Covering definitely improves the surface durability over the soft woods.
You are probably right, Steve, especially as regards the balsa wood typically used in model aircraft.
But for many years I was a keen sailor. My best boat was a 505 racing dinghy. This was all wood, and the surface finish was epoxy varnish. It withstood the ravages of sun, salt & sea very well indeed, and was subjected to far harsher conditions than my pampered Max will ever experience.
So I'm confident that the marine ply on the fuselage sides, with its surface coating of epoxy, followed by primer plus acrylic paint, will be adequately protected. The coaming on the upper fuselage will see greater intensity of sun, so I have covered this with Dacron.
It's been 21 months and something over 2000 hrs in the build, but I have now officially finished my Max - yaay!
Having sketched a few colour schemes on a 3 view, I decided on the one I preferred, & marked the stripes on the wings, fuse & tail after several coats of white acrylic house paint. Next I masked everything & sprayed the contrast colours. Finally I added the gold pinstripes.
I wheeled the fuselage out of my shed onto the front yard, then rigged the wings & empennage. I took a moment to stand back and enjoy this super little plane - good on yer, Larry, it's a great design. It looked bigger than I thought it would, but definitely looked like it wanted to fly.
Next up was weighing. I used 3 bathroom scales, and 'calibrated' them using my own weight. (They were all out by up to 2.2 lbs.) I added the 3 weights with real trepidation, since I intend to register under the Australian 95.10 regulations which allow pretty much a free hand in design & construction subject to wing loading & weight.
The total empty equipped weight is 180.0kg, or 397 pounds. Heavier than I had hoped, but I wasn't overly disappointed, as I have added a few extras along the way. But I've also saved quite a few pounds, notably with my MZ202 engine being 22 lbs lighter than a 503, & my wingtips are a fair bit lighter than the glassfibre versions supplied.
Next was to support the tail at level attitude, get in, & have my long-suffering buildwidow wife record the readings. Then I measured the L/E to main & tailwheel distances, & did the centre of gravity calcs. Heart in mouth as I pushed the final button on the calculator - 26.8% of chord - woohoo! Means I don't have to add any ballast. Plus I just remembered - I haven't installed the elevator trim tab yet, so this may just bring me to the preferred 28 - 30% figure.
So I am a very happy bunny. Thanks to all who have followed my build, for all your encouragement, criticism, & kind words along the way. As I am building out in a fairly remote part of the Australian bush, I don't get to talk to many people, so I have very much appreciated the support from this excellent board. I hope, too, that my posts may have been of some interest to those contemplating or building their own personal Max.
A few photos here, though l hope to have some better ones when I get out to the airfield & do a final final assembly.
That is a great looking airplane. I for one have enjoyed your build very much and look forward to some pictures of you in flight with your creation. Best wishes for a fantastic first flight.
Home phone 602-999-3715/Mini-max with Hirth 2704 Ace
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Bruce, That's an outstanding looking piece of work. I really like all the detail work you did. With that engine and all of your streamlining efforts she should be one hot scooter. Good luck with all future flights! Dick
Fantastic, you did it! It looks superb, congratulations! Thank you for all the inspiration and support for my build... Can't wait to see you conquering the Australian skies...
Now that is one mighty nice looking airplane. Congrats on a great job. As one that is new to the miniMax world, I'm anxious to hear how (well) it flies.
Darn it Bruce... You blew right past me in the build.......WOW! she sure looks great! A real classy lady! Looking forward to your flight reviews. You have been an inspiration (and given me a lot of help and advice) over the last couple years. Congrats!
Yes, it's very exciting to have finally finished - well, except for all the million-and-one little fiddly jobs. I have hangar rash already, and it hasn't even seen a hangar.
