Aloha,
I went through the kit parts looking for the Landing Gear Plate that the instructions call out for, and I came across three pieces of good quality plywood that fit the description of what I need in my assembly. The three pieces of cut 1/4" plywood are taped together and from what I can assume, is a change in the kit landing gear floor area. If you look at Step # 28 you will see that the landing gear plate had three stringers about 5" long, that were glued in Longitudinally.
This is the old placement of these parts in the kit.
If you look at Step #23, you will see two pieces of support ply wood, called "Binding Rails", that are glued in with epoxy, Laterally. This must be the new way to build up the landing gear plate assembly.
The larger plywood plate is called "Gear Plate 1" and the two lateral stringers are labeled "Gear Plate 2."
I then glued the two laminated FF4 floor structure pieces, onto the main floor FF1 and FF2, as called out for in Step #19 in the assembly instructions.
Like Mpizpilot, I'm voicing the anomalies in the instructions I find, and forwarding them to AMR. Otherwise...this is an excellent kit, with a parts fit that is outstanding. This is a well thought out kit and its built to handle the flight and landing loads of a heavier model. Its one tough airframe so far and very pleased with what I see. The landing gear area is quite stout and built to take your less then perfect landings.
The other thing I came to realize as this is going to be a floater. I built a .60 ~ .90 size Big Stick ARF, and installed a RCG 20cc gas engine onto that model. The weight of that model came out to 10.2 lbs and had a 1000 square inches of wing. That model had a power off glide that was amazing...and from what I have been told, this kit will hit the scales @ around 32~35 lbs. With 2700 square inches of wing...it may very well have a better glide then my 20cc gas Big Stick... : ) There is one thing that I have to say about Ugly Stick models...they fly well and very predictable in the air. Easy to land, glide for ever and fun, relaxing and a blast to fly.
@ 32 lbs Gross Weight, w/2700 sq. in. A wing loading of 27.31 oz./sq. ft.
@ 35 lbs Gross Weight, w/2700 sq. in. A wing loading of 29.87 oz./sq. ft.
These are light wing loading stats for a model of this size...and like I said earlier, its going to have a really sweet glide.
Soft Landings Always,
Bobby of Maui
