koop37

Hello all,

I've Almost completed this Plane and I noticed there isn’t much about this plane on here so thought I’d make a post and see if anyone wants to discuss it.


My overall thought on this plane?:

Manual:
It seems from looking at other AMR 26's they have changed the design in certain areas such as: the wing tips (from square 90deg tips to angled 45deg tips), aft of the wing there is now a laser cut former where the manual shows making your own sticks to use as formers, and the servo tray is laser cut. The manual has not been updated to reflect the changes (at least the one I got was not), but I didn't have a hard time figuring out where the extra pieces went (likely due to the great slot and tab assembly thought the plane) ,but If someone rushed through the build they would find the extra pieces left over at the end and would likely be upset. I felt there could be a lot more detail added to the manual as well anyone building there 1st plane might have a hard time in certain areas. AND if you’re going to pick up this awesome kit go through and laminate all the pieces 1st. If anyone from AMR is reading this and you think you might update the manual, have all the laminating done in the 1st steps it was annoying having to stop and wait for glue to dry because you have to laminate wood on every other step of the build.


Wood:
The quality of the wood and laser cutting is awesome everything goes together really easy. All you need to do is put the pieces together and add glue, assembly hardly needs any clamps. However I can’t give full marks because the leading edge material I got with the kit was too thin due to the change in the wing tips. I had to buy some wood and laminate it as I couldn’t find the right thickness. I'm not mad about it, I did not contact AMR about it. I'm told they have great customer service, and would have given me the proper wood I’m sure.


Hardware:
the hardware is of good quality. All that said was there is there. Did not come with push rods (not a big deal)

Flaps:
I called Michel from AMR about a flap kit I read about. (not that the plane needs flaps at all I just think it looks cool ) any way after some talk I got the flap kit. It was not cheap, witch I can understand because I don’t think they stock them and was a custom job. The shipping was a killer for some reason too, I could have driven to pick it up for cheaper, o well time is money I guess it’s all good lol sorry I’m ranting now. The wood I got was at the same awesome laser cut quality. and went together niece and easy. Thanks AMR!


Overall:

This plane is my 1st kit build (been in the hobby for about 7 years thought it’s about time to learn how to build) I enjoyed every part of building this plane, and it goes fairly quickly when you have all the right tools. I hope to find out soon that it is as much fun to fly as it was to build. I would recomend this plane to anyone that has some knowlage of model airplanes and building.

koop37

For my plane i am using:

Engine : DLA 32
Prop: 18x8 or 18x10
Servos : 6x Towerpro MG996R - FL, Al, RUD, Elv, and 1x HX5010 - TH
Hinges: Dubro plastic hinges - Tail (CA hingers are provided), Robart pin hinges - Wing (provided)
Trim scheme: Awsome!

koop37

Some early build pics


Notice the former aft of the wing saddle

koop37

More Fuse pics:

koop37

New wing tip design

koop37

In these pics you can see a step in the TE of the wing ribs. I don’t know if I made a mistake or It's supposed to be like that but I didn’t like it so I added some strips of balsa to fix it. Anyone know the answer to this?

soarrich

My Feedback: (98)

Good thread. [sm=thumbup.gif]

koop37

Wing hinges

koop37

Fuse covered, tail covered and mounted, controls covered and hinged. There wasn’t anything to difficult here just make everything straight and level.

koop37

The 2 halves of the rudder are held together by a wood dowel. I think if I ever make a new one I would put a wire rod in there somewhere to stiffen it up, it seem too easy to twist the assembly, it is a trainer though so it might be fine without it we will see. I would also add a block for the control horn the balsa crushes to easy when bolting down the horn. In the 2nd pic I added a small ply disk on either side so the nuts and torque don’t crush the balsa.

soarrich

My Feedback: (98)

The black and red of the fuse looks heavy. I'm not very artistic, but I think maybe a 1/4 white stripe dividing them might lighten the look up some.

koop37

Covering the wing

koop37

@ soarrich

I origonally thought about doing that. Im not sure if i desided not to or I just forgot about it, Ill think about it some more thanks!

D. Rodil

koop37,

Nice looking build. I've been slowly working on my Trainer 26 and your build thread has motivated me to try and finish up mine. What glue (epoxy, CA, wood glue) did you use for your vertical and horizontal stabilizer? I was thinking about pinning the tail section with 1/8 dowel rather than relying on just glue.

Deo

Cherokee Flyer

Look at the attached link about flap gap seals, they look like a nice add-on to your flap system. And easy to do.

L.




http://www.wingsforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=218&t=19676&sid=4b26d8ee80e3e91b5e 603ec27a37019a

koop37

@ D. Rodil

Thanks for the comment. I used 30 min epoxy. the dowels will help a lot with alignment as well. just be sure when you drill the holes. As you will see in my next post the dowels might not be a good thing lol

Koop

koop37

@ Cherokee Flyer

Thank you for the post. I have the gap covered already .. let me see if i have a pic that shows this.. yes you can see them in this pic. Great minds think alike

Koop

koop37

Disaster![:@]

Let this be a lesson to everyone. Don’t rush ANYTHING if you’re not sure or it doesn’t feel right DONT DO IT!

I took the plane to my club fun fly to show the guys and run the engine for a bit. I was super excited to see the thing running and show off my 1st build to all the experienced guys. I had ran out of zip ties, so the RX battery was not anchored properly. I wedged it in place with some foam and I figured i don’t have the wing on, it will be on the ground, it will be fine... Well Murphy and his law took over the battery came out at full throttle heading to the fence....

This is my own fault and I’m lucky no one was injured. This is obviously embarrassing but I’m posting this so that even if only one person thinks for a minute extra and checks that (thing) one more time and saves his plane (or someone’s finger) I will be happy.

Enjoy the pics. :P

koop37

@ D. Rodil


So you see Rodil the dowls would have made the tail stronger and could have snaped the fuse in half!... something to think about.

Cheers
Koop

soarrich

My Feedback: (98)

Wow! Bummer. I lost a 120 Boss Nova plane for a dumb reason like that too. I had the rx mounted in the plane, slid the aileron servo lead into the rx and thought, " boy that slid in easy", well it slid out real easy in the first high "G" loop.[&o]

koop37

Here is another awesome piece of advice: when you get a kit with no blue prints go to your local office supply store and get a roll of paper and trace all the parts!

This saved me a lot of headache. I traced out the section of the fuse floor I wanted to replace, measured it, and drew it up in CAD sent it over to my buddy who scratch built himself a table top CNC milling machine . The parts fit perfectly.

I cut out the dented parts of the tail, scabbed in some new balsa, re-sheeted the top of fuse, glued it all together and covered. took less than a week.

koop37

Back to the wing: Covering done & sweet graphics applied. The flames are Monocote cut out by hand by my buddy with the CNC machine. They were applied using the Windex method (you tube it!)

koop37

Oh, also notice the lip I added to the fuse at the LE of the wing. I think it adds a lot to the look.

D. Rodil

Thanks Koop. I will have to rethink the dowels. I see what you mean. That's a bummer about your accident. Looks like you'll have her fixed up in no time though. Good luck.

Deo

koop37

Ailerons:

There was a step about 1/16" at the LE of the aileron, between the LE plate and the ribs. I think another design error, I think I got the 1st kit they made after changing the design of the plane. My solution to this was to add stiffeners to the top of the ribs. (1st photo). After covering I noticed the ailerons had warped and were easily twisted, so I opened them up again, removed my stiffeners and sheeted the top. (2nd Photo) I tried to show the sep in the side view (3rd photo).