RCDave's Crash Report: January 2026

Sometime in 1987, I started scratch building an Andrews Big H-Ray from the plans. A couple of guys at the WRCMA field had these, and they were great flying airplanes. I decided to sheet the fuse / wing / tail, and paint it. Boy, was that a mistake... It took lots of filler and primer for a good finish. She was gaining weight, steadily. I finished it, fitted a .40 Fox engine and Futaba radio, and took it out for a maiden flight. It was horribly tail heavy, and took lots of nose weight. In the end, it flew like a rock, and I spun it into the ground. I picked up all the scraps, and took it home.

The parts laid in my workshop and garage for many years. In 2006, I decided to strip the remains and rebuild it. Here we go...

This is a completed photo of the 2nd time around :-)

This is an old H-Ray fuse, scratch-built from the Andrews plans back sometime in the late 80's. It was also sheeted for strength. The horizontal and vertical stabs have a spruce spare embedded. Musta been expecting some rough treatment...

It started getting that rough treatment over the years of hanging here, sitting there, falling off the wall in the garage, etc. See some of the wood replacement I had to do to the horizontal stab? Oh, it was also built for dual elevator servos...

Here's some wood replacement on the rudder. In my poor judgement, I primed and painted this thing about 1990. What a mistake that was! The rattlecan Barons epoxy was cracking and peeling everywhere. I suspect that I didn't use the right base coat.

Here it is, with most of the bad stuff sanded away, repairs made, etc. I'm gonna cover this thing...probably won't be beautiful over these surfaces, but it's time to push this thing across the finish line. Everyone needs a 'beater plane', right?

OK... I had a bunch of this green Ultracote in my covering box, so I'll use that for the base. Gotta get rid of that green stuff anyway, I've had it for probably 15+ years (bought it at a swap meet) and can't think of anything I wanna put it on. Until now. I put it in the root and cowl areas first.

Covering the bottom of the fuse. It's kinda tricky over painted surfaces, especially surfaces that are as flawed and not-smooth as these.

Got it on the LH fuse side and part of the RH fuse side now...

Getting it pulled over the LH side, and trimmed before shrinking. The roll ran out, so I've gotta 'piece' the RH side, hehehehehe...

What am I gonna do for trim? Maybe some yellow and white w/black shadows... dunno yet, it'll come to me as I go :-)

The bottom is all covered, time to flip it over and get to the top of the horizontal stab/elevators, vertical stab and rudder.

Thanks to my son Chris, I'm putting a ThunderTiger .61 Pro on the front!

Since it's a bit heavy, I opted for heavy-duty Du-Bro fiberglass gear to keep it off the ground.

The wing from a local friend, Bill Wynne, that's gonna go on the fuselage. I'm going to rip out the dihedral, and sheet the wing from the leading edge to the spar.

The fuse is finally covered, and the engine fitted into the cowl. It's beginning to shape up a bit!

I had originally fitted it for a Rossi .61 and pipe back around 1990, so it didn't take a lot of work to crowbar this engine in.

Doing a little test fit of the old painted hatch. Gotta put some green on that, and paint the engine compartment green as well.

Here, I've begun to apply a bit of contrasting trim and have painted the engine compartment with green Pactra fuel proof dope.

Now that most of the trim is on, I'm gonna move on to the wing mods...

This was originally a wing from a PT40. It has about 60" of span, and about 11" of chord...just about right for this project. Here, the wing has been put through the table saw, and dihedral removed.

The front hatch is now fitted and covered... It's currently held on by two screws, but the wing dowel will actually penetrate the former far enough to hold it on when completed.

I cut away a bit of sheeting to allow the installation of wing joiners. I cut a plywood joiner to go between the upper and lower spars, then cut more joiners to epoxy on either side of the spars.

Here, the plywood joiners are epoxied to both sides of the spars and the leading edge. The internal joiner is already installed.

Everything is joined and the wing is pinned to the building board, awaiting sheeting.

To eliminate the center joint in the sheeting (and make it a bit stronger), I applied sheeting across the center section. I like to use Windex (it has ammonia) to soften the balsa sheeting and make it easier to wrap around the wing.

The center sheeting is attached with slow CA. I use 1/16" thick balsa for this.

The center of the wing is now sheeted...

The 60" span wing looks nothing like it originally did when built for a PT-40!

The bottom of the wing is now sheeted.

I cut some 1/16" balsa sheet up into 1/4" wide strips for "cap strips".

These "cap strips" are attached to the top and bottom of the ribs, to allow for better attachment of the covering, improving strength even more. A heavy airplane like this is great on windy days, but the wing HAS to be strong!

A quick check-fit on the fuselage. Wow..it's actually gonna look pretty good.

A bit of sanding with 150 grit to get things shaped up, and ready for filler. Balsa sands easily, so this is no real chore...

After the initial sanding, I slapped on a bit of micro-fill in the low spots and in the joints. This will allow the monokote to lay down nice and smooth.

Next, to reinforce the wing center. Since there is no exposed joint (I sheeted over it with no center splice in the sheeting), I could have probably gotten away without this. However, it's light, and does add more strength to the center.

Oops...the shop foreman stopped in to check on things. Bridgette is quite a companion in the shop, and loves to hang out there with me :-)

The CG 4" Nylon reinforcing mesh is very similar to fiberglass in look and feel, but easier to work with. I pull it down the wing, squirt on some thin CA, and smooth it out with a piece of wax paper wrapped over my finger.

Here's the bottom of the wing. This stuff is very thin, and barely noticeable when covered. Oh, I installed a 1/4" wing dowel a few steps back, as well as a light ply wing bolt plate on the top side.

I've now framed up the aileron servos and punched holes in the ribs for the wiring. Light ply was used for the rails, and 1/8" balsa sheet for the filler.

Here, the wing is back on for a test fit. The new Du-Bro molded landing gear is now installed. These things are light, yet strong. They also provide for a bit of shock absorption.

Checking the look of things, while sitting on the main and tail gear. Looks like I'm ready to cover the wing, next.

The bottom side of the wing is now covered, along with the hinge lines and wing tips. I think I'll form the wing saddles now, and call it quits for the night.

I like making custom wing saddles like this. I squirt an ample bead of clear 100% silicone sealant onto the wing saddle area.

Install the wing in the saddle, and tighten it almost all the way down (leave it slightly loose, this makes for a little area of compression when completed).

You can see where the silicone fills in all of the unwanted gaps, while providing a nice, tight rubber wing saddle. Once cured, I'll trim and clean it up.