I Bought one of those kerosene heaters to prepare for the Y2K bug. The world was not cast into the stone age but I got a great garage heater. This is a man's heater, five gallons of kerosene would last all winter.

FLMLM: That's what I'm going to do then. Buyild in the raw, assy, install gear and balance CG, maybe laterally.

Badger, I had never thought of the torque as an offset for lateral balance to the right side (muffler).

OvertheEdge I'd say those strobes would be a little over-the-edge. lol You do whatever you feel like. It's you dime, your plane and I think it would look great at night.

Did anyone consider making the Copntender a taildragger. I would like to mount the motor 90 degrees to the right which would put the pipe straight under the cowling, between the wheels. With the flaps and the ability to mix flaperons a taildragger would be a cinch for 3 point landings after you learned how. Feedback. Talk me out of it.

To make it a taildragger you might have to beef up the bottom dorsal fin to allow mounting of a tail wheel, depending on what kind of tail wheel assy you go with. Why would you have to go tail dragger to side mount the engine? Just a question. I briefly thought about going tail dragger with mine but every plane I own at the time is a tail dragger... decided to leave it with the nose gear. lol

As far as my question about the strobes... just looking for other people's thoughts or ideas before I start drilling mounting holes.

Thanks OvertheEdge: I will stay with the tri-gear. My trainer is tri. I laid the parts out on the table this am. Am going to get serious starting tomorrow. I have to work in building on the palne inbetween working at the hospital from 3PM til Mid and keeping my small engine repair business going. I repair lawn mowers, etc out of my detached garage. Trying to build a small business for retirement in two or three years. Been going good so far. I don't have anything in the shop right now, so maybe I can make some progress.

I have tried to upload pics before and it always tells me my file is too big. What's the secret for uploading pics?

Later, guys.

Jim
AMA 821369

Jim,

I had the same problem with uploading pictures in the beginning. The size limit is approximately 200 kb for the picture. Make sure your file size is smaller than 200 kb. If it's too big you'll need to use a graphics utility to shrink the file size.

Generally I import my pictures in Corel Draw and resize them, that's what works for me. Also on RC Universe Support there's a thread titled "Test Posting Forum" where you can experiment with uploading pictures.

Hope that helps

Regards
Mike

For some reason I can only upload one pic at a time... Here's #1
The small hole in front of the servo is where the strobe on the left will be, The small yellow tube under the servo is one of the rudder cable exits, the other gray tube is the antenna tube.

Here's #2.
From the inside you can see both rudder cable tubes and the gray antenna tube, the extra blue tube will house my wires for the rear strobes.

And one more.
I didn't take one of the right side... the only thing to see there is another strobe mounting hole directly opposite of the left side and the rudder cable exit. [8D]

I still have a bunch of lightning holes and etc... but it's a start.

Keith,

Your build is really shaping up. Thanks for sharing the detail photos of your fuselage plumbing. I also like the looks of running the antenna through the fuselage in a self contained tube of it's own. I've never tried that but have heard that running the antenna through the fuselage works pretty good and it does make for a cleaner looking finish in my opinion. The strobes are a neat idea that I'm sure will be worth the effort.

Keep up the good work....

Regards
Mike

Hello Crowd:

I am going to attempt to attach 2 pics of my first day of progress. I got the parts cut out for the Horziontal Stabilizer and elevators. Took 2 1/2 hours. It was fun.

Ist mistake: Cut some pcs. of the H. Stabilizer out of basswood instead of balsa as the plans call for. Re-cut out of balsa. Glad going to LHS today. Maybe I'll settle down a little.

I set my digital camera to e-mail resolution. Let's see what happens.

Later.

Jim
AMA 821369

Jim,

Picture posting worked like a charm. Your on the way, looks great. Keep up the good work.

Regards
Mike

Overtheedge,

Fuse looks very good. Post some pictures of your fuse when you get the lightening holes in. I'd like to compare what I did. I felt I should have cut more and/or bigger lightening holes. The fuse with what I did is still very strong and stiff, I'd feel very comfortable cutting more then I did. See previous posts.

Safebet,

Good luck!

