Christmas came early
My hawk arrived today. Pictures of basic package already posted so I'll just post a couple of special ones and make a few immediate observations.
This is one incredible ARF. One of the best I have seen, and I've seen some of the best. It is very light but built with a lot of interlacoking parts and reinforcement in the right places. Just look at that engine box. The covering is imaculate and my hinge slots are dead straight and centered.
It's a good thing I haven't bought an engine yet because this is a very unique plane that is going to take some thinking and research to come up with a gasoline engine that will fit right. The engine prop shaft is offset an inch below center just like the real Hawk. Also the engine box face is not that large: 4.5" wide and 4" high.
The cowl size in the engine location is 7" wide, 4.5" above the prop and 3.5" below the prop with about 6" of offset from engine box face to front of cowl. I researching hard because you can almost mount an engine upright in this bird. I'll let you all know what I find/decide. When I first saw the plane I was a little surprised. Iexpected it to be bigger visually. But this plane is not really a gasser; it is a true 1.20 glow size plane, as stated I might add. but I hate glow and will get a gasser in her somehow [>:]
There is quit a bit of space inside the fuselage for CG adjustments and placing a smoke tank; albeit some is hard to get to easily.
Added PS: Well after more research, it is going to be near impossible to get a gasoline engine in this plane without completely chopping up the cowl. Practically everything I see will stick out the bottom a couple of inches or more. The only gas engine that may be able to mount upright is the RCS 1.40, but the sparkplug will stick out the top and the engine is too light. So ifanyone has any gasoline engine ideas I haven't thought of, let me know.