RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

StevL,
The Sig 4-stars are good kits to build, as well as the Sig Something Extra. The 4-star's are probably a better second plane though. Give them a look and see if you like them. I've never built one yet, but I've talked to plenty of people who have built them. Sig makes very high quality kits.

Yes, I can do custom graphics. PM me with what you are looking for and I can help you out.

Ken

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

I hope that I don't cause any cardiac problems with anybody reading this out there. I mean look at this, 4 posts in just a few days. Wow!!!! I bet you didn't know that I could do it did you?? I do want to make a small note and an apology though. I am starting to get to were I am being affected by the pictures that were lost on my memory card. The pictures for some of these posts won't be as complete as I would have hoped, but I'll do my best to explain better and try to use other pictures if I can to fill in the gaps.

Moving on now. As we work towards completely assembling the plane in order to balance the plane keep in mind that a large part of what we assemble will come back off in order to cover the plane, but not everything. It helps to know what comes back off and what doesn't. The reason for this is simple, if it comes back off we don't have to make a “final attachment.� That's a little bit of a goofy term, but I hope it makes sense. For instance, the landing gear needs to come back off to cover the plane so we can just kind of slap them on there and we don't need to make sure they are completely tight. The same thing with the engine, it comes back off so all we need to do is mount it there. But things like the engine mount will stay in place when we cover the plane, so we can go ahead and make our final mounting. I explain that so that parts of this step make sense to you all.

We're going to work on the engine compartment now. I'm going to mount the engine mount and the front landing gear mount. As I said above, these will stay on as we cover the plane so we can mount these as we would on our final assembly. The engine mounts and the front gear mount are secured using machine screws that will tighten into the blind nuts that we installed on the backside of the firewall as we were building the fuselage. On these metal to metal fasteners I prefer to use a little Locktite to secure them so that don't back out with some vibration. Small attention to details like there are what helps build a plane that you can fly hundreds of flights on without hardly any problems. Anyway, in case you don't know what Locktite is , it's a sort of glue type compound that you put on the threads of your screw before you put it in. When it dries it will “glue� the screw in place so it won't vibrate loose and back out. You can find it at any auto parts store, Wal-Mart, or you local Lowe's/Home Depot. There are two types of Locktite, blue and red. You'll want to get the blue because it will let you remove the screw even after it dries. Only use the red Locktite if you want the screw permanently in place, because once it dries you won't be able remove the screw every again. It's almost as good as welding it in place. A bottle the size shown in picture #1 will last you quite a long time. I think I've had this bottle for a year or so and it's still over half full! Picture #2 shows putting a little bit of Locktite on the screw. Put a few drops on the screw, and then wait for a few minutes to let it start to harden a little bit, and then screw it in place. Pictures #3, #4, and #5 show the motor mounts and the landing gear mount in place. I'm sorry I don't any better pictures than this but those are some that were left. Make sure when you mount the motor mounts you get them on the correct sides. They are pre-drilled from earlier when we marked and drilled the mounts. The flanges on the mounts should be on the outside of the mounts (picture #3 and #4).

With the mounts in place we can go ahead and start preparing the front landing gear too. Picture #6 shows the wheel collars that we'll use to secure the wheel on the landing gear. Be careful when you take them out because the have a small set screw that secures them in place, and these set screws are really easy to lose. And trust me, if you drop them and they hit the floor it can take HOURS to find them. Murphy's law, they will always bounce into the most difficult place to see and will be impossible to retrieve if you do find them!!!! I was really impressed with the quality of the hardware that came with this Sig kit, they even included an allen wrench to secure the set screws with.. If they aren't in the wheel collar go ahead and put a set screw into the wheel collars (picture #7). Make sure that you don't put in too far or you won't be able to slip it over the axle on the gear. Just put them in enough to keep them there. When we mount the wheel on the landing gear you'll want to put a collar on each side of the wheel. This is absolutely needed because if you don't the wheel will hit the upright on the landing gear. Reference picture #8 to see what I mean. After you have the inside of wheel collar on axle go ahead and slip the wheel on, and then we can slip the out wheel collar on. Now here is something that I've found really throw a lot of people, how tight to make the wheel collar on the axle next to the wheel. I've seen beginners error on both choices here, they either make it too tight or too loose. If you tighten the collar too tight it will keep the wheel from turning freely. But if the collar is too loose there will be room between the wheel and the collar, which give the wheel room to “slop� around. This will cause undue where on the wheel and cause the hole in the wheel to “wallow out�. You wan to put the collar on just loose enough so that the wheel can spin freely, but not have any room for the wheel to move side to side on the axle.

