RE: *New Hanger 9 Pulse XT 60*
Kneewhack, great idea. I will try that. Otherwise I'll follow w8ye comment and just split the cowl behind the engine.
Just to let everyone know, here's my thoughts on putting this ARF together. Mine had quite a lot of wrinkles on just about every surface but was easy enough to fix with a air gun and iron. When I attached the two engine mounts to the firewall I found the spacing to be too far apart for the Saito to fit with the mounting holes comfortably on top of the rails. I had to squeeze the rails together a bit in order to have enough room to drill the holes in each side. I removed the electric motor mounting t-nuts and fit dowel pieces in their place (epoxied in).
I used a rubber band attached to the hatch as was described early within this thread. That was a fine suggestion to securing the hatch. Getting the switch harness into the factory cutout location was a bear. No room for fingers to get the switch in there. I finally cut out part of the cross bracing below the switch location in order to make room to reach the cutout position.
I had to epoxy the tail on because one of the two studs was not anchored. The first nut locked down fine on its stud but the second stud just spun freely before the locknut could be tightened down. I really think it was a defective stud as opposed to my putting too much pressure on the stud. No big deal as I actually prefer the tail to be epoxied anyway.
I plan to epoxy the wing tube into one of the wing halves. I'll still be able to separate the wings and will not have to worry about the tube shifting inside the wing which someone mentioned as a problem encountered.
The plane should be ready to test fly within a week. I'm in no hurry. I want to be sure everything is right before its first flight.
Mike