same thing happend to me fuel tank split. just replaced it with Dubro.

Flew the Aresti today for the first time (see Avitar)

Wow!

So much better than the trainer. Easy to land, too, once you figure out how to slow it down - it's really aerodynamically clean. I was kinda nervous about going too slow on the approach, but this Aresti is tame at low speed. It was a good day at the field - lots of crosswind landing practice with the Avistar and when the wind went away, I was ready to step up.

I think the Aresti is easier to land than a trainer - given the option to go around if I'm coming in too hot. But if it's a dead-stick, I may be in trouble.

I got in some knife-edge, rolls, loops, inverted passes, plus a fellow member showed me how to do snap rolls. That was fun. This thing snaps really fast - almost too much fun. Stalls are at a slow speed and predictable - falling gently to the left perhaps because the muffler is on that side?

I used the stock pushrods and everything worked OK except the instructions led me to place the elevator and rudder clevises too close together. If I put the rudder clevis on the outer-most hole in the horn it scrubs the elevator clevis.

I think the elevator throw recommendations are a little light. What do the rest of you think? On low rates, full-up loops are pretty big. On High rates at high speed, there is no tendancy to snap on full-up, and the loops are still not tight. I suppose this plane may not be designed for tight loops.

Using OS 46FX with 11x6. It's not quite broken-in, so I'm still running it a bit rich. Vertical isn't unlimited, but it will go straight up until it's kinda hard to see what it's doing before falling out. I like this engine. It hasn't given any problems being inverted except once when I switched fuel it didn't want to throttle-up until I leaned it some more. It's very quiet and smooth-running. After only 6 tanks of fuel and setting the low-speed needle, I get a nice consistent slow idle. I've heard folks say that the LA engines are easier to operate than the FX. This may be true, but after tuning the FX, it idles, transitions, and runs much better than my 40 LA.

I opened up the covering under the turtle-deck to situate the battery back in there to get a good CG. A square pack wrapped in foam fits snugly under the turtledeck with some home insulation "hard foam" to wedge it into place.

I've read here about nose-over problems with this plane. I didn't see any such tendancies.

I read where you replaced the stock tank - recommend a dubro or sullivan.
I am putting together an Aresti ( my 1st ARF).

is the tank supposed to mate up with the hole in the fuselage ?
It appears the stock tank would do this.
If I use either a Dubro or Sullivan I don';t see how to do this.

Could you tell me how you installed the replacement tank?

Did you install a support bracket for the tank to sit on OR just wrap the entire thing with foam to hold the tank in place?

Did you do anything to the large hole in the firewall to prevent fuel getting back into the tank compartment?

thanks for all the good advice

eddie

I used a Dubro 8oz. I wrapped it with foam and taped over the foam with packaging tape. Then I ran the lines out the hole in the fuse. I inserted it into the nose while rotated 90deg to get it past the former (it is wider than it is high). Once past the former, I rotated back to proper position.

To hold it in place, I cut a piece of 3/4" hard foam home wall insulation - the kind they nail to the frame and then put siding over. With the foam in place, it doesn't move around. The former holds it forward and the foam holds it up.

I also used the same foam to wedge the battery in place in the rear.

I didn't do anything about the large hole in the former because I'd like to be able to remove the tank. You may want to consider fuelproofing the inside of the tank compartment.

For the radio switch, I just used a scrap wire from the pushrods bent 90deg on each end. One end goes into the switch and the other is out the fuse side.

A Hobbico Volt Watch is taped inside against the white Ultracote above the wing. It's visible when the radio is on. Cool.

ciao

Ciao
Thanks for the info - I was considering hard foam under the tank to hold it up - sounds like that's what you did -thanks

As for the hole - I'm talking about the one in the firewall - the motor mount surrounds it ( not the former behind the tank).
Do you just leave it as is or try to seal up that hole.

It will be very easy to stick the fuel tubing through - but do I have to worry about fuel or exhaust leaking back through this into the fuel tank compartment
It was my assumption that the intent of the manufacturer was to stick the fuel tank cap into this hole thus plugging it while mounting the tank, but if I use an aftermarket tank I can not do that.

thanks again for the help.

eddie

Oh, That hole! Nope - it's still open. I'll keep an eye on things to see if gunk starts coming back into the tank compartment. So far, no problem. You're right about the tank nose fitting there. I don't think the stock tank seals the hole anyway - it's just something to fix the tank's location. I ran the brass tubes into the hole, so I guess I'm getting the same location out of it as H9 intended. I've heard of the stock tanks splitting, so Dubro to the rescue.

BTW: A square 600mAh pack wrapped with foam fits nicely tucked into rear of the first turtledeck compartment - right where it needs to be to balance the 46 FX. Then a piece of the same foam snugs it up nicely. I had to cut open the bottom right behind the wing to get it all in there. I didn't have any Ultracote, so I used clear packing tape to repair the hole. Now I can see the battery to make sure it's not moving around.

Others have complained of nose-over tendancies with this plane. I haven't seen even a hint of that. It sits very low to the ground and seems to want to plant it's tail down nicely.

