Over the last year, I’ve been looking at a lot of 3D/Sport ships in the 45-55″ range.    The PA Extra MX really attracted me at first, I loved the idea that I could just use commodity 3s 2200 batteries and enjoy high-dollar 6S performance.  For 3 minutes... 

I also looked at the 50″ Matt Chapman Eagle 580.  That’s one nice looking airplane, and the reviews were glowing.  I flew it on the sim for a few weeks, started looking at powerplant options, and that’s when my past experience with the whole Electrifly reality kicked in.  I remembered the specialized motor mounts and weird proprietary stuff associated with my last Electrifly ARF, and decided to wait a while until somebody had documented a good motor conversion. 

I wasn’t looking that hard, or thinking about this very much at all when I wandered over to my LHS one afternoon for some fasteners.  Lo and behold, one the shelf was the brand new E-Flite Extra I had heard about from SEFF press.  Great looking kit, perfect wingspan, and I started to notice things: Fully built up airfoil on the horizontal stab and rudder.   No externally visible cowl screws.  Cockpit latch.  High quality wheel pants included.  Decent hardware, from the factory, including a nice looking pull/pull setup!  

I had been a little bit disappionted with some of the details in previous E-Flite kits, and the Extra looked like it had raised the mark.  The hook was set. 

Over the next 48 hours, I realized that I had a brand new Power 32 in stock, a Turnigy Plush 60, an AR6200 and even a CC/BEC sitting new in inventory.  This made the purchase even more attractive, $199 for the ARF less my LHS club discount, 4 servos, and I was off to the races. 

A few days later, I purchased the ARF and 4 HS-225MG servos.  E-Flite says you can get by on MN48′s, but the Hitec servos are a good deal, and JR does not have an analog Hi-Torque servo anywhere close to the price range.  It was perfect, a low cash outlay for a lot of airplane, even more so for me due to the fact that I had so many useful parts already stashed. 

When I started the build, the quality of the kit blew my mind.  E-Flite has always made nice ARF’s, but this was a step above.  Right off the bat, I decided to slow down and have some fun with the linkage.  E-Flite was already using nice aluminum control horns, and I decided to eliminate as much nylon as I could from some of those linkages.  

Enter Central Hobbies, and the Dubro catalog.  Central Hobbies does some wonderful pushrod hardware, designed for much larger aircraft.  I used the small stuff in their line, some 2-56 titanium ends and the recommended CF rod.  You cut the CF to size, and JB weld or epoxy the ends in.  A steel clevis is used on one end, and a 2-56 Dubro ball link at the servo end. The finished product is a threadable, adjustable link that is extremely light, strong, and attractive to look at. 

The rudder linkage was a joy.  I like pull-pull setups, and the only modification I made was to use metal clevis parts instead of the supplied nylon ones.  I used the same Dubro threaded clevis and std 2-56 pushrod on the ailerons, it’s a short rod and plenty strong that way. 

Mounting the motor was straightforward, and I loved the adjustable motor mount.  No matter what motor you want to put on your Extra, you can probably bolt it right up without worries.
I was using the Power 32, but I had another little problem.  The recommended 2.25″ E-Flite aluminum spinner was on pan-Galactic backorder at the time, with a long lead time.  I happened to have a nice ‘Ultimate’ spinner in the right size, but it didn’t have enough plunge to engage the motor shaft.  I used some nuts that were a little over 1/4″ tall to space out the motor, and all was well. 

Ultimate Spinner on Extra 32e

When it came time to set up the electronics, I decided to use a tried and true Turnigy Plush 60, powered by a Rhino 3700 4S battery.  I also incorporated a Castle CC/BEC to power the electronics, because I wanted to drive the servos at 6 volts.  I used a Spektrum AR6200 RX, and also incorporated the SPM1600 capacitor.  I probably don’t have any real reason for using these, especially with a quality seperate BEC installed, but I used it anyway.

