scflyboy

I had to cut away some on the side of the cowl so the JTEC compact wrap around muffler would fit. I fiber glassed the turbo exhaust to the cowl and cut out circles for vents. This will provide additional cooling. I also painted, red and white, the inside edges of the basic stock windshield. This really improved the looks. I also had to paint the front part of the inside of the wings. You could see natural balsa through the windshield. I really modified the wing struts. I do not like trusting the plane to aluminum t-nuts on the inside of the wings and fuselage. I made steel brackets with screws welded in place. The brackets are loctited in place and I only have to tighten 2 lock-nuts when installing the wing struts. Very strong and they should not come loose. I hope not anyway! I had to cut off the aluminum ends on the struts and drill 2 new holes.

scflyboy

I wanted a hinged access door and chose the wrong path the first go around....outside hinges and had to recover that area. Finally after a good bit of experimentation, I decided on the this hinge. You do not have a lot of room due to the wing joiner being so close to the opening. This works great and now I need to decide if I want to use magnets or make some kind of latch to keep it closed.

scflyboy

Once SOMEONE got the pulse and fuel line straightened out, it was time to fire her up. WOW! Turned on ignition, closed choke and flipped twice. "Popped".....heck it ran for a few seconds, opened choke and fired up on the first flip. I am impressed. It will not be short on power! Engine ran great. Smooth transition and not hesitation.

kthmarks

Looks like you're about ready.......I am anxious to see how it performs with that DA50 and the 3 blade prop. It looks great!

Hopefully you can get a video of what will no doubt be STOL's ......and post them

scflyboy

Thanks Keith. I am going to head out to our field in the morning for the maiden. Fly some and then head to the Nall.

scflyboy

Well.................good news and bad news. Good news. The plane flies great. I am an average weekend flier and to me, this thing is not over powered. It is a big plane and flies like a big plane. Needed a few clicks of left aileron and that was it. Prop torque? Took off after a 30' roll with no flaps. One take off with 30% flaps was noticeably shorter. Flew for about 20 minutes and used very little fuel. I did notice when you throttle back it does start to loose altitude pretty quickly so 1/2 throttle was a good stick position for scale. At wide open throttle it few pretty fast but nothing amazing. A few basic rolls and loops were no problem. Now......bad news. The right side landing gear broke. I had noticed the landing gear axles bowing out after I bottomed out the shocks during what I will call structure testing. The first landing was a little bouncy but nothing major. The 2nd landing was much better but still a few bounces. I noticed the right wheel was even more bent out. Too excited to stop so took off again and on the 3rd landing bounced again and on the second bounce the axle broke. The plane skidded to a stop. I was in the spring business and no doubt about it, it is a stress fracture. The short wire inserted into the collar just pulled out and the longer wire used for the axle broke at the outside of the collar. I used the factory wire to make the gear and I am sure it is just cold rolled. So a few scratches and a small hole to fix on the bottom of the plane. Ordered some 1144 from McMaster-Carr.