Top Flite Antares - Manual (Page 3)

Our ANTARES' were constructed using a variety of com-
mon hobby adhesives including 5-minute epoxy, Cyano-
acrylates, aliphatic resin (such as Titebond) and 1-hour
epoxy was used to secure the main wing wire tubes in the
wing roots Since all of us have our own construction
techniques and favorite adhesives, stick with the ones
that you are familiar with and prefer However, in certain
areas there will bo callouts for certain types of adhesives
and we urge you to try not to substitute since doing so
could possibly cause problems structurally later on.
The last thing we should touch on before we begin actual
construction is the sequence in which the ANTARES is
assembled The sequence given to you in this booklet has
been proven to be the most straight forward and pro-
vides the finished components in the order that you will
need them to progress to the next assembly phase Try to
stick with the building order presented here to avoid
mistakes.
Spread the plans out on your work surface, cover them
with a clear plastic material, such as the backing from a
roll of Monokote or plastic food wrap and commence
construction
F3B MODIFICATION SUGGESTIONS
If your sole intention is to campaign the ANTARES in all-
out F3B competitions you may want to even further
"beef-up" its already tough s t r u c t u r e We have already
flown the stock a i r c r a f t in such contests and came out
quite well In the speed portion of the event, we have had
the stock airframe loaded to an excess of 100 ounces
without breaking anything However, it is realized that not
everyone flies t h e s a m e . s o m e o f u s a r e harder on aircraft
than others Based on our experience with the proto
types, the following are some ideas that you might want
to incorporate into your own bird In all
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of this, try to
remember that weight is always a factor and that we have
always felt that starting out with a r e l a t i v e l y light strong,
well-built airframe and having the ability to add ballast to
increase wing loading was superior to having a heavy
airplane to begin with In F3B competition we have
observed t h a t r e l a t i v e l y " h e a v y dry ( u n b a l l a s t e d )
weights for the aircraft are somewhat the norm Your
ANTARES is still capable of operating well at heavier dry
weights but you will be giving up some of the light air
capabilities
FUSELAGE You may wish to fiberglass the fuselage fin
structure If so we would suggest two (2) layers o f 3 / 4 or 1
ounce cloth The f i r s t layer should be applied 1 0 0 % t o t h e
fuselage from about 4 behind the trailing edges of the
F-10 fuse ribs forward to the nose This layer should be
carefully sanded and cleaned off The second layer
should cover the entire fusel a ge and fin The entire st ruc
tu re should be lightly sanded filled as required and either
Monokoted or painted (yes, Monokote will work we ll with
th is com bi nation,j u st lower the heat a little and work with
it) Remember that in F3B work, anything that could
possibly present parasitic drag, will Carefully fillet all
joints and work toward a truly clean, drag free structure
WINGS As mentioned earlier, the stock wing structure
has been subjected to some rather drastic loads (in rela-
tionship to normal thermal flying a c t i v i t i e s ) and survived
quite well However, it is realized that no structure is fully
"bullet proof especially in extremely hiqh stress situa
tions Therefore you may wish to further strenghten the
wings Suggestions that we might offer would be such
things as the addition of 5 or 6 carbon fiber reinforcing
strands glued to the bottom surface of the bottom Va" x
3/8" spruce spars and the same treatment to the top
surface of the top spars You may also consider moving
the forward W-21 ply full-depth spar facing pieces to
behind the spar structure, thus replacing the shorter
W 22 piece And replace W 21 with a full length 1/16" ply
facing all the way from the wing root rib to the tip Of
course this means that all of the wing ribs would have to
be two piece You might also consider internalizing all of
the cable drive links and aileron and flap horns and closing
the hinging gaps for these surfaces with Monokote.
Another suggestion might be to totally replace all of the
1/16" balsa wing sheeting with medium, straight-grained
3/32" sheeting and sanding down to a true 1/16" (a lot of
work, but possible) Yet an other suggestion that we've
heard is the possibility of totally fiberglassing the two
wing panels While this might be feasible, the potential is
there for a large weight gain
HORIZONTAL STABILATOR This structure is quite strong
as it is However, you may wish to substitute the 1/8" x 1/4"
upright balsa 'spars with the same size in spruce You
will also note that we have you making the stab root caps
from 3/8" wide 3/32" ply instead of 1/4" wide material This is
just in case some of you might wish to substitute the 1/16"
top and bottom stab sheeting with 1/8", thus thickening
the cross section of the stab to 3/8" (we have tried this and
could not discern any difference at all) Another "trick"
that we have tried and found to work isthe substitution of
the stock .090 dia M W stab joining wires with #41 drill
rod stock that is cut to the correct length This material is
an absolute, play free fit to the 092 I D brass tubes in the
stab halves and its use greatly minimizes the usual "rock-
ing stab" phenomenon found on virtually all sailplanes
with full-flying stabs #41 drill rod stock can be found at
most industrial metal supply houses.
FIN/RUDDER You might consider totally fairing-in the
hinge I i n e of these two surfaces and may be even going as
far as to internalize the cable and horn system.
Note that in all of the above we have not shown sketches
of how to do these things Frankly, there has been a great
deal written in the magazines in the last few years cover-
ing everything (and more) that we have said here It is
assumed that these kinds of alterations and modifica-
tions are simply not for everyone and that those individu-
als who might be prone to doing them tend to have a lot
of prior experience and will know what it is that they want
to do in the first place
FUSELAGE ASSEMBLY
The following sequence of instruction assumes that you
addressed yourself to the questions posed in the Intro-
duction section of this manual concerning your radio, its
fit and the need to couple the ailerons with the rudder.
The following assumes that electronic (via radio) cou-
pling will be used
1 Remove die-cut fuselage parts, F-1, F 2 (ply)—do this
carefully and, as mentioned earlier, use an X-acto
knife to expedite this Start construction, by gluing
(we used contact cement) the F-2 fuselage doublers
to the F-1 fuselage sides Do this as accurately as
possible, lining up slots and holes for the wing mat-
ing points and making sure these doublers are flush
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