Phalco

I'm converting mine to use a 4 stroke Magnum 52. I think with the high aspect ratio wing and light wing loading it should be plenty of power.

I have to say that I'm fairly impressed with the overall quality of this ARF. Especially, since it only cost $129 from NitroPlanes. Although, I've seen some better, but a whole lot more ARF's that were way worse quality. During the build, the only thing I wasn't real pleased with was the flap/servo linkage. They went out of their way to conceal the flap pushrod and servo which causes the installation and setup to be a real pain. Since the aileron servos are exposed anyway, you might as well go with a more conventional pushrod and servo arrangement for the flaps.

As far as the firewall and engine mount goes, I cut off that whole protruding electric motor mount. Then installed the firewall in two pieces split down the middle (1/8" aircraft ply. Those two were epoxied directly to the front bulkhead. Then, I epoxied a 1/16" piece of aircraft ply in the rear of those two plates in the center of the bulkhead. The whole thing is very rigid and the motor won't be going anywhere without the airplane.

I wanted to retain the original cowl mounts but since I was side mounting my engine I moved the rights side cowl mounting lugs to bottom. This is one of the thickest sturdiest cowls I've seen in a while. The mounting arrangement is also very sturdy. The whole inside of the cowl and firewall are now ready to fuel proof with black Top Flite LusterKote Paint.

Once I get the engine installed, I'll post some more pictures.