Kingcat Refurbish
I started the refurbishment of my friends Kingcat earlier this week, fortunately his sat on a bed in the air condition for the past 4 years, so it was no where as bad as the one you are doing. The first thing that slowed me down a bit is that I use futaba and he is a spektrum user and this was the first time I had ever touched a spektrum radio. So my learning curve was a bit steep, so I did not know that if you don't have all the receivers connected that it can't bind. Go figure, I spent a good 2 hours trying to figure out what I was doing wrong and could not find an easy answer to the problem on the net so I called my friend (should have done that first) and he tells me to connect all the receivers to the main unit (AR12120). Then I had to figure out how to get all 12 channels out of the RX. So I literally spend the first day figuring out how to program a spektrum radio, fortunately it wasn't that hard so on to actually working on the kingcat.
Next thing I did was to pull the entire fuel system out first and check the tanks. It had a very peculiar smoke system in it that was based on air pressure, you would fill an additional set of air tanks in the model and when you opened the valve it would push the smoke fuel down the lines. Unfortunately the smoke system my friend said was not very reliable. Also whoever put it in used a 16 oz water bottle stuffed in between the main tanks. So that entire system came out and went to the trash, he does not want to replace it.
The main tanks did not have any algae in them, but around the vent tubes had a little growth as well as the Y connectors. Cleaned everything up and they are looking as good as new. He does not have the 16 ounce tank in between the saddles, but what the original builder did was to put the UAT further back towards the tail on a board so that batteries could be placed in between the main tanks. Going to keep that layout since he has the clear canopy with pilot and full cockpit which adds a lot of weight up front.
Next I turned my attention to his air system and checked the lines for any wear or leaks, the lines themselves looked brand new so did not touch them. Found that the BVM air valve that he had in the plane had a leak when the gear was down so, tried an electronic valve and it just did not have the power to push the gear up with authority, so back to a mechanical valve. My friend had another BVM valve and he brought that too me and i replaced the electronic valve with this new BVM valve. No more leaking and before anyone says it, yes I tried some O-Ring lube and that did not help at all in the old one. Used the thin O-Ring lube sold by BVM in the gear to make sure they were working well, and the damn thing held 100psi for a full day with gear up and a day with gear down..good to go. Hooked the retracts and the brakes up to the radio and set their throws. Air system is done.
While letting the air system sit, I pulled all servo wires out and inspected them and ran them through a voltage check and all passed. I did not see any frayed or cut wires and 0 oxidation on the pins. Put all the extensions back in for the individual surfaces but have not hooked them up yet. Before I start putting it back together I cleaned all surfaces and gave them all a good coat of wax and the plane looks 1000% better than it did when I got it. I will try to get some pictures tomorrow and post them. I hope to have her finished and ready for flight in the next 3 to 4 days.
Patrick