Ladies and Gentlemen, so far no one has done a review on a Wild Hare 28% plane here on RCU so...I will start with this thread and then do a Product Review to submit to RCU Admin for posting in the "Product Reviews" section when I am finished.

I'll start with some pictures of the box as it arrived from UPS. Notice the little bit of damage that was done to the box...much less damage than I've heard about on other large boxes going through UPS, but still significant. No airplanes were damage in the shipping of this box.

I will be assembling this aircraft with aftermarket parts and going for the lightest, best performing airframe possible, but the process of installing these components compared with the standard hardware kit available from Wild Hare is the same. It must be mentioned that I ordered this color by request from Tom Fawcett at Wild Hare RC. See the website www.wildharerc.com for the colors that are stock.

Let's begin!

Here's the superb packing job that has come to be expected these days, especially to protect our valuable planes from the evil UPS delivery system.

Since most of us Wild Hare fanatics haven't seen the bottom of the Blue Yellow and White Extra, here's some pictures. The cowling blue is barely different than the Ultracote Blue, but the picture makes it look way off, don't be fooled by the digital picture. Tom decided to go with a slightly darker blue than the color in his canister install pictures to make the plane more visible in flight. Can't wait to give him a report...

All of the stock parts for the plane that come in the box weigh 3813 grams or 8.4 pounds.

Included in this total for information's sake:

Fuselage
Hatch
Wings/Ailerons/hinges
Stabilizers/Elevator/hinges
Rudder
Cowling
Wheel Pants
Canopy
Aluminum Wing Tube
Aluminum Stab Tube

Just add the rest of the accessories like servos, RX, batteries, motor, fuel tank, fuel line, linkages, control horns and tailwheel and you have your final weight. More later on weight as we go!

Here's a couple of pictures with the aircraft partially assembled just for kicks with the wing and stab tubes in, the cowl in place, and the hatch on.

Just for comparison, here's the two "hardware kits" side by side. The one on the left is the Wild Hare Hardware Kit, available for $75.00 and on the right is my personally aquired Accessory Kit, which includes a few more of the needed items.

Here's my final set-up:

Wild Hare Extra 300LX
Radio: JR XP 9303 PCM
Servos: 5 JR 8611s, 1 HiTec 5245 throttle, 1 JR 537 choke
Reciever: JR 945 S-PCM Dual Conversion, 10 channel
Connections: more than enough holes for 7 servos and 2 RX batteries
Extensions: Airwild twisted 22 AWG extensions
Servo Horns: SWB 1.5" single arm Double-Loc (ail/elv), 1.5" double arm Double-Loc (rudder)
Batteries: 3 TBM 2350Mha Li-Ion, 2 for servos 1 for ignition
Regulator: 3 Duralite 6.0V regulated fail-safe switches
Engine: DA-50R
Prop: BME 22x8 for break-in (NX 23x8 after 4 gallons)
Spinner: TBM Carbon Fiber 3 1/2" Ultimate Style
Standoffs: Desert Aircraft Stand-offs with plywood spacers
Tank: Dubro 24oz gas converted, Tygon fuel tubing, Dubro fuel line barbs, ceramic in-tank filter
Oil: Lawn-Boy Ashless (break-in), Amsoil (after 4 gallons)
Wingtube: TBM Carbon Fiber ( 1.25" x 3' )
Stab tube: TBM Carbon Fiber ( 1/2" x 17.25" )
Tailwheel bracket: RC Blimp Carbon Fiber (purchased from TBM)
Main gear: SuperGear Carbon Fiber
Main wheels: Kavan 3.5" Tires (3 oz less than dubro)
Instrument Pannel: Wild Hare 28%
Pilot: still looking for 28% helmet head (tinted canopy)
Wingbags: WingTote
Hardware: Rocket city/Nelson---7 strand brass-coated stainless cable for rudder, Titanium Pro-Links, 3W fuel dot (DA has one now, but I already bought mine)
Decals: AMSOIL, DA, Wildhare Rabbits, Troy Built Models, JR, Duralite and "Pilot Albert Hibpshman" decals from Aerographix

hi, What size WingTote bag do u have for the Extra? Small or Medium?

Thanks,
--Arvind

WingTote bag Size:50"L x 28"R x 19"Tip WGT206 is what my husband has. It is slightly too big, but the small bag won't fit the wings. Also, you can get them for less money at Tower Hobbies than buying them directly from WingTote (save $17).

I am waiting for my DA-50R to arrive, so I've started other small projects. Here's the fuel tank assembly...most people think nothing of it, but there are a few points here that need to be made:

1. Tygon fuel tubing expands after it sits in gasoline for a period of time.
2. Filtration is required on the line going from the tank to the engine, even if filtered from the pump to the plane.
3. A different stopper is required for gasoline use than glow-fuel use.