I would be concerned about the landing gear. H9 did a poor job on that. Not only is the gear two-piece, but they only placed one screw on the center-line. Instead of placing two on the outside, they should have placed two on the center. Any hard landings will put a lot of tension force on the one center screw - pulling it through the plate.

I'd do one or more of the following to beef up the LG:

1) put an aluminum plate under the LG to stiffen it up.

2) put a couple more screws on the centerline to help out the single screw.

3) install a single-piece LG.

I had a bouncer of a landing today in 15 mph wind with no problems, but I've heard of folks breaking the LG on a hard landing.

-brad

PS: The "ciao" is italian for "hello" or "bye"

bgi
thanks for the italian lesson ( feel sorta silly)

all this info sure has been a help.

I had already read about the landing gear & have made an aluminum plate but I put it on top (away from fuselage) of the gear.

These messages are the reason I'm installing a Dubro tank
I totally agree about the OEM tank -sure wouldn't want a plane full of fuel. :-)

I like your battery placement. is that the same location I read where one person put his rudder servo to set up a pull-pull rudder. I wondered if he cut through the ultracote on the bottom.
I assume from this that with the OS 46FX your Aresti was tail heavy -do you think you could've gotten by with elevator servos in the tail. If I could do that - I'd cut out the servo tray & put a rudder servo with pull-pull in the center-between where the elevator & rudder servo cut outs are on the stock tray. -what do you think ?

As far as the packaging tape - go to your local pharmacy and ask the R.PH.(pharmacist) to sell you a roll of his "SCOTCH" RX tape. It should be 2 inches wide and don't fool with it if it's not Scotch -there are other cheaper brands. I use it for everything. I've seen prescription bottles several years old & the label looked new - They should all make their tape this good.
I have a 20year old Kadet that was my dad's. I wanted to fly it but the wings felt mushy-I cut the monokote open to look at the spars & just placed tape over the panels to tape the monokote back together. Flew it 3 times then hung it back up. :-)
One of these days I 'm gonna recover the whole plane.

When I get me Aresti flying - I'll sure remember the nose-over tendency

Thanks again for all the valuable help. I'll keep reading this forum
Eddie

Eddie,

Not tail-heavy. It was nose-heavy. That's why I moved the battery back there - to move the CG back towards the tail. Mine still needs the CG moved back a bit more - it takes too much down to maintain inverted flight.

There's really no getting into the turtledeck without cutting out the Ultracote on the bottom. Prior to cutting out the covering, I fiddled with the battery for 30 minutes and gave up. Putting a pull-pull rudder servo in there is way more difficult. But it would be a piece of cake to put a pull-pull in place of the two in the standard tray.

I really can't say if this plane needs a pull-pull. I did some knife-edge circuits today. I kept mostly full rudder (by-the-book high rates) and throttle all the way around the pattern but couldn't tell if the rudder was being blown back. The plane has Futaba 3004's all the way around. I'll get out the servo load spreadsheet tonight and see if that servo is enough for this rudder. It won't even come close to a knife-edge loop. But hey, it's not a 3D plane, it's a pattern trainer!

My guess is that if you put two elevator servos in the tail and put the battery up front you will still need some lead in the nose unless you install a OS 50 SX or similar heavy engine (4-stroker). I guess it depends on how far back you put the servos. This plane isn't a 3D plane - isn't designed for it. After 8-10 flights I feel that the published elevator high rates are not quite enough to make it really jump through the loops, but it doesn't need much more to tighten them up. There's no tendancy to tip stall in a tight loop - but I can tell I need some lead in a wing to balance laterally.

Scotch RX tape, eh? The tape I put on there is Scotch. It's holding up fine. I'll have to take it off tonight to see if I can put that battery behind the next fuse former.... Funny that all that sawdust I made is now stuck on the tape.

I wouldn't worry much about any nose-over tendancy. I'm thinking those guys left the plane in a severe nose-heavy balance!

Off to make a LG plate and move a battery. Except for the LG, nice plane, H9!

thanks bgi
I really had my thinking screwedup on the CG
Guess I was wishing to strong.

H9 recomends an MDS 58 and putting the battery in front of the
servo tray. I'm gonna hafta compare the weight of it & sn OS FX46 - not that it matters too much as I've already bought the OS for this plane :-). I'll just live with whatever balance problems when I get there.

I sure don't want to cut that pretty covering and having read your knife-edge results I'm probably gonna try the recomended setup but use ny-steel rods instead of their dowels.

Eddie

My OS 46 FX is pushed as far forward as it will go on the supplied engine mount to provide good spinner/cowl clearance. It took a good bit of dremel sanding drum work in the cowl to make room for the carb. Yours will probably balance the same.

Hey - try this: You may be able to get the battery in the turtledeck without cutting the covering if you put it in there before you install the pushrods. I tried to do it with the dowels in place. Heck, the covering on the bottom isn't seen much anyway. When I come down the pattern in knife-edge with the bottom showing, you can't even tell it has the clear tape there...

Be careful when you install the rudder/elev horns. The directions will lead you to clevis interference.

Another thought: try a lighter engine mount. The H9 mount is metal.