The last thing I'm going to cover here is getting the hardware together for mounting the nose gear on the plane. Look at picture #9 and you'll see what we need to find. The items here are the control arm, brass insert for the control arm, a set screw for the control arm, an EZ connector, retainer for the connector, and a set screw for the connector. Sometimes the control arm will come assembled with the brass insert already in place, but if it's not assembled you'll need to put it together. Just slip the collar in the control arm making sure you line up the screw holes. The other item at the top of the picture is an extra wheel collar. It didn't come with the kit so you'll need to pick some extras up at your LHS, or order some on your next order to Tower Hobbies. I'll explain what we're going to use it for in my next post, I just wanted to point out now that we'll be using one. Take the EZ connector and push it into a hole on the control arm, don't worry about which one you're putting it in right now because we'll more than likely be moving it later on as we start adjusting the throws of our radio prior to flying. Once you have the EZ connector through the control arm, use the black plastic retainer to secure it in place. Push the retainer on the shaft of the connector and use a set of pliers to set it in place, which will tighten up the connector on the control arm keeping the connector tightly in place on the arm. Lastly put the set screw into the top of the EZ connector.

In our next post wheel continue with mounting the front landing gear in place

Let's wrap this post up because once again I'm out of picture room here.

Pictures
1. Blue Locktite, used to secure machine screws in place.
2. Apply blue Locktite onto a screw
3. Motor mounts and front landing gear mount in place
4. Motor mounts and front landing gear mount in place
5. Front landing gear mount in place
6. Wheel collars, set screws, and allen wrench to tighten set screws
7. Insert the set screws into the wheel collar
8. Mount the wheel with a wheel collar on each side of the wheel
9. Hardware need to mount front landing gear
10. Assembled front gear hardware.


Until next time

Ken

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

Yep, another post here so soon. Actually, the reason I am being able to update so much right now is because I am waiting for glue to dry. Since I use wood glue to build with there are times that I have to sit and wait for a bit while the glue dries. In some circumstances you can do prior planning so that you can work on something else while the glue dries on another part. But right now I've got the wing laid out and I'm doing the starting structure of the wing. This is on the Dynaflite Super Decathlon that I'm building next. The right wing half is 44-1/2�!! Yep, a 89� wingspan. But anyway, because the structure of the wing is just starting and it takes up so much of the building board it's actually hard for me to work on something else. No big deal though, because it gives me a good chance to catch up here on this build thread.

To continue on from our last post, we'll continue putting together the front landing gear. We already have the wheel mounted on the axle, so now we can mount the front landing gear into the gear mount that we previously mounted in the engine compartment. Picture #1 is just a little better picture of what the assembled hardware of the control arm looks like. And in picture #2 you can see that we have removed the set screw from the control arm. You don't actually have to remove the screw, but at least loosen the screw so that it will slip over the landing gear wire. If you notice the landing gear mount you will see that it is made up of an upper and lower “loop� of plastic that the landing gear slips into, and there is an open area in the middle of the mount. This open area is where the control horn will go into. To assemble the gear place the control horn into the middle slot of the mount, and then insert the landing gear from the bottom and push it upwards. Referring to picture #3 there are two things that we want to pay attention to. First is the spring coil of the landing gear, you want this coil on the backside of the landing gear, you want it this way in order for the landing gear to “flex� backwards to give is some spring to absorb shocks and bumps. If this coil isn't facing to the rear you'll run a real good chance of ripping the front gear off with a “less than perfect� landing. The second thing to notice is the gap between coil and the bottom of the fuselage. The amount of the gap will be determined when the plane is fully assembled as this will adjust the height of the front of the plane. You can raise or lower the nose of the plane, but you definitely want to make sure there is a gap there. You want to gap so that the coil doesn't hit the bottom of the fuselage as the gear flexes and bend backwards. Pictures #4 and #5 also show the gap you need between the coil and the bottom of the fuselage.

