I think using overhead transparencies makes it much easier. Also, I pull the carb off the engine, so I only have to deal with one thing at a time (the head, then mount the engine, then cut out the carb, then muffler) Although, in this case, I won't need any carb cutouts, other than for needle valve adjustment.

Yes, the wing has black stripes on the bottom, but you have to put them on yourself. They are included with the decal package. They aren't decals per-say, more like black vinyl, cut in strips.

I don't know if I'll get any more done until later next week, what with Christmas and all.

I'll try the transparent route next time too. The vinyl stuff has worked for me in the past better than decals, add up another "plus"...

So far, so good... If we don't talk before then, have a safe and happy Christmas.

As a side note, it's starting to snow here in west Tennessee and we don't see that very often. I've gotta make a trio of skis for my Calmato!!!

All right, back from holidays. I have been waiting to fly my Cub off skiis, but it snowed like made here on Dec 23rd, and by the time we got back on the 30th, it was all melted!

Oh well. Here's the progress today:

I mounted the muffler and cleared out the bottom of the cowl to fit. The cowl is now screwed in place too. You can clearly see the concave bubble that get installed if you choose to mount the engine this way. The muffler fits perfectly in this pocket. Overall I like the look. It's not quite as nice as a proper in-cowl muffler, but it doesn't stick out like normal, and the rest of the engine is nicely covered. Just the head popping out. I'd still prefer an inverted completely cowled engine, with an inverted pitts muffler, but nobody makes a good invereted pitts for these small engines.

There is an oil cooler cowl bubble that pretty much got removed to clear the muffler. Too bad.

Anyway, still a great sport scale kit. I will eventually paint the struts and landing gear legs white.

You can see it covers the muffler completely without any holes. The instruction say to open up the left cooling hole so that the muffler gets a blast of air, but I don't see the point. It's got enough room around it to draw air. For the needle valve, I put a small socket head screw into the end of the needle screw, and drilled a small hole in the cowl. So all you do is stick an allen wrench into the holes to reach the head of the screw. Seems to work well so far.

I also mounted the windshield and skylight. Interestingly, it appears they left out the skylight instructions in the manual! No hardware I could find either. I just used some small screws I had lying around.

Looking good! What size prop do you have on there and how much clearance is there for a tail up, main gear landing? I'm trying to figure out if I'll have problems with a 13 incher.

You should've come down here and flown! We had a whole week of frozen fun with 3" of smooth ice on the runway. Quite rare in west Tennessee so, we made the most of it. It was a blast! Check out pages 8 and 9 here: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showt...8&page=8&pp=15

Keep up the good work!

It's an 11x6, and I have about 1.5-2" ground clearance with the fuse level. How much clearance is enough? I think I'm fine here, but I don't know about a 13" prop.

I checked the balance again yesterday with more stuff mounted. Definitely looks like it will balance perfect with just the battery being moved around in the cockpit.

My old Futaba Conquest 6 died while trying to fly the Cub, so I'll have to get a new radio. Probably a 9C. Kinda sucks. The old radio had pretty low "total time". Probably only burned 4-5 gallons of fuel over the past 10 years (maybe 2-3 10 years ago, on my 3rd now since relearning to fly this year)

Seems to be a problem with channel 4 and 5 in the transmitter. The rudder goes hard over, and responds to the gear switch instead of the rudder switch. I tried it with the Decathlon reciever/servos and get the same result. []

I had spend about 30 minutes tuning the engine (low speed needle), taxied out, and the rudder just went hard over. Thank goodness it happened on the ground!!![X(]

I'm glad you didn't have a problem in the air with your transmitter. At a fly in yesterday, there was a similar problem with a 1/4 scale clipped wing Cub and the rudder went full left. The fellow flying it kept it level and landed it with no damage in the "tall grass" whil going around in circles. Whew! Exceptional save on that one.

I love my 9C! It can do way more than I can so, I've got room to grow.

I was thinking of getting a 9C, since I'm starting to get a number of models. But not this soon after the holidays! []

I'm gonna open it up, since it's dead anyway. I'm reading a pretty good explanation of how radios work http://www.torreypinesgulls.org/Radios.htm maybe I can figure something out.

It seems pretty obvious that my transmitter is adding the PW from channel 4 and 5 together, or something to that effect. But I'm sure the problem will be on the microscopic level.

I just picked up an old AM system at a swap meet that I can use if I have to.

Ok, I got the fuel tank mounted, that was a PITA, because in typical ARF fasion, it's a tight squeeze to fit in, and they don't really have much provision for foam insulation. The instructions talk about using styrofoam from the packaging. I used the soft foam block that was used to pad the rear of the fuse. It's no styro, but a closed cell soft foam. Cut it into various blocks to line the cavity as best I could. Seems to work OK. It's wedged in there pretty good.

Mounted up EVERYTHING except the decals, and checked the balance. It's bang on, within the accuracy limits of GP balance jig. No weight needed. Radio and battery should be dead center in the fuse. Sweet.[8D]

an 11x6 will work good, it did on my old version.

Ok, the plane is basically finished now. I put the stripes on the bottom, got my 9C, aileron differential set up, etc... just waiting for good weather.[]

So, here are the pics, probably the last ones before I get it out to fly. It really is a great looking airplane, I'm very happy.

And... more pics

I think it's much much better looking than the Seagull model, and practically on par with the CG or Dynaflite. Obviously not perfect, but pretty darn scale for a cheap sport 40 sized plane. Hopefully it flies as good as it looks!

