CY Model SIAI Marchetti SF-260 87 inch Build
 

<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Hi All,

I just received my new toy... a CY Model SIAI Marchetti SF-260 from Austar Models and I thought I would do a build thread.

So.. to start with the model arrived in one large box and was well packed. Pretty quickly I had all the pieces unwrapped and unpacked and I took some photo's of how it comes straight out of the box.

The fuse is fibreglass, unfortunately mine has a few blemishes (I have an early production version) buy hey, makes it look more scale anyway. The wings and tail are the standard built up balsa / ply and covered in iron on film. The finish is a very high standard and all parts fit together well out of the box.

The model comes with a nice set of air retracts and oleos.

Let the fun begin...

Adam</span></span>

RE: CY Model SIAI Marchetti SF-260 87 inch Build
 

After some digging around I found a photo of the fullsize used for the colourscheme

RE: CY Model SIAI Marchetti SF-260 87 inch Build
 

The first step was to cleanup the hinge slots and glue in the hinges on the wings and stabs.

The model came with flat pin style hinges that required a little tweaking with a pair of pliers on the pins to get them moving freely. The slots were already cut and didn't require much work with a knife to have everything lined up nicely.

I applied some vasoline to the hinge pins (a must to stop them from being glued solid) and used 30 minute epoxy to glue the hinges in place. Although it takes a little longer I prefer to glue the hinges into the main surface first (wing / stab) and after it dries its then a simple job to glue the control surface in place on the model.

Some progress photo's so far..

RE: CY Model SIAI Marchetti SF-260 87 inch Build
 

Next was to finish the wings.

The servo holes were fairly easy to locate with the light yellow covering. Once I cut the covering from the wholes I installed the servo's with no problems. I chose JR DS8411 servos because they are 12kg metal geared (also because I already had them...).

The supplied control horns worked well (note. the hardware package contains long and short bolts, use the longer bolts towards the front where the surface is thicker.). I lined up the arms parallel to the outside of the servo case, toward the wingtip on the aileron and towards the fuse on the flaps. This was so the arm was closer to the centre of each control surface. Apart from the usual pain of drilling the 3 bolt holes straight and inline through the control surface I had no problems here. All surfaces are solid balsa in this area.

The supplied pushrods were about 10mm too long and they were only threaded on each tip making it impossible to cut them shorter. This was an easy fix, I had some fully threaded 4-40 rod laying around that I cut to length and it fitted with no problems into the supplied clevises.

RE: CY Model SIAI Marchetti SF-260 87 inch Build
 

The fibreglass wingtips need to be glued onto the wings.

I started by removing the covering from the tips (leaving around 3mm around the edge). I also used some coarse sand paper to roughen up the fibreglass wingtip inside the area to be glued.

The kit also came with a set of lights for each tip so I ran the wiring through the wing before I glued the tip on.

Then it was a simple matter of mixing up some 30 minute epoxy and taping the wingtip in place while the glue dried.

RE: CY Model SIAI Marchetti SF-260 87 inch Build
 

<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: small;">I installed the stabs next.

The stabs fit on an aluminium tube and have a carbon fibre anti-rotation pin at the front. It is possible to make them removable but since they weren't that large I decided to just glue them on. Make sure you roughen up the surface where the stab meets the fuse for a solid glue joint. I mixed up some 30 minute epoxy and liberally applied it to the joining tube and the root of the stab. Once I had the stabs in place, I used some denatured alcohol to clean up the excess epoxy and taped the stabs in place while the glue dried.

I then installed the elevator control horns exactly the same as I had done earlier on the wings. The only problem I had here was I only had 5 out of the 6 bolts ...not sure what happened there but I just replaced it with another 3mm bolt.
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RE: CY Model SIAI Marchetti SF-260 87 inch Build
 

<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">I installed the elevator</span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> servos</span></span> (1 for each side) and rudder servo in the tray at the back of the canopy hatch. Again I used JR DS8411s.

Now for my favourite part... working out where to cut the pushrod exits. The easiest way to do this is transfer the servo positions onto the outside of the fuse by using a square, a ruler and some masking tape.

Then run some string between the control horn and the servo mark on the side of the fuse. Draw a line under the string (on some masking tape) approximately where the exit should be.

Next run the string from the control horn to the servo mark you placed on the bottom of the fuse. Now follow the string along until it crosses the side of the fuse and place a mark on the line you drew on the fuse earlier. If you got it all square the pushrod should exit at this point.

Hopefully the pictures give you some clues.
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RE: CY Model SIAI Marchetti SF-260 87 inch Build
 

<span style="font-size: small;">The model is supplied with 4 metal pushrods and 2 carbon fibre joiners that need to be glued together to make the elevator pushrods. The pushrod length required on my model was 30 inches.

I used a little piece of masking tape to mark the little pushrod at 1.5 inches and mark the longer pushrod at 1.75 inches. This is the amount I needed to glue inside the carbon fibre rod to get the required length. I used some coarse sand paper to roughen up this section of the metal rods and also used a needle point file to lightly roughen up the inside of the carbon tube.

I used hysol to glue the pushrods in place and left them overnight to dry.

Once the glue dried I screwed on the supplied clevises and the whole setup turned out pretty neat.
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RE: CY Model SIAI Marchetti SF-260 87 inch Build
 

<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">The hinges were drilled at very strange angles on the rudder (See photo's). Not sure what CY's intentions were here but they won't work unless they are perpendicular to the hinge line. No matter, I re drilled the holes and got the rudder in place (with a few choice words and some pushing and shoving). I glued the hinges in place using 30 minute epoxy.

