Hobby People's VQ-Global 28% Fly Baby ARF
 

I got my Christmas present early. I asked my wife for this airplane, and she agreed. :D

I told her we should get it sooner than later because often times the model gets sold out and can't be gotten again for a very long time.

And it just happened to be on sale at Hobby People right now for $100 bucks off. [8D]

It looks way nicer in person than the advert shows it. One thing about the advert, there is no pilot figure included in the kit.

Taking parts out of the box to inspect them I was first impressed how well the parts were all taped down in multiple places to prevent movement of the parts during shipping. VQ did a great job of packing.

The covering is tight and smooth, so I will not have to go over it with my iron. Unless it loosens after Christmas, lol. It's all gone back into the box until the big day.

Here are some photos of it.

RE: Hobby People's VQ-Global 28% Fly Baby ARF
 

Nice looking model, sweet and loving wife ;)

Karol

RE: Hobby People's VQ-Global 28% Fly Baby ARF
 

I looked for this on the hobby people web site but didn't see it.. Is it just available in store??
Derrick

RE: Hobby People's VQ-Global 28% Fly Baby ARF
 

http://www.hobbypeople.net/index.php...-wingspan.html

;)

RE: Hobby People's VQ-Global 28% Fly Baby ARF
 

Another picture, this is what the inside looks like when you lift off the hatch.

RE: Hobby People's VQ-Global 28% Fly Baby ARF
 

Could you comment on the quality of the covering material? the only VQ models I have seen were some older warbirds and they had the sticky back covering that was pretty hard to work with or repair.

RE: Hobby People's VQ-Global 28% Fly Baby ARF
 

The covering looks great. However, I did notice when I lifted off the hatch and touched the back side of the covering that I could feel the sticky adhesive. It must be heat shrink covering though, as I cannot see it getting applied and tightened so well by just 'tugging' on it?

RE: Hobby People's VQ-Global 28% Fly Baby ARF
 

Well, that's one sweet little plane and it ought to fly great. Just like a Cub with the wing on the bottom, ha, ha. Merry Christmas, if you can wait that long to assemble it!

RE: Hobby People's VQ-Global 28% Fly Baby ARF
 

Ha, thanks Texas! I snuck it into the living room when I took that pic of the insides because I wanted to get a sneak peek of how it will look with the radial engine on the nose that it will be using. :D

RE: Hobby People's VQ-Global 28% Fly Baby ARF
 

Does the wifey know about the radial?????

RE: Hobby People's VQ-Global 28% Fly Baby ARF
 

Oh yes, she knows. It has been on display in a cabinet in our entryway. ;)

RE: Hobby People's VQ-Global 28% Fly Baby ARF
 

I like your cabinet best HAHA:D

RE: Hobby People's VQ-Global 28% Fly Baby ARF
 

now you have to replace it in the display, what are you going to replace it with?

RE: Hobby People's VQ-Global 28% Fly Baby ARF
 

A Moki!

RE: Hobby People's VQ-Global 28% Fly Baby ARF
 

I wouldn't mind an Evo 7-35. ;)

RE: Hobby People's VQ-Global 28% Fly Baby ARF
 

Kmot that's the best use for dining room cabinet's I've seen yet!

RE: Hobby People's VQ-Global 28% Fly Baby ARF
 

Thanks! It was a real coup to get the wife to accept the idea. Then when she saw it all completed, she said "I really like it". :D

RE: Hobby People's VQ-Global 28% Fly Baby ARF
 

I started the assembly a few days ago. First item in the construction manual is to install the horizontal stab. Didn't fit at all. I had to sand the opening on both sides of the fuselage for the middle chord of the stab, and then had to sand the front of the stab itself for the forward part of the opening. Once in place, there is a large gap at the front. I will try to fill it with something.

RE: Hobby People's VQ-Global 28% Fly Baby ARF
 

I used a soldering iron to trim away the covering and then glued in the horizontal stab using 30 minute epoxy.

I used a pin oiler to place oil on the hinge pins to prevent epoxy glue from sticking and then glued in the elevators.

RE: Hobby People's VQ-Global 28% Fly Baby ARF
 

I was looking at the included tailwheel assembly and thought to myself "that looks kind of cheesy" so I decided to install a nice Klett tailwheel assembly I had. Since it mounted forward of where the stock version would have been I had to fabricate a plywood support plate with blind nuts in it and then maneuver it into place through the servo opening.