Scott

Planning on trying to post a pic or 2 tonight... I did cut out more than you and I think you're right... didn't seem to weaken the intregrity of the fuse at all, it still seems plenty stiff. Heck... there's a few other spots that might do a bit more lightning, we'll just have to see. [8D]

Ok... still got some building to do on the fuse but here it is after a bunch of dieting and a few nips and tucks... lol.

And another...

And one more... this one shows the bottom...

Keith,

I like it! How did you cut out the holes? Drill, xacto, sander? I did my smaller holes with a unibit, but it only goes to 1/2" Unibit worked better than a standard drill bit. But still not and apperance grade hole.

Hi Gang:

Got the elevators and the horzontal stabilizer completed. Fixing to start the rudder and the stab.

Question 1. Some of you have modified the rudder by straightening it out, thus increasing the area. Did you just make it straight from top to bottom?
Question 2. Did you increase the height of the Stab fin and Rudder, any?

I note OTE that you have lightened yours in the fuse section. I am going to use a .61 up front. Does the Contender tend to be somewhat tailheavy or is this just to decrease total weight?

I'll download a picture when I have all the tailend pcs. complete.

safebet,

see post #30 for my rudder. It is not much an increase in area. the rudder height is the same. The bottom of the rudder is about an inch larger with a straight taper to the top. Some other earlier posts have a counterbalance rudder.

Scott, I just did some measuring to evenly space the holes, did the rough cutting with an xacto, finished off with dremel sanding bit. Trust me... it looks better in the pic than in person but it'll do. Fuse still seems plenty strong.

Safebet, I counter balanced my rudder (see earlier posts). I did not increase the overall height. As for as the contender being tail heavy I honestly wouldn't know... this is my first experience with the kit. The main reason that I did all the lightning is that I'm aft mounting the elevator servo plus I'll have the LED's and wiring for the aft mounted strobes. Figure I'll need all the help I can get to keep the CG where it needs to be and to keep the weight in line too.

Scott, How's the rest of your cover job coming? Any tips to share with the fuse?

Definitely a tip on covering. Buy a trim iron.

I covered the back half last nite. In accordance with standard practice I cover from bottom back to the top front.
I used a piece on each bottom half. First attempt at covering bottom with one piece I could not get the wrinkles out. If you do not have a trim iron get one. It would be difficult to get a good seal on that little 1/8" edge that runs down the fin without it. My previous cover jobs I only used the trim iron once or twice.

I stop covering where the sheeting stopped at the back, sides are covered to near nose and I'll try one piece on top from sheeting to near nose. The nose should be most difficult of all and will likely take several pieces.

I wish those irons had on/off switches built into the handle.

This will likely be all the progress for a couple weeks as Thanksgiving and work limit my time.

Badger, thanks for the tips on covering. Keep us informed. I wish we could see the different stages of covering.

I have a question? I am getting ready to cut the lower fin, center and dorsal fin and the
flap doubler out of the 1/4" x 3" x24" pc. of balsa. I do not have access to a scroll or table saw. Do you think I can do it with just a #11 and good straight edge?

I would like to buy a small (hobby) table saw or scroll saw. I have seen the Dremel scroll and a small table saw or two. They are expensive. I don't have any extra$'s right now with holidays, etc. In your opinion, what is the first shop tool you would buy? What do you consider your most valuable. I have most of the hand tools, sander bars, etc. I am talking about the larger equipment.

Thank you guys for your assistance. If I don't talk to you again, please have
a Happy Thanksgiving!

Jim
AMA 821369 (got my 2006 card yesterday)

Question...

What fuel tank is everyone using?

I'm using a 10 oz dubro. I think it is the one called out in the plans. However I had to rotate it 90 degrees and remove some of the balsa frame near the top to get it to fit. Hope this does not cause feed problems. It is centered on the carb barrel.

I made a mistake on my covering sequence. I almost got started covering again and noticed my error. Bottom is one piece not two as I had posted. However instructions call out once piece to cover from fin to bottom/side corner. This is the piece I could not get all the wrinkles out and used a piece on the side and another from the side/top corner to the small 1/8 lip on the fin.