My model wasn't supplied with a control horn for the rudder, just the pull-pull cables. After a bit of searching I managed to find a pull-pull control arm from a retired (?) model. It turned out to be the perfect size (3mm diameter and 80mm long). Once I drilled a hole for the arm, I hardened the area with thin CA and bolted the arm in place.

Turned out neat.. Now on to the cables

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RE: CY Model SIAI Marchetti SF-260 87 inch Build
 

thanks for taking the time to post the assembly and concerns.

RE: CY Model SIAI Marchetti SF-260 87 inch Build
 

Looking good buddy... can't wait to see to see her take to the air!! Better empty the SLR, you will have 1000+ to sift through when I'm finished ;-)

RE: CY Model SIAI Marchetti SF-260 87 inch Build
 

lachhaz, the camera's on charge

RE: CY Model SIAI Marchetti SF-260 87 inch Build
 

The pull pull cable supplied with the model is rather thick and heavy so I replaced it with some nylon coated wire trace. I located the slots for the wire using the same technique used earlier on the elevator pushrods. When your doing this remember to cross the cables if you are using a straight servo arm on the servo.

I then covered the cable joint with some heat shrink for a tidy look.

RE: CY Model SIAI Marchetti SF-260 87 inch Build
 

I am still waiting on a motor so I installed the retracts next.

The oleo's supplied looked nice but it turns out they are very weak. I managed to snap one while installing it in the model! So a quick email to Austars and they have a new redesigned set on the way..

Hopefully the new legs will be a lot stronger!

RE: CY Model SIAI Marchetti SF-260 87 inch Build
 

While waiting for the new legs I continued installing the retract units.

I bolted the wings to the fuse to get the correct spacing for the retract units. The model is supplied with wood screws but I am not a fan so I replaced them with some bolts and blind nuts which makes removing the retracts far easier.

The wheels and axles dont quite fit in the wheel wells (they are too thick) so i had to pack the rectract unit up about 3 mm on the fuse side to get everything to fit nicely. I made some spacers up out of ply that taper from 3mm down to nothing.

RE: CY Model SIAI Marchetti SF-260 87 inch Build
 

The nose gear needed to be as far forward as possible to allow the wheel to retract without hitting anything. This meant that I had to cut a bit off the plywood mount to clear the steering arm on the leg. I also had to remove about 10mm off the internal formers to allow the wheel to retract fully.

The supplied wood screws went in the bin, replaced with some bolts and blind nuts.

Rather than running cables for nose leg steering back to the rudder servo I decided to install a servo right behind the retract unit.

RE: CY Model SIAI Marchetti SF-260 87 inch Build
 

Continuing with the retract installation, I fitted the air tanks below the fuel tank / radio tray. I installed a robart adjustable air valve (so i could slow the retracts) instead of the kit supplied non adjustable one. I ran out of tee pieces and air line joiners so I had to supply some of my own. I made up a plywood bracket for the air valve and used a Hitec mini servo to actuate it.

Here is a couple pics of the installation so far.

RE: CY Model SIAI Marchetti SF-260 87 inch Build
 

The cockpit is rather large and bare so I thought I would dress it up a bit. Here is how it comes out of the box.

RE: CY Model SIAI Marchetti SF-260 87 inch Build
 

I started with the instrument panel.

Hopefully the pics will give you an idea how I made it. The instrument panel photo is a screen shot out of Flight Sim X. I just printed it out in a size that looked about right. The photo was then trimmed and sandwiched between a layer of 1mm ply and 3mm balsa. I used a sharp spade bit to cut out the instrument holes. Also used some 1.5mm balsa for the radio panel and the instrument surrounds. I used a piece of transparency paper to simulate the glass.

I am extremely happy how it turned out.

RE: CY Model SIAI Marchetti SF-260 87 inch Build
 

I received my rc-lights.com navigation and strobe kit and I had to see how they looked... Should be cool!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoScaZCexPA[/youtube]

RE: CY Model SIAI Marchetti SF-260 87 inch Build
 

The motor turned up.. finally!

I struggled finding a motor that will fit (and provide good performance) and ended up choosing the MLD-35. Now to fit it in the cowl...

RE: CY Model SIAI Marchetti SF-260 87 inch Build
 

A frustrating problem with my kit is the firewall has a big curve in it. It is curved inwards towards the tail by about 3 mm.

Before I can mount the MLD35 to the firewall I am going to have to fill it (I don't know how yet) to get it level. At this stage I am planning to use some resin or epoxy.

RE: CY Model SIAI Marchetti SF-260 87 inch Build
 

hey 330 rule,was just wondering if the rods for the elevators have any supports on them down the fuse.Also what is your opion of the aircraft quality.I'm guessing as Steve sent me the link to this thread CY are aware on the issues so far and the next version will have fixes.I like this plane i had the smaller version that super and cheaper sell. I have some of the rc lights and you will lve them. cheers duane

RE: CY Model SIAI Marchetti SF-260 87 inch Build
 

Hey Duanen,

The elevator pushrods don't have any supports. I didn't feel they needed any on my model. The pushrods are quite stiff and the rods arn't that long.

I am pretty happy with the quality, the hardware package is missing a few parts, I am still waiting on new gear legs from the factory, my only real frustration to date is with the firewall not being straight (which I am going to try and sort out on the weekend).

Austars and CY are aware of this thread, and will be taking my thoughts into consideration. The factory is currently designing new gear legs.

Cheers
Adam

RE: CY Model SIAI Marchetti SF-260 87 inch Build
 

thank Adam,I've subscride to this thread so I'll be watching with interest.IS the canpoy like their 60 size version -Brittle. i was thinking of putting a 50/60 twin in it. DLe have their new 60 but its 9mm too wide(according to the measurements on the CY website) but RCGF do a 50 twin .i have one in a ASM cessna and they are a good engine. i see you sre going with a 35cc any parcitular reason

duane