I closed up the canopy on my trimmed down Hangar 9 pilot that night, after a getting a preliminary idea on CG, and radio setup.  As I mounted the balanced 13×6.5 APC prop, I could not wait for morning to arrive.  It came up to 4.1lbs all up.

The maiden flight was splendidly uneventful.  The ground handling is great, and the big power 32 rolled it into the air with authority at 50% throttle with minimal rudder correction.  I had to give it one click of up trim, and that was that.  I flew it around for a few minutes (half of the expected 7+ minutes) and brought it in for a nice slow powered approach.  I find nice three point landings particularly easy and rewarding with this airplane.

In subsequent flights, I moved the CG a little further back from the recommended for better hovering, swapped out the prop for a PA Vox 14×7 (sounds and flies great!), and tuned the throws to my personal liking. 

I really like this airplane.  I’ve been taking it out every time I go flying, and I have fun flying it slow, fast, and some 3D within the limits of my skill and bravery.  I think it’s one of the best behaved model airplanes I’ve ever flown, and I’d highly recommend it to anybody looking for an economical, versatile sport ship. 

Full build gallery here.

- Eli

I used the typical electronics shopping list:  Turnigy 3536C-1100, Turnigy Plush 40, Rhino 1350 30C lipo, Master Airscrew 10×8 prop, and 4 HXT900 micro servos.  I decided to fly it FM, mostly because I can buy nice R790 receivers for cheap on Ebay, and I had one on hand.

The next thing I did was get ahold of Gary at CustomRC to see if he had plans to do an aluminum mount for the Wildcat.  He does plan to make one, but since the plane is brand new it was going to take a few weeks before he was ready to ship one out.  I knew I wanted to use the same Turnigy 3536-1100kv motor I had used in the Mustang, so, I decided to make up a little mount adapter to compensate for the fact that the Turnigy is shorter than the stock PZ 480.  I used some .125″ aluminum plate (measured  3.14mm) and some 1/2″ aluminum standoffs.  I’m not that great at layout, but I got the job done.  Thank God for the drill press.

This is a really cool foamy.  The thing is loaded with neat features, like a rigid battery box that will take 1300 or 2100 batteries.  It has a fiberglass wing tube that fits into molded plastic bits in the wings and fuse.  The horizontal stab has a carbon fiber rod that runs through it, and a very cool interlocking setup that joins the stab halves and keeps them perfectly straight.  The servo pockets fit the Hobbycity HXT-900 servos I planned to use, complete with nice wire exits molded in.  There are even little molded grooves in the receiver pocket so that the whiskers of a DSM2 receiver will lay down gracefully.  All in all, PZ is continuing to evolve the foamy, and that evolution makes these stronger and easier to build with every release.

The Wildcat flies great.  It’s a little smaller than the BL mustang or the T-28, a little faster, and the wing tube pretty much eliminates wing flex even with the hopped up motor.  I used a 15% rudder to Aile mix in my X9303, 25-30% expo across the board, and I tend to fly it on high rates all the time.  The axial roll rate is snappy, it turns nicely, and gains altitude like who would not have it.  It’s also remarkably balanced, and flies inverted very nicely.

I got about 5 minutes with throttle management out of a Rhino 1350, and I highly recommend using 30C batteries if you intend to go full throttle.  I have not tried flying it with an 1850 yet, mostly because the CG is dead on with the smaller battery and I wanted to try flying it light, first.

So, when I add up what I spent, it comes to $202.30, not including any sales tax or shipping.  Shipping from Hobbycity can be significant, especially on motors and batteries, so be aware.   Also, that figure includes an inexpensive Ebay JR SPCM receiver.  If I had used an AR500, I’d be at $225 before tax.  If you were to buy the Wildcat from Horizon as a BNF, you’d get all this stuff plus a cheapie charger for $189!

So, building with Turnigy and Rhino is not necessarily the cheapest way to go, but I definitely think you are getting a better airplane at the end of the day.  If nothing else, raising the top speed from 45 to 70+ mph is worth the extra bucks, and once CustomRC produces a mount, the job of assembly will be even easier.  Building a foamy yourself over a couple of evenings is a lot of fun, as is the chance to decide what parts you would like to use.

