I purchased my mostly complete 1700 Hi-Max, and have found that it has some issues.
When I got it into the hangar, I found that the plywood on the fuselage was delaminating (cockpit, root ribs, and longerons). I thought, "Darn... that sucks...". So I took all that bad plywood off, and I started sanding with my palm sander to remove the last layer of veneer/epoxy off the structure. As I was sanding, a glue joint on a diagonal brace popped lose. I thought, "Well, that's not cool," and continued sanding. Then another glue joint failed as I was sanding the cockpit structure. I also noticed that a few of the gussets in the aft fuselage looked a little off. I pushed on one, and it came apart under my thumb... so did a couple of others.
Honestly, if this were your project that you planned to fly, what would you do?
Today I was showing a friend some glue joints and several just popped when I pushed on them. I saw as YouTube video that pointed towards cloudy T-88 as a possible culprit, so I'll be gracious to the previous builder and say he tried to use good glue, but got a bad batch.
Either way, I am pretty sure this closes out my Hi-Max experience.
If I have to effectively start over again on a whole new fuselage... and I don't trust the wings, it may be time to build something altogether different. My question now is do I 1) let wood and epoxy kick my ass and build an aluminum plane, 2) learn to weld and build a STF plane, 3) build a plane from Styrofoam and fiberglass, or 4) do I go every-so-slightly insane, and build a wood plane from the ground up?
Spolier... it'll be either 1) or 2).
OH! The wings, unlike the fuselage look really good. I sliced open the fabric on one (grown men wept) and poked around inside, and was surprised to find that it all looks really good, and was solid. Nothing at all like the fuselage.
► If anyone is near Cartersville, GA and wants my wings, gimme an IM, come check them out for yourself, and make me an offer. Note: the ailerons are not available. They were damaged in transport.
Oh dear. The end of a long & troubled road. Like you, I wouldn't trust this build to fly. Bite the bullet & ditch it.
There's probably more choice of airframes made with welded steel if you don't want to use wood. Welding is not difficult, but like everything else needs lots of practice to get really good at it. MIG or induction stick welding are relatively low cost (for the equipment). TIG welding better, but more expensive. Gas welding good but very slow.
Sorry to hear about your experience. I really think you should give a wooden aircraft a try. Wood is easy to work with and not expensive if you make a mistake. As far as welding, I took the EAA welding course. I returned home and tried to practice, realizing that I had no way of knowing if my welds were good AND using up valuable build time. Bottom line, I have a professional welder come and take care of those parts (a different wood plane Im building). Well worth the money and peace of mind. I'd rather be building instead of practicing welding and still wondering if I'm doing it correctly. Is there a EAA Chapter near you that can help?
A t88 joint is supposed to be stronger than the wood. Meaning, if you try to break the joint the surrounding wood usually goes first. Did he stain the wood before applying epoxy? Are you sure it's T88?
Did he paint/varnish/stain it before gluing... I'm not sure. But the principal at my kid's school said he was interested in it as a decoration piece, so that's where it's going.
Ya'll enjoy your Maxes. Fly safe and be excellent. I am off to ponder my options.
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