Ilewis its me again and I think I going to recover my A-26. Cause my monokote has gotten some wrinkles since it was last flown and am not happy about it. Yes I could resrink it but I think I will try to glass it and cover it with lite-flite cover and also change the engine cowels. I mite even think about putting a set of spring air retracts in it. Cause she sure looks good flying a scrafing run with the bomb-bay doors open. I'm even thinking about scratching a second one but put the nose on it with the guns. But still have the bomb-bay doors but maybe have Mag 40s on it instead of the TT40. But still have three TTs that I still could use on it too. Kind of like these TT and they all run just fine for me.

The tail feathers are on, at last. I was not happy with the detail of the design the comment on the plans "fill in with scrap balsa" I cut the fuse per the plan and fitted the stab. I carved a block of balsa to match the dihedral in the stab and to mate with the fuse. The balsa block got epoxied to the top of the stab. I drilled the rudder and inserted two tooth picks. Drilled mating holes in the balsa block and dry fit the rudder to line up. Crossed my fingers, mixed some more epoxy and stuck it all together. I used masking tape to keep the fin vertical. Later I mixed a batch of epoxy and microballons to create a fillet between the rudder and the fuse. Did one side at a time and began to realize I did not put enough hardner in the mix for the starboard side! Brain fade. Similar to dumb thumbs.

Waiting for stuff to dry I worked on the electrical. I wired up the Ultimate BED, yes, I decided to spend the money and not risk all this work to the BEC in the GP controller. Had to add a connector to the batteries to provide for the BEC.

Then for the first time I created a decal! I purchased some decal paper from Micro-Mark, followed their instructions. Really very complex. like print on the shiny side, coat with Krylon. Let dry. Your done. Got some water and sure enough... water slide decal. The easiest project of the day. I typed up the tail number, and all of the stuff stenciled on the side of Chadwick. I have not done the white lettering yet. That is tricky as printers do not print white! More on that later.

It rained in Southwest Florida and I promised myself I would focus and get some visible progress. Wires were soldered, connectors connected, motors mounted, cowling's installed, control rods installed, servos tested, and more.

So I put the 7th Chadwick together. She is not done but I get excited when I see results.
The first photograph is my trade mark and pilots that have followed some of my other threads will relate.

Details, details, decals.

Some thing is wrong here the site is not up to date. I added a couple steps since the 27th. I wonder if RCUniverse had to do a back up?

Anyhow we were lucky enough to get copies of some of the original artwork on the Chadwick. So I sent off my money for a do-it-yourself decal kit. It is not difficult, just use your ink jet printer, print it, spray the special paper with Krylon. When it is dry you have a decal. Well almost that easy, ink jet printers do not print white so the special paper is already white, just color a section to match the area your going to apply the decal (black). Print on top of the background color the nomenclature you want. I was easy for the black, but the day glow red was difficult to match.

The decals I made will not make scalemasters, but they make the plane come alive. When I get the exterior details finished I will publish a first-up photo of the 7th Chadwick. Meanwhile check this out, my half of the office at home that I share with Maria. She can't wait until I claim finish!

Progress has slowed with the construction of Chadwick. The little details, yet to be completed, never seem to end. Additionally some of my earlier decisions have complicated the process. In building the plane I tried to complete each of the parts individually. I covered the rudder with Monokote a month ago. Likewise I covered the aft end of the fuse not realizing how long the leading edge of the rudder would be. Consequently I had to cut away the covering to finish (glue) assembling the tail feathers. Now I face trying to patch the covering and I have used up my motivation.

The good news is that the home made decals look good.

The 7th Chadwick is nearly done and I thought you might like to see a preview. I have not yet set the CG, she seems to be nose heavy. I may have to moves something aft, but that is better than the other way. The control surfaces for the ailerons and the flaps have not been set. Engine run-up found the port engine acting up. I think I know what the cause is. Rudder and Elevator adjusted easily and are set.

You will notice that I have taken some liberties with history. I am sure they did not use Gloss Black! The nose is painted with a "Day-Glow" red. The tail numbers etc. are white because the red decals faded into the black and were not visible. I have the machine guns and turrets but looking at the model I began to think that we have seen enough machine guns in my life. I may leave them off.

Nice going your plane looks pretty nice to me even with out the guns. And thats OKAY with me cause yours can be the converted forstfire one. Still looks good hope to someday see it fly at an event near the midwest.[&:]

I thank every pilot that helped with the construction of the Chadwick. I needed your help. I want to specifically thank a pilot that spent a considerable amount of his time teaching me how to laminate 1/32 Balsa. Thank you William Robison, pilot, rcuniverse moderator and a fine gentlemen. William took the time to show me how to build a light weight hatch. He even took the time to build one, photograph the process and publish it for my use building the A-26. Above and beyond the call of duty.

Larry:

Appreciate the "Attaboy." But things like that are why I spend time here.

You should be proud of the airplane, looks really good.

And don't denigrate the gloss paint, many military planes have been done in gloss for show. If they still used the "Chadwicks" for lead, in peacetime they might well have their current one nice and shiny.

Bill.

Larry,

Your plane looks nice. Keep us posted on the flight testing.

Many night fighters were gloss black - During WWII, research showed that the reflections off the glossy surface blends the airplane into the night sky better than a matte finish!
Take a look at the F82 Twin Mustang in night fighter colors....


Also check out the P-61, a contemporary of the A26

http://www.angelfire.com/ab4/airplan...Widow/P61.html

Your A26 is lookin' good!!! Thanks for sharing the build online!!

Cheers!

