a65l

My Feedback: (17)

Yeah, yeah, I own the 80" one and have had a great time with it. But I saw the 100" version, the alierons are better, the flaps are right, the gear are closer in, and most importantly, the ball turret is correct. So I bought Curtiss's demo and brought it home.
He had it set up for electric, and as fond as I am of electric propulsion I want some noise. I'm thinking a G62 should provide plenty of power and scale flight. It already has Down and locked gear, but I'm leaning towards a retractable tailwheel as well. I'd also like to work up a tailhook, but let's not get ahead of ourselves.
The wing is nearly all sheeted, there are open bays on the bottom. The servos are surface mount, which is not my favorite way to do it, but it works, and I can always paint them so they'll blend in better.
The upper hatch is deeper than the side, so a partial cockpit will be in order.
The rivet detail and panel lines are excessively deep on the fuselage sides, so I'll have to come up with a lightweight way to fill them in. I'm thinking epoxy with microballoons right now, but it is F/G so whatever it is has to be moderately flexible.
A repaint is implied, I may even try real panel lines.
Anyway, it's a sort of a long term project, no rush here, so pics and updates as teh project progresses.

a65l

My Feedback: (17)

OK, so a few pics here. I actually don't have one of it together at WOD... One of the things I didn't like was the surface detail... rivets too deep, panel lines too exaggerated... so we'll fix that. With a little bondo...

a65l

My Feedback: (17)

So, after a little hiatus, I'm back. I came into an engine (G-62 w/ ignition) that should haul this monster around just fine. I'm going to mount all the electronics and engine, and fly it, before I finish off the paint job and cockpit work. I'm hoping someone puts Charlie Kellog's stuff back into production, I'd like to source his canopy set for this airplane. But first things first, gonna get the engine mounted up, balance, and fly, and hopefully sort out all the issues.

Pics to follow shortly....

a65l

My Feedback: (17)

So, for what it's worth, or if anyone cares, after another long hiatus, the Avenger has flown. I did a bad job balancing it, and it flew even though it was terribly tail heavy. Not the best maiden, and not the best landing. I had to rebuild the retract structure in the wing afterwards, and re-glue a couple of bulkheads into the fuselage. The re-re maiden went much better, only marred by the mlg struts developing toe-out on toughdown, which resulted in the plane doing a real ground loop and breaking the prop. But no other issues, and hopefully Sunday with all issues behind me, I'll get more than one uneventfull flight and then the cosmetic stuff will start.