RE: Pilot-1 1/8 scale Aeronca Champ
Well my plane is built, but it took me closer to 16 hours to complete, but I'm a slow builder. I spent several hours trying to get the wing halves at the same incedence and to remove a twist and bow in the left panel. The kit seems to be well built and complete. Except for the left wing panel, everthing was ready for assembly and went together fairly well. I did have to sand the stabilizer mount to get it level with the wngs but that was part of the instructions and so wasn't a surprise. What was missing from the manual was to remove the covering on the underside of the stab for glueing to the fuse. The vertical stabilzer interlock nicely with the stab and fuse for a strong and easily aligned assembly. I had to sand the vertical stabilizer in certain places to get it to fit snug down into the horizontal stabilizer due to a slight step that was created. The hinges are glues into the main structures but left unglued on the moving parts for the assembler to do. I did find one hinge that pulled free with a light tug so I used thin CYA on all of them before assembly. The kit even includes tail wire brace fittings. I also added lite ply pieces in through the wing servo mount hatches to give the forward wing strut attachment points something solid to screw into rather than just sheet balsa. The rear point has a nice lite ply hard point built in. The new reccommended CG location seems to be 1-3/4 inch instead of 2 inches and the few that have flown it find it works better.
I'm using an E-Flite Park 450 outrunner motor, 25 amp Pro ESC, Hitec HS-55 servos, JR receiver and an APC 10 x 7 electric prop. Since we have a lot of snow I've mounted homemade skis, but the kit comes with very nice 2-1/4" diameter foam with plastic hub wheels. The landing gear is nicely detailed as well and is a fairly complicated assembly ready to mount.
I trimmed the windshield to allow it to sit at a steaper angle and closer to cabin. The stock winshield rests quite far out onto the upper fuselage and doesn't look quite right. I added an instrument panel and glare panel.
Jaybird