tkapfer

you can also take a look at my post on page 48 #1181.

I drilled out a hole based on where the real Baron shows them and then glued in the light and built up around it with epoxy. Then painted to match (mostly)..

tkapfer

Dave,

Thanks for the heads up on the strut wires. I grabbed the fixed landing gear out of the bag and they fit the struts WAY better.
I cut them to size and used the dremel to cut out the flat spots for the eflite set screws and the strut set screws.

That should work great. The wire that comes with the eflite retracts is just too large and needs trimmed down. Too much work to do that without a milling machine.

Terry

LearnedInUk

My Feedback: (29)

I like the location of yours Tkapfer. What did you use for the ring. My lights didn't come with the ring.

tkapfer

I just reamed out the hole with an angled reamer to make it big enough for the light to fit into and stick out the front.
I then used CA to glue the light in place.
After that I just mixed several batches of epoxy and built up around the light itself.
Once built up around the light, then I painted it white to somewhat match the cowl area.

There was no ring around the light at all.

LearnedInUk

My Feedback: (29)

Ok, that makes sense. Thanks. Did you use a three position switch to get seperate control of the landing/taxi lights

tkapfer

I have not gotten that all hooked up yet. I am still in the finishing/assembling/building stage myself.
I still have to finish painting the interior cockpit and mount the retracts.

Not quite sure how the nose gear needs to mount yet, as it looks like it will hang down and not allow the gear doors to close.
Might have to build my own mounting blocks or something.

I've yet to finish mounting servos for the the tail also. Not sure if I want to build something in the back of the tail, or just use the tubes and mount them up front.

Mounting the eflite power 46 electric motors has been a task as well. Especially running 10gauge wire for the longer battery lengths to the esc.

LearnedInUk

My Feedback: (29)

To those of you with finished interiors....

Where did you decide to mount the RX and the Retract valve etc? Looks like the best place is to mount everything to the top of the wing but I hope others have a better suggestion.

viper1676

My Feedback: (14)

Ok, I got my nose gear situation figured out. Apprently the nose strut that has the big brass plug in it is the older style. I contacted RCaerodyne and after a little bit, they sent me the correct nose that has an actual hole in it to slide the rod into. All set. I did need to cut the top rod part of the E-flight (the part with the notch cut in it) If you cut it right down to where it starts to coil, it's just long enough. Fit was just a little snug and I had to tap it a little to get it all the way in, but it's all set. Now all I have left is the pull/pull for the rudder, the bottom engine covers, and figuring out where the heck to mount al the electronics and batteries. My on-board glow box is pretty big, so it's gonna be an adventure. Still up in the air on the front gear doors. It looks like they are going to be a pain, but without them there will be this giant hole. Plus the strut sticks out the bottom a bit, so I'll need to cut a notch.

Good thing it's gonna be crappy and rainy all weekend!! Now if I can just convince my wife and 4 year old that this needs to be done.....

tkapfer

To those with the Eflite electrice retracts.....

Can you adjust the travel on them?
It seems when they close up into the wing, they seat against the bottom, but then sound like they bind for a couple seconds which can tend to short out my receive and all the other servos go haywire.
Can the travel be adjusted so that they stop when I want them too?


The new set of oleo struts that they sent me had that big brass center section in the nose gear as well. I guess they sent me the wrong one also.

viper1676

My Feedback: (14)

Tkapfer,

I would be curous to know that as well. My retracts do the same thing. However, everything is fine when they stall out after a second or 2. I get no interference at all even while stalling. I have tried messing around with the End Points to see if that did anything, but it did not change a thing.

BTW, my contact at RCAerodyne was Robert. I'm sure he will be familiar with the nose strut issue.

tkapfer

Ok, so how did everyone glue in all the cockpit pieces????
Epoxy 5 minute doesn't give much time to cover the parts that need glued.
Epoxy 30 minute tends to run all over everything.
Side panels, ceiling panels, door panels, hinges?????
It seems that the door panels don't fit right either.

viper1676

My Feedback: (14)

I used clear silicone. This way if I ever need to take anything out, I can pull them off with a little force. Seems to working so far. I did the same thing with the rear tail pan.

tkapfer

What hinges did you use?
The ones that came with the kit seem pretty flimsy.
Also do you have any pictures of your door panels installed?

viper1676

My Feedback: (14)

