[LPII]

Hi, to answer your question, I did not reinforce the firewall. I used aluminum standoffs, and fender washers or aluminum strips behind the firewall to distribute the load from the mounting bolts. Everything still feels very solid after one season.

The small fairings near the fuse are OK on mine. The long fairings that cover the landing gear cracked a bit at the bottom, behind the wheel pants.

[Cougar429]

Things have been pretty hectic here. Along with trying to organize the new build room there has been painting two bathrooms and getting ready for family to fly in Sunday for a visit. Without the son helping things would still be a mess.

Phew!

Still, able to make some progress on the plane, including fixing some of my own mistakes along the way, (as I said, distractions can be deadly).

So, to the list, (from the back end working forward):

Test fitting the horizontal stabs showed an error I have seen before. The stabs would not fit to the fuse without force so traced the problem to misaligned front tube receptacles. Went with a slightly smaller C/F tube and epoxy/Flox mix should fix that.

The blocks built into the control surfaces for the horns were also suspiciously only balsa so wicking in a lot of thin CA will hopefully stiffen that up. Likely during recover will cut that out and install some ply blocks.

On the subject of covering, starting to get peeved. Regardless of amount of tightening sections are still showing sag after a bit of time. To repeat, this has absolutely the worst covering job I ever saw bar one.

Their control system is up for debate. To join two separate elevator rods they plan for a pair of wheel collars and extending one rod to bend 90 into a hole drilled in a servo arm. YUCK! Sure, a cheap solution, but really?

I drilled and tapped a sleeve for set screws as it was a quick method. Still leaving room for a second elevator servo if this does not work out long term.

As mentioned, their plan is to bend the rods up into the arms. consequently the servo tray is aligned above the rod exit. May have to do some rework as the rudder pushrod is getting a rod sleeve soldered to it for adjustment options. Throttle servo is not so much an issue since with the cable/sleeve arrangement lots of adjustment there.

Finally got the engine mount bolts in, (M5 X 70) and was able to fit the scrap in place for positioning. That will allow for throttle and line rigging, as well as cowl fitment. No rush there as lots to do.

Also found their measurements incorrect on wheel/axles as using them left the wheels too far out for the pants to center. Minor fix.

Now, for the mistakes. Built up a gear fairing as that seemed MIA. Would you believe bolted on when I finally found the original? Had been tucked down in the fuse near the tail and tape kept it stuck there. Jeesh!

That one is just annoying. What is worse is using the incorrect set of instructions for joining the wings. A bit more dihedral on the bottom than required and omitted the cabane anchors on the top. Yeah, I'll admit, 60 hour weeks seems to make me more stupid than normal.......

Was able to install the anchors by carefully drilling the gap and increasing it enough to drop the anchors with pins through the screw holes and allowing the epoxy/FLOX mix to cure. Should be equivalent or better than the original method. Time will tell.

The cabanes and interplane struts are F/G. Interesting. Originally had suspected ply/balsa as with other builds so drilling them for anchor nuts took a bit of care. Modded them to allow for blind nuts to simplify and clean up installation but that required removing the stakes from the nuts to allow them to fit flush.

All these are just details, to lessen the difficulty when assembling at the field. Amazing what can disappear in short grass.



Will try and take some pics of the progress so far when have some time and not embarrassed by the mess.

[Cougar429]

O/K. Here's the latest update, with the pics I had promised earlier. Even with family visiting first vacation in over 27 months allowed for more time in the build room.

Except for cockpits and fairings which will go on last, have almost the entire exterior done. Corrected some of the design flaws I found along the way. First was to replace the wire control runs with GoldenRod that fits the interior of their original sleeves. Frankly, hated the idea of wires much smaller than the sleeves rattling around in there. That and bends required to link the two elevators together proved ugly and inelegant. Hidden inside the fuse, but I just hate that sort of setup.

