible to get, and any search always gets you images of G-AEXF. Here
is a tiny photo of G-AEXF taken before the modifications:
http://tinyurl.com/b7skq
You can see the differences. (Interesting note: This shows XF being
taxied by Alex Henshaw. Apparently, with the aircraft tilted back onto
her tail skid, you had no forward vision, and he had to taxi while walking alongside, and controlling the aircraft through a hatch in the canopy.
After modification with the lowered canopy, Henshaw claimed you had no
forward vision even in flight, and takeoff and landing was achieved by
looking out the side of the canopy at the edge of the airstrip!)
But I digress...
The Mew Gull had fully faired struts, and wheel spats, as the photos show. The plan I have gives a simple drawing of the profile, and indicates that these should be fabricated from "laminated sheet balsa and ply". That
doesn't sound too difficult, but in fact, I have had to cut sixteen
separate pieces of balsa and ply, to all fit together in three dimensions! Then with the razor plane and then a tiny sanding drum in a cordless mini-Dremel, I roughed out the shape. But the hard part is keeping the sixteen parts all together, so they can be sanded to shape without them falling apart! The bits can't be glued together until the bulk of the
center laminations is cut away to leave a space for the wheel, and that
can't be done until the basic shaping of the spat is complete, to avoid cutting away the middle and then sanding the outside down to make a hole.
Why, Oh why, did I take up this hobby? And why do I do things like decide
to use a '90s copy of a '60s plan of a '30s aeroplane, and then elect to
go with the optional details?
Wait a minute -- it's coming back to me now... I took up this hobby
because of *YOU*!!!
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þ Synchronet þ Made of wood and glue, but mostly glue!