Full build gallery here.

- Eli

This is my second E-Flite Sukhoi.  I built the first using the recommended E-flite Park 480, and I really enjoyed the kit.  It had great flight characteristics, looked great in the air and on the ground, and the thing rolls like a damned pin drill.

That said, it was a little underpowered.  The 480 got it moving OK, but it did not have the punch I was looking for, especially for some 3D maneuvers.  I ended up crashing the first model, practicing blenders way too close to the ground.  It was a bummer, but also a chance to rebuild.

I had an email conversation with Lucien over at Innov8tive Designs, and he recommended the same motor I ended up installing in my Ultimate Biplane, the SII-3014-1040kv.   With a 12x6E prop, it’s good for 70oz thrust, and about a 48mph pitch speed.

I had to modify the X mount provided with the Scorpion a little bit in order to fit the firewall – A drill press is very handly for modifying the holes.  While I was doing this work, I also brushed on some thinned epoxy to reinforce the motor mount. 

The assembly of the ARF is typical E-flite stuff, nothing noteworthy there.  I will say that the fit and finish were right on par, and the manual was well-written.  I added some fiberglass wheel pants left over from my PA Addiction, and DUB934 long 3D arms for the Hitec HS-65HB servos.

The kit gained a little bit of weight.  The Scorpion motor weighs in at 4.52oz vs. the 480 at 3.1oz.  Overall, the model weighs 30.1oz less battery, which makes for a 37-38oz AUW with Rhino and Turnigy 2200′s.  E-Flite quotes 30-32 AUW, and my old one weighed darned near 34 all up even with the 480, due to the fancy aluminum spinner I was using at the time.

I may end up adding another oz or so to the rear, depending on how the CG feels.  I added a few tenths of an ounce in bling this weekend, in the form of a character that a good friend’s daughter donated to the cause:

I’m really impressed with the way it flies, and I’m not noticing the extra weight as much as I thought I would.  I’ve flown it about 15 times since I started writing this, I never have bothered to add the addl. weight to the tail, and I love the way it flies.  It will do 3D quite easily, but it’s a lot more fun to fly it in a sport aerobatic pattern, fast.

With the additional power, and that huge rudder, it will knife edge at ridiculously low throttle settings.  With a Turnigy light electric prop, it spins up very fast, making it easy to flow between 3D and sport flying as you wish.

This model was a blast to fly with the recommended 480 motor, but with this upgrade you get so much more.  It’s a win-win!

- Eli

Turnigy powered Mustang BL

The Parkzone Mustang BL is a great looking model.  I resisted the temptation to buy one right off the bat, hoping that a small wait would result in some aftermarket parts and a proven formula to build one inexpensively.

I’m not breaking any new ground here, just condensing information I found on RCGroups and what I considered the best aftermarket mount.  There is a master thread at RCGroups that you should absolutely look through if you are considering a build.

The best value is to buy the parts as the complete airframe, the part number is PKZ1870.  I paid $79.99 for mine from Horizon, and note that when you ship there is typically an oversize charge.  The box is HUGE!  Still, you save quite a few bucks over buying the pieces individually, and you also get some labor items done for you, like cowl fitting, control horns, and decals.

The genesis of this idea was discovering the way-cool mount that Customrcparts.com makes.  I opted for the venerable Turnigy 35-36C, because I like them, and also because I had a good one on the bench

The Turnigy Plush 40 or any 40A speed controller will work fine, as long as it is slim enough to fit in the nose of the airplane.  HXT-900 servos fit right in the pockets and are dirt cheap – to date, we’ve never seen one fail in service under normal use, and they are plenty fast.

The Customrc mount is great.  It goes right in, and you can use the stock spinner and prop with the Turnigy motor.  Everything just lines up
Note – You can’t use APC props with this setup, they don’t fit, and you would need an aftermarket 2.25″ spinner.

