RE: Seagull's
Good on you Matt.. the DA's probably the best of the cheaper civilian twin ARFs out there, unless you want to spend big bucks on one of those twin Cessnas with the lighting kits. Chances are this one'll be the updated one with the washers glued in place etc. Recommendations for improvements:
- Use a pull-pull rudder system to avoid the long rudder pushrod
- get a fults dual strut nosewheel
- 2 1/2" dubro wheels for mains and a 2" for the nose to replace the foamies it comes with... makes it roll easier
- dump the little 6oz tanks it comes with and get those larger flexible tanks (10oz sullivan I think? Go back through the thread to find them)
- put an on board glow in to lessen the chance of a single engine flame-out at low revs.
- use a little vaseline on the hinge pins when fitting them to ensure you don't get epoxy in the hinges. I prefer the robart point hinges but the pinned ones are fine too, and fit in better with the pre-cut CA hinge design. To reduce the gap recess the pin area into the moving surface, not the fixed one.
- If you're sealing the gap with *kote you can do it top or bottom. Top looks better when it's on the ground and you won't see it when it's flying. You can even do both top and bottom if you want to. Flex the surface downwards fully then apply it to the top... reverse it for the bottom.
- If possible use two channels for throttles with computer mixing so you can have one trim for both throttles, and a second trim for just one (easier to balance engines). You can also throw in some throttle steering by mixing the rudder with the throttles. If you do this one, assign a switch so you can disable it if you don't like it.
Mine has a pair of super tigre 40's and I needed to mount the main battery and on-board glow battery in the nose (along with an engine mount and small aluminium plate) to get it balanced at 105mm.