If you remember from my last post I mentioned that we were going to use an extra wheel collar in the mounting of the front landing gear. Here is where we are going to use it. This wheel collar is a “Murphy Preventer�!! Remember that Murphy says that anything that can go wrong will go wrong. This is especially true for RC aircraft. Here for the front gear that means that if you only have one screw securing something that screw will loosen up and whatever it's holding in will fall off. Looking at pictures #4 and #5 you can probably already see where I'm going with this one. Looking at the landing gear in those pictures you can see that there is only one set screw holding the landing gear in the mount, and if that screw loosens up the gear will simply slip out and fall off the plane, and will more than likely fall in the tallest thickest grass at your field thus ensuring you will never find them again!! The wheel collar will be used as a second device securing the gear on the plane. Look at pictures #6-#9 and you'll see how this is mounted. It's pretty simple really. There is a bit of the landing gear wire extending above the landing gear mount, and what we are going to do is slip the wheel collar over the gear above the mount and tighten the set screw. Doing this will definitely help to prevent lost landing gear. Ask how I know. I've lost more than one gear because I only had one screw holding it in. Hopefully by passing this on to you I can prevent your being grounded because you lost the gear while in flight. Plus, landing a plane with no front landing gear makes for added gray hair!!!!

The last thing we need to do here is drill out the hole for the landing gear pushrod. This pushrod will extend back up through the fuel tank compartment and attach to the rudder servo. The instructions are a little vague on exactly where to drill this hole. Other sources I have read will tell you to drill the hole directly behind where you will be connecting the pushrod to the control horn. I don't like that advice because it then limits where you can move the connection to if you need to move where the connector on the control horn. You'll need to be able to move the connector in order to adjust the amount of throw you have in the control, in this case it will be the steering of the front wheel. Most of the time you will have too much throw in the wheel, and this pretty much the mistake that beginners make a lot of the time. You don't want to have huge amounts of throw in the steering as this can make for some pretty wild take off runs. Instead you only want the front wheel to turn only about 5°-15°. A little experimentation as you start flying this plane will help you decide how much or little is right for you. This is why you need to allow for adjustments down the road. At this point some will mention that you could just adjust the amount of throw with a computer radio. This is bad advice for two reasons. First, remember that the wheel is attached to the rudder servo and any decrease in wheel throw will also decrease the amount of rudder throw that you have. Second, when setting up a plane you want to make sure that the plane is mechanically correct before you make any adjustments with the radio. Too many times people will try to use the features of a computer radio instead of making the needed mechanical adjustments first, which causes lots of problems. I tell my students to forget about computer radio adjustments on a trainer and learn how to make the adjustments mechanically. The can play with the computer radio on their second plane . So back to the build.... If you look at picture #10 you can see that the pushrod tube is actually a little to the side of the EZ connector, putting it in the center of the control horn. This will give you some room to make adjustments, meaning you can move where the pushrod attaches to the control horn without causing binding in the rod. The pushrod will run through the firewall, back through the fuel tank compartment underneath the tray that holds the fuel tank, and then into the fuselage where the servo tray is mounted. If you look at former F-2 you will see that there is a little “notch� in the former, this is there as a point to attach the pushrod tube to (picture #11). Mounting the tube is pretty easy. First mark where you want the hole in the firewall at, and then drill a 1/8� hole in the firewall. Then insert the tube through the firewall and back to the servo tray. When you happy with how it is mounted use a little bit of epoxy (or thick CA) to secure the tube to former F-2. At the firewall I prefer that epoxy is used to attach the tube in order the completely seal the hole you drilled and because the epoxy is fuelproof. Looking at picture #12 you will see the I have a little bit of tube extending past the firewall. You want to do this when you attach the tube so that you don't get epoxy into the tube, after the epoxy has set cut the tube off flush with the firewall.