I noticed a lot of little niceties in the parts – there are channels for servo wires in convenient places, a nice tray for your RX, and the aforementioned pocket for the ESC. 

I opted to do the optional rudder sutup, which was quick and easy.  All the parts come in the airframe kit, and I can’t think why you would not do it for the price of another HXT-900.

I used Hobbycity 3S 1850 40Cbatteries, because they fit the pocket so well.  There are a lot of well-documented mods on RCGroups that allow you to use 2100′s quite easily, I just happened to have these batteries on hand.

I used the stock 9×6 for the maiden flight, which was a joy.  It’s got great, forgiving handling, feels very nimble, and does the full suite of aerobatics with ease.  I didn’t take any measurements on the maiden flight, but for the next flight I installed a Master Airscrew 10×8, and went to town.

Awesome.  We got two confirmed radar passes at 69mph, and you can go 5 minutes at triple latte on the 1850 and still have a little puff to get home.   I didn’t get an Eagletree reading today, but we registered 41.6Ap 476Wp in static testing with the 10×8.  I bet I’ll be able to tune for a little more speed once I get some Eagletree data.

The best thing about this is the fact that you can put one in the air for about $175, but you get some substantial upgrades like more horsepower and the aluminum mount.  It’s a blast to fly, and I’m looking forward to further mods like retractable landing gear, and flaps.

My new favorite daily driver

Overall, it’s clear that Parkzone is not resting on their previous success.  The overall design and flight characteristics of this model are top notch at any price, and using the aftermarket parts, you get a chance to customize your plane with the servos and powertrain you prefer.

The inherent stability and good low-speed manners of this model break the traditional idea that fast pushers need to behave like lawn darts.

I build my first Stryker from parts last year, employing the E-Flite Six 2700kv motor and 3s high-capacity Rhino batteries.  With a 6×4, we were seeing 85-90mph reliably in radar passes, and the model handled great.

I started reading about the EFL Six, and learned that you can push a lot more than the recommended max of 42 amps.  I decided to order up some 4S Rhino batteries, and build a new Stryker.  I used an Align 450 K10175A heat sink, and decided to try one of the new Turnigy 85A ESC’s that have a built-in heatsink.  I also installed a motor temp probe for the Eagletree logger.

The first flight was uneventful, until I really started pushing up the speeds.  We saw a couple of 85+ mph passes, and whenever I started flying faster than that, I started noticing some serious problems steering the aircraft.   We decided that I was going to need to beef up the airframe and the elevons in specific before flying it any more.

I beefed up the structure with carbon fiber rod, and day-glo duct tape.  I applied CF tape and thinned epoxy to the underside of the elevons, which helped quite a bit.

At this point I also got a little reckless, and installed a new prop.  I had been running with a 6×4, and decided to put a 6×5.5 on there without thinking about how much of an increase that was. 

….  and it proved to be too much.

The model flew much better with the stiffer airframe, and spent the first part of the flight just getting used to it.  Finally, I decided to ‘give it the berries’, and see how we fared.

I wasn’t sure, but I thought I saw a little smoke trail on that climb.   I did a nice long power off glide, pretty much assuming that the motor was fried.  When I throttled up again, I was astonished to hear the motor spin up.  I decided that I must have been seeing things, and did another pass.

This time the smoke trail was unmistakable.   I spun it around, power off, and landed.   The motor was crispy critters, you could smell it a mile away and it was actually melting the plastic motor mount. 

In reviewing the data, it looks like I tried to push 96 amps through the motor, and the sky-writing was predictable at that current.

Eagletree graph, illustrating abuse

 I really should have been more cautious, we live and learn.

I got one of Custom RC’sStryker modular motor mounts, and this is a really nice looking part.  It is available with a 28-30mm head, a 36mm head and also a special 36mm unit designed for Mega motors.   I plan to use one of Hobbycity’s 36mm inrunners, although getting the model to CG will probably be a challenge.

