Gravityisnotmyfriend

My Feedback: (2)

I got the fun 51 kit for Christmas and since have done some research on it. It seems the consensus is that this plane could be better if the control surfaces were enlarged with added counter balancers and the landing gear mount needs to be reinforced. I've built kits, always according to the plans. This is my first attempt at modifying a kit. Here's as far as I've gotten with the horizontal stab/elevator. Do you guys think this will work? Is there anything wrong with this plan? I posted the original plan as well as what I intend to do.

WacoNut

I helped a friend build one of these, we built it stock and the plane is scary responsive. He put a .47 2 stroke on it and most of the time it fly's at less than half throttle. At full throttle it is a bullet. Very fun plane to fly.
Anthony

Gravityisnotmyfriend

My Feedback: (2)

Last winter, I built a Dazzler. I've since crashed it, but I'm hoping I'll get similar performance with this kit as I did with the Dazzler. I've redesigned the horizontal tail. On my first attempt, I kept the origional dimensions the same - I just moved the hinge line so that there is more elevator than stab. I got looking at the plans and found that this would complicate things. On this mod, I kept the stab the same and enlarged the elevator. I think this is what I'll go with.

bull51

HI,

I built this kit last winter. Followed plans and did no reinforcement to the landing gear. I've had no problems. It has an OS .46 AX on the nose. It is super fast! Good luck with yours!

buzzingb

My Feedback: (2)

It is a very twitchy and responsive plane. Build it lite and use plenty of power. A 46 is adequate but won't overpower it.

Gravityisnotmyfriend

My Feedback: (2)

Yeah, I've decided against the LG reinforcement. It's seems sturdy enough to me. If I'm proven wrong, it'll be an easy fix even after it's built. I am going ahead with the control surface mods. Here's some pics of the fuse and the oversized rudder. If it's twitchy without the mods, it should really be fun with them[>:] As far as power, it'll be a .46 - either the Thunder Tiger Pro or the Tower Hobbies. Those are the two engines that I run on almost all of my planes and both seem to have pretty much the same power and are both pretty reliable. If one of my others crashes before I get this built than it'll be an easy decision - otherwise I'll have to buy another engine. Here's the pics and I'm back to building...

Gravityisnotmyfriend

My Feedback: (2)

Here she is - nearly ready to cover. I still need to square up the horiz and glue it and do some sanding to prepare it for covering. All the modifications are done: over sized ailerons and oversized rudder and elevators with counterbalancers. Hopefully I'll get this covered yet this week.

Gravityisnotmyfriend

My Feedback: (2)

It's been a little over a year, but it's finally done. I'll post again when the weather has warmed up enough for a maiden.

ddrake24

The covering looks great. Did you do something different on the bottom? I did not go with any control surface mods on mine but I like the way yours came out. I bet yours will fly better.

ddrake24

Here is how the one I did came out.

cmartin3d

Dude, I love the covering scheme. Is it easy to tell top from bottom when it's flying? I'm building a fun51 as well and am thinking more of a traditional theme (Alluminum MonoKote with black and white stripes) look's great!

GrantK

My Feedback: (15)

NICE![8D]

ddrake24

Thanks for the comments. I have not flown it yet (waiting on spring) I hope it helps me tell which side is up. I found a build thred on this site that helped me when I built it. The main thing is if you are going to use a little bigger engine like a OS .46 you will need to enlarge the opening for the engine and it's best to do that before you glue the wings on.

Gravityisnotmyfriend

My Feedback: (2)

ddrake24, good looking fun-51. Yeah, mine is a different color on the bottom. I was going to put some stripes on one wing like you have on both, but I guess I got lazy. After looking at yours though, I may have to do it after all.