kmtranmd

My Feedback: (71)

One thing to be aware of is the stock rudder linkage being weak. Mine had tail waggle until I changed it to pull-pull for less flop on that rudder.
So consider upgrading the rudder linkage if you plan to do "Tora, Tora, Tora" dives at 100+mph.
The stock elevator bell crank set up is fine.

Cub_Boy

My Feedback: (6)

kmtranmd,

I made the decision tonight to put my elevator servo forward where the wing saddle is located. I appreciate the heads up on the rudder linkage and will take your advice and go with a pull-pull system on it.

Cub_Boy

My Feedback: (6)

I finally finished the first wheel well; although it is not perfect it will do for now as I will be making more modifications to the plane this fall (scale it up a bit ;-)

Cub_Boy

My Feedback: (6)

I have now started on the second wheel well; this one should go a great deal faster now that I know what needs to be done!

Cub_Boy

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I heard a rumor that the recommended CG in the instructions could possibly be wrong.
Can anyone other confirm the CG for me?

kmtranmd

My Feedback: (71)

I balanced mine per World Models manual 5 yrs ago or so and did not have any problems.

Cub_Boy

My Feedback: (6)

Hello All,

Sorry sometimes life gets in the way of modeling; however I am back at it... have done a few more things to the zero and will be posting a good update with pictures tomorrow afternoon.


Rick

Cub_Boy

My Feedback: (6)

To install the DLE 35RA I needed to remove part of the engine box. used a compass to scribe my lines on top and bottom to easily maintain the right thrust that was built in by the factory.

Cub_Boy

My Feedback: (6)

I laminated 2 pieces of lite ply together, cut to shape, sanded and rabbited the side that would attach to the remaining engine box.

Cub_Boy

My Feedback: (6)

Since the part of the engine box that I removed was also where the cowl would be mounted I needed to create a couple of plywood tabs so the intended could mount brackets would work.
Adding back the additional material will also give me more mounting surfaces for other things as needed.

Cub_Boy

My Feedback: (6)

Ok... I have test fitted the engine; and slid the cowl in place... I am probably going to have to fine tune how far from the firewall the engine is going to be in its final position to ensure the cowl is installed correctly.

Lifer

My Feedback: (1)

I had that plane as one of my first gas engine planes. Zero's fly really great! I had trouble with their elevator setup and changed it by the 3rd flight. Mine had an SPE 43cc that was a low power vibrator. Your DLE 35 should fly it much better. Keep up the posts!

kmtranmd

My Feedback: (71)

You might want to build the engine box with extra space in case you want to switch out motor to 50cc.
My Zero had ZDZ 40 in the beginning but was sluggish in power.
It flew much better with TOC 53cc in it now. Still had to put in nose weight with the 53cc up front.

Cub_Boy

My Feedback: (6)

Hi kmtranmd,

I think your advice is rock solid and have taken it to heart; I did cut the engine box back a bit further so I could upgrade to a larger engine down the road if needed.
I have made a little more progress; after fitting the engine I thought it best at this point to just generically fit the cowl and spinner to ensure that everything was going to go
together as planned before moving forward. I think the fit looks dead on... as you can see I still need to do something about the spinner. This is an anodized spinner so any
thoughts on how to get this spinner back to bare metal color so I can repaint it?

I also decided to upgrade my flap servos and ordered the Power HD 1501MG Metal Gear Servo [link]http://www.valuehobby.com/power-hd-1501mg.html[/link] from value hobby.
More to come...

Cub_Boy

My Feedback: (6)

I wanted you guys to see that the DLE 35 RA fits very nicely; I will have to cut the cowl a little on the bottom but that would have had to happen no matter which gas engine I chose to use.

scale only 4 me

My Feedback: (158)

I picked one of these up already built, it has a crrc 50,, fun to fly,

Cub_Boy

My Feedback: (6)

Since the forum down for posting over the weekend I was not able to update this thread. I did get a few things done...