More news as it becomes available,

- Eli

UPDATE 3/22/2010 -

First, a word on Custom RC.  Not only was the Stryker motor mount a joy to install and look at, these are seriously nice people to boot.    I guess they dropped the price on the Stryker motor mount by $10 recently, and decided to issue credits to customers who had recently purchased at the old, higher rate. 

Nobody does stuff like this anymore, and my hat is off to Gary and his folks. 

The Hobbycity 36mm motorwas heavy, but it balanced – Now that I have the motor in hand I realize it’s a car motor – I took it out with a Graupner 6×6 prop installed, and the thing flew great until about 100mph again, at which time it started corkscrewing all over the place.  I’ve decided that I’m going to glass up a new airframe before going any further, this airframe is trashed.

- Eli

This is one of those iconic airplanes that everybody should have in their collection of Sport aircraft.  I bought mine from Porkeez here in Sonoma County, and instead of using all of the recommended Eflite parts I switched it up a bit. 

I used a Scorpion SII-3014, 1040kv motor instead of the recommended Power 10.  Scorpion motors have a very high quality look and feel to them, and they tend to be slightly higher performance, and less expensive than E-Flite motors in many cases.   In addition, I’ve had nothing but good experiences with the NA distributor, Innov8tive Designs.  They publish a handy Motor comparison chart that makes it easy to match up their motor with another recommendation.  In addition, they publish extensive propeller data charts that are very helpful.

I coupled the Scorpion motor with a Castle Thunderbird 54, Hitec HS-65HB servos, and a JR R790 receiver.

The build was a very routine E-Flite ARF experience.  I give it high marks for fit and finish, and a few negative ones in that the hardware looks a little cheap.  Be very careful with the wing fillet.  It’s plastic that has been painted on the backside, and before the bottom wing is installed, it is prone to damage.

I used the E-flite recommended throws, which are about maximum on high rates and very close to that on low rates.  I found the thing a little twitchy on low rates with the recommended 25% expo, so I bumped the aileron travel down a few millimeters, and set the expo to 30%.  It feels better to me, set up that way.

The model rolls out fast and takes off immediately- This took me by surprise a bit on the first flight.  The light wing loading is immediately apparent, and you will see in the maiden video that I needed to use more right rudder on takeoff. 

Once up, it tracks clean and fast.  Turns look coordinated even when you do not use the rudder, and it rolls in and out of 3D with a grace that I have not experienced thus far.  Aileron rolls are fast, crisp, and clean.  The model flies as well inverted as it does right side up, almost hands off. 

Landing was pretty easy, as well.  It slows down nicely, and while it’s going to take a little practice to stop wagging the wings, it’s not a hard airplane to set down accurately. I used 1500mah out of a Turnigy 2200 in 5:30 of flight, mostly WOT. Peak draw was 46 amps on takeoff, and for most of the flight I was drawing 20-30A. The motor was cool to the touch after 5:30 of spirited flight.

In short, apply any superlative, positive term you can think of regarding the flight characteristics – I have yet to find something I don’t like about this airplane. 

BTW the snap roll feature is BRUTAL at 100% throws.  On my second flight, I hit the snap roll, and it dislodged Zeke’s Eagletree logger and smacked it against the leading edge so hard it bent the pins. (!)

Get yourself an Ultimate Biplane.  I don;t know if the E-flite/Scorpion/Hitec cocktail I brewed up is the best combination, but it sure seems to work well.

Getting to Maiden it on Christmas Day with a good friend was just the icing on the cake.

Happy Holidays,

- Eli

Lid popped

After enjoying the E-Flite RV-9, I decided to get something similar yet larger. I just picked up the Hangar 9 RV-8 46. It’s a clean looking rendition of the Vans Aircraft RV-8. This is my first ARF from Hangar 9 and with a wingspan of 5ft. and a length of over 4ft. it will be the largest in my fleet at this time. It’s designed for 2 or 4 stroke slimers or a Power 46 / equivelant EP motor. After unpacking it and checking the contents I was quite happy as everything is mint. All the fragiles are individually wrapped and secured. The covering is excellent, better than I have ever seen from E-Flite out of the box. No warps, wrinkles, bubbles, or tears. The manual is well-written and logical. Hangar 9 got it right on this aspect.