After I get it to the airfield I'll have to concentrate on getting my licence back. I've deliberately not been flying since I started my build - apart from a furtive hour on 1st January this year - so as not to get side tracked. But I will be taxiing just as soon as I have everything sorted & the plane registered. I will be spending some time in a J3 Cub to get my 'dragger skills back up to snuff. Plus some navex's, since the terrain around here is pretty rugged and the next nearest town of any size to me is 150km away. Guess I'll need to get one of those tracker devices when I start to fly further afield.
So come on Brian & Reto. You're not that far off completion, especially you, Brian. I'm very keen to be able to compare notes on finished weight & performance, etc. I bet Reto comes out lighter than me - I can't see a single glue dribble on his Eros!
My work on converting my box trailer is temporarily on hold. I twisted my toe on Friday and it has swelled up & hurts like hell. So I went to the doctors today and she told me I have gout! So can't do much until it goes away. Damn - no more port wine for me
Thanks Arthur. Simple blue & white is maybe a bit unadventurous, but I'll let the flying provide the adventure
You're very brave to offer to test fly But having got this far, I'm going to go all the way, and be the first to fly my baby. That's got to be a big buzz.
Your kind words along the way have been much appreciated.
Did you notice I'm going for 95.10? I checked the Eros specs & it just fits in, although RAA tried to make me go 19 at first. 95.10 means much more scope to modify, & it's hard to find qualified people round here willing to inspect, which of course is needed under 19 (or VH) rego. When I tried to find someone to make a pre-covering inspection the only guy who would do it wanted $800
Wow! Superb. Congratulations!!! That was fast, I thought you were going to spend much more time doing the other 90%. but you really didn't stop working. What material did you use to streamline the landing gear? I also like how you streamed the feathers. What a job! Can wait to to see it in flight and DO NOT give the plane to Arthur, something tells me he may just fly away. You have been warned !
Very well said Bruce...after all...Maggie Mae (1500R) is 10-1336....I wonder what yours will be...? 10-????
Have they allocated you a number yet..?
My beastie was 149kg empty with the 447. Yours will go really well with all that "POWER".( it must be said like Jeremy Clarkson on TOP GEAR..LOL..POWER..!!)
19 rego has its drawbacks with single seat... however great for 2 seaters though.
95-10 guys is basically single seat, any design, kit etc..that never weighs more than 300kgs (with pilot and fuel)..and stalls less than 40knots ( I think)...so this is perfect for minimax, airbike, etc...it also allows me to have the 3 fuel tanks in my Max (3 x 5 US gallons)
I'm 10-8729. Hard to believe there's been 7393 planes registered under 95.10 since yours: I guess 'they' have some obscure system for allocating rego numbers that bears no relationship to practicality, common sense, or reality.
I'm really looking forward to flying after all this building, but still a few hoops to jump through. Still, nobody said it was easy
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Ricardo, I used balsa wood epoxied to the steel gear, then encapsulated with epoxy, then painted. This gives a surprisingly hard finish. If the legs get too much damage from stone chips or long grass, etc, I'll put a layer of leftover Dacron over it.
The centre section is aluminium sheet, with a couple of perspex inspection windows, one each side, so I can check the bolts are in safety (since it would be unfortunate for me if they fell out!).
At some point I will post photos & a brief description of all the little drag reduction mods I've done. But I'm still working up to flying readiness at the moment.
Ok wow thats alot of shed time.... 7393 aircraft...the mind ponders..!!!!
Now Bruce ....question....can you dress as the "STIG" for the test Flight..? Some say he bought a stairway to heaven, but can't use it, as he has no understanding of stairs...so he flys an Eros in Australia....and his names Bruce.
Ive used Balsa for 30 years...if you have done it well Bruce (as Im sure you have) the finish will be fine...of coarse if you dont want stone chips and flat dead bugs...leave it in the hangar...
You have built a lovely aircraft Bruce, stand tall my friend.
If I dress as the Stig for my maiden flight nobody will see it because my first flight will NOT be in the public eye! I'm not even going to tell my wife - she'll only worry.
