lumpy649

My Feedback: (75)

I've started a Trainer 26 build. Very nice kit with great hardware and wood. This is only the 2nd kit I've built, and so far no issues.This kit is all laser cut and all the pieces fit with very little sanding or trimming. Thekit comes with instructions only as the parts onlyinterlock one way. There is one plan sheet for the tail feathers.My plan is to power this with electric and a 10s 5000mah setup. If anyone out there has built this plane with electric power, please chime in. I'm wondering how the plane balanced with the batteries under the front hatch. I'm hoping I don't have to remove the wings for battery change out. Did you place the servos in the tail or the cabin for balance? Be aware that if you are thinking of building this kit, the instructions cover the actual build ONLY. The radio/servo install, control rods, engine or motor installation is not covered. It is for you to determine how you will go about it. I also ordered the optional flap kit, should add to the fun factor! Any advice or modifications you may done, especially if you built it electric, please add to the thread.
Thanks,
lumpy

lumpy649

My Feedback: (75)

I heard back from Vincent at AMR today, he told me that the plane builds tail heavy, so accessing the batteries from a front hatch should be no problem. He also reccomended a motor that can swing at least a 18 x 10 prop, so if I can use  an E-Flite power 160 or Rimfire 160. I'm trying to decide whether to go electric or gas, as I have a Syssa 30cc on hand. It would be nice to have the long flight times of gas while training someone to fly.  I constructed a front hatch and hinged it. Magnets will be added to hold the hatch closed. I put the fuse aside today and started the right wing panel. I dare to say that you would have a hard time building a wing that isn't straight on this kit. The way everything locks together really makes it easy. More to come with pictures to follow.

lumpy 

lumpy649

My Feedback: (75)

Here are some pics of mods I made to the fuse. They include a hinged front hatch, a 1/4 inch ply plate for mounting a set of cub scale landing gear, which I'm hoping to use. The plate is located directly behind F2. I also added a hatch between F5 and F6. I don't know for what exactly, but I was thinking of possibly doing a pull-pull for the rudder in that bay, or just for access later on, possibly a camera.

lumpy649

My Feedback: (75)

Here are some pics of the right wing panel. I dry fitted first as per instructions. Utilize a square and straight edge (level) and it is damn near impossible to build a warped/crooked wing.....ya gotta love this laser cut, interlocking process. Only my 2nd kit ever built. It goes quick.

lumpy649

My Feedback: (75)

A little more work on the right wing panel today. I modified where the wing bolt holds the wing to the fuse. AMR instructs to sheet this area with balsa, along with a support plate and dowel and then sheet the top of the panel with balsa. I decided to use 3/32 aircraft ply in this area instead. It's a large wing and I felt a little more strength in this area may be needed. I may do this in the wing joiner area too. I read a thread on the trainer 50 where there were some issues in this area. I'm not too concerned about the additional weight so much on this plane, after all it is a trainer and the wing loading is low. Plus it will most likely have more than enough power. I'm in no big rush to get this done, as it's still quite wintry here outside Buffalo, NY. The servo plates are in, along with the wingtip. The flaps are built up and waiting for the glue to dry. A side note on the kit, there is supposed to be 3/8 x 1 1/2 balsa stock in the kit for the wing leading edges. Not in my kit, no biggy as my LHS is close by, but it sure would be a PITA if you had to travel far for it. I'm also thinking of installing a Guardian Flight Stabilizer, anyone have any experience with these?

lumpy649


Seems RCU is having "Issues" again, as I'm not able to upload any pictures

GaryHarris

I'm in Lumpy. Ive been eyeballing this kit. Looking good so far!

soarrich

My Feedback: (98)

I put a RX3S OrangeRX 3-Axis Flight Stabilizer V2 (V-tail/Delta/AUX) in a LT-40. The Lt-40 seems to fly better without it. The stabilizer seems to rock the wings and keeps the plane from self leveling in pitch, if it was diving when you stop giving control imputs it stays that way, like a pattern plane, not what you want in a trainer type.

lumpy649

My Feedback: (75)

Here are the pics that I tried to upload yesterday, they show the wing mounting area, anti rotation pin support (looks like a doughnut inside the root rib). Also the servo trays and the flaps. I may make some wing struts so I'll need to put a support in the wing somewhere. Any ideas as to what percentage of the wing length you would run the strut out too?

lumpy

WacoNut

Looks good,
I have built 3 AMR kits, 33% Waco, 33% Cub and the 30cc High Wing Stick. All are good flying planes.