Looks fantastic! Great job on the build..... I hope the weather gives you a break soon up there...I know you hope so too

Good looking wheel pants too! Did you do the starburst scheme or did they supply a decal for that? They look great!

Yup, the starburst is included as a decal. The pants are very nice fiberglass parts. I used Dubro wheel pant mounts instead of using the plywood/screw method.

As you can see, I'm using a Dubro refueling valve, and a switch with charge jack on the bottom. I like putting them on the bottom so they aren't visible, I don't know why most people seem to put them on the side. Am I missing something?

If I can find a high temp white paint, I might paint the muffler. I'll likely paint the struts and landing gear white eventually.

Also, the plane looks a lot like one flown by Andy Koontz in airshows. He has a few large sponsor decals down on the white part under the canopy. I might use that as justification for putting a few down there. It's a little plain looking. Just the included Thunder Tiger Decal, maybe Futaba, whatever.

I'm not quite sure what to do with the antenna. I don't want to run it up to the top of the rudder. If I run it through the fuse, it will still hang out about a foot past the rear, and drag on the rudder in flight, which probably isn't cool.

The last time I routed an antenna "to length" I used some plastic pushrod tubes to guide the antenna forward on the port side, then across to the starboard side, then down to the bottom of the fuse then out. It's amazing how quickly a few little runs like that will eat up some of the length.

I watched Greg Koontz fly his Super Decathlon at an airshow I my club participated in a couple of years ago and was amazed! I've been hung up on the Decathlon ever since...

Good work!

Is it ok to route it around the fuse like that? I've got an antenna tube that is very flexible, and as long as the antenna. So I could route it up front then back, no problem. But wouldn't that decrease the range?

The next plane I'd like to build, is a Spitfire, in a smaller size like this, but very much scale, like this. I'd love a Kyosho Spitfire, but it's not made anymore. The WM doesn't look so good to me. I only have room for smaller planes, and I like being as scale as possible. But nobody makes a nice Spit anymore.

I've done the "creative routing" thing on 3 planes and have never had a glitch on them. When I route the antenna, I make sure I keep it at different heights with the tubes. I don't know if that makes a difference. I know of some people with the small electrics that actually use an "antenna bobbin" to shorten it. I can't see doing that myself, but, most of those guys never get more than a hundred feet away from themselves anyway. There may be another option. The helicopter guys use an aftermarket mast type of antenna. Like the one here. http://www.wsdeans.com/products/antenna/piece.html It could be completely hidden down in the fuselage even...

As with TR1 I like putting the plastic tube down the fuselage and leaving a small amount sticking outside of the plane!!! I have never had any range checking problem with this!

As with the WSDEANS antenna...I have one, and have tried to use it on two different balsa planes and never could get it to range check!!!! But the helicopter guy's use them and they work great!!!

Big disclaimer here...I am not an antenna expert but in the Old days of CB (1971 to 1973) before the trucker's when CB was alot of fun...the big thing for getting range was the "Ground Plane". The taller the antenna the more ground plane area you had to have!!!!

To put this in perspective maybe the heli guy's have more metal to reflect the signal than the balsa guy's do?

God I am getting old!!!!

Yep! HOOTER's the only person I know that still has a working 8-track besides myself. BUT! He has C.W. McCall's only hit, "Convoy" on it! I've seen and heard it. (He won't admit it but, he also has "Disco Duck" too[:'(].)

He's so old, he voted for Nixon, he still has bellbottom pants (with cuffs), and still has "big hair"! Well, maybe it ain't so big but, it's bigger than my hair[X(]...

Oh yeah, he's so old, he thinks glasspack mufflers are still cool too!

What do you think of this Decathlon Jimmy? I'm liking it!

The ground plane thing has possibilities. The turbine guys use the Deans type antenna as well, but they've got a lot of metal and wiring. The boat guys use them too but, the water makes a good ground plane. Helicopters definately have more metal/carbon in them. Hmmm... Might be a good question in the radio forum.

I just let mine dangle a little bit. The antenna that is...

Does this plane use 2 elavater servos? and is that a pull pull on the rudder? can you post a pic of the completed radio compartment. thanks for the great write up i was hell bent on the seagull but i now want the TT you should be on their pay roll thanks!

No, single elevator servo. Yes, it does have pull-pull. It's my first time on that, and I like it alot. Light, and slop free.

I'll work on getting some pics of the radio compartment. I haven't quite figured it out yet.

One thing I always have trouble with is what is the best way to secure the battery and reciever in an ARF? They usually don't build any form of box or anything. I usually end up screwing in hook-eyes somewhere and using rubber bands.

If the Rx and battery are in between the tank and the servo tray, try using plain old kitchen sink type sponges. Cut one to fit the bottom of the bay, cut the next one with holes to fit the Rx and battery, top it off with another uncut one to cover the middle one with the parts in it. It builds kinda like a salami sandwich but, you have to put your own peppers (Rx and battery) in the salami part. Top it off with a little bit of balsa stick stock seasoned with thick CA to the fuselage sidewalls... Yummmy! Like a homemade version of this http://www.jtecrc.com/pillowPacks.htm but tastier...

I saw individual control horns on the elevater thats why i made the assumption of 2 servos can yopu explain how the system works with one servo and 2 control horns. thanks!

The elevator pushrod had two wires coming out the back, so it's like a Y.