Pictures
1. Assembled steering control arm
2. Steering control arm with set screw removed.
3. Mount the landing gear wire with the spring coil loop to the rear.
4. Front landing gear secured in mount
5. Front landing gear secured in mount
6. Front gear and extra wheel collar.
7. Wheel collar will mount to the top of the landing gear wire.
8. The wheel collar sits above the gear mount in order to help secure the gear.
9. Extra wheel collar will help prevent loosing gear if the set screw loosens up.
10. Pushrod tube exiting firewall
11. Steering pushrod tube will be glued to fuselage former F-2
12. Extra pushrod tube can be cut off

Until next time

Ken

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

Let's continue on and move to the fuel tank. Although the packaging in this kit isn't labeled (picture #1) the fuel tank that is included in the kit is Dubro fuel tank. The Dubro tanks are pretty high quality tanks, and they are what I prefer to use in all of my planes. Sig did a good job of putting together a kit with high quality accessories, but not all manufacturers do this. Normally with kits you won't have to worry about the included fuel tank because most kits don't come with a tank, but Sig did a great job by including a tank in this kit. That is one of the biggest reasons why I was so impressed with this kit, because Sig did a great job making it very complete and with good quality items in the kit. Anyway, back to fuel tanks. If you have a tank included with your kit, or you are building an ARF that comes with a tank, try and see if you can identify the maker of the tank. If you can't tell who made the tank then I would consider throwing the tank away and purchasing one yourself. A lot of times the included tanks are pretty low quality and will wind up leaking around the stopper or splitting the tank and leaking. This is something you want to avoid at all costs. Yes we did fuel proof the fuel compartment, but you still want to avoid fuel leaking if you can. Like I said, I prefer Dubro tanks because of their quality. But you can purchase whatever brand you are comfortable with. Now with that said, let's move on to the fuel tank assembly and installing it in the plane.

Picture #2 shows the contents of the fuel tank package. In picture #1 you can see that the clunk, fuel line, and brass tubing aren't seen and this is because they are inside of the tank itself. Remove all of the components and make sure you have everything that is pictured in picture #2. These fuel tanks are set up to be either a 2-line or a 3-line tank installation. Look at diagrams #3 and #4 to see the differences between a 2-line and a 3-line setup. 2-lines are normally used in installations without a cowl where you have full access to the fuel lines. To fill the tank you will remove the fuel line from the carb and connect it to you fuel pump, and also remove the vent line from the muffler and point it over the side of the plane. You'll fill the tank until you see fuel coming out of the vent line. Since the vent line inside of the tank is pointed towards the top of the tank fuel won't come out of the vent line until the tank is full. If you have an engine that is cowled in you usually won't have access to the fuel line from the tank to the carb, this is where you will use a 3-line setup. The 3rd line will usually go to a fuel dot on the outside of the cowl. Or it will be stuffed inside of the cowl and have something in it to stopper the line so fuel won't leak out of it. To fill the tank here you will connect your fuel pump to the 3rd line and removing the vent line from the muffler as before. If you can't get to the vent line because of the cowl you'll fill as you normally would, but you'll see the fuel coming out of the muffler when the tank is full. As I said earlier, since this is a trainer without a cowl on it we'll be doing a 2-line tank setup. Looking at diagram #3 you can see how a 2-line setup looks inside of the tank. The vent line enters through the stopper and then is bent up to the top of the tank. The fuel pickup line comes through the stopper and goes to the back of the tank and ends in a weighted pickup called a “clunk�. The pickup is weighted so that the fuel pickup line will always fall to the “bottom� of the tank as the plane changes attitudes (meaning upside down). I prefer to assemble the pickup line a little differently. If you follow the instructions with the tank you'll assemble the pickup line using the provided fuel tubing. This tubing is very flexible and can actually allow the clunk to fall forward to the front of the tank. This usually isn't a good thing when this happens. Once a clunk falls forward it usually doesn't fall back and gets stuck there, causing the engine to die because it can't get fuel any longer. I prefer to use a piece of stiff tubing inserted in the middle of the pickup line. This will prevent the clunk from falling to the front of the tank, but the pieces of fuel line before and after the stiff tubing will still let the clunk move around at the back of the tank like it should. One last note before we start putting the tank together. As with so many things in this hobby, getting into routines or habits will help you out down the line. When setting up a fuel tank I always set them up the same way so that I always know what tube is what. If you are looking at the stopper of the fuel tank I always make the upper right tube the fuel pickup, the upper left tube the vent tube, and in a 3-line setup I make the lower middle tube the fill line. One last thing along these lines. I use 2 different colors of fuel line. I use pink tubing for the fuel feed line, and blue tubing for the vent line. I do that so that I always know which line is which. There are times when both fuel lines are disconnected at the same time, and if you don't have a way to know which one is which it's easy to mix them up. By color coding them I always know which line goes to the muffler and which line goes to the carb. Whew, wow that was a lot of info. Let's get to putting the tank together.

