grant118

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I am finailly starting my build of the Mike Hurley extra 300 that was published in Model Aviation a few years ago. I will build it to the plans and cut out the foam wings myself. I have started on the fuse and have cut out the sides out of lite ply and all the formers, firewall etc. It took me about 6 hours to cut out all the fuse parts. I am going to use a 3w100 engine and Hitec servos. I bought the wheel pants, cuffs, and 2 pc cowl from Stans. He did not have the canopy so I will vaccum form one myself. If you are interested follow along and comments welcome!!!

Tony Hallo

Check the AMA web site, there were a few corrections posted for those building from plans and cutting their own foam. Aeroglass in Canada had the canopy available, might want to try them. I built two, flew great just to big to haul to the airfield.

grant118

My Feedback: (26)

I started on the Fuse yesterday and today. I put in about 8 hours and it is starting to look like an airplane

grant118

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here are a few photos

wind junkie

My Feedback: (1)

Glad to see another build of this plane going. I saved all the articles in the magazine, and anxiously followed Mike Hurley's progress on the web site at the time. I learned an awful lot from Mike's techniques about giant scale building from that series.

You probably already found this, but just in case, here's the thread on the AMA site:

http://www.modelaircraft.org/Mag/hurley/hurleyindex.asp

Rcpilot

My Feedback: (78)

Use contest balsa on the sheeting for the stabs, hatch, turtledeck etc.. It's not recommended that you use contest balsa on the main wings, but I'd still use mid-grade balsa instead of the heaviest sheets you can find. It's the only way to get it as light as advertised. How do I know this? I talked to Mike about it. Went over to the mans house and looked at his shop. Talked to him in detail about the plane.

There are a few of these planes flying at some of the local fields. Some of them are a little on the heavy side. Some of the builders admitted that they did not use contest balsa for sheeting.

One guy that I know built one of these as light as he could get it. It's right at 25 pounds with a DA100. No bull. I've seen it on the scale. I don't know all the details, but he did use contest grade sheeting and the lightest sticks he could get for everything that didn't require lots of strength. Basically, don't skimp on the sheeting for the wings. You can sheet the hatch, turtledeck, stabs, fin, control surfaces with the lightest balsa that you can get. Use lightweight sticks on the belly stringers. Don't overbuild the motorbox. It's plenty strong enough.

I've flown it a couple times. All I can say is MAGIC

grant118

My Feedback: (26)

Thanks for the reply RCpilot. I bought contest grade balsa for construction. It was maybe $20 more but as you say it will be worth it. I built a FW 190 warbird (91" ws) last year and used contest grade balsa for a lot of the sheeting and it is amazing how much lighter it is. I printed out all the notes from modelaircraft.org and it has been helpful. I really like the Extra series of aircraft and thought what Mike did with the construction articles and drawings was first rate. It has been a fun build so far. I have about 9 hrs total on the fuse and I have all the stringers, floor, diagonal braces etc. in. I am now working on the bottom stringers. If you cut out the motor box and formers accurately, it fits together without any gaps. I will post some more photos soon.

grant118

My Feedback: (26)

Here are some photos of the fuse. I added the floor and 3/8" formers. From F1 to F3 the bottom is narrower than the top. In other words, the sides are not perpendicular to the table (see triangle). I guess this is done to get a more rounded fuse. From F3 back it is square with the table.

grant118

My Feedback: (26)

I added the two bottom stringers made out of 1/4 bass wood. You have to splice a 12" section onto a 48" section. Make sure the stringer is strait when you glue it in. Use a strait edge to check. It bends down slightly after former 3 (ref. photos) Also make sure you put the left motor box side on the left side and right on right. The left side is slightly longer to account for the right thrust of the engine.

grant118

My Feedback: (26)

I finished the fuse to the point that I mounted the landing gear and tail wheel assembly. I got the gear from TNT landing products along with the wing tube and stab tube. Real nice quality. I will post some more pics shortly. The next step is to start cutting out the wing panels and other foam parts.

grant118

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Here are some photos of the tail wheel assembly. I used an Ohio hag style wheel kit for up to 40 lbs. Use 440 screws and blind nuts. I also made the restraining block out of 5 layers of lite ply like they had in the instructions.

grant118

My Feedback: (26)

I used TNT for the main gear. This gear had to be drilled to fit the cap screws. Make sure you space the gear away slightly from the former. Also mount 1" x 1" X 1/16" aluminum angle to the inside per the plans. Here are some photos of the installation

ERichard

grant118,

Nice progress so far on the build! I'm the builder of the featured Hurley Extra in the original MA articles (that's me in all the pictures ), so if you have any questions please let me know.
Mike wrote the articles and I did the complete build and finish. I am still flying the original and love it.
Keep up the great work!
-Erik

grant118

My Feedback: (26)

Thanks Erik. I have been into RC for about 15 years now and get four different rc magazines. I must say that this series of articals that you and Mike did were the best I have ever seen. Anyone that scratch builds should have benefited from them. I would love to see you guys do another SA aircraft series.

Best regards.

ERichard

Hey grant118,
Any recent progress updates on your Extra? I may be starting two new ones with design mods for incorporating pipes.
-Erik

Darrinc

My Feedback: (5)

Wow, I'm just glad to hear people are building

ERichard

Hi Darrin,

Always building projects!! Just having trouble FINISHING projects!

With regard to the Extra, Mike and I always had some differences of opinion about the design and I am eager to build a couple of new ones to incorporate some changes.

Two kids (age 4 & 6) and a busy career/travel schedule keep me out of my shop too much, but between the T-ball and soccer games, I am finally managing a few hours a weekend. Now if I can just get out to the field and fly[&o] We had snow here yesterday in the Denver area[:@]

BTW Darrin.....on another subject, based on your composite experiences, can you comment on a question of mine on another thread (comment there, not here)

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_7314737/tm.htm

Thanks,
-Erik

grant118

My Feedback: (26)

Erik,

I have been real busy also. I have just started cutting out the wings from foam. I probably won't work on it much this weekend as I will be at the Joe Nall Fly In!!! If you have never been you need to go. Usually there are about 500 SA aircraft +warbirds+jets!!

chris

grant118

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Looking for a source for foam wing material... in the greenville, SC Charlotte, NC area to cut out the wing panels

grant118

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Starting on the wings now. I have cut the foam to size and started cutting out the wing. The foam is about 52" long, 24" wide and about 5" thick. Make sure if you cut your own wings that you place the tip template top at the same level as the top of the root template. This is to provide for the dihedral.

pappy35

On eof our local club guys has one and it looks great. Anyone know of a kit cutter that has done this one and approximately how much it would cost?

twilitzon

i would like to know where i can get the plans, i want to do this build myself

grant118

My Feedback: (26)

to the ama website and click on plan service The will have them. The plans are really nice and you will like the build.
chris

twilitzon

ok i've tried every plan service i can find, no one has the mike hurley plans,, now i am going to try to find any giant scale plans for an extra 300, extra 330, yak-54, or the such[

grant118

My Feedback: (26)

www.precisioncutkits.com have the Hurley extra. I cut mine myself. It took about 8 hours.