They do leave the radio and engine installatio up to the builder but for the most part by the time a guy gets around to building these big gas birds he pretty much knows how he wants to install things no matter what the instructions say.

Later!!
Anthony

lumpy649

My Feedback: (75)

Thanks Anthony,
I have followed some of your builds. It's guys like you on this site and others, that give me the encouragement to take on a project like this. 99.9% of my planes are ARFs, with my own little twists added. I'm getting tired of them and want to build. I've only beenenjoying in this hobby for @ 4 years now, but it was something I always wanted to get involved in. But, I never would have had the patience for it several years ago.......something I have gained recently. Hell, as hard as they can be to take, I find my total loses ( crashes) something to learn from. I really enjoy doing this a couple hours an evening.

lumpy

lumpy649

My Feedback: (75)

Here we go again.I started theleft wing panel. I stopped working on the right to get caught up with the left. I want to fiqure out how I'm going to do wing struts. I should have mentioned earlier that the notches/tabs on the laser cut parts fit very snug. I broke a piece the other night trying to force it together. Tonight I lightly sanded all notches/tabs and everything went together real nice. I probably have slightly less than 2 hrs into the panel tonite, including coffee breaks!. Also I suggest that if you build one of these kits to read ahead and gather all the parts that need to be laminated. That saved considerable amount of time this evening.

lumpy

lumpy649

My Feedback: (75)

I haven't done much on the build the past week, other things going on. Plus we had an unusually nice weekend here in Buffalo for early March. Tonight I started the airlerons and made a blunder. I made 2 lefts so I had to cut one apart and remake it a right. Pain in the butt but not much damage. Club meeting tomorrow night, I'll have a picture update soon. My Cub landing gear is wider than the fuse and it inhibits it's mounting, but I think I have it figured out.

lumpy

lumpy649

My Feedback: (75)

Ok I'm finally getting back into the groove on this build. My motor of choice came in the mail today. It's a Hyperion Z5025-24 , 200kv, rated for 10-12s setup. 1800 watts constant andI believe 2500 watts burst. Plenty of power for this plane. I'm going to shoot for @ 1.25oz to 1of thrust.I also ordered the Hyperion front mount for it. It incorporates a bearing in the rear of the mount to support the rear of the motor, very similar to a Hacker front mount, and it's adjustable to suit your situation. Only problem is it arrived damaged. Someone previous to me must have had it out of the box and dropped it. The rear of the motor is dented...see the pics. I'm not too concerned about the dent, but I'm more worried if the impact was enough to possibly loosen up some magnets. I ordered this from Air Craft World http://aircraft-world.com/. They are located in Japan, it was here in less that a week. I've emailed them and am waiting for a response as to how they want to handle this. Nothing major done on the wings tonight. Some reinforcement in what I feel are critical areas. Servo mount plates, wing joiner area etc. I also cut down the airlerons to length. You have to remove 1 bay on them if you are using flaps. Also in the pictures, this where my wing struts will mount. I glued in a piece of 1/2 x 3/8 hardwood just inboard of the airleron servo mount. These will be drilled later on and T-nuts installed.

lumpy

lumpy649

My Feedback: (75)

