soon to be converted to a G series. anyways, I'm VERY impressed. it arrived nicely packed, and NO damage
what-so-ever. the Canopy was not foggy like I've been reading, & not damage. the fuse is very nice. the wings
are perfect ( covering wise). The fuse is AWESOME, no cracks or damage. same can be said of the rest of the
acessories. that drop tank, me likey! looks pretty darn close to the actual one used on the later G models. seems
that tis particular "F" has alot of "G" styling cues to it. all the hardware looks to be robust & good quality as far as I
can see. I like the fact the include the strut covers.

while looking at the spinner right away I seen the problem of the backplate fracturing. it need to be drilled out
and tapped 4/40 and needs screws to go all the way to the back of the spinner backplate.

I'll post more as I progress.. not so much of the build, becouse frankly the other thread covers it in spades.
but the bash to come.. thanks for reading.

PS, the crosses SUCK. those are gonna go. much nicer to apply them with paint anyways.

forgot to mention that I purchased this model from AK- Models inc. Alex is an AWESOME guy to deal with.
very curtious & proffesional. He has my buisness from now on. shipping was only $67 too!

Dump the back plate and turn an aluminum one. The has worked perfect for me with my aluminum back plate.

See the long CMP 109 build for other tips.

Or keep everybody out of the way.

Steve

How scale is the outline of this ARF? In your opinion?

Since you bought it, I take you think it is quite good?

well.... I must say that the outline of this magnificant machine is pretty fricken close to scale.
nothing is 100% in the arf world lol... but this one is close to the top unlike some others

I might add also that the length of the fuse & the wing span are both bang on at about 1:5.4.
awesome.

I think you mean some un-mentionable 109 ?

How is landing gear mounts ? typically most if not all CMP's require strengthening and in some cases re engineering of this area, how does this bird fair in that category. Is the wing fully sheeted ?

one more; If one wanted to use a gas engine on this bird what would be your recommendation for something that would cowl in with minimal if any cutting of the cowl at all ?

dunno, havn't got that far yet ( the landing gear area is covered). but no doubt it'll need to be re-enforced. I did the same to my
TFGE P-40. better safe then sorry. if it ever dead sticks just keep the gear up & drop the external fuel tank.

the main wings are not fully sheeted. just the front half top/bottom is sheeted. I'll be taking care of that during the bash.
but all-in-all the wings looks really nice. no wrinkles.

for engine size I'll be using my DLE20. from the mount to the top of the spark plug is 4". so the plug & wire will be the
only thing sticking out. however if I move the engine back only an inch. everything will be hidden. I seen this one flown
with an older OS 108, flew very nice. good speed, nice scale manuvers. so with the power the DLE20 makes.. messa
not so worried

hope this helps.

A 20-26cc size gas motor will work on this plane just fine, but your really not going to get a fuel powered motor to fit in the cowl without cutting of some form..at least for the larger muggler required of most gas engines. The retract mount hard points are a little soft. Reinforce the wood there and you'll be fine. The wings I think are fully sheeted, but the balsa sheeting is quite thin.

As for the pushrods for the elevator and rudder. I did NOT use the carbon fiber tubes as described in the manual. What I did was simply use them as pushrod guides for 4/40 pushrods with flex tubing inside the carbonfiber rods.

The DLE 20 was exactly the engine I had in mind , 4" inches you say ? so one can theorize that if I had a 8.25 radius cowl it would fit perfectly plug , boot and all ? Nice ! ( "some side research or another project ")

if you do move the engine back you would need a prop extension yes ?

Roger that.

yep. that would be the Spit 109 lol!

LMAO !!!!!!!!!

SHHHHHH, you'll bring the ETM shrill back! He has been gone a while. I like it that way.

Ah EM ! you know you enjoyed roasting him ! LOL

heres a pic of some of the pitfalls of an ARF. those in the know will see the ginormous error here.
so I'll just remove the cross and paint it correctly. as a matter of fact, I'll replace all the decals. it'll
only cost me some ink, & wet transfer paper. very easy fixes.

Pic 1. shows the cross misaligned & the wrong design
Pic 2. some I made up for my P-40. easy as pie to do for
the 109 as well.

I'll try drilling it out and tapping it for a 4/40 screw first.. gotta feeling that'll work just fine.
if not, I'm pretty good at dead sticking. flew alot of gliders when I was younger.

I did read the other thread. theres a few things I agree with, some I don't. tossing the
factory mounts is something I don't agree with.

thanks for the tips though, much aprreciated.

congrats Greg , looking forward to your excellant mods buddy !!!!

thanks Lou.. been watching your Fw 190 thread.. gonna steal some of your ideas

So, you'll be removing the two little fairings over the umbrella clips that make this particular fuselage a 'Trop' then?
Evan, WB #12.

you betcha (this will be the non-trop version)after I fill in the divets inside the fuse.also will be adding the two fresh air intakes just foward of the windshield.
this will be the non presurized G.

heres a couple pics of the engine moved back. after modding the oil cooler duct ( later, to G-10 specs), everything will be
hidden. hate to have any part of the DLE20 sticking out. the back part of the oil cooler duct will open just like the 1:1
109.. so cooling won't be a problem. generator scoops will be functional too. actually, all the cowl ducting.

Check out this video on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Q1Hy...e_gdata_player

If you get a chance too, granted he dropped his gear but still, I would think of replacing it!

Casey

yah I seen that one. he for sure should have left the gear up. thanks for your advice.
I wonder whats sets those other stock spinners apart that don't explode? over tighened
screws mabey???

I dont have any personal experience with one, but from what I've been able to tell it may just be an inferior design. The material itself maybe lacking abit, as it seems that they all come apart at speed, ie. high RPM,s...this may be the reason why you dont see them comming apart on start ups or at idle...just a guess on my part and only that. But if it were me, seeing that would be enough to make me replace it.

good luck,

Casey

I ended up getting a spinner from Ty for this plane , dont know if he is still making them .The spinner is exploding with vibration so be very careful if you do use it , I know its ok with eletric flight as there have not been reports .