Over several threads (including this one) there have been some photos of beautifully done single large decks with everything on them and with all the air lines and electronics running underneath. While these look gorgeous, I wonder if it compromises maintainability. If you have a problem with any single component, you have to remove the entire deck (and thus deal with ALL the tubing/wires) to fault isolate the issue and then put it ALL back together.

The other train of thought is to install multiple decks each with only a few components, or minimize the number of deck components by mounting them on the fuselage sides. Invariably, you have greater access and thus better maintainability. I'm building a Bandit ARF now and am trying to make the plane as easy to maintain as possible. The pneumatic valves have their own deck with the tubing running above the deck, the ECU/battery are on their own deck, the fill valves/gauges have their own deck, etc. Most of the components can be directly accessed; components deeper in the fuselage (eg fuel pump, solonoid valves, smoke pump, batteries, servos) can be directly accessed by removing the component above (and that removal is fast/simple) and if the component being removed has tubing/wires, there is enough slack that it can be pulled clear of the area without having to disconnect it.

It doesn't look quite as good as some as the works of art above (good job guys) but it's likely faster/easier to maintain especially when you're trying to fix a problem at the field.

Regards,

Jim