Jim

The 7th Chadwick is still grounded. What I thought was a simple problem with one motor became complex and seemed to be with both motors. Actually it was only with the motor battery supplying the BEC. As I have two batteries, either capable of supplying the BEC depending upon the connectors selected the BEC didn't always end up with the same motor battery combination. The problem was quickly isolated when I used a small Rx battery and everything worked. The Ultimate BEC folks (Jeff Myers) are sending a version with additional filtering. Meanwhile I have been flying my Bonnie trying to get some flight time in before I attempt to launch the Chadwick.

I like it shiny!!! ... what parts of the plane did you paint and what cover?... what kind of of paint and covering did you use?

Very nice craft you've got, please post us some pictures of it from the field. and bytheway, you need to trim your nails a bit

IsLewis..............................

I have a wing's A-26 short kit. Unfortunatly i did not build it. Can you do me a favor and tell me where the CG location is? I would appreciate it.

Thanks,

Ed

Ed,

The CG is 3 7/8 inches from the wing leading edge. If you have not already found it the twin section of RC Universe has been very helpful for me during the construction of the 7th Chadwick. I am continuing to have problems with the BEC I bought and have yet to finish the installation of the cover over the wing and cockpit canopy. Building the plane was very time consuming and I got burned out at the end.

Let me know how yours flies.

Thanks for the info, Turns out it's balanced right on the money. It actually flies pretty good. Needs alot of power though. I am running O.S. LA 40's with 3 Blade 8x7 master airscrew's. needs a little power on for landing. I have not had an engine out yet but it has a nice size rudder to help out in case. Sure is an eye catcher at the field, "Everybody wants to see the twin fly" or maybe crash? Hmmm.

I dont know the weight of mine but i will know soon. Yours sure looks nice. You did a great job on it. I only wish i had built mine, but, then again you said it took alot out of you to complete it. I hope your's fly's as good as she looks..........

Good luck with your maiden flight.

Ed

Construction of the Chadwick stopped as this pilot overdosed on Balsa. I recovered last week and finished. The Chadwick weighs 147.5 oz full up. The weight includes 1 oz for the co-pilot and 0.6 oz for the servo I just had to put under the top turret. The Ultimate BEC did not work out consequently I had to add the weight of a 4.8 volt receiver battery.

That is the good news.

The bad new. The Chadwick is extremely nose heavy. Some how I mis-calculated. One of the batteries will have to move aft. To move the battery should be easy. Changing the battery will be a nightmare as the battery will be under the wing. Taking the wing off this plane is a chore. The aileron wiring, the flaps, port motor control, starbd motor control, running lights (yes I added running lights), the turret servo and the heavy power leads (4) almost guarantee something will be plugged in wrong. To prevent such an error I am using a single 15 pin connector to handle all but the power leads.

Flying4Fun - Did I see a photo of your plane all decorated up with numbers etc.?

yes...........................

This is after i made it my own so to speak.............................

Islewis what did you do to your A-26 The wing on that bird should be fairly easy to remove and remount. At least it is on mine and I have two servos for the ailerons,throttles nav lites and flaps. The piece that goes over the wing area I use velcro to hold it in place. And its been there for about three years now.

nchrome[:@]

At first I was not going to answer you but I decided maybe some body else will gain from my error.

I estimated the plane would be very tail heavy, consequently I installed both motor batteries, (one for the port, one for the starbrd motor) in the nose of the plane. I also put as much junk on or near the CG as possible. The second decision is what complicated the connections to the wing. I crammed all of the conventional stuff plus an FMA Co-Pilot into a few inches.

The motor batteries are 10 cell Sanyo HR-1950 FAUP with wire and connector they weigh 14.9 oz each. For the electrical folks the motors are EndoPlasma with a 4.6:1 gear ratio turning 11x7 3 blade props. The plane has not flown yet however MotoCal thinks it will but recommends an "experienced" pilot. I do not qualify so I added the Co-Pilot. As you can see in the photograph I had to move one battery aft. I also had to relocate the Rx battery forward to balance the plane.

There is a balsa separator above the servos (removed for the photo) to keep the wires from jamming up the system.

Just a thought here but would it be better to put the reciever up in the nose and maybe the flight batteries where the reciever went. Maybe this would help on the nose heavness. On mine (OF COURSE MINE IS GLOW POWERED) the reciever battery is in the nose and the reciever is in the rear of the wing saddle. I'm a little nose heavy but not that bad and she flys like she is on rails. Did you raise the nose wheel like is suggested if not she will jump in the air and possibly stall the wing. Make sure that when you look at the plane that the wing is level with the ground. This will make the plane lift off the ground at flying speed and not jump in the air. I learnt this on my maiden flite of mine very scarry.[X(] Hope to hear more about your plane especialy after the maiden flite.

[] Average wind about 15 with gusts to "Oh my Gosh!" I made it to the field with all my stuff but it became clear that I would just be blown off the runway. I wanted to check the sync of the motors. No way. We had our big Gathering of the Giants fly-in/Air Show over the weekend. This is the 10th year and over the two days several thousand spectators attend. By Sunday afternoon most of the crew is wore out, including this pilot. So I was not really hot to do much at the field today.

If I were to make major changes to the Chadwick I would relocate the batteries centered on the CG and distribute the Rx servos etc to keep the plane in balance. If she flies successfully with he electric system and depending upon performance I may rip off the Monokote and fiberglass and paint the plane, maybe. The black will never make it in our Florida sun. I had it at the show (static demo)and the Monokote bubbled badly.

Hey guys,

I'm thinking of building one of these soon and was wondering where the best place to buy one is. I know Tower used to sell Wing kits, but it looks like they've stopped. Is Wing the only place to get one?

Thanks