RSABY50

There's some pictures of the fuselage of the Traine 20 before his covering...

DUCO

Thanks vibi08, I am sold and just got to get one of these, but I will have to get the Trainer 20, room is reason for that. What a wonderfully designed airplane. Thanks for links, they were of great help and in-sight. This is the reason I like this Forum so much, everyone willing to help ea. other.

WacoNut

DUCO,
I have built 2 AMR kits, you can't beat the quality and the customer service.
Anthony

texasboy112

DUCO, Thank you for the concern about the fires; we need all the prayers we can get out here. Fortunately, we live in the city, and haven't had any problems at our home, but we've had tons of fires all around us (Even within the city). The other good news is that my wife and I are building a new home, on 15+ acres, in the Texas Hill Country and, so far, nothing too close to us. We pray everyday for all of the people here. This is a picture of a fire last week that's about 6 miles from our home. The last I heard we've had 1.7 Million acres destroyed throughout the state. Please, all of you, keep the prayers coming for all of us here, and "Send us some Rain".



s236.photobucket.com/albums/ff156/adventures4me/

DUCO

Talked to the Boss Upon High, hope you see the blessed rain soon my friend.

CanDo

The instructions are a bit confusing for the fuselage build, but after re-reading the instructions and looking at all the pictures, I figured out everything. I think it would have helped me if I had an identification drawing for all the laser cut wood, plus I really miss not having plans to look at for verification. Also, F3 and F4 notches had to be "adjusted" a bit to make them fit properly. I used a piece of scrap plywood to shim the elevator servo, my Hitec HS-425BB servo had room to spare after that.

RSABY50

Like I said on my previous message on the 17 of april!

CanDo

-Yes sir, I saw it. I just suggested using a small piece of scrap wood from the kit to fix a minor problem. The other thing the servo shim did was square up the servo throw relative to the elevator hinge line, an added bonus!
-A bigger problem for me was trying to understand the intent of the instructions. Even though I have built many kits over the years, I tried to approach this build like a beginner because it is a trainer kit. For the fuselage build, I think something got lost in the translation.

CanDo

OK, enough bad vibes, I think I can help out. Here's some of the things I found on the fuse build:
1. Step 6; this is where you have to decide if you want the elevator servo on the left side or the right. The instructions say left side at step 6 and right side at Step 22. It doesn't matter, you make the call.
2. Step 7; the last former is "F6". See Step 21 picture.
3. Step 16: you glue one "F15" and one "F15A" together. As I recall I found two F15A parts and one F15 part in the parts sheets, which had me scratching my head. Step 19 helped clear up the mystery.
In general, this is a well designed kit, it just has some rough spots in the manual. If you are new to the hobby, read the instructions several times and study the pictures carefully. If you get stuck, we will help you.

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

Ok guys, sorry it took me so long to get going on this project. I have a deadline on getting this plane ready to fly so I've been building pretty hard to make that deadline. Once I was pretty sure that I am going to get it biult in time I went ahead and started writing up the build thread on this plane. Anyway.....

I've started my build thread on this plane. You can find that build thread here

*** AMR Trainer 20 build thread. Beginner's Build***

Ken

CanDo

Since RCKen already did a great job getting you started, I will just add a few notes here.
-I'm just finishing up with the wing build. Like the fuse instructions, I read the wing instructions, scanned all the pictures, changed some words, then began the build. Just like the fuselage, the wing panels are nicely designed and will give you a very solid airframe. One note, when you get to the dreaded part where you have to sand the wing's leading edge to shape, get yourself a small block plane like this one:
http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_00972277000P
The mini block plane will save you a lot of time and not generate the mounds of balsa dust that 60 grit sandpaper will do. Take small cuts until you get close to the final shape. I finished shaping with 100 and 220 grit sandpaper.

vibi08

Hello CanDo,

You are perfectly rigth about the use of the plane to finish the leading edge. It is good to mention that the first and last ribs are used as a template for shaping the leading edge. This little plane is very usefull. Master AirScrew also make a small plane similar to this one.

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

Isecond the use of the Master Airscrew wood plane. I used it when Igot to the step of carving out the leading edge. Use the plane to rough shape out the leading edge, and then final sand it with sanding blocks. I was able to shape both leading edges in about 10 minutes worth of work.

Ken

CanDo

Check out the balsa shavings my little Stanley planer made. Any small planer will make the job easier and keep the balsa dust down to a minimum.

CanDo

The fuse hatch sat a little lower in the right front corner, so I glued in a washer shim to level it out. For the top of the fuse "cabin" area, I substituted a 1/8" balsa sheet and rounded the edges a bit more. Then I glued a scrap piece of 1/8" lite ply underneath the balsa sheet. This makes a nice carrying handle!

