Well i broke my little tiger trainer. went to pull some tail weights out and snapped the rear former. so i picked up this hobbistar bird as a replacement(im fixing the tiger, but thats gonna take some work.

i have to say, this is a nice bird. not shure what she flies like, but the build went great. only problem i have is the crappiness of the hardware package. i swear every screw ive tried has stripped, and half the part for the landing gear required some serious modification(they put the wrong gera in......i ended up using another set for the rear). the build quality on the actual plane is excelent though. i realy like the fact its covered in monokote and not the crap ass polyester stuff(ive hade to recover to horizintal stabs due to structural issues one other planes, im not impressed with the sticker crap). i got frustrated with it last night, so i didnt get to finish it. hopefuly this afternoon shell be airworthy. maybe i can talk my instructor into at least testing her out for me tommorow.


I also have to commend my LHS on this. i had originaly bought an lt-40, but it was broken. i was given this in trade(it was a little more.)
I wont talk about prices, but he has earned my loylty from now on. even if it means 50-100 more, i will buy from don still's hobby haven as much as possible now. hes a good man, and runs a great little shop over in beaumont. if anyones passing through this area, i highly recommend a pit stop there. hes been in that location for 50 or so years now, and has an impressive collection in his store.

is there a reason NOT to mount a motor inverted? does it make life more difficult, or is it just as simple as running it verticaly?

heheh guess noone realy cared. plane is odne except an ounce of nose weight it needs.

hopefuly it will maiden on tuesday

From my experience watching others, some engines don't like being mounted and started inverted, but like 99% are fine with that. The reason for mounting a engine inverted is to make it fit in the cowlspace provided by the height of the fuse. Most of the time, the empty space is under the engine mount, so thus mounting upside down is better in some ways...in a trainer, it isn't necessary...plus, you have to deal with putting the glow ignitor on upside down, so usually, when looks aren't a factor, the engine is mounted in the most convienent positon, which is usually right side up or sideways (so the exahust blows away from the airplane when using a sport muffler)

i just stuck it in verticaly. i was trying to avoid cutting to big of holes, but the vertical position ended up best for that anyways

If you're still learning to fly, you'll probably be glad you mounted the engine upright. When you have a slightly 'nose down' landing you're better off not having the carb and head hanging down there to take the impact. I also think a trainer would look a little funny with an inverted engine.

the way this nose is setup, it would have looked like i didnt have an engine except the pipe lol. I realy hope this TT 46 pro pulls this plane around right. The guy at my LHS(who has been doing this for more than a few years..) is the one who told me it would work. i trust him, but i have a feeling its going to be slower than Xmas....

Wait, you have a .46 in a .60 plane!?!?!? With that setup, I don't think it will barely get off the ground, or it will be REALLY underpowered.

well i thought so to BUT. its the less wing area and lighter than the kadet lt-40 is. the only difference is its a longer fuse with more tail. i dont know what will happen we'll see on tuesday. if it doesnt work ill stick the 60 i have coming in soon on it when it comes in

I suspect it will fly just fine with the 46. It will not be a powerhouse but a trainer probably shouldn't be overpowered.
I had the "MKII" version with a TT61Pro. I will not say it was tremendously overpowered but it did have pretty spirited performance. I had to move the battery waaaaay back and add a slight amount of tail weight for balance.

I have one of the older ones with the crap-kote stick on covering and put an OS 60 FP on it and it was just about the right amount of power. After the cylinder liner peeled out of the OS I put a MDS 78 on it to break it in. Talk about nice! I just need to recover the plane now that the covering is falling off. Now where did you say that hobby shop is??

its in beaumont actualy. im not shure how far away laporte is(down past galveston isnt it?). The place is called don stills hobby Haven. Hes been there 54 years(the man is actualy a former control line world champion.......hes cool to talk to.). if you need help finding the place tell me and i can get you good directions