I've got the motor temporialy installed to look at the cowl.
I see the carb clearance problem. I was worried about the cowl splitting after I remove the excess. Only time will tell.

The diff motor mount is a GOOD idea. I'm not crazy about clamp type mount anyway. It appears from what you said that you used teh H9 motor mount. Have you had any tendency for the motor to work loose or is this clamping method a secure mount?

I'll try the battery & let you know if it fits.

I'll be out of town until Thursday so It won't be until then.

Great chatting with you .

Later
Eddie

The cowl is glass. I'm not worried.

I haven't had a problem with the mount. I got it pretty tight and bent the clamp really good in the rear. I would think that if it would be a problem then we'd be hearing about it from others on the forums. Some folks prefer the mount. It's the first H9 metal mount I've used. It tends to turn the plane into a musical instrument - echoing the engine vibration.

I bought a GP mount but didn't use it because the pre-installed holes didn't line up. If I wasn't in such a hurry to get something besides the trainer in the air, I might have taken the time to install the GP mount. It would have taken a few ounces off the weight. I guess I still can do that as a way of taking off some weight and moving the CG back.

I did drill a couple more holes to allow access to the muffler screws. I was thinking of adding one more to get to the low-speed idle, but I removed the cowl to adjust that.

Great chatting with you, too.

-brad

An easy way to move the battery aft in the radio compartment is to simply stick it (flat pack) to the wing as far aft as possible. I've done it to both my Aresti and Magic. There is enough clearance above / below the servos. With the Magic I servo taped it to the top of the wing and added a rubber band and hook loop set up. ( Go to the Photo Gallery and search on my user name to see pics). On the Aresti I opted for the even simpler method. Zap-Goo'd it to the top of the wing! Goo remains relatively pliable and cushions against vibration. And it will peel off with a little effort, in case your plane outlasts the battery, or vise-versa. So far so good!

Sounds cool, but mine is currently about 6" behind the wing and needs to go further back!

swlarcham, as far as the firewall hole that you were concerned about just get a caulking gun and fill the hole up with silicone.

When I use an after market tank I run the tubing through the large hole and then use silicone to fill in around the tubing. It blocks anything from coming into the main compartment.

If you ever need to gain access through the hole for any reason the silicone can be removed with ease.

Randy

The wing joiner of my US60 was loose as well. A little epoxy and microballoons fixed 'er up well.

I'd be willing to bet my joiner will be around long after the rest of the plane's been oblitterated.

You needn't worry about a lose joint, so long as you get a FULL FACING contact from both wing halves, AND make sure you've got PLENTY of epoxy in the joint box.

Hangar9's hung up on single piece wings... it's the one thing keeping me from the US120.

Sigh. At least it's pretty

If you must you could always shim the thing with spruce and veneer sheeting (available from any hardware store). That'd tighten it up.

Anyhow.

I am looking at purchasing an Aresti and am wondering if I could side mount a YS 45 with a pitts muffler without having to cut the cowl up.

Another question is, is anyone having problems running 2 strokes inverted in the Aresti. I am assuming the intructions are to mount the engine inverted.

Thanks,
WOOD

The width of the Aresti cowl might be to narrow to side mount an engine. Truth is my saito 72's width alone almost fills the width of the cowl.

Thanks to everyone for there useful information on the Aresti 40. I'm glad to say that I am finally enjoying mine. I've only got one problem that I have not been able to fix. From straight level flight pulling up to vertical or pull up for a loop my aresti wants to roll out to the left. Lateral balance was checked and added 1/2 oz. weight to right wing tip to balance. experimented with right thrust on engine and adjusted elevator halves. I've made adjustmenst one at a time in order to see if it worked. It has gotten better with these changes but its still not right.

Tested it inverted to vertical or outside loop and the aresti will stay straight.

At first I thout that maybe I was using to much elevator so a I tried a softer touch with low and high rates. no change.

It has been suggested to me that there might be a slight warp in the wing I haven't had a chance to check that yet.

Thanks for any help. Ken

WOOD,

No problem running an OS 46fx inverted in my Aresti. It's been a very good combination. BTW, I'm using a MACs muffler.

TX

Side view

That's a nice lookin' airplane! If I didn't have a lon cold winter ahead of me I'd be getting one of those rather than Builfing an Ultra Sport 40+.

I'm a bit of a newbie, so forgive me if this is a dumb question, bit what is the benefit of the MACS muffler. I just put 7 flights on my trainer with a newly installed OS 46FX and it seemed pretty quiet already!

If you have any questions on this fine plane, simply search for aresti on the search form. Lots of good info with answers to all the questions I've seen in this thread with the exception of the roll problem khutson is having.

David,

I put a MACS muffler on after my stock OS muffler fell apart during a flight. I was never able to find the back half of the stock unit. However, the MACS muffler was available in my local hobby shop and I like the way it works. I think it looks kinda cool too.

TX

Texan,

Thanks for the photos, that is exactly what I needed to see. I think I may try an Aresti with my YS45 and stock muffler. The YS made my ultrastick 40 haul *****, so I'm hoping this will be a little faster. I like pulling rolling vertical lines and not having to stop.

Thanks!
WOOD