I will be using mostly the recommended gear, though I’m not a fan of E-Flite ESC’s. Here is my config:

E-Flite Power 46
Castle Phoenix 60 ESC and CC-BEC
6x JR DS821 high-torque digital sport servos driven @ 6V, 2x for Flaps
JR R921 RX with 4th. receiver
4s lipo – likely 2x 2500 mAh 30C’s in parallel
I’ll start with an APC 13 x 8 prop

Will be flown with JR X9303 so should have 2048 resolution w/the R921. Also ServoSync. I bench tested everything and was surprised at how smooth and accurate the servos are as well as the torque and holding strength. They are standard size, yet light. I will be using 7 channels on the RX as I prefer a channel per aileron and flap – no “Y” harness. This gets you subtrim and the ability to configure differential. For this setup you will need 2x 6″ extensions for the ailerons.

The Du-Bro 2.75″ white spinner is recommended. You will want this, catalog # 290.

The hardware kit is complete and includes proper components. This was meant to be either a slimer or an EP so the hardware is sturdy. Some may prefer to swap out the nylon clevis(s) with metal hardware.

All control surfaces are pre-hinged with control horns attached. The rudder employs a pull-pull linkage via cable. The elevator is dual halves and the horizontal stab halves mate together with the fuse via 2 joiner tubes.

There is a ton of room inside the hatch, making easy work of servo, linkage, and radio / lipo installation. Eases cable tidy-up as well.

The hatch has magnets holding it in place and you can also bolt it in from both sides.

Electronics

Bits

Fuse / Hatch

The tail halves

The 2-piece landing gear. Boo!

Radio gear pre tidy-up

Elev. and Rudd. servos installed

The rudder and elevator servo installation is easy, place the servo in the tray, mark inside the grommets with a pen, then use a pin drill to make pilot holes. Wick thin CA over the surrounding wood and when it cures bolt your servos in. The JR DS821 servos fit perfectly in the servo tray.

Careful when cutting out the exit!

Horizontal stab prior to joining to fuse

Tail mated to fuse

You will want to use low-tack tape to hold it in place while you gently apply pressure or lightly clamp until the epoxy sets.

Canopy installed & curing

The canopy is another task which requires patience & skill. You have to cut it out of a giant mold without damaging it. Canopy scissors would be the clear choice however I don’t own a pair so I used Fiskars. Cut all the way around within .5″ of the mold lines. Then trimmed up with a razor knife and hand sanded. Ya! Use canopy glue to secure it to the hatch and keep an eye out to wipe up any drips.

The instructions for the cowl are complete shennanigans. They say to use a hobby knife to cut out the air inlets. Good luck. You will need a rotary tool with a drill bit to get going then an attachment to route it out. I finished it up with a sanding drum on the rotary tool.

Finished cowl

Motor mount template

The included motor mount template makes it easy. Tape it up, mark the holes, pin drill them out then BAM. Enlarge the holes to about 4.5mm to allow for the mounting bolts. Das Schroeder!

The Power 46 X-mount included also needs to have the outer mounting holes drilled out to about 4.5mm and the bolts and included spacers keep it all together.

Power 46 mounted

The cooling vents need to be cut out from the firewall – this is a pain because the firewall is coated in adhesive to prevent fuel damage. I used a rotary tool to punch through and route out the cooling vents.

Once that is complete,  it’s a simple matter of connecting the motor to the ESC, and mounting the ESC with the leads out of the way.

The cowl bolts right up easily. The prop adapter & spinner backplate is installed along with a prop, then the spinner hub is attached.

Left-side

Right hand side

I used wire keeps and double-sided foam tape to tidy up the electronics as best as possible. This setup has 11 leads coming off the RX due to the satellite receivers and FlightLog interface!

