Hi guys the Ems Cessna 185 as it is marketed in Australia is an exceptional model offering great value for money combined with fantatsic flight characteristics. The alterations to fit a gas motor were relatively simple. Probably the hardest job was cutting out 1/3rd of the lower firewall to box in the "Slimline" Pitts style muffler, this was done using 3 mm ply and simply cyanod into position. One thing to note is that the sides of the muffler box were extended into the main cabin former while being keyed into the fuel tank former at the bottom of the windscreen to help tie the structure back together. To 24oz tank was offset to the rite of the cabbin to make room for the receiver (XPS) the ignition cut and the Intelect 3600 6 volt receiver battery.
Early on in the build I decided to ditch the long elevator pushrods in favour of mounting 2 HS 125MGs in each tailplane half to help balance the DL 50 up front. @ 6 volt each servo develops 3.3 kg of torque which is more than adequate. The destructions describe gluing the two stab halves to the fuselage for a permanent fit with an aluminium joiner between them....hmmm says I. I decided instead to add some locating dowls, leading and trailing and screw through the bottom of the joiner bar and tailplane tailplane with a self tapping cap screw. Now my stabs are removeable!! My elevator extension leads were glued into the fuselage stab roots so that when connecting the tailplane stabs you simply plug in the leads slide the stabs home add retaining screw and your done, Very easy.

Now the original intention of the model was to have a handy size tow plane for hauling up my 6 meter 10kg Lentus sailplane. The tow point for this is just behind the trailing edge of the wing. For the release I have fitted a Multiplex glider tow release vertical in the fuse mounted to a 6mm ply flat ply plate with two vertical 6mm ribs tieing the mounting plate between two formers. The release is activated buy a 6 kg servo mounted below the release with 440 wire as the actuating pin.

Other than that the model is all pretty straight forward to put together, the only other tricky part was driving both the throttle and choke which is achieved with two servos mounted from the two central servo cutouts and are driven with 440 rod in carbon sleeves to keep them stiff this is best done before fitting the canopy with Dowcorning 732 silicone adhesive. I also mounted the rudder servo at the rear of the servo tray to give easy access and a straight run to the closed loop system. I also chose to replace the tailwheel with a leaf spring unit and also drive it from the rudder servo.
To keep the motor cool during hot summer operation in Australia with long idling times I have added rolled .6mm ply around the air intakes to force cold air over the cylinder head....5 minutes later at idle, the top of the cowl is barely warm to touch!

So how does she go..... vertical from takeoff and tows 4 meter gliders @ 65 degrees, 5 meters @45 degrees and as yet haven't towed the Lentus.

Is it worth the effort.....YOU BET

And BEST of all she balances with NO LEAD and weighs in at 6.8kg.

So next up I have just received some floats for the model and are looking forward to trying her off water, I've also been giving some thought as to how I can make scale retracts for the model that retract into the floats.

cheers Rossco.