1: I needed to find a place to mount the ignition module so I decided to create a shelf for it to sit on using the cowl mount tabs as the base structure.

Cub_Boy

My Feedback: (6)

Well it looks like we are not able to actually add pictures yet; so I will have to update the post with new pictures when it becomes available to do so again.


*** I am stuck as to where to mount the switch foe the ignition and the receiver... I do not wish to surface mount these as it would just look crappy! ***
Does anyone have any suggestions as to the best way to mount the 2 switches and air fill valve?

Cub_Boy

My Feedback: (6)

Now that the forum is back up I can post pics of the work I have done over the weekend..

I needed to find a place to mount the ignition module so I decided to create a shelf for it to sit on using the cowl mount tabs as the base structure.
I made some mount points for the shelf so it can be removed if needed (see pictures below). I then mounted the ignition module to the shelf using
dense foam that had adhesive on both sides. I drilled holes in the shelf so I could run a zip tie around the ignition module and just snugged it down
to secure it.

Cub_Boy

My Feedback: (6)

I also mounted the spinner on a threaded rod, chucked it up in my drill driver and using 180 grit sand paper and water I
sanded down the spinner. It is now ready for etching primer and paint.

Cub_Boy

My Feedback: (6)

Here is the picture of the spinner; I also did a little detailing on the cowl to make it a bit more interesting.

Cub_Boy

My Feedback: (6)

I tried the suggested method of using oven cleaner to remove the anodized coloring. This actually worked really well; I soaked the spinner and back plate then let them sit for about an hour.
The ended up with a black crust on them; all I had to do was use my dremel with a wire wheel and knock off the crust and I was down to bare metal. Worked like a dream and using the dremel
to take off the black crust did not take very long at all.

I have one of Frank Tiano's out of print color chip books (Great resource...wish he would print more of these!), compared my photo of a spinner on a full scale and got as close as I could with
an off the shelf rattle can. I used Valspar Paint + Primer and chose the color that was as close as I could get which was a bout 2 shades off the color of my full scale source. However I do not
think 99% of the people who will ever see this will even be able to tell that the color is just a bit off. Once the paint dries I will give it a shot of automotive clear coat and it should be good to go!

Cub_Boy

My Feedback: (6)

Here is a picture of the full scale spinner source that I was comparing the color chips and available paint to in Lowes...
Like is said earlier it is a little off...the color of my spinner is a bit closer to the paint chip...but I think it will work

a65l

My Feedback: (17)

I, too, had a WM Zero as my first gas plane. Mine had a G-38 which, while adequate, was not exactally overpowered. I remember how nervous I was the first time I flew it, but that feeling went away quickly the more I flew the airplane. As I recall, a battery came loose in mine and lodged all the way back in the tail one flight, and I couldn't tell the difference in how the plane flew. I traded it for a Busa D8, to avoid having to buy robart struts and real landing gear....
Fast foward to about a year ago and I traded the D8 for another WM GS Zero. This one has spring airs and robart struts already, and a G45 up front. Much better in the power department, a little heavier, but still an absolute pleasure to fly. It's my everyday warbird, go to airplane, it's ugly and has mismatched covering, but you can't tell in the air....

One thought, unless WM has improved the design, the ribs that support the MLG are rather flimsy, so be prepared to go into the wing and make some repairs at one point or another.... and as near as I can tell, that plane can absorb quite a bit of extra weight without loosing it's excellent flying charactaristics.....

scale only 4 me

My Feedback: (158)

So I've been flying mine for a couple weeks as is and didn't realize until the other day it has the wrong style struts, they're straight not off set,, no wonder they don't lock in the up posistion, the wheels bottom out first,, Any sugestion on a scale like strut other than Robarts that will work with the robart 630 series 1/2" dia trunions? Just modified those with Wingspan actuators BTW,, No more air for me

which ones ya got there Larry?