All in all, I think Hangar 9 did a fine job with this ARF. They included silly foam wheels, which is crap for something this size. A few dollars to replace with something nice though. The motor mount template is brilliant, saving wasted and potentially inaccurate work.  The finish is high-quality and clean, very true to the full-size RV-8. I did not find any potential gotchas with the manual, it is well-written.

Overall, I’d have to rate this ARF high up on the scale. I look forward to building more Hangar 9 ARF’s in the future.

-Zeke

I’ve flown mine about ten times now, and I would say that landing smoothly is the biggest challenge.  One tip I can immediately recommend is to pull BACK as soon as the main gear contacts and the wing has stopped flying.  If you don’t pull back, the tail likes to float and the model tips forward onto it’s nose.

I wanted to fly the BF-109 a few times before trying the flap option, and after dumping the 109 on it’s nose a few times this weekend (plus 2 good landings!) I was ready to give it a shot.

The gray tape that covers the aileron servo wires does not survive being peeled back gracefully.  Plan to get some new tape in a similar color before you start.  You will also need a servo Y adapter, a pair of sub micro servos (I used HXT-900) and the pushrods and stuff that came with your kit.  The manual says you need to buy the linkages for flaps, but everything I needed came in the box of my BNF example.

The first brain teaser is how to make the flaps work, considering that the Ar500 is only a 5ch reciever.

On a DX6i, the answer is to plug the Y harness into the ‘gear’ channel on the reciever.   Then go into the flap setup in the DX6i, and set the flaps to 100% down.  Most airplanes need some down elevator to prevent the model from ballooning up when you apply the flaps, but this particular model does not with 1/2″ of flap travel.  I set the correction value to 0, and it stays level, hands-off.

Next, you need to mix the flap channel with the gear channel.  I put this on Mix1, set it to active and 125% down.  Lastly, I reversed the gear channel from the ‘SETUP LIST’, ‘Reverse’ menu.

The mechanical part is pretty easy, too – Place your servos, route your Y harness, and mount the control horns as per page 14 of the manual.  I left my RX powered up so I knew the ailerons were centered as I set it up, and cut the flaps out as per the recommendations in the manual.

With the clevis connected to the third hole on the flaps, and the flap->gear mix set to 125%, I’m getting about 13mm of travel from the flaps when deployed, which is close to the PZ recommendation for half flaps.

My DX6i only has a 2-pos flap switch, and I decided to leave this at the more conservative setting until I have had a chance to fly the model.

Wrapping up the modification, I moved the clevis from the outer hole to the second from the bottom on the ailerons, and overdrove the aileron servos a little bit to get the PZ recommended 3/4″ (19mm) travel out of the ailerons.

This morning, the Winter storm that has been hitting Northern CA took a break, so I rushed out to the field.   I didn’t use the flaps for takeoff, but I flew around with them and did a bunch of approaches.  The flaps do slow the model considerably, and it takes out some of that low-speed wing tipping that everybody is noticing.  Again, there is no elevator correction required at 1/2″  flap travel, I wonder if it will be required when I dial the flaps up to 3/4″. 

It will be a few days before I figure it out, because in the gray skies I got disoriented and had a little mishap.  Thank God Horizon has spare parts in stock…

Please don’t take my numbers as Gospel, and I hope this article helps some folks wrap their head around the custom mix they need to do in the DX6i.

- Eli

**Update 10/26/09 – Crash repairs consisted of a new fuselage and wing

In this iteration, I put the clevis on the inner hole on the flaps and ailerons, and over-drove everything to 125%.  This yields 1″ of flap travel, and just over 1″ of aileron travel.  The aileron roll rate is quite manageable, and there is still no need to dial in an elevator correction with the flaps. 

My 109 on approach with flaps deployed

The flaps slow the model down, but the tip stalling is still there and you still need to land under power.  An experienced pilot friend of mine suggested that I cock each aileron up a few degrees to see if that tames the stalling a little, and I’ll be trying that this week.