I chose the Dubro 24 oz. tank, I could have gone smaller but a little extra fuel when I'm practicing IMAC or doing touch-and-gos isn't a bad thing. I soldered Dubro fuel line barbs on the brass tubes where fuel lines would attach, and followed up the connection with Tettra fuel line clamps to make sure the expanded Tygon would not slip off the barbs. A ceramic Stens Fuel Filter inside the tank served as my "clunk," a great way to keep air bubbles out of the fuel supply line on those downline snaps. Be aware a black stopper is needed for gasoline (diesel or smoke too); I went with the Sullivan kit that includes anodized aluminum parts to fight corrosion.

One noteworthy step (I learned here on RCU) is putting a piece of brass tubing half way between the brass tube exiting the tank and the clunk to prevent the clunk from sliding forward and getting stuck in the front of the tank. Allow some tubing for flexing on either side of the brass tube so the clunk will move freely from the top to sides to bottom of the tank. I was able to slip the tube into the center of the Tygon line only after heating the Tygon with hot air from a heat gun.

Here the three line system is used. One line is attached to the clunk in the tank and goes un interrupted to the carburetor while another serves as a vent line and the third goes to the fuel dot mounted on the side of the aircraft.

One very important step is making sure all covering is out of the hinge holes that are predrilled. A sharp razor blade can make quick work of this task. Much left to do before the engine arrives next week!

i cant seem to find any other color schemes on their website besies red white blue and red yellow black i like this one is it available on the extra special?

I knew the question about the color schemes would come up so here's your answer:

Tom does allow people to select colors that the supplier already has available (this scheme was on the one he used for the cannister install) but Tom doesn't keep spare parts (elevators, stabs, wings etc.) in stock if you damage your aircraft. Another note, if you get a different color combo than the ones on his website you might have to wait a little longer than usual since space is limited on those crates coming from overseas, so order early!

Good luck!

Added note: My 28% Extra 300LX is number 0001 since it is a unique color...at least that is the number on the fuselage and wing root.

Hi everybody I recentley purchased some wing bags from [email protected] and they are pretty decent. They were 42 x21x 19 and a little large but overall for the price extremely nice. You mite get in touch with her as these are about half the price of all others I found. I'm not saying they are quite as nice as wingbag but close. Just thought I'd throw this in

jenny on Ebay was the same place I bought my wing bags. It is a good design and quality bag.

Please refrain from discussing things other than the building process on this thread, I want to keep it right on topic with the building of the Wild Hare 28% Extra 300 LX. Thank you.

I finally got back to work on her and checked the incidences of the wings and stabs.

Using the hatch base for reference, the wings are matching at +1/4 degree and the stabs are matching at exactly zero, so I think I'll leave it right there. I don't know if the +1/4 degree is by design or if the wings are supposed to be zero, but it is close enough for now. If I find during the trimming process that the 1/4 degree is giving me trouble (i.e. pulling out of a down line) then I'll file a small amount of wood from the holes on both the anti-rotation holes and refill the gap with glue to move the hole down slightly for a zero incidence.

One side note: I used bar soap to make the wing tube and stab tube slide on easily for the incidence check. I used the aluminum tubes for ease of installing and removing the wings and stabs, the carbon fiber tubes are a little stiffer in the slots.[8D]

Edit: I got the 3/4" x 1/8" x 36" aluminum stock from Lowes for $2.56 to make the incidence meter reach across the wing root. Works great!

After it was determined the stab incidences were perfect I decided it was time to hinge the elevators. I watched the "Robart Hinge" How-To video here on RCU for a refresher before I began (Magazine, How-Tos, search for Robart). Really pretty simple. Just watch getting glue on a finger and then touching the covering. I've heard that acetone is better than water at getting Gorilla glue completely off of the covering.

I chose to do both sides at once, instead of one at a time, like Tom's instructions state. I wanted all of my hinge pivot points to be perfectly perpendicular to the surface, so I installed the elevator to the stab and pivoted the surface to full deflection to make sure they were all lined up.

I made sure to stay with the glue and check up on it regularly to wipe away any excess as it expanded. The first hour is when the glue expands the most, as stated on the Gorilla Glue label.

Edit: More progress on the hinges...the ailerons are now attached. Thankfully the Gorilla Glue has a generous working time because it took a couple of minutes to get the glue on all the hinges and into the holes in the aileron, not to mention getting it lined up, in place, then wipe all the excess glue off. On all of my surfaces there is a 1/16" gap to allow for maximum deflection. I will, of course, seal the hinge gaps. I am going to use Blenderm clear tape, flexible, very sticky, and clear as can be...it will contour around the hinge points better than covering, I think.

Edit: Sealed the elevator hinge gaps with the 3M Blenderm tape...works great so far! I'll have to see how it holds up to flight testing! There's no glow fuel oil to damage the tape, so it should work as well as it does on my foam planes' hinges.[8D]

While the hinges were drying I had to be there in the room to keep wiping the excess glue away and exercising the hinges to make sure the glue didn't dry on them, so I made use of my time working on the business end of this beast. The DA-50R is a beautifully machined piece of artwork from Desert Aircraft! I admired it for a moment and then proceded to temporarily install it on the firewall.

