There's a hole in the bottom, pretty much what they showed on the plans. I made the cutout while fitting the cowl. The front of the exit cutout sort of sticks out a bit, such that the exit is blind to oncoming air.

Very impressive. Now i am kickin' the tires again. The two fella's in this area that have these do not use any baffling. I was going to do something very basic such as shown in the picture.

Followed your lead Impluse and added baffles. I am sure this extra time and effort will pay off with a cooler running engine. Also, i am happy to report that with all the equipment moved as far forward and possible and the correct prop and spinner added we have achieved the correct CG. No additional "dead" weight will be needed. My only worry now is radio interference will all that equipment tucked under the cowl. Three battery packs, ignition module and a smoke pump. I have to have something to worry about......[]

Parts primered and ready for paint.

Looking good Steve.
Merry Christmas!!
Anthony

Thanks Anthony.

Merry Christmas to all.

Baffles keep your engine happy happy happy. Looking sharp.

Wow,, actually able to upload pictures for the first time in two days.
Got the cowl, landing gear and wheel pants painted white. Had a few flaws in the cowl to begin with so i sanded and repainted today after building a simple fixture on an engine stand to hold it. The first painting was done just holding it by hand and the best analogy i can come up with is it was like trying to hold on to an oversized basketball and trying to paint it. The first 2 pictures on the stand were after sanding, the last picture is after the second painting session, it turned out great this time.

Is the paint you're using compatible with the canopy plastic? Did you make that "Extra 330L" text near the nose?

Yes, it is compatible. I used it on a Goldberg Extra a couple of years ago. It is awesome paint. I got the graphics from Kirby Graphics, i know the owner from scale contests over the years http://www.angelfire.com/oh2/kirbysgraphics/index.html

Did he have the text on file, or did you find it so he could do the vinyl?

I sent him what i needed. He should still have it on file. I can contact him for you if you would like.
Took a few minutes to find this http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9335696

Yellow paint applied today. How about that high tech handling fixture on the canopy?

Gotta do what you gotta do to get the job done! I just got a shipping notice on my wing tube last night, so that plus a bunch of electronic gizmos should arrive this week. I did a balance check yesterday with all the servos installed and I'm definitely not tail heavy, which I consider a good thing at this point. I went ahead and walled off the wing root area inside the fuse, and I'm considering rigging the wing to accept nylon bolts from inside the fuse, which means I would have to scratch a new accessory tray. Cockpit interior is finished as well.

Looking very good Impluse. The nylon wing bolts are a good idea and some added insurance. Finally going to get the wing tube, that is good news, i was wondering about that a day or two ago what ever came of that. Good to hear you do not have any tail heavy issues. That is not easy to overcome sometimes without dead weight. Hopefully it is not nose heavy either. The pictures of the wheel pants is very blurred, sorry about that, i didn't check it closely enough before uploading. What paint did you use on your cockpit insert? By the way the added sheeting looks good, that has to stiffen up the wing opening.

The cockpit was rustoleum gray primer, with a top coat of duplicolor gray spatter paint. The wing cutout is strong enough to bear the fuselage weight now. When we checked balance yesterday, I threw all the accessories I had on hand into their expected locations. I was able to control CG with battery placement. I'm thinking about using the nylon bolts instead of bolts through the wing tube, but I haven't decided yet. If I do that I'll need to put a tray above and forward of the wing tube for the fuel tank, and a tray about 6 inches aft of the wing tube for batteries, etc.

PS: 22.5 lbs with all the junk thrown in.

That is a good weight. I will get a weight on mine soon, but i am sure it is heavier than yours. Another option would be to put two steel bolts into the wing tube maybe from the bottom of the wing. Just kickin' tires......

You think a single nylon bolt on either side would be sufficient for a plane of this class?

There is a father and son team in our area, they both have one of these and they both use just one bolt. I ask them about it and they said they had never had a problem with that set up. I understand where you are coming from. Mine is set up with one bolt from the bottom into each wing panel. I will definately apply some thin ca to the bolt everytime i prepare it for flight. Also another fellow i discussed this set up with had a Bennet Cap (?) and he said he used the same arrangement with no issues. He actually counterbored one bolt and covered it with Monokote and left the wing tube permanently installed in one panel.

I think a single bolt through the wingtube is fine (as per instructions), but I'm talking about getting rid of the bolt in the wingtube and putting a 1/4 nylon through the fuse and root rib.

Sorry for the crap picture. The red things would be 1/4 20 nylon bolts.

Gotcha. I think that would be fine as well. I have an 80" sport model that uses bolts from inside the fuse into the root rib with blnd nuts, no problems at all. That plane has a lot of miles on it over the past four years or so.

Maybe not nylon, but a steel 1/4 bolt with a bonded washer.

Still need to paint the dark blue stripe. Probably will do that tomorrow.

Happy New Year everyone!

We now have blue stripes and this concludes the painting. Just in time to have to go back to work tomorrow...