AA5BY

This plane was mentioned in the Seagull Spacewalker thread and I'm interested. An email to Horizon yielded the following,

"At the current time, we do not have a timeline for it or when we will be offing this Seagull plane."

I've a Hanger 9 1.20 version and it's a great flier... in fact the only plane I've owned that I've been able to crank lumcevaks. The PT-19 is a great aerobatic performer but has plenty of lift to slow down for landings.

More inquires to Horizon might produce some interest in offering it in the US.

MercerAUST

Yes, I saw it there too and ordered one. It arrived at my LHS yesterday and I will pick it up on the weekend. I will probably overpower it with an ASP 120 4-stroke.

I had the smaller CPM version and it really was a lovely looking plane. It was a bit underpowered (Saito 0.40 four stroke), but I wanted to fly it more scalish. I certainly got my wish and one had to be careful as it would drop a wingtip in an instant if one was too heavy-handed with the controls. However, I got better and was really enjoying my flying. I got too comfortable because it dropped into a spin on a poorly executed rudder turn where I bled off too much speed. Not enough power to up-elevator and blast out of the spin and not enough height to collect enough airspeed to do the same.

BlackPhantomDragon

I posted the info on the PT-19 in the Space walker thread. I have liked the Space walker for a long time but have always liked the Yellow & Blue PT-19 colours. Had not planned on buying on but things just happened that way. A friend at the club had bought his earlier that week so we will eventually have 2 at the field. Should look good on War Bird days with 2 flying together.

I am deciding what engine to put in at present but am leaning towards the DLE-20 with a Pitts muffler at present. Be interesting to see what people are going to put in them.
I was thinking of the DLE-30 but think it may be a bit big and that the 20 would fit in the cowl better. They say the 20 has as much power as a Saito 1.25 The only thing would be that the 30 has a better (scale looking) prop hub for this type of plane. Also the 20 would bolt straight in on the standard mounts that have already been drilled in the bulkhead with captive nuts. The 30 is also 5mm to long so would need to change the standoffs and possibly enlarge the hole for the cabby in the bulkhead.

My build probably won't happen till later in the year as I want to accumulated all the bits I will need before I start.

I have worked the scale out to be 1:5.5 roughly so I would call it 1/5 scale. The Pilots seem huge and measure more to 1/4 scale. I am looking to get a couple of WWII 1/5 scale pilots for it. Was thinking of doing a full cockpit but I don't think there is really enough room underneath for that to be successful.

I have posted some pics below with comments about different aspects of the kit. Hope you enjoy looking at them.

BlackPhantomDragon

Here is some pics of the pilots that come with the kit. They just seem to big? especially when you look at pics of the real plane with pilots in there.



Someone shot him in the back?

In the cockpit.

This is the Pilot I was thinking about. Should be the right size. They make a British and an American so you could have a slightly different pilot in each cockpit instead of twins. It is the larger pilot that is 1/5 as the other is 1/6.

BlackPhantomDragon

The Fuselage from different angles. Really looks good. The dash in the cockpit is a bit cheese as well so at minimum would replace these with more accurate looking wooden dash with gauges as such an easy thing to do to make a huge difference. Also thinking about making a false floor in the cockpit as I think the WWII pilots may need to sit slightly higher, would than be able to use this are to mount/conceal switches and fuel dots as I think they would really spoil the look on the outside.

BlackPhantomDragon

Will post some more info latter.

Hope the pics are helpful.

Kmot

My Feedback: (24)

The airplane by itself looks really good!

Yes, the included pilots are absurdly too large.

BlackPhantomDragon

Here is some pics of the Underside of the Fuse and Inside as well as the rear.

BlackPhantomDragon

Here is the cowl. Large and looks solid.





Exhaust to go into cowl. Would be good if a working exhaust could be fabricated

BlackPhantomDragon

A look at the tail feathers

BlackPhantomDragon

Here are the wings. Nice looking Split Flaps. All the Control horn positions on the wings and tail are pedrilled and countersunk and look to have a hard wood center. The wing itself has one hole in top of each wing about 3mm and seems to be wher on of the stickers go so maybe just a marking position? Ther are 3 holes in each wing along the flap hinge line but they look to big for the Flap Hinge screw as they are only small. Manual has no info at all about these holes so it will be a suckit and see what eventuates type affair I think. .






These are the tips for the wings to represent lights, They are both Red but 1 should be Green, I was thinking that may be able to modify and put a led in each.

BlackPhantomDragon

Here are some of the accessories that came with the kit.

Rollover bar



This cover goes over the tail wheel assemble. The tail wheel is a sprung unit.



[color=#0000FF]
Windshield's [/color]



These are handles/Grab rails. You need to look at the box are to see where most of this stuff goes. Sames as the Stickers.


These are the push rod exits for the rear of the Fuse.

BlackPhantomDragon

They also supply a set of antenna's the long one is actually metal and screws into a captive nut on top of the fuse. The 2 smaller ones actually need to have a bit of attention in that sanded nice and smooth and general tidy up then repainted. Not a big deal just to make it look good.




These are the oleo leg covers. It has sprung mains as well.



Wheels have hub caps that are screwed on with three screws each.




The Pitot tube which is red is also all metal. Should make it durable.

