Okay, so the fuel tank setup is basically a single step in the instruction manual – however I deviated from the instructions a little on this one. Once I got the fuse together and dry fit the tank floor into place a couple things became evident to me:

1) There isn’t much room in the tank area to get to the floor or landing gear area in the event I need to get in there.
2) Looking at how the tank sits in relation to the Saito 100, the tank’s going to be too high (in its default location) in relation to the spray bar on the carb. (see Pictures 1 through 4)

So, I decided to kill 2 birds here. I went with a removable tank floor option. I sanded down the edges of the tank floor so it would fit between (instead of on top) of the fuselage doublers. Next I got some scrap balsa blocks and marked their positions on the underside of the tank floor (picture5). Using the tank as a guide on height, I slid the tank and tank floor back into the fuse to mark the proper height. From there it was easy to glue in the supports (picture6) and screw down the tank floor (picture7). I wrapped up this session by epoxing down the landing gear mount.

Next up – “the hatch”

Picture1 – Side view of the tank sitting in the default position. No Foam in place
Picture2 – Higher angle showing tank without foam. Sitting almost perfect, maybe a shade high.
Picture3 – I added foam to the bottom of the tank to see how high it raised the tank – way too high
Picture4 – Higher angle really shows how high the tank is…
Picture5 – New tank supports marked on tank floor
Picture6 – Tank floor supports CA’d into place – note I had already drilled them for attachment to floor
Picture7 – Tank floor in place (with screws)
Picture8 - Landing Gear mount