A little more on thewings tonight. On the inside of thewing trailing edge, between the ribs, there is a 1/4 x 1/2" void between the upper and lower spars. I didn't like the idea of hinging thru a gap, so I cut some 1" long hardwood blocks and glued them in at the hinging area. This is something I thought of, no mention of doing this in the instructions. I also put the wing halves together to check the fit and alignment. Always a time when you hold your breath when doing for the first time. I'm pretty satisfied. Fit is good at the top and bottom of the root. The left panel at the root is ever so slightly higher at the leading edge( lower on the right panel). I'm thinking of installing an additional anti rotation pin at the leading edge to bring the alignment in.

lumpy649

My Feedback: (75)

I think I found a descrepency in the manual. When looking at the ailerons, the leading edge of the aileron is @1/8" higher than the ribs, which would indicate that the top of the aileron is to be sheeted. What got my attention was that the hinge blocks are to be installed and then drilled. I'm thinking how will I accurately find the hinge hole if I'm going to sheet over it. Search the instructions and there is no mention of sheeting the tops of them. Also the instructions indicate that you should glue in the hinge blocks even with the leading edge of the aileron ( and not the ribs) and sand the angle in utilizing the leading and trailing edge of the aileron. This would leave the hinge blocks higher than the ribs and look like crap when you went to cover. I wrote Vincent at AMR and he stated that he thinks the ailerons should be sheeted just like the flaps. FLAPS!!! My flaps are complete, and sanded and again there was no mention of sheeting them in the manual. I guess it's no biggy, but the flaps have a3/8 "cap over the front of the ribs to the leading edge, that has a curve sanded into them to blend into the leading edge. I spent considerable amount of time getting the 2 flaps blended in and for both of them to match. Oh well, it just shows my inexperience at kit building....at least thats what I'm telling myself. An experienced builder probably would have caught this by just reading thru the instructions. I'm finding out that gluing up the major components is the easy part. The thinking and figuring out how you want make modifications is what takes up time.An incorrect manual just adds to it. I'm not giving up , but I can now understand why ARFs are so popular.

WacoNut

Bummer about the issue,
Write an e-mail with a summary of what you found wrong/missing in the instructions and send to AMR. I am sure they would send you new parts to rebuild your flaps if needed. I built their 1st production 33% J-3 Cub and found a few minor issues with the instructions which they corrected.
Later!!
Anthony

lumpy649

My Feedback: (75)

Here are some pictures of what I was talking about in my previous post today. In the first pic you can clearly see the leading edge height. If you were to install the hinge blocks to the height of the LE, you can imagine waht that would look like after covering, with the block higher than the ribs....especially on the ends. Vincent at AMR informed me that he thought that the flaps needed to be sheeted also. Well, you can see in the one pic that I compared finished flap height to aileron unsheeted. The aileron ONLY needs to be sheeted and that will give equal height across the 2 pieces. The last pic shows the leading edge on the right panel. I had to buy my own stock because it requires 1 3/8 x 3/8" stock and AMR supplied 1/4" stock with the kit. I had to piece it because my LHS only 36" lengths in stock. I sheeted one aileron today, I had to sand the ribs a little to bring the height in line with the end rib W11, which is the wing tip.
Good Night,
lumpy

lumpy649

My Feedback: (75)

YET ANOTHER..... in my previous post I mentioned how AMR included the wrong (1/4") LE stock and I had to go get my own 3/8" stock as per the instructions. Well guess what, 3/8" stock is wrong also! In the following picture I show the radius in the fuse at the wing saddle area. It's a 90 degree arc of ..........1/2" RADIUS. I can't stretch 3/8 to make 1/2" Thanks AMR!! Surely someone has built this kit and found this mistake previous to me. Maybe I got an old kit before this was changed. I know one thing, it's hard to make progress when you're taking a step back everyday. I forgot to mention, this I discovered AFTER I started shaping the leading edge. I've now glued on the 1/4" stock supplied with the kit. At least it got used for the build!

dmbaerry

Looking good...

lumpy649

My Feedback: (75)