Since we have decided to make this a 2-line tank setup we need to make sure that that the fuel stopper is correct for this setup. On this Dubro tank the stopper already had the 2 holes opened up on the stopper (picture #5), but not all tanks will have it this way. If you tank isn't like this you'll need to open up the holes yourself. The stopper of for the fuel tank consists of 4 parts, the plastic outer cap, a rubber stopper, a plastic inside disk, and a sheet metal screw to hold it together. If you look at picture #6 you can see the outer cap and the rubber stopper together, with the inner disk on the bench. If you don't have all 3 parts together as you measure the tubing in the next steps make sure that you take into account the thickness of all parts. Now we need to make the fuel pickup line. Use the first piece of brass tubing and insert it through the stopper assembly (picture #6). Push it through so there is enough tubing inside of the tank so you ca n put the fuel line on, and determine how much tubing you need on the outside of the stopper also and mark the tubing for cutting it off (picture #7). While they do make cutters for the brass tubing like this, there is an easy way to cut the tubing without having to buy a cutter. Look at picture #8, lay the tubing on a hard flat surface and put your hobby knife where you want to cut it. Put pressure down on the blade and slowly roll the tubing back and forth under the blade. This will cut the tubing fairly quickly and won't crush the tubing down as you cut it. After the tubing is cut go around the inside lip of the tubing with the tip of your knife to remove any burrs that might be there (picture #9). Picture #10 shows the pickup tubing back in place in the stopper assembly. Next we'll do the same with the vent tube. Here we need to take into account the amount of tubing inside of the tank. Make sure you have enough tubing to bend up to the top of the fuel tank. Once you have the tubing cut to length you'll need to bend the tubing so that it will be at the top of the fuel tank (picture #11). Use your thumb to bend the tubing and slowly bend up the tubing. Insert the stopper in the tank and check to make sure the vent line does touch the top of the tank. A little helpful hint here, put a light source behind the tank and you'll be able to see the vent tube inside of the tank better. The last thing you'll want to do is take a grinding wheel in a rotary tool and cut a bevel into the vent tube (picture #12). You want to do this so that the vent tube actually does vent. If you don't cut the tube down it's possible that the the tube could sit flat on the top of the fuel tank and cause it to block up. By cutting the bevel you make sure that the tube can vent as it's supposed to.

Once again I've ran out of picture space here. So I'm going to wrap up this post for the moment. Going to get some lunch for a bit and then I'll get back and continue the assembly of the fuel tank.

Pictures
1. Included Dubro fuel tank
2. Components of the fuel tank assembly.
3. Typical 2-line fuel tank setup
4. Typical 3-line fuel tank setup
5. Fuel tank stopper setup for a 2-line setup
6. Insert the tubing for the fuel pickup into the stopper assembly.
7. Mark the pickup tubing for cutting.
8. Cutting the brass tubing.
9. Use your knife to make sure there are no burrs in the tubing from cutting it.
10. Completed pickup tubing inserted into the stopper assembly
11. Cut and bent vent tube
12. Bevel the vent tube with a grinding wheel on a rotary tool.

Until next time

Ken

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

Ok, tuna sandwich on wheat bread sure made for a good lunch, so let's finish up the assembly of the fuel tank.

With the vent line cut and bent into place in the last post we now need put together the pickup line. Start off with the provided silicon fuel tubing and attach it to the pickup tubing in the tank stopper assembly (picture #1). Cut the tubing about 1/3 of the way down the tubing and insert a section of brass tubing. Slip another section of silicon tubing on and then the clunk (picture #2). What comes next is a little bit of trial and error to get the proper length for the tubing. Look at diagram #3 and you can see that the clunk needs to go to the back bottom corner of the tank. You want the clunk to drop to this part of the tank, but not touch the back of the tank. Once you have it so the clunk sits here correctly then turn the tank over and the clunk should now fall to the same part of the tank upside down. As you turn the tank over and over the clunk should fall freely as you turn the tank over. If the clunk doesn't fall freely shorten up the tubing until you can rotate the tank and the clunk does move freely. Once you have the pickup line and the vent tube properly made we need to insert the stopper assembly into the tank. Make sure it's pushed all the way in and then tighten the screw to tighten the stopper on the tank. While you want the stopper firmly set in the tank make sure that you don't overtighten it. You can tell that you have the stopper tight enough if you can blow into the tank and not have any air leak back out around the stopper. It helps to mark your stopper assembly so you know which is which later on down the road (picture #5). That will do it for the assembly of the fuel tank. Next we'll mount it in the fuselage of the plane.

