Final steps before flying. There is no air outlet from the fuse so exhaust holes have to be cut. Any design or pattern will do as long as they are large enough. The Valiant has a nice ridge molded in the bottom of the fuse that adds additional strength comparred to a simple rounded bottom. I would reccomend not cutting into this ridge for that reason. Keep your cooling hole pattern symetric to either side of the ridge.

Last on the construction list is the battery tray. A dry fit of the batteries show that the plane is pretty tail heavy with my choice of components and placement. With that in mind I would reccomend installing everything as foward as possible in the main fuse area. I placed my battery/receiver/voltage regulator in the rear of the space which didn't help. I decided to remount the ESC on the lower rear of the firewall to help. For a battery tray I used the supplied fiberglass coated balsa sheet. It is supported in the rear by the forward landing gear support and in front by a piece of end grain balsa fiberglass laminate. A piece of the supplied balsa fiberglass sheet would work as well. A few pieces of 1/4" balsa square are glued to the bottom of the tray for additional gluing surface and alignment. For positioning my batteries. Instead of velcro I have a few scraps of end grain balsa/fiberglass material glued to the bottom of the battery packs leaving a slot for a 1/8" piece of CF tube. The CF tube is mounted to the tray and provides repeatable positioning of the battery packs. To change the CG the CF rod can be moved. 2 slotted pieces are at either side of the battery tray to reposition the CF tube. The CF tube can be moved foward or back from its current starting position. The CG is set at 1/8" behind the center of the wing tube which is what Bryan Herbert reccomends to start. I hold my batteries in by a screw down retainer made from lite ply and endgrain balsa fiberglass pieces. The same hold down is set up to be used in different planes. I make a different one for different size battery packs. When using different shape or size battery packs you have to make sure that the new one is positioned without changing the CG. What I do is balance the fuselage only with the wing tube supported on a couple of 2x4 uprights. Weight is hung from the tail wheel to balance the plane with the regular battery in its normal position. Now just swich to the new size pack and move till the fuse is balanced again. Mark the new packs position. I mark the position of the 1/8" CF tube and add my wood scraps to make a slot for the tube.

Only thing left is to set up the throws, check that elevator halves are moving equally, and set up my speed control.

Final weight with the TP V2 5300 pack is 5005 gms. Missed it by that much!