Back to work on the wings today. The leading edges were shaved and sanded, then shaved and sanded, and sanded and matched. I mounted the wings and squared them on the fuse, drilled for the hold down bolts. I also drilled thru former F2 into the wing leading edge to install the 2 dowels that hold the LE in place. I found it odd that the LE frameis predrilled, and so is the former. But when you install the balsa over the LE of the wing the predrilled hole is hidden. Cause for concern if you don't drill fairly straight and hit the hidden hole behind the LE. But it worked out fine and the 3/8ths dowel went right in. I checked wing tip height and I have it less than an 1/8" over a span of 84 inches. I'm happy with that. I also show 2 drill jigs I made up to get each hinge hole accurately drilled. The hinges are drilled at an angle with the pivot above the aileron/wing. I've never installed hinges in this fashion and I'm concerned about binding if I don't get each one the same. When it comes time to do the flaps, that should be a real joy. They are hinged the same way but from the bottom. Easy enough to do with a premade jig......if the leading edges weren't formed already. I should have drilled them while the edges were still square. I've included a picture of something I just picked up for a future build. My favorite plane of all. A little more experience needed before I attempt to build and especially fly that beast!!! Good Night.
lumpy

lumpy649

My Feedback: (75)

Some more work accomplished on the wing. Both wings have had the servo wire tubes installed. The ailerons are hinged and have been trial fitted to the wings. Also both wings are sheeted top and bottom. I have rought sanded both wings and have started filling and sanding the balsa filler. I need to hinge thee flaps yet on both wings. Also in the flap area of the wing I have to make a panel that conceals about half of the top half of theflap. The panel followspast theTE of the wing. So I also have to make up some blocks to attach the panel to. I'm not too concerned about that area yet because I think for covering purposes it will be easier to install them after the main wing is covered. I'll then remove some covering from the TE and glue the panelsupportblocks in.

lumpy

lumpy649

My Feedback: (75)

Today I started what I've been dreading to do and that was to hinge the flaps. There really are no directions as to how to do it. So I just winged it. Well on my first attempt, I drilled the holes in the wrong locations on both the wing and the flap. I drilled to far in from the leading edge of the flap, and trailing edge of the wing. So I made an adjustment on my locations and it came out fine. The second flap/wing was then easy. I filled the error holes with 30 min epoxy and milled fiberglass to hopefully put some strength back into those areas. I also cut out the location of the flap servo locations in both wing panels. When I built the wings I installed the plywood flap servo plate flush with the wing ribs. My thinking at the time was that it would be easier to cut out later than to try to cut thee sheeting on the wing to go around the plate. Now that the wings are sheeted, I have to be careful of how I'm working on them. I'm scarring the sheeting up both top and bottom sides from handling on the bench. I'll have to put a towel down on the bench as I work on them for now on.lumpy

lumpy649

My Feedback: (75)

I haven't done much on the plane, no pictures tonight, I didn't know if RCU would be back up and running. The rear deck of the fuselage has been sheeted. Tonight I glued on the trailing edge of the flaps. I had to wait to do this until everything was hinged so I could see what thickness of stock I needed to use so all the trailing edges lined up. On the rear hatch I decided to use 2 screws to hold it on instead of magnets. I drilled a 1/4" hole thru the balsa and plywood plate and glued in a piece of 1/4" dowel so the screws don't crush the balsa sheeting. T-nuts were installed in the fuse for the 4-40 screws. That's all for now, pictures tomorrow.lumpy

flyingagin

You are doing a darn good job Lumpy.Very impressive for just your 2nd kit.

Ken

CanDo

Flyingagin is right, Lumpy. You are doing a great job on your 2nd build. Probably every kit I've built had some issues with the instruction manual, the drawings and/or the parts. You are hanging in there, problem solving your way through these "challenges" and learning some new building techniques. FYI, I work on a piece of foam rubber when I'm covering or doing hinges, but you are right, anything soft will help minimize scratches and dings. If you get some scratches on the sheeting, spray some water on the spot and put your covering iron it for a couple of seconds; many times the scratch or small dent will pop out. Enjoy the build!