What is impossible to see is the rods have wire with threaded ends embedded to support the lengths outside the sleeves. This allowed for strength where required, while not interfering with flexibility and gave a threaded end to attach the clevises. Care was required since not a lot of adjustment in the thread length.

This also made a second elevator servo mandatory since no easy way to link the two runs without serious fabrication. Easier to install, but a bit more difficult to program, (more on that in a bit).

I also found there was no easy method to link ailerons between upper and lower wings. The angle between link rod and horns became far too acute when deflected.

So, a bolt and dental floss had a new pull down from the center hole to each servo bay. From there it was just a matter of getting everything put together so no chance of pulling apart.

That is another problem upon field assembly as the lead for the upper wing runs up a cabane and will have to figure out a method to lock them together so flight loads don't ruin the day.

That brings me back to the programming. Took some effort since now dual aileron channels, as well as dual elevators. I could have physically reversed one elevator servo to make them both run the same direction, but the length to the sleeve would have placed too much angular load upon large deflection.

Added in is the requirement for a dedicated gyro gain channel to set the Futaba GYA430 tied to the rudder. Hoping this will prevent the ugly event at Goderich a couple seasons ago. Add crosswind to pavement and it was pretty much heading where it wanted. If it helps knife edge this will be a bonus.

Replaced their tail wheel assembly with a Sullivan used in several other apps, including the same scale Pica Waco. This is a much more elegant solution as it not only provides some suspension, the spring eliminates direct loads into the rudder and servo. From past experience there is no problem at all with ground steering control. Will be painted yellow.

Unfortunately the soft balsa bottom had to be carved out and a ply insert epoxied in. Tapered the fuse cut so the insert would drop in and tighten at the proper height. Think of carving the top of a pumpkin.

The large cut in the back of the fuse and bottom of the rudder the original rig was to fit took a bit of work to get the hinges solid. Those are large pin type and used a long wire to align all 4 as the first halves set in the tail.

Fuel tank is installed, but not too comfortable with just rubber bands holding it in place. May come up with something a little more reliable.

The throttle run is complete, as well, the wire in tube method allowing for routing wherever required. The scrap engine provides what I needed for that and to fit the cowl. Still working on an exhaust setup to clear since leaving it internal would be extremely messy.

Internally I have to mount the Rx and LiFE pack and rig up the switches and indicator. Will be similar to the Pica in that I will have the push button cell indicator, a flashing LED to warn power is on, as well as a remote glow head. From the way it ran last on the test stand not likely to need remote glow. Even if it did, along with the Sullivan unit, now have at least 5 others picked up along the way, several at the latest Toledo Show a few weeks ago, (3 for $15 USD!).

At this point aboot the only remaining assembly problem is their fake radial. Still looking for one of better quality, but for now may have to bite the bullet and try and build that one up without all the plastic cracking along the way.

Since weather has finally broken should have a pic or two all together in the yard for test runs. With the amount of rain the field seems ready for Ark assembly rather than flying ops, so about all that can be done for now.

As is pretty much my norm, for the first flights will leave the wheel pants and cowl off.

[Cougar429]

Have been working on tweaking things and getting to the final stretch.

One was to hog out the engine mount box, both to lighten and to allow routing access for the fuel lines. Now have them all rigged with a spare tank cap plugging the firewall opening and filter added to keep everything clean. Also, the glass nose extension allowed for the fuel/defuel fitting to be mounted there rather than into the cowl itself.

Along with that spaced out the cowl ring by layering the ends of some popsicle sticks to the ring lands, (yeah, would have been simpler just to space the cowl when bonding in that ring) and hogged out the mounting system to allow greater exit area between the back of the cowl and fuse. Should eliminate the need for a huge cut in the bottom.

That will have to wait anyway since looking to grab a Keleo exhaust setup for the twin.

Will post pics of that area when have more time.

Another mod was to the Rx and battery mount. Theirs was pretty basic and designed to bond from the servo rack to back of the front pilot hole. Strengthened with thin ply and glass cloth, but final product still was not to my satisfaction. Not a lot of room and no option to shift things around for balance. Did waste some of that really good velcro got from the jet gang. Oh, well.

