Troy Newman

Well gentlemen, I had the opportunity to dig into my Focus Sport today. My experience with this model so far has been very good.

I do need to preface this thread with the fact this model is an advanced model. It is not intended for beginners at putting together advanced models. It has some techniques used that normal sport type pilots don't deal with in a day to day build of a model. The instructions are intended to get the point across but they are not intended to take you by the hand and do it for you. The idea behind my starting this build thread was to give an archive to folks that don't know how some things are done and how to do them. I am working independent of Piedmont models on this build, and I will always have some suggestions that may not coincide with the way the models prototype model was built. However I will say the way Dave Guerin does things in terms in installation and building techniques are proven, work and are effective. Dave's techniques just like some of mine have been developed over years of building competition models. I have been building and flying models that cost 10 times this models price tag. The planes I have been flying for the past few years are at the absolute top for quality of flying and build. The finish work is all painted models that weigh less than most film covered models. The idea behind this plane is provide excellent performance on a price tag that is not $2000-3000. With this in mind there will be some things that are not a absolute perfect fit, and not an absolute quality of a custom built model. This plane is not intended for that market. It is intended to go together fairly easy, be stong and straight, and fly well. If my Focus Sport flies as well as the prototype model I flew in early July the results will be a great 110 sized pattern model.

The purpose of this build thread is assembly a model that anyone can do on a budget and still get big time performance for a smaller plane both in size and price. So you will not hear me bashing anything about this plane. Instead you will hear solutions to problems if they come up. I remember buying a pattern kit for the first time. I got a 8.5-11 sheet of paper that showed me the size of the ailerons and elevators CG range and a few rough shapes to symbolize servos and engine mount. The idea was you had to do it your way. The task was daunting indeed. This model is extremely advanced in its detail compared to those days. I have read the manual a little and I have looked over the parts. If I can augment the manual I will. From the looks of it the bases are covered. There will likely be questions but I intend to figure it out and get things done. After looking it over I don't think we are going to have issues. 99% of it is self explanatory. I am going to try and follow the manual steps as much as possible. I think I could probably do it faster by just digging in and doing it as I know where things need to go and how its suppose to work. Not everyone in this forum has that level of experience and I understand that. The purpose of this thread is to promote pattern models and pattern flying. This is a no Bit-chin' area. If you feel you need to do that take it to another thread please.

So here we go....................