I can't tell from a picture if its strong enough or not. What material is it made from. Obviously it has some CF on it but that doesn't mean it strong and stiff. It just means its pretty. To run the ARI style mount you need a very rigid firewall..The material choice would depend on how large the firewall is. A general rule would be it needs to be at least 1/4" thick aircraft grade plywood. For larger areas like a Smaragd, CA Model eclipse, or Genesis I think it needs to be even stronger than that. Maybe 2 pieces of 1/8th aircraft ply laminated with some CF or something.

You have to realize that the entire engine mass and force is being cantilevered from the firewall. So it needs to be strong. Can you move the spinner and get any flexing? If yes look at where the flexing is and I bet it is at the firewall.

I really don't like the Nose ring Incorporated mounts. I used one and did not like it. I also don't buy into the idea of the Type A mounts that don't need a nose ring. I use a nose ring on all my soft mounted engines. It prevents the thrust line from changing during pulls and pushes. This is very important in F3A flying. Installing a nose ring is easy....people seem to be intimidated by it. With a fuse mount nose ring then 1/8th aircraft grade ply is strong enough for a firewall. An addition of the nose ring mount is light maybe an oz max, and it strong and stiff. About 60% of the load is on the firewall and the other 40% is on the nose ring. Since the nose ring mount is in the extreme forward area of the nose the wood mount is small and attached to a strong part of the molded nose of the model.

In an ARI style mount 100% of the load and force is on the firewall. If it flexes the thrust line will change while you are flying. This is not the way to fly precise when trying to fly F3A. It is important to keep that thrust line fixed and still allow the engine to rotate. If the spinner wobbles at all when running then the thrust line is changing. You be able to look at the spinner while the engine is running and not tell the engine is on a soft mount.

My opinion is Merle makes the best soft mounts in the world. But the ARI versions are not them and they are very expensive. Heavier overall as the mount is heavy and the firewall must be heavier to support the load...and they are not for me. The regular AR style mounts is what I choose. The ARA is the aluminum beam version that is the light one. I use it with a fuse mounted nose ring.


Troy Newman
Team YS