Hi guys! I started assembling my Electric Shock last night and am very impressed so far. I was about to start a new build thread, but thought I should do a search first, which is what lead me to this thread. Acting on the premise that no one has any objections, I'll post my thoughts and pics here. The box arrived over three weeks ago, but I haven't had the opportunity to do anything with it until last night. Here are the contents right before I dug into it.



I tired to lay out everything and get it all in one picture, but I guess it wasn't meant to be. Here is the fuse, wing panels, carbon wing joiner, prop and pushrods.



Here are the tailfeathers, motor, ESC, servos, landing gear and assorted hardware.



I got the [link=http://www.atlantahobby.com/shopexd.asp?id=6554]complete package deal[/link] from Cliff at Atlanta Hobby. This is the second such combo package I've bought from him and couldn't be more pleased. I'm an electric newb, so not having to make decisions about motors, speed controllers and so forth is important to me.

The first step in the instruction manual is to check the tail feathers for warps and correct as necessary with careful application of heat from a heat gun. They warn not to use an iron because it may damage the decals. I'm happy to report there were no warps at all and the covering was relatively tight. I did tighten it up a little and was pleased with the result. One thing I did note, however, was the limited amount of up elevator travel. The hinge sealing tape, located on the bottom of the stab, was not adequately pushed into the hinge gap, thereby limiting elevator throw to perhaps 15 or 20 degrees. The solution was simple enough. After lifting a corner of the sealing tape, it easily pulled right off leaving a clean surface with no residue whatsoever. I don't think this material is tape at all, but more like some sort of low-temp, heat activated covering. Here it is after removal.



I used some Blenderm tape to reseal the hinge line and all was well. I should have taken a picture of the amount of throw available before and after, but didn't think to do so.

The next step was to mount the motor to the nose of the plane. The instructions say to sand the mount to allow for about 2 degrees of right thrust. Inspection of the plane revealed what appeared to be pre-sanded mounting faces. The mounting holes were also pre-drilled, which was not mentioned in the instructions. After mounting the motor, however, there appeared to be no right thrust, so I took it off and proceeded to file the mount a little. After a couple of trial fittings, the motor went on with the correct amount of right thrust......or at lease close enough for the first few flights. If adjustments are needed, it won't be a problem to do them later. Here is the motor mounted to the fuse.



You may have noticed the washer on the top of the mount. It looked like there was a bit of up thrust in the mount and the manual clearly stated that there should be no up or down thrust, and this was my fix. With the motor in place, the next step is to install the pushrod supports on the fuse. Made of lite ply, these prevent the carbon fiber pushrods from flexing.



There are six of them and they slip into place with a nice tight fit. As instructed, I test fit the pushrods before securing the guides in place with a drop of CA on each side. Here is a pic of one installed and the open cavity where one is soon to be inserted.




The final result is very clean and functional. You may note the slightly wrinkled covering on the fuse near the pushrod guides. I’m waiting until the end of the assembly to go over the plane with a trim seal iron. Hopefully all these minor wrinkles will shrink up with no problem.



The next step is to check the ailerons for warps and correct as necessary, just like we did with the tail feathers. As with the tail feathers, no warps were noted. However, I wasn't surprised to see that the throw of the ailerons was limited in the same manner as the elevator. This time, however, I decided to snap a pic. You can see the very limited amount of up aileron available on the right aileron.



Here is the same aileron after removing the existing gap seal and resealing it with Blenderm.



That looks like more than enough throw to me. The next step was to remove the covering over the four servo cut outs in the wing. This was done with a heated t-pin and worked very well. The servos were just a tad to big to fit the openings, so I used a small file to relieve a little balsa here and there. I drilled the holes for the mounting screws, hardened them with CA and secured the servos into place. The carbon fiber control horns are beautifully made and slip into the precut slots with a little effort. Since the slots go all the way through the aileron, they are easily secured with a drop or two of CA on both sides of the aileron. The carbon fiber pushrods are a piece of cake to assemble and rock solid with no slop whatsoever. I’m very impressed with the design and geometry of the linkage. I really like the extensive use of CF. If I think of it, I’ll try to take some pics of the inner wing structure. There is lots of it in there. Anyway, here are a couple of pics of the final aileron servo installation and linkages.