CanDo

I decided to use a one piece landing gear instead of the 2 piece one supplied. For better ground handling on a paved runway, I opted to move the landing gear back some. This meant removing the "T" nuts I just installed and drilling some new holes in the fuse. I found a long 6-32 bolt and a small hammer got the "T" nuts out and didn't damage them. It's better to use a couple of light taps than one hard hit, be gentle!

CanDo

I noticed the wing bolt "T" nuts are perpendicular to the bottom of the wing, but not the top. Usually I put the wing on and drill the holes 90 degrees to the wing's top surface to allow the wing bolts to seat properly. I've had wing bolt head's pop off without being over torqued, so I'm careful how they seat. The simple fix was to make a couple of shims on top of the "W25" plywood piece.

Cherokee Flyer

I used the same motor mount set-up you did, but left the cheeks on and built a cover for the top. I also epoxyeda piece of 1/4" 5 ply behind the firewall. I m using the same muffler. I mounted the throttle servo back with the rudder servo and that gave a nice throttle run and movement. Where did you get the single piece landing gear?

L.

CanDo

The landing gear came from TNT, the only trick is to get similar dimensions to the kit's supplied gear. I'm at work right now, but I can check my dimensions when I get home if you want. It might be their "Universal 60" size gear, but I will have to verify that. Here's TNT's website, http://www.tntlandinggear.com/LGpage_2.htm
Your setup sounds like it will last many trouble free years. I also mounted my throttle servo back with the rudder servo...great minds think alike!
I plan to use my plane to break in motors, so removing the cheeks just makes motor swaps easier. I figure I could bolt on cheeks or a home made cowl later if I want to.
-Les-

CanDo

Cherokee Flyer, I checked TNT and did not find the same landing gear. To be honest, I just grabbed whatever gear I had in my spare parts box from previous model builds. My guess is I got it many years ago at the local hobby shop. The measurements are: (L) 15 1/2", (W)1 1/2", (H) 5". The numbers aren't exact, but you might want to make sure you have enough height for prop/ground clearance. If you get stuck, let me know, I may have another one in my spare parts.
-Les-

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

You can certainly use aftermarket landing gear, which I myself have done from time to time. But honestly I didn't see any reason to so on this plane. The two piece landing gear that comes with the plane are more than enough for this plane and there isn't any reason to change them out that I can see. Normally I change landing gear when either A) the gear that come with the plane aren't strong enough, or B) I need to raise the plane up higher for things such as putting a bigger prop on the plane. Neither of those are present here. I'm using a 16-6 prop on the plane and there is plenty of ground clearance. And the supplied gear could easily be used on a plane twice as big as the Trainer 20 as they are more than strong enough. In my opinion there isn't any reason to change them out. Of course it's fine if others change them, I just wanted to throw my 2 cents in there on the issue.

Hope this helps

Ken

vibi08

Hello all,

We dont reccomend to change the landing gear and also to change its location. By moving it backward that much, the plane will tend to flip over much more specially in high grass condition. The way it is setup allow excelent ground handling even in high grass which may not be the case otherwise. I agree with Ken about changing the gear to a one piece. Basically, we do that to reduce size of shipping box and it is easier to fit it in the box. The thickness of the gear will guaranty good shock resistance to hard landing which we do not guarantee with other landing gear. These gear are made of high quality 6061-t6 aluminum. It is a waste to change them. Another point is that using the provided gear ensure a good ground clearance with larger prop on gas engine.

As Ken can probably acknowledge, ground handling of the plane is very good even on grass and landing are quite easy as design.

CanDo

It's just a matter of preference for me, I like the one piece gear. FYI, TNT makes 6061 aluminum gear, even 3/16" thick gear if you think you need it! I moved the gear back to improve ground handling on pavement, not grass. I also added more holes for payloads. I'm sure the supplied gear is fine, I just never build a kit without changing things!

vibi08

I understand your point about changing thing...

I just say that the way we design the gear is very strong and most of all, it ensure good prop clearance. Since you fly from paved runway, moving it backward should not change anything. The only problem with TNT is that their delivery delay are quite important so now we use a very good local supplier that produce very good parts when we need them and not when they decide to ship stuff... Overall, TNT product are exactly the same quality as what AMR-RC put in our kits.

Now lets go back to design and building of these little machines

CanDo

This is a very strong and well designed plane, but changing some things just makes my planes different from the rest of the crowd. I put a Sullivan tail wheel assembly on because I like a little spring in the tail wheel. Because the DLE 20 can swing up to a 17" prop, I'm going to put bigger tires on the main gear and make my plane a "bush plane". I thought about adding flaps but I have to remind myself, Keep It Simple, Stupid!