Keep the shiny side up,

- Eli

I tripped on Electrotek RC purely by accident.  I was up in Chico visiting family and was looking for a hobby store.  It turns out that these folks are based in Chico, and specialize in electronics for RC airplanes.  They have a few core products that are designed for gasser ships that need to monitor their reciever packs/etc/etc, and they also have a complete line of lighting kits.

If you are able to do so, I highly recommend you talk to these folks on the phone the first time you order.  Bob was more than happy to talk to me about what I was working on and build me a custom lighting kit with extensions that were just the right length. 

I ordered 2 kits, one for a park flyer (the kit you see on this T-28) that is based on their ‘micro sunbrite’ line, and another kit that I have not used yet, which has much larger LED’s and was designed for a 2M sailplane.

Since I bought all this stuff last Spring, Electrotek has started a seperate line of products designed for foam parkflyers.  I think the new product is cool, but I will note that the stock location on a T-28 for the ramping beacon is at the front of the rudder where I put it, and not at the top of the rudder.

I took a video of my T-28 after installation, apologies for poor quality:

T-28 Navigation lights by Electrotek RC from Eli Caul on Vimeo.

I’m planning to add a set of landing lights in the wings someday, on a reciever controlled switch I got from Turnigy. 

Geeky, scale details like lighting just makes the sport more fun for me

- Eli

As with all e-flite ARF’s all hardware is supplied. No modifications necessary, although I do recommend going over weak spots with either thin CA or epoxy as you see fit. Spots get missed in the factory.

The covering is nice, wrinkles always seem to be there though I can have Eli show me how to work them out. //*//UPDATE – wrinkles cleaned up quite well with a heatgun.

There is room to neatly route cables, always a plus. The battery compartment can accomadate nearly any 3s or 4s lipo.

Hinging is required for all control surfaces.

Basic shop tools used, nothing fancy.

For this build I will be using the following gear:

E-Flite power 32 motor, 770kv, on 4s lipo

Castle Phoenix 60 ESC + Castle BEC

4x JR Sport MN48 Servos

Spektrum AR7000 RX w/Flight Log

APC 12 x 8 & 13 x 6.5 e-props w/e-flite aluminum spinner

Dual ailerons configured in TX. It will be flown by a JR X9303 DSM2 radio.

OK some pics already, I was in a rush to build so started right into it.

RX installed

ESC & BEC

M0Tar

Getting there

Wow it's purple

And done! Fairly aggressive control surfaces

If I had not slacked towards the end of the project, it could have been completed in a few nights time, given a few hours each night.

The ailerons were a pain to hinge, then again I always dislike hinging. This involves patience and careful application of thin CA to the hinges. I ended up with minor mis-alignment on each aileron due to the pre-done hinge slots in the wing not aligned. //*//UPDATE//*// Eli has since used his heatgun to tune the ailerons, no more twists!

After hinging the horizontal & vertical stab, they both installed quickly and accurately after checking alignment. Thin CA was used to wick into the fuse after the covering was neatly cut.

Servos installed with no problems using the stock JR hardware included, + some 12″ extensions. I did use the special long servo arms from JR, and the stock e-flite pushrods, etc. Topped it off with Parsons retainer clips where the servo extensions join.

The hatch simply requires careful alignment and the use of canopy glue to apply the canopy. It should sit for a few hours at least before handling.

The power 32 motor bolts right up to the firewall using the included hardware – no spacers needed for the shorter motor (as opposed to the power 25).  There’s room to neatly mount the ESC / BEC and route all cables to the battery compartment / receiver area. I used some spiral wrap to keep things outta my way.

The one-piece wing is a snap to install – and bolted in via a single large nylon bolt.

Given careful alignment and markings for the pin drill, the cowl is a simple job. I’d drop some thin CA into the pilot holes you drill for the cowl screws to add some strength.

Overall, this was a fun project, and definately a quality ARF.

If you want to check out the manual, it is here

-Zeke