After it was all installed I thought the tailwheel looked great, but something was not quite right....

Oh yeah, the rudder seems to hang down. I went back to my files and looked at full scale Fly Baby planes and then realized the 'cheesy' tailwheel actually was designed to fill in that gap and at the right angle.

I could easily have removed the Klett and installed the kit tailwheel but I still liked the Klett better. So I fabbed up some 'skirts' to attach to the Klett tailwheel.

And then I installed the rudder.

RE: Hobby People's VQ-Global 28% Fly Baby ARF
 

During the process of installing the horizontal stab, I was confounded by what I thought was a servo mounting area that was just plain balsa. It was discussed here:

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_11343428/tm.htm

Afterwards I started making plywood reinforcement plates for the servo mounting. I cut the plates from left over plywood from a Sig Manufacturing Company kit so I know the plywood is top quality. I then applied some Pacer Z-Poxy and fiberglass cloth to strengthen it even more.

I had to gingerly feed the plates through the openings for the servos, and I used a ruler to hang the plate there while I manipulated a clamp into place. Once I had it clamped I pulled out the ruler. Then I used a popsicle stick as a funnel-like device and dropped medium thick CA glue onto the popsicle stick. It dribbled down around the plate and I then hit it with CA kicker. :D

RE: Hobby People's VQ-Global 28% Fly Baby ARF
 

So yes, I fiberglassed the servo plates, the tailwheel skirts, and all of the flying wire attachment plates.

The flying wire attachment plates are plywood, but I feared they would fall apart fairly quickly with the tugging of a wire on them constantly. So I applied Z-Poxy and 2-ounce weight fiberglass cloth to strengthen them. They are hard as aluminum now, and I also painted them to make them look like aluminum.

After gluing in the attachment plates I started making up the flying wires. The kit supplies a coil of wire, and some pre-cut 2mm aluminum crush tubes. Their idea is to simply fold over the wire and put on a crimper. I wanted better, so I installed clevises and turnbuckles.

RE: Hobby People's VQ-Global 28% Fly Baby ARF
 

Have had some issues with the hardware in this kit. :rolleyes:

The landing gears use pre-installed blind nuts in the fuselage. Three per gear. One of them I could not get the screw into. Not sure whether it had glue residue or some other reason but I had to re-tap it to get the machine screw to go into it.

There are 'spats' that attach to the aluminum landing gears, and the holes to attach the spats are pre-drilled. And they do not match.

Same deal with the wing attaching. Each wing uses one 5mm machine screw and both wings have pre-installed blind nuts and neither one would allow the screw to thread in. I had to re-tap both of those.

Whe I went to install the landing gears, they had pre-drilled holes and on each gear two of the three holes did not match the pre-installed holes and blind nuts on the fuselage. I had to Dremel out the holes on the gears to get them enlarged to allow the machine screws to thread in.

The flat washers included in the hardware package are awful. They are stamped out with jagged edges and off center holes. And the washers meant for the landing gear screws are concave from the die stamping process.

For the wing flying wires to connect and disconnect to the fuselage, they included two jewelry lobster clasps. :)

The control horns included look like the same ones I have seen in .40 - .60 size kits. And they are brittle, and I have seen them fail before. Not suitable at all for a giant scale airplane.

The kit includes some parts for a rudder pull-pull setup. But again it is designed for a smaller airplane and the metal looks thin and weak. The kit is also supposed to include the cable for the pull-pull but it is missing.

So, instead of using this stuff I have placed an order for $60 worth of Dubro heavy duty control hardware to replace it.

RE: Hobby People's VQ-Global 28% Fly Baby ARF
 

While waiting for my Dubro hardware and other supplies to arrive, I killed some time goofing around with the included kit hardware. All of it seems OK to use in a .40 size model. But 1/4 scale? No way, IMHO.

The capacity of the included fuel tank is not listed, so I measured it. It holds ~18 ounces, or 575 milliliters.. I decided to examine the tank clunk and had to laugh at what I found in it. :p

RE: Hobby People's VQ-Global 28% Fly Baby ARF
 

Its a fuel turbulator, it helps align the molecules and get better fuel mileage.....