CafeenMan

James - My Inspire wasn't damaged. I just hate the covering. By that I mean the covering itself - not the scheme which I think is nice. If you normally build ARF's then this is probably a good model. At the risk of sounding conceited, when I build I have much greater attention to detail.

Our field is closed until tomorrow afternoon. Unfortunately, it opens about the same time as we've been having thunderstorms all week. Mine is ready to maiden but it's not done. I haven't mounted the cowl because I'm still not sure of the engine. Personally, I think the .63 is probably the way to go. Maybe up to a .80 or even a .90. I put my YS on the stand today and it was giving me some problems. Again, it had a previous owner and when I got it the settings were all screwed up which makes me wonder how badly the engine was abused.

After an hour of fiddling around with it I got it to run out a tank and throttle ok so I'm crossing my fingers.

After I fly it there are some more details I need to take care of. The canopy is screwed on but I need to tape the edges. I also want to splice the servo extensions from the tail instead of having them plug in.

OH yeah... mine came in WAY nose-heavy. Much more nose heavy than the larger engine accounts for. Especially when you consider I'm using two elevator servos mounted in the rear instead of just one (plus the extra extension). I also used a heavier tail wheel because the tail gear wire is too small for the mount it comes with. I bent a new one from music wire (heavier than stock) and the tail wheel is one I had on hand and weighs a lot more than the one supplied. Even with that I taped a bunch lead back there for now.

There's something really wrong with the landing gear. The left gear is back about 3/4" farther than the right gear. There's only one way to bolt it on and everything is already drilled so it's not something I could have messed up. I don't know if the problem is the mounting holes in the fuselage, the gear being mis-drilled or if the two gears aren't identical to begin with. In any case it makes the plane sit with the left side low and looks bad.