BlackPhantomDragon

These Flap hinges have been painted yellow and are really stiff. I have tried scrapping some paint of the hinge pivot points but are still really stiff. I have some others but they are only 2 hole not 3 hole where they are screwed to the wing. Will have to look into this further. If I can find identical size I will replace all and then repaint yellow (carefully)



The control horns are the bolt type and all the pushrods are 3mm. Do not really need to be replaced. Other screws all look of good quality as well.

BlackPhantomDragon

[font="Tahoma"]Gear and Tailwheel pics.[/font]






Below are some of the transfer/stickers that came with it.












Hope you enjoy the pics.

MercerAUST

I've started to assemble mine and have finished the wings. About a 3hr job in total. The holes for the control rods are pre-drilled and the top screw position for the flap hinges make these easy to line up. The undercarraige is easy to install, although I just slit the back of the plastic oleo shroud so I didn't have to take the oleo off the undercarraige wire (I'll use yellow tape to hide the job and so the shroud matches the wings). The wheel axle lines up with the leading edge of the wing, which should be OK (in avoiding tip overs). I don't think the undercarraige will be up to too many bad landings, but the wing mounting is solid enough and the wire undercarraige should just bend back in the first instance. The oleos have a nice action, and the quality seems better, compared to my previous Seagull (Percival Mew Gull).

Once the flap hinges are installed, the flap tends to stick up about 4mm. I've taped them down for the time being. Like mentioned above, the plastic hinges are very stiff, although my installed servers seem to handle it OK. I'm impressed by the quality of the parts to date. Next job will be the fuel tank, engine (ASP 4-stroke 120 size), throttle server/push rod and canopy.

BlackPhantomDragon

Hi Mercer

I had a look at the flap hinges the other day to see what I could do with them. I was looking for a replacement but could not get the exact same size and none had the three holes.
I ended up using a 2mm drill in a pin vice to hone out the hinge point holes and used a xacto no11 knife to scape the hinge pins to remove the paint and flashing.
After about 30min had all the hinges moving nice and smoothly.

Tank is 550cc/18.6ounces. I was looking at fitting a smaller tank due to running petrol/gas and not needing to carry as much. Also looking at putting tank on top of the front cockpit floor.(probably where receiver and RX would go) so I can put the electronic ignition module where the tank would normally be,that is if it does not fit in the engine bay.

Regards Greg

kerwin50

I don't think this plane is available in the us yet

stangevil29

My Feedback: (1)

BlackPhantomDragon,

This does look like a fun plane to have for warbird events, if I dont feel like messing with retracts and all the other gremlins that appear when I take a fighter out to fly. I noticed in the picture of the main gear that rust appears to be built up on them right out of the box. Is this correct? Thanks.

BlackPhantomDragon

Hi Stangevil29
You are correct the rust is right out of the box. Suppose you could call it factory made.
I have sprayed some WD40 on them and put them back in the plastic bag. Have not decided what i am going to do about the rust yet on the scisor mechanisim but will just use some wet n dry on the axles.

Regards Greg

MercerAUST

Mine had no rust on the oleos, but there was some on the small metal nob that has been welded to the oleo to support the scissor struts. I think it is a consequence of the factory welding the nob to the strut with poor/no flux. The oleo, itself, is fine. While the scissor struts are functional, I tink they are just there for looks and have no roll in supporting operation of the oleo (eg they are fabricated with plastic parts and are not necessary to prevent the oleo twisting).

I fitted the fuel tank and engine to mine. Both simple jobs and I used the existing fitted holes/binds in the firewall. The fuel tank lid/lip actually fitted exactly into the firewall hole providing extra support (in all my previous models I have never been able to line the two precisely. I also stuck on most of the stickers. They are pre-cut, so you don't have to cut them out. Just peel them off the page and on they go.

Next job for me is the throttle server/adjustment, install the three other fuselage servers and then I think I might do the tail wheel assembly (which looks fiddly), followed by the cowl, before glueing on the tail stabs.

Kmot

My Feedback: (24)

Hey guys, this stuff works!

http://www.evapo-rust.com.au/

BlackPhantomDragon

I went to test fit a servo the other day in the fuse and all the holes are to small. Will need to enlarge all the holes. Have not checked the wings but they look like should be ok.

Have pulled the red plastic dashes out and am designing a more scale one off some pics I have of this planes front and rear dashes.

Will post some pics when I have finished them.

Regards Greg

MercerAUST

I can confirm that the wing servo holes are OK, having fitted, tested and trimmed the flaps and aerollins. The connecting rods are thick steel and the control horn holes are pe-derilled which avoids the possibility of getting the server the wrong way around. While the plastic flap hinges are stiff, there is no problem in actual use. With the steel rods, there is no flex in the system and it is possible to get a tight set up, with no/minimal slop if you use digital metal core servers.

One problem is that the hinges tend to pull the split wing flap up a bit and mine settle about 5mm above flush with the wing. It's possible to flatten them out completely by adjusting the end point of the server, but of course this introduces server whine. I've clamped mine shut with some pegs and perhaps they will settle more flush over time, and as the hinges wear in.

Any ideas how much flap to use? The manual gives no instructions. It is tempting to use closer to 90 degrees, because the flap surface is relatively small, but this might be excessive. Maybe I should maiden with 45 degrees?  I only have the one flap extended position on my Dxi6.

BlackPhantomDragon

Hi Mercer
I thought you were going to advise the amount of flap required at first. Have wondered the same thing.
I think maybe less may be better then wind it down a bit each flight till best effect is achieved.

Will be interested in your out come in this matter,

Regards Greg

By the way where do you fly.