Good to hear you like the plane. But to stand really tall, I'll need a box. That might help getting into the little blighter, too
So come on Brian & Reto. You're not that far off completion, especially you, Brian. I'm very keen to be able to compare notes on finished weight & performance, etc.
Don't you worry Bruce I am right behind you! Looking forward to comparing notes also!
Hi Ricardo. Yes, I built the enclosed canopy also. I have done it with a single piece of Lexan, to avoid the vertical joining bars. I haven't weighed it, but I'm guessing it will be maybe a kilo more than the open version. I expect to do most of my flying with the open version, because it's usually hot & sunny here, even in winter. But of course the Max looks much sexier with the 'bubble' closed canopy. Seems like the published weight figures for the Max are very hard to achieve. So well done to Lake Harley, who managed to get his under the magic 254lbs, IIRC.
Keep at it Brian. Now you have the engine installed, you're on the final straight Except for the millions of 'just' jobs. You know, like "I've just got to paint the bolt heads" & "I must grease the wheel bearings" - they never seem to stop! There's so many on mine, I write them down when I think of something.
Hey Bruce.....if you have no grease the bearings will let you know.....dont ask .....LOL and with ....your landings....Greasing it on is the way to go.
I finished modifying my old trailer. I made some extensions front & rear. The main wheels sit on the rear extended platform, and the front extension carries a small winch & the tailwheel.
I made some crutches out of 1" chipboard to suit the leading edge, and some stabilizing struts that attach at the root & tip ends of my wings. The fuselage fits between the wings, with the empennage & struts underneath. I had to ballast the front of the trailer to give a bit of weight on the ball joint.
I could have just borrowed a flatbed trailer, but you never know when you might need to recover your plane from some distant outlanding, so I'd rather have my own. But I hope I never need it again!
I left very early on Wednesday morning, and drove very carefully to the airfield. I had a friend following me behind with a walkie talkie to tell me as & when pieces were falling off the trailer. Happily they didn't.
The plane travelled quite well, & we arrived at the airfield with no drama. We offloaded the various components, & my friends helped me rig the wings. Then they left to go flying while I started to re-assemble everything.
I still have lots of little jobs to do, not least setting up the carburettors & testing the ASI & pitot system, all using a simple manometer made from plastic tube. In the meantime, I need to fly off some hours to convert my UK licence to an Australian one, so I'm a bit dependent on the instructor as to how long this will take.
But I'm a whole lot nearer than I was when the big box of bits turned up from TEAM back in July 2014.
Home phone 602-999-3715/Mini-max with Hirth 2704 Ace
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Hey Bruce, I don't care what Arthur says about you I'm starting to think you know what your doing!…. Ok, I just made that up about Arthur, but the part about me thinking you might know what your doing is the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Looking real good! I noted the stubby wing hanging on the wall; is that from a Flying Flea by chance? Dick
Hi Dick ...looks like it could be french....LOL...It sort of looks a little small....however a friend flew one for 27 years, so Im a little familar.
Now Bruce I do have a tow bar on my car.... WELL it......it just has to be fitted from the factory...LOL..I can and will order one if required...LOL so I can pick up your trailer anytime you wish...and bring it to South Australia for a legal Australian pilot to test fly it
Good spot! Yes indeed, it's from a Flea called 'Penguin Poo'. (My mate didn't get it til I told him Flying flea in French is Pou de Ciel). Judging by the state of this one, I don't think it's done much flying.
Can you work out what the other classic ultralight is, against the wall? You maybe can't see enough of it, but the clue is in the transparent wing covering. It made me think about doing this on my Max, but I chickened out.
Your faith in my build is touching, but having gone this far I'm going to finish the course & test fly myself. The local club instructor wants to do it, but sorry, it's my ball & I'm going to play with it!
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But having got this far, I'm going to go all the way, and be the first to fly my baby. That's got to be a big buzz.
but you really didn't stop working. What material did you use to streamline the landing gear? I also like how you streamed the feathers. 
