RE: RE: FOCUS II ARF construction by-the-numbers
By the way, I mounted the servos underneath because the elevator CF rod is just long enough to do this, but putting in the front section under the canopy would require a longer CF rod or using steel 4x40 rod rather than the neat Central Hobbies titanium end that is supplied with the kit. I decided to build per plans, with the servos in the back bay accessible from underside. Great picture in the instructions.
Wheel pants and LG legs.
I tried a few differnent techniques. Is it me or is it hard to mount landing gear after the blind nuts are installed. Had the same problem on my 40% Extra. Anyhow, use my experience (I started to come down the learing curve after doing the first side) with the following steps:
Slip the gear leg in and mark, as accurately as possible, where you think the outside screw (hard to get one) will be (you can make a small mark on the block next to the LG leg and eye-ball it from there). Drill the hole, put the screw in, and then do the same for the center one. Its easier to eye-ball the center one and get a more accurate hole drilled the first time (without haveing to file-out the hole to get the screw to line up with the blind nut)
Advice- don't force the screw if the hole is not perfectly aligned, file the hole and wallow it out some to get it to thread in by hand. Its tempting to get "close enough" only to strip out the blind nut (something I did a couple times on my 40% bird).
I had also tried to mark it from the other side (thru the blind nut) but the mark was off quite a bit. Eye-balls are much more accurate.
Wheel Pants.
I put a piece of 1/32 by 1 1/2 by 3 inch inside the wheel pant to stiffen it quite a bit. It helps when the kids are always stepping on the wheel pants at the field... Then took two pieces of 5/8 wide by 1 inch long pieces of 1/8 ply and ran them front to back about 1/2 inch down from the lip of the wheel pants. Next I cut a 1/4 inch slot where the wheel pant slips over the axle (lock nut) and then drilled two 1/8 holes for the retaining screws/ blind nuts. Drilled thru the gear legs first, about 1/4 up from the axle, on either side of the axle. Then position the wheel pants and drill thru them to install the blind nuts. I like two of the 4x40 rather than a single 6x32 to give extra security if one becomes loose (the wheel pant will not rotate).
Cheers,
Don