I opted to have mine allow for more room, as well as form a tank retainer. The stock setup used rubber bands to keep the tank from shifting and from past experience no long-term comfort using something like that.

Now have to figure out where to mount the power switch and remote glow head. On the Pica have to remove the velcro fastened pilot to gain access and something would like to simplify here.

One other thing of note and perhaps some ideas from others with experience with this one; Really no place to mount a smoke tank on this one unless back above the bottom wing. Even then things would get pretty tight and messy.

[RAMJET]

[QUOTE=Cougar429;3695479]O/K. Here's the latest update.

At this point aboot the only remaining assembly problem is their fake radial. Still looking for one of better quality, but for now may have to bite the bullet and try and build that one up without all the plastic cracking along the way.


Saito makes a nice piece that would solve your problem , will sound great with the radial and look good too. The only cracking will be your wallet LOL.

[Cougar429]

I worked on full size radials and came to love the smoke and flame belching noisemakers, Even more than the Merlin powered Spit that used to buzz my house.

Because of this the Moki and other roundies take my vote for scale appearance and sound and are on my "Lust List" for the future.

Just, with a new roof and trailer on the schedule have to lean out the purchases for a bit. Still have use for both kidneys and corneas for now.

[Cougar429]

With work schedule, Mothers Day and some changes on the trailer front less progress than expected. Did find a Keleo exhaust and on the way. This is the canned version and not just the extended straight pipes so will be interested in how it sounds. It should at least solve getting the exhaust out of the cowl bottom.

Right now have the internal systems mounted, coming up with the idea of each lower wing and both top aileron servos to be driven through the JR Matchbox to set direction, center and end points. With the Powerbox Powerswitch having two separate 10A outputs can use one for the Matchbox and the other for Rx and fuse servos.

Only problem encountered is where to place the switch, my own battery indicator and remote glow adapter. Figured more than enough room in the front pit, but wing sits right over top which leaves little viewing area and room. Rear cockpit will be take up with pilot so not a lot of real estate left.

Really don't want to mar the exterior with stuff like that so if anyone has any ideas would be great.

[mikeferguson]

I've got my switch mounted in the forward cockpit, easy enough to get to considering that you don't have an ugly switch visible on the fuselage.

Remote glow adapter is mounted in front of the pilot in the rear cockpit.

[Cougar429]

That was something I had considered. Can you post a pic of the pilot in the rear pit? Wanted to check scale.

[Cougar429]

Have to say, 12 hour midnight shifts don't leave a lot of time, energy or inclination to do much other than try to catch up on sleep. With the isolation from Covid 19 scheduled to be off till the 20th so have been able to get a lot done with organizing the build room and am finally able to get back at this one. Still a work in progress so some mess still evident.

Did the final mounting of the engine and Keleo exhaust. Took a bit of work as the exhaust did not fit perfectly. Now will rig the throttle and figure out some way for a quick disconnect on the dual glow rig at the firewall. As with all other builds first few flights will be sans cowl, but at least the radial front will be set up beforehand.

Same on the wheelpants. We fly from grass and the field is extremely wet with no chance to cut for now.

Have not decided if onboard glow is worth the extra weight and programming as this can be added later if required. On that note have decided to replace the FRSKY Rx with a legacy Futaba, not for any reliability issues, just have one spare want to try. Unsure if the outputs will be identical so may require a bit of tweaking.

Still have lots of detail pieces to install, the windscreens and turtledeck two of the last items on the list.

Once ready for assembly everything will get a touch of Loctite to hopefully prevent loosening once running. Only thing have not figured out yet is how to ensure lead connection to the upper wing. Since now have the trailer this should stay assembled may not be that much of a concern.

Should be able to get back to regular updates for the near future and hope to have it ready by the time back to work.

At this point hope everyone safe and healthy.