I will post some pics tomorrow. I ordered the plane then had to go to a estimating class for work. The plane was delevered while i was gone!!! [:@]

But I got home and worked on it on and off this weekend. It is a good ARF the wing went together great. I had to stroke the dehedral brace about 8 time with my file and it went together with no gaps any where. I got the wing completed and mounted and glued the horizonal stab tonight. Very easy lined up great. I'll be done with the plane before I am ready for it...LOL!!!

I guess I will have to build another one soon. Hmmm what to buy?

I am going to grab a glider that is a knock off of the Vista EP to play with too this summer.

I just ordered one too...

I'm eager to see your pic and read your comments about this plane!!!
You could buy something like the showTime or funtana... There also the strega from phoenix that looks great
But, your right... WHAT to buy? There so many lovely planes and so little money [&o]

SDG666

I also have a Phoenix Dolphin, that my dad got me to be my 2nd plane. I have yet to fly it, much less solo on my Hobbico Nexstar ; anyway, I'm eager to read the comments and look at pictures of the build.



TakingFlight96

I think there should be some pics here

Ok I have to figure out how to post a pic

Ok I got the wing together and like I said it went great. Mounting the servo the instructions were not that detailed but I figured it out from the pic. I had to use the dremil to grind the center ribs a little so the servo fit good. The wire comming out of the servo was hitting the center ribs. After it all fit well I epoxyed the assembly into place. I used 30 min epoxy thinned with denatured alcohol and painted the exposed wood before I mounted the servo. I went to put the wing on a noticed the torqe rods hit the wood were the mounting screws went into...so I used the dremil to clear it. I am taking my time with it but I will be done in less than 2 weeks for sure. I am letting everything cure over night before moving on to the next step.

I threw in a pic of my superstar. The poor thing is so beat up...but still flys and I am on my way to fly her some more!!

How have you made your craddle for your plane... it's kinda usefull in the building time as your plane is more stable and can be put in every side...

The craddle I use is a store bought deal it made of foam and costs about $11.

Hey how (and where) is the main landing gear attached to the Dolphin, and would it be easy to upgrade to a heavier-duty gear?

Thanks.

just a little bit ahead the leading edge of the wing... You need to remove a little bit of covering to find the spot

And it's possible to change the landing gear but a little bit hard 'cause we lack of space...

Good luck

Here.. I've scanned the manual pages for you!!!

Thank you SO MUCH!!! That was really nice of you. I've been struggling to find the manual online. I just bought the Dolphin I also bought the DuBro landing gear from Tower. Does it look like there's enough reinforcement to the landing gear area for this, or does it look like I'll need to add some strength? Does it look difficult?

Thanks.

This could be possible, but you'll need to add reinforcement inside... posssible but a little bit tricky, due to the lack space.
Your landing gear is a dural landing gear? if your able to do so... could you explain me how you manage to do so?

P.S.:I could scan you the entire manual and send it to you with regular email... it's a PDF

This thread's got my super psyched for my Dolphin!!!

sdg666,
sent you a PM with email info. Thanks. I got the Dubro Super Strength landing gear, not the Dural (think this looks better; I'm doing this 90% for looks and 10% for more strength on a wavy grass strip) Here's link to the gear: http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXNM65

Thanks again.

I put that same Dubro gear on My GP Revolver thinking that it might work better than stock. It was so springy that the plane bounced like a basketball no matter how gently you touched down. I quickly went back to the factory setup. It might work batter on another plane or a grass strip though. I'd give the stock wire gear a shot first. It might work great. Simple is usually better.

I just glued up my wing halves. No sanding was needed - the wing joiner plate was a nice tight fit, and there are no gaps between the wing halves. I used 30min epoxy on the wing joiner and on 80% of the root ribs on each wing. I used 5 min epoxy at the very front edge and the very trailing edge of each root rib, so I could hold the wings perfectly in line while the 5 min epoxy dried, holding the wings in place for the 30 min epoxy to set.

The Dubro landing gear doesn't look as good as I thought it would, and is also wider at the fuse base than I thought. Looks like I might go with the stock gear until a better idea comes across (fabricating landing gear pants that extend from the fuse to the wheel out of lite ply?)

Keep us posted on this assembly, Traski and whoever else is assembling a Dolphin. I like this post.