Getting ready to mount the tank I looked inside the tank compartment and reading the instructions really didn't say much about securing the fuel tank in place inside of the compartment. How we do this can vary from plane to plane, so I pretty much play it by ear on each plane. Looking inside the compartment I decided that gluing in a couple of braces at the back of the tank would be the best way to secure the tank in place without adding a lot of weight to the plane. Using some 1/4� balsa stock I cut 2 pieces the width of the compartment. Put the tank in the compartment to get an idea of where to glue them in place, just keep in mind that you'll want to add just a little bit so you have room to add foam in to cushion the tank. Once you know where to put it use a little bit of 5-minute epoxy to secure the wood in place (picture #5 and #6).

So now we have the tank assembled and the fuselage is ready to put the tank in. So I'm going to wrap up this post and we'll continue in the next post.

Pictures
1. Adding silicon fuel tubing to the pickup tubing in the stopper
2. Completed pickup line
3. Diagram to show how to position the clunk in the tank
4. Completed fuel tank
5. Label your tubing so you can identify it properly later
6. Use balsa stock to brace the tank in the fuel compartment
7. Use balsa stock to brace the tank in the fuel compartment

Until next time

Ken

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

To continue on where we left off. Let's finish up and install the fuel tank in the fuselage. Although I didn't include it in the pictures let's go ahead and attach our fuel tubing to the tank. I put about 10�-12� of both tubes on, and I'll trim it back later on. Like I said in my last post, I use two different colors of fuel tubing so that I can always identify which tube is which. Pink tubing is fuel delivery/carb and blue tubing is vent tube/muffler. If you use a system like this you'll appreciate it if you've ever had to remove a fuel tank because you've mixed up which tube is which while you're working on the plane.

As we get ready to install the tank let's look at a major point in installing a fuel tank. I see a lot of people that have problems with their engines that they just can't seen to figure out what's wrong. About 7 times out of 10 these problems can be traced back to a fuel problem, and a lot of those fuel problems can be traced to bubbles in the fuel lines. It doesn't take too much get bubbles in the fuel line. All it takes is a portion of the fuel tank in direct contact with fuselage/airframe. Once that happens vibrations from the engine are transferred to the fuselage and then to the fuel tank, and these vibrations can cause bubbles in the fuel, fuel line, fuel foaming, and a bunch of other problems. While this issue can cause lots of problems, it's usually very easy to fix. Isolate the fuel tank from the fuselage. Sometimes this is an easy task and sometimes it's a difficult task depending on the plane, but usually when you are building a kit it's pretty easy. In tank installations like this I prefer to just pack the tank compartment with foam around the tank. Pretty easy do to. You can purchase foam from your LHS or the online hobby suppliers (Tower, Horizon, etc...), but it always seems to me that they are higher priced than they need to be. You can find foam at Wal-mart in the sewing section cheaper than it is at the hobby shop. But if you keep an eye out you can usually find foam for free, and IMHO that's better than paying for it any day of the week. There are a lot of places to watch for foam that you can use but I'll tell you a few that I use. Probably one of the best sources for very high quality foam, check with computer/networking shops in your area. I know this for a fact because my wife and I own and operate a computer/network shop. High dollar computer components and networking items will come packed with some very very nice foam. If you go to these shops and ask them they will probably save up the foam for you and let you have it for nothing. Same thing goes for stereo and TV shops. If you just keep your eye out in everyday life you'll be surprised just how much foam you come across in daily life. When you find it, snatch it up and take it home and store it in your shop. And before you ask, yes I am cheap. We'll not exactly cheap, I just don't like to pay for things that I can get cheaper or for free. With that in mind, let's move on to the installation of the fuel tank.