Haven't put the doors on yet, but I agree, the hinges are kinda junk. There were a few posts back that someone listed some robarts that worked. I thing they were pretty inexpensive. I'm trying to work up motivation to finish this plane...just not in to it and I don't know why. I probably only have another few hours to get it air worthy.

tkapfer

I know your feeling. I have more hours in this ARF than any other plane I have ever worked on (including stick built models).
Everything I have put together on this plane requires major modifications from batteries, wiring, motors, motor mounts, nacelles, lights, servos, retracts, cockpit, etc, etc, etc. I have over 100 hours in an ARF for crying out loud.

tkapfer

What is everyone doing on the nose gear doors?????
The wood parts and gear doors do NOT fit and are a joke.
They don't close and don't line up with the front of the fuse.

If they do close, the front will be flapping in the wind badly.

rgaynor

My Feedback: (1)

I have tried to use the doors provided in this kit but continue to have issues with proper fit and closing. I have decided to design a 3 door system.

Kevin Morris

I am just completing my Baron and have the nose gear doors working well and the fit after requesting a new set of doors from Scale flying mostly fixed the issue. I did have to bend the doors using a little heat to get the correct shape. In addition on the front section of the nose ( the first two inches) where the gear doors are to line up you will need to create a former for the left and right side of the fuselage since it bends up causing a bigger gap. I used Sonic Tronic hinges for the nose gear doors too. Hope this helps and I will take some pictures and post them shortly.

Kevin Morris

Here is a photo of the nose gear and door. The photo of the strut is exaggerated by the lens, but is actually close to the forward 105 degrees based on our B55 baron( see photo of plywood wedge pieces I made to get the correct nose strut angle). The additional pictures is to show the former that I created to bring the nose section of the fuse into shape to match the gear doors when closed. This fixed the gap issue and with the bending of the forward gear doors nothing hangs out in the slip stream anymore.

Kevin Morris

Here are a few additional shots just in case this will help anyone in their build. I am using two e-flite 32 with three blade 11 x 8 props and two 4s in parallel 4000mA lipos. Also using Capacitor packs in the engine nacelles and a CC BEC Pro to power the radio. The wing tip glass is repainted and has led nav lights and strobes. The cabin has a carpet made from a light paper (purchased at the stationary store) that had felt on it and looks real. I have completely redesigned the cockpit to add more realism and made a throttle console and rudder pedals too. I reused the dasboard and re shaped it to a better shape. Some cabin parts did not fit right so I scratch built some side panels. As for the ceiling if you bend the side pieces that touch the center section it will look very nice, but does takes some time to get it right. On the cabin doors, I used sonic tronics hinges for the cockpit door and the rear door I used some small brass door hinges painted white from the dollhouse shop with small model railroad screws and bolts to hold the hinges to the door and fuselage. Each of the doors has locking mechanisms to hold the doors shut for flight. The last photo is showing the cockpit windshield with the visors I made up to simulate the Rosen Visors the real Baron has.

autotecart

had a email from aerodyne regarding the king air. its having its test flights at the moment so it looks like its a goer

tkapfer

Ok, so I see you also did NOT use the included wood components for the gear door hinges.
Which ones did you use?

The wood ones seem to let the gear doors sit down inside the nose at the back, but stick way up in the air outside the plane at the front.
I was looking at using something else also.

Kevin Morris

I used the soni tonic hinges designed for nose gear. They worked well , however, I was unable to glue the rear hinges into the fuse because the spring part of the hinge made it difficult to hold, so I used small model railroad screws to hold it in place. On all the other hinges I drilled four small holes per hinge pad so when I epoxied the hinge to the door or fuse the epoxy would have a better grip on the nylon hinge.

Kevin Morris

Here is a photo of the cabin doors with the brass hinges. I tried using sonic tronic hinges for these doors too, but was unable to get the proper opening and fit I was trying for. In the case of the real Baron doors, Beech used piano hinges for these rear doors.

ALPHA-AIR

Some pics from my building-progress...
Taxi-, landing-, Beacon- and Strobelights are controlled with one unit from optotronix (emcotec now ), the props are Ramoser Varioprops ( 11,8") driven by Scorpion 3026-710 KV.
I still don't know how to attach the doors, seems a little bit tricky..
A Benedini Soundunit should be installed to add more realism, I think @Kevin: great job, very good ideas !
I realy love this beauty!