Additional details. regarding the build... I have had some time during Christmas eve, eve and Christmas eve to get some of the finishing details out of the way.
I did some extensive dremmel work on the nacels to get the perfect fit. I also decided that the dremmel had chewed up the fiberglass too much for me to leave the rough edging undealt with. I used some thin, self adhesive lead strips (used in fake stained glass windows) to create a dark border around the holes I opened up. Gives a nice finished look to the nacels. I used 20 minute epoxy and painted it on to the lead strips to make sure it stayed there permanently. As I indicated, I opened up the leading and trailing holes in the nacels to facilitate increased airflow to the ESCs. Both pictures show the nacel fitted just prior to me using the screws to fix it permanently.
The next 2 pictures show the placement of the LiPo battery monitor in the wheel housings. This allows me to see the lights during flight and hear the piezo alarm clearly. I also used screen door nylon mesh to prevent "crud" from entering the fuselage while on the ground.
The next three pix show the wing to fuse wiring bundles. I chose to coil the wire bundles under the wing and tape them in place with the HK special packing tape. This stuff is indestructible and holds like epoxy to smooth surfaces. There was an awful lot of wires to manage and I wanted to ensure there would be no entanglement in the servo arms EVER.. I also used the Hobby King servo lead clips that make sure they never come loose. Could have used a loop of dental floss, but this is easier all round for removal and re-attachment.
This third picture shows how I coiled and fixed the nav light wiring bundle on the starboard side of the fuse to keep it away from the servos. The yellow object is the nav light controller and the Turnigy radio controlled switch is below it all fixed in place with packing tape.
The next two pix show the fuse front with the battery harness and HK battery LED monitor visible. The first pic shows the EC5 connector paired into two EC3. The second pic shows the MA 10x7 3-blade props installed. I originally planned to use 11x7 props but they did not clear the fuse. I am using counter rotation here so the starboard prop is a pusher.
I performed a static power test and ran the engines up to 90%. There is sufficient power and the 3-cell, 4AH, 25C LiPo held up well over a five minute period. I need to find a luggage scale to accurately measure the thrust. For now I use the old "it took off and flew well" method based on initial 100 watts per LB estimation with minimum 25% overage calculated in.
The final work required is, install the 3-blade black spinners, figure out & build a "crud blocker" for the front wheel, fix the LED battery monitor in a permanent position for easy reading on the ground, install the ident numbers, locate the battery in the optimum spot to then aid in balancing and balance hopefully without need for additional weights.
I will post the final build pictures once I have these items complete.
The final task will be; wait until there is favourable flying weather here in Toronto to execute the maiden flight.
Some of the negative observations;
1. The rudder does not line up correctly with the rear stabilizer.
2. The amount of work necessary to fit the motors Ichose to the mounts and to the nacels.
3. The battery compartment hatch is poorly shaped and does not fit nicely into the fuselage. the problem is the poor assembly job on the fiberglass shaping and gluing used to hold the hatch together.
4. There is no hatch for the wheel openings that allows way too much crud from getting into the fuse when executing ground manouvers.
Hope everyone has a<span style="font-size: larger;"><span style="font-family: Comic Sans MS;"><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"> Merry Christmas</span></span></span>.