Picture #1 shows the type of foam that I'm using here. This is a flat sheet of foam that you can find in craft shops. To start with I cut one piece that is as wide as the fuselage and is long enough to start at the top of the firewall, go down the firewall to the tank floor, back along the tank floor to the rear tank brackets we installed, and back up to the top of the fuselage. I know that may sound a bit confusing, but if you look at picture #2 you'll see what I mean. After this piece of foam is in feed the fuel lines through the holes in the firewall (picture #3) and then push the tank down into the compartment, making sure you get it surrounded by the foam so the tank doesn't touch the fuselage (picture #4). Next cut a piece of foam for the side of the tank. This can be worked down the side of the fuel tank using a screwdriver to push it down in place (picture #5). Picture #6 shows what the tank looks like so far, with the foam on one side of the tank. Now do the same thing on the other side of the tank (picture #7). And last we need a small piece of foam for the top of the tank (picture #8). Now we can go ahead and put the tank hatch in place over the tank (picture #9). Picture #10 shows the installed tank in place. You'll notice the fuel lines hanging loose, leave them like this until we install the engine.

Pictures
1. Flat foam used to pad fuel tank.
2. First piece of foam on the bottom, front, and rear of the fuel tank
3. First feed the fuel lines through the firewall.
4. Then insert the fuel tank into the compartment.
5. Push a piece of foam down the side of the fuel tank
6. Tank in compartment
7. Push another piece of foam on the other side of the tank.
8. A small piece of foam will isolate the top of the tank
9. Securing the fuel hatch
10. Final view of installed tank, fuel lines, and hatch.


Until next time

Ken

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

Well now, I seem to be on a roll this weekend don't I?? But yes, I have been in a bit of a groove this weekend and I'm getting this build thread caught up somewhat. Since we have the front landing gear mounted, let's go ahead and mount the main landing gear. This is a really pretty quick step to take care of. It's pretty straight forward and shouldn't take you much time at all to get done.

The first thing we'll need to do is mark the landing gear block for where we need to drill the holes for our landing gear to sit in. The easiest way to mark for drilling is to simply transfer the location of our holes from the plans, picture #1 shows how I marked the landing gear block to drill. Next use a hand drill to drill out the holes for the landing gear (picture #2). Looking at picture #3 you can see that the landing gear won't sit flat in the landing gear block because there is a curve in the wire of the landing gear, and the hole that we drilled makes for a sharp 90° corner. What we need to do is “round off� this corner (picture #4) so that landing gear wire will sit down flat in the landing gear block (picture #5). Next we'll need to find the two nylon straps from the parts in the kit (picture #6), this will be used to retain the landing gear in place. Mounting them is pretty simple in that we'll drill out the holes for the screws that mount the straps in the landing gear block. The easiest way to place this is so they are evenly spaced on the landing gear, then mark the holes for drilling out (picture #7). Use a small drill bit to drill pilot holes for the screw holes (picture #8), and then run the mounting screw down the hole in order to cut the threads in the holes (picture #9). Back out the screws and run a little bit of thin CA into the hole to harden the threads (picture #10). Give the CA a few minutes to dry before you put the screws in, then go ahead and mount the retaining straps (picture #11). Picture #12 shows the finished mounting of the landing gear wire.

Pictures
1. Marking the location of the holes needed for the landing gear
2. Drill out the holes to mount the landing gear in
3. Landing gear will not sit flat because of the “curve� in the landing gear wire
4. Round out the edge of the hole
5. Now the landing gear will sit flush into the landing gear block
6. Nylon straps used to hold down the landing gear
7. Mark the holes for the nylon strap mounting screws
8. Drill a pilot hole for the mounting screw
9. Use the screw to cut threads in the holes
10. Use thin CA to harden the threads in the holes
11. Install the nylon straps and the mounting screws
12. Finished landing gear wires.

Until next time

Ken

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

This post is probably going to be the shortest post that I've made in this entire build thread. This is just a simple follow up to the last post where we mounted the landing gear wire. Next we'll mount the wheels to the main landing gear. Nothing complicated about this because it's exactly mounting the front wheel. We'll use an inner and an outer wheel collar to hold the landing gear in. As with the front wheel make sure the wheels turn freely, but aren't too loose. Pictures #1-#3 show mounting the wheels.

