Greenley wing balsa or foam?

[Gary Miles]

Hi All
I've just started to build a Greenley as a bit of a winter project,but don't know whether to use balsa or foam for the wing.This is the first large model i've built,& an 80"+ balsa wing sounds a bit daunting to me.So i'm drawn to the foam option....but which manufacturer?.Your views would be most helpful.
Regards Gary
.

[Chris Lane]

Mine was from Sid King and is entirely satisfactory.

Chris Lane 2938

[Pat Marsden]

Gary

Last time I spoke to Sid he could not make anymore wings due to problems getting the veneer so I made the built up Greenley wing, its a piece of cake to make and I am sure you wont have any problems. Have you downloaded the free plan from the Scale Soaring website?

Pat

[Chris Lane]

Hi Pat,

the last time I looked there, there was an enlarged and beefed-up wing for the super dooper Greenley tug. Is there one for the "ordinary" Greenley/Lowley preferably with a wing joint please?

Chris

[Gary Miles]

Hi Guys
Thanks for your views.I might have a bash at the balsa(well not literaly)wing in that case.Chris theres plans of the plane on the
www.ghostsquadron.co.uk website,theres the std & large tug wings.Is the jointing fairly simple then Pat?

[John Greenfield]

Guys

Plans for all sizes of Greenley and the Lowley are available from the Ghost Squadron website as one piece or 2 piece wings. For the 2 piece wings the joiner is an ali tube available from all good model shops or places like Falcon. In many respects the 2 piece wing is easier to build as if you cut the tube holes accurately, or even better get them cnc cut, then you can build the wings a 2 separate pieces and slide the tube in when the wing in finished.
Alan Carter from the Ghost Squadron does small runs of cnc cut wing ribs. You can contact him via the Ghost Squadron website at www.ghostsquadron.co.uk.

John

[Peter Clare]

I think Falcon Aviation at Burnley can do foam wings for Greenleys at a sensible price. Bear in mind the Greenley was designed as a glider towing tug with a very heavy engine. If you just want a large trainer the Slec trainer advertised on the LMA website might be more suitable and probably cheaper to build. No disrespect to John Greenfield and co. but you may need to strip the lead off the roof to balance the Greenley with a 40cc engine in it. Regards, Peter Clare

[Pat Marsden]

Have to put you right here Peter, the Greenley was originally designed as a trainer for Johns wife but over the years it has got progressively bigger. The Greenley/Lowley evolved as a large model trainer and flies very well on a Z38 without the need for much church roof if built carefully, the SD Greenley and SDD Greenleys have been optimised for glider towing that is true but a Z62 on a SD Greenley will balance without any lead what so ever and still be a docile trainer, my wife will attest to that as she learnt from scratch on one. I also doubt very much you will build a cheaper large trainer especially as the plans are free and you are not paying someone to cut out a kit for you.
Gary, I assume the creator of the Greenley has answered you question re the wing jointing. On wifeys latest Greenley with the built up wing I made it as a one piece wing negating the wing tube but its a large plank to store.

Pat

[John Greenfield]

Peter

I think you may be gatting confused a little. There are 4 different models in the Greenley family. The original Greenley was designed around a Zenoah 38 and has proved very sucessful with hunderds of plans sold before I decided to make the plan available as a free download from the Ghost Squadron website http://www.ghostsquadron.co.uk.

From the original Greenley other bigger models have evolved more specifically modified for glider towing and the fitting of larger motors. These as not just scaled up original Greenleys but have been modified with different moment arms and nose lengths to suilt the task they were designed for.

The original Greenley can be built under 7 kg with a Zenoah 38 and a foam wing and with care in wood selection (especially the tail surfaces) and a proper installation will require no lead to balance.

Hope this helps.

John

[Peter Clare]

Thanks for clarifying the situation John, I stand corrected. I suggest that if Gary is going to use a lighter engine than a Zenoah 38 on a Super Greenley he pares as much weight off the tail as possible, as it is more acceptable to add a few ounces of lead to the tail than a pound or more behind the firewall, especially if you are trying to built inside 7kg. I initially used a Super Tigre 3000 and more lately a Quadra 42 with RCeXL ignition. ( For what it's worth I added two inches to the nose and used a 'built up' rather than a balsa plank tail ). It balances OK and has proved itself very strong in use. Regards, Peter Clare.
P.S. I'm saving up for a Sky 120.

[Gary Miles]

Evening Gents

I'm going to make enquiries tomorrow on getting the parts cnc'd out,& i'm going for the two peace wing option.John i did e-mail Alan Carter a few weeks back but never heard anything(i may have used the wrong e-mail addy).I don't know how busy he is,but Robbie at bespoke is only a couple of miles down the road from me.So that sounds the most conveniant.Yes Peter i do agree the Sky 120 is very nice indeed,but i have the Greenley plan so i'll go with that for now(but got it ear marked for the future).Does anyone now where i can purchase 0.8mm ply sheeting?(& before you ask,a certain Mr Greenfield suggested this)so far i can only find large sheets of 0.5mm.I think i'm going to draw a blank on this one.
Thanks for all your comments
Many Thanks Gary

[Andy Boylett]

If you are looking for 0.8mm or 1/32 ply then:
try Ian at SLEC.....
http://www.slecuk.com/catalogue/0.8mm-B ... ywood.html

or Alan at Moors Models sells it.....
http://www.moormodels.co.uk/acatalog/PLYWOOD.html

[John Greenfield]

Gary

Alan Carters email address is alancarter1@sky.com. He is usually very quick to reply so try him again. He is currentl;y cutting some parts for me so the CNC machine is all set up ready to go.

As for 0.8mm ply, as suggested try SCEC, that is where we get our stock from

John

[Gary Miles]

Thanks John
I've just e-mailed Alan,hope to hear something soon.
Many Thanks
Gary

[Alan Riozzi]

I built the lowley version a couple of years ago. I had a spare ZG38.
I designed a one piece built up wing covered in solartex. The model ended up slightly nose heavy so a bigger battery more rearward and a heavy duty tailwheel assembly did the trick. It is more satisfying building a wing and in my case it ended up cheaper. I made liteply ribs. Leading edge sheeted in to an i beam main spar. One of my favourite aircraft to fly.