Well I'm installing that Dubro Super Strength Landing Gear. It actually is a perfect fit - the rear edge of the gear is set where the wings meet the fuse, so it's lined up on the former that supports the wing loading. The front of the gear then sits right over the front edge of the hardwood block that is installed for the stock gear. I tapped two holes through that block, into the reinforcement blocks, and added some CA to harden the wood. I'm also going to put one more support piece between the hardwood block and the wing former, just for some more strength. So the nylon bolts are near the leading edge of the landing gear (which is the part that would want to be pulled down in any kind of forward encounter with the ground, and the rear part, again, is pressed against the wing loading former, which would be pushed toward the fuse in a ground encounter. Should be plenty strong.

There's a guy at my field with 2 pairs of the same gear and he said it works great on the grass strip we have.

And, it looks AWESOME!!! Wish I had a camera

That's seem to be a nice little modification! I would like se see pictures af that!
Would you use the tires that came with it... I think I'm gonna change it for rubber one about 2½ or 2¾ for the main a sizing up the tail one to help in grass runway!

Yeah I'm working on getting different tires. I have some 2.5in foamies that are now the mains. when I get some more $$$ I'll probably do 3" in the front, and something a little bigger than stock on the rear. I'll try to get a pic, it looks pretty cool with the new gear.

Still need to decide if two 1/4-20 nylon bolts are enough, of if I need to put in a third.

I think that the nylon bolt will be enought... except if you want to modify the controls surfaces to do something a little bit more little 3D

The nylon bolts I was talking about are for the upgraded landing gear

In this case you sould put 3 of them... more stable... put them in a triangular pattern.. 2 in front 1 at the back... so it will forgive some hard landing!

Here are the pics of my Dolphin with the Dubro Super Strength landing gear. I painted the gear white, and drilled out successively larger holes down the sides to reduce the weight.
2 nylon bolts in the gear have been holding up VERY well. Also have some extra holes drilled out of the mounting plate, which at first were by accident, but now act as weight reducing holes. I've had some hard landings after some weird radio interference, and it doesn't phase the gear.

I know we were talking about changing the wheels. I would keep with foam wheels as they are lighter. 2.5" from my Nexstar have been working very well for me on the short grass runway, but I could see using 2.75 or even 3" just for looks, mostly because of the beefed up gear. Also my tail wheel has been fine, but again I could see going to the next size.

I think I have extra prop clearance with the new gear. Doesn't look bad though. I've been using a master airscrew 11x5. It jumps off the line, and I definitely have to kill the throttle in a climb before it's uncomfortably too high. I'm not sure about turning a 12" prop with the 46AX - I've been advised not to bother due to very noticeable loss of RPM by many people.

This thing is a blast! I've already banged it up a little, so it now has a black canopy and an extra sticker or two, but still looks and flies great. I did my first two knife edges today. Have to keep the speed up, but it does them VERY well. I balanced my CG based on inverted flight characteristics, to where I need about 1/4 to 1/3 down elevator to keep it flying level while inverted. Very easy to fly the pattern inverted with this plane. Rolls are very smooth, not too slow (definitely not blazing fast) and loops are plenty tight now that I've got the rudder trimmed properly.

The only thing I have to work on is speed control - I'm apparently landing pretty darn hot according to the club instructors. They flew it and said there's not much transition between idle and faster speed. I think it might just need getting used to the lower flying weight than the Nexstar. One or Two clicks above idle might be all I need to land this plane, but I've been trying to land closer to 1/4 throttle, just because I thought that's what landing under power meant, and what you are supposed to do. Because of this, there is a tendency for the plane to balloon when it gets near the runway, due to the 'ground effect' I'm told, and because I'm flying in too fast. Practice, practice, practice.

This plane is fun, I love it sooooooo much

Also, you can see behind my plane the tall grass I accidentally landed in last week. Doesn't look to harmful but it was enough to split the plane into 2 pieces!

Just adding some photos of the mods I made to my dolphin.

First off I got rid of the "gay lumberjack" pilot and sparyed the inside of the canopy black.

Then I added a fibreglass undercarriage, which I sparyed with metalic blue which matches the blue oracover perfectly! I had this can by luck as my car is that colour!

having great fun throwing this toy around the sky!!!!
If your thinking of getting one, just do it, slam in an os 55ax and do some stress free flights. Its so cheap it cant be worried about if you dent it!