Pictures
1. Mounting the wheels to the main landing gear.
2. Tighten the set screws in the wheel collars
3. Mounting the wheels to the main landing gear


Until next time

Ken

bruce88123

Ya did good Ken.

bubbagates

My Feedback: (32)

Everyone

Ken just sent me the links to the video for SeaBee's plane so here ya go. All three are the same. they are different sizes for teh high speed internet connection challenged


http://www.infinityok.com/barbie_pla...lane-large.wmv
http://www.infinityok.com/barbie_pla...ane-medium.wmv
http://www.infinityok.com/barbie_pla...lane-small.wmv

elenasgrumpy

My Feedback: (4)

Awesome job Ken! I'm not a real churchy kinda guy but I think you just bought yourself a one way ticket to Heaven!

brocja01

I just wanted to let everyone know that I have started the assembly of the Twist that I won for the design contest for SeaBee's plane. And I just wanted to comment on the quality of the graphics that RCKen included with the plane. I put three of the graphics on the plane yesterday and they are beautiful. I'll be posting some pictures when I get it all finished. Should be done by the later part of the week (baring that I can get my wife to let me purchase two 6" servo extensions, a Y connector for the wing servos, and some clear monokote to seal the graphics). Again, Ken, you have done an excellent job on this build, and my hat goes off to you. When I get through this batch of graphics, you will be receiving an additional order from me!!!

bubbagates

My Feedback: (32)

Cool,

Borrow some of the wife's clear finger nail polish and just go around the edges of the graphics, that will also work.

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

That's what I use to keep my graphics on my planes. Although I don't borrow the wife's. I just have her pick up a seperate bottle for me when she's at the store.

Ken

brocja01

I was thinking about that, the graphics look so good that I didn't want to screw them up by brushing on clear finger nail polish and then seeing the brush strokes. Does it dry pretty smooth?

bubbagates

My Feedback: (32)

You do not need allot and yep, it does dry very smooth. I use it to help balance the tips of my large props and you cannot tell it's even there in the CF props and the laminated wood props

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

Brocja01,
You won't even be able to see it when the polish dries.

Ken

brocja01

Hey all, just a little update. I have the Twist all but put together. I have the canopy left to install and then to get it balanced. I'm having a h3ll of a time getting the plane to balance at the 4" mark. It is super tail heavy. Here are some pictures of the plane and the graphics from Ken.

Thanks all!

bruce88123

Yeah, and Ken hasn't finished the thread yet.

BTW Ken, have you shipped the plane yet or are YOU still flying it?

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

Man,I don't get any slack do I?????

I'm going to ship it out this week. We were originally going to work getting the plane out there around going to the Weak Signals show in Toledo. But we've had to change those plans because I'm not going to be able to drive to Toledo now, I'm going to fly out there. So I'm going to box up the plane this week and get it shipped out.

Ken

elenasgrumpy

My Feedback: (4)

Hey Bruce are ya thinking maybe Ken's getting a little attached to that pink plane?

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

Shhhhhhhhhhhh, don't tell anybody!!!!!!!

Ken

bruce88123

I understand PINK is his favorite color. Rumor has it that he got tossed out of the Army for wearing PINK PJ's and Bunny slippers in the barracks.

Hmmmmm, is it that easy to get out of the Army?

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

Hold on a second here. It's monday!!! Not friday!!!!! If I remember correctly it's Bubba's day today!!!!

Ken

bubbagates

My Feedback: (32)

Guess what color he is going to do his Decathalon in???

Brocja01,

Stuff everything up in the front. On the underside of the plane, under the fuel tank there is a nice round lightening whole that works well for getting the battery under the tank. You do have to trim away the covering to get to the hole and then replace it. It's either that or remove the tank. If I remember correctly I stuffed a JR1100MaH batt under the tank and still needed an ounce or two epoxied to the cheeks next to the engine. You can also get the Dubro heavy spinner nut but that takes away from the engines ability to spool up quickly and will bit you when you need that quickness.

The Twist is a great plane and flies well but it is really susceptable to being tail heavy. I started out at 4 inches on mine and eventually went to 4.5 inches and that little half inch made a HUGE difference in it being touchy on the elevator. The reason for this is that huge fat wing and a very short tail with large surfaces. BTW, the Tazmainian Devil makes a great pilot for this plane HINT HINT

I actually just flew one Sunday evening.

I guess I'll just go out and buy the Plug and Pray (also known as plug and play) version since I'm too lazy right now to assemble another one and really miss having one