First I removed the ball and spring from the choke so it would move freely for my servo. Second I released the spring on the throttle, but left it on the carburetor per DA's instructions. Third I screwed on the 3" standoffs that came with my engine. Using a 1" hole saw I cut out four "holes" from 1/4" birch aircraft plywood that I used for spacers to give me 1/16" spinner clearance from the cowl. I cut a small hole in the cowl using pictures from the numerous posts here on RCU and some measuring. After CAing the 1" diameter "holes" to the standoffs (carefully centering them) I balanced the engine on the firewall with the fuselage secured to the side of the workbench with masking tape. After the spinner backplate was satisfactorily centered on the cowl I removed the cowl and traced around the ply spacers, removed the engine, separated the spacers from the standoffs and glued them to the firewall exactly inside the lines I had traced. Then all I had to do was drill through the holes that were in the spacers (careful to align the drill bit perpendicular to the firewall with its offset, not the fuselage).

I still have to plan where I want to mount my throttle and choke servos and cut the holes in the firewall for those pushrods, so I left the engine off the plane for now.

Oops! My wife was logged on again! I've got to resign in first, it won't let me delete the post, just edit the content.

Assembly of the main landing gear was a small project, but still worth mentioning. Dubro axles, WH fiberglass wheelpants, and Kavan Airfilled Tires all went on the stock aluminum gear for now. I am waiting for SuperGear to finish a set of 28% Extra gear, they had to build a mold and design the carbon fiber gear from a set of aluminum gear to make sure they would be a direct replacement. The all up weight of the aluminum gear with the wheel pants, Dubro axles and Kavan wheels installed is 1 pound 6 ounces (626 grams).

I drilled two holes for the 4-40 wheel pant attachment screws and used blind nuts inside the wheelpants after adding some light ply inside. I made sure to loc-tite all of my screws, including the set screws for the wheel collars.

Nice work so far, I just finished up a second Wild Hare Edge 540. I really like the plane alot, I have a ZDZ 50NG on the nose with a Menz 22x8 Prop, I was going to order the Super gear but was a little hesitant since the company is so new. I would love to hear what your gear setup will weigh once that supergear comes in. Also I didn't want to spend the extra bucks in purchasing that Robart extended bar so your suggestion on that aluminum stock from Lowes was really a big help. I'm already very interested in this thread and how your extra will turn out. It seems to have an excellent start already

Well, my Slimline Pitts Muffler has arrived and I now have all the parts to complete this baby! My digital scale only goes up to 5 pounds so I've been weighing every part individually, making sure to include the screws and nuts that hold things together. So far the plane adds up to 16.02 pounds[8D], for those of you who are interested. I'll have to try to find a way to weigh it when it is all assembled just in case it changes.

Anyway, I just finished installing the pushrods for the elevators. H9 doesn't make a Titanium Pro Link long enough (5-5/8" pushrod length) to reach from the 1-1/4" hole on my servo arm to the elevator control horn, so I made two pushrods from Central Hobbies Titanium Pushrod ends and some carbon fiber tubing.

First I determined that I would make the elevator control horn the same length as my servo arm (1-1/4") from the hingeline to the center of the pivot on the ball link for the best geometry possible). After installing the servo control horn screw I chopped off the excess and screwed on the plastic hardware.

I am using DS8611 servos, no matchboxes or programmers, and one 24" Airwild Twisted servo extension on each servo (two total). I soldered the extensions to the servo wires and put heat shrink tubing on all the appropriate places for insulation.

Second I enlarged the servo cutouts in the tail of the fuselage. I cut carefully, making sure to make the holes a mirror image of eachother so the servos would be exactly the same. When the servo fit snugly in the hole with some space around it so only its rubber gromets were touching the aircraft, I marked holes for servo screws. I removed the servo and taped the servo wire along the bottom of the servo to prevent the long extensions from putting a load on the soldering joint on the servo circuit board, plus it reall keeps the wires tidy and out of the way for when the rudder pull-pull wires go in.

Before permently mounting the servos I applied a few drops of thin CA to each hole on the servo mount to harden the wood so it could handle the 260oz/in of torque these servos put out. Socket head servo screws made the mount look good and made a strong mount for my elevator servos. Once the servos were mounted I could attach my servo arms, making sure they were at the same angle as the angle between the elevator hinge line and the pivot point on the elevator control horn. The servo spline is slightly below the centerline on the elevator and fortunately a small angle was designed into the elevator control horn so that a perfect 90 degrees could be maintained between the servo arm and the pushrod at the same time as the elevator control horn and the pushrod.

Next the distance between the elevator control horn pivot point and the servo arm hole (1-1/4" from center) were measured so I could make the pushrods. Once the carbon fiber tube was cut to length and everything was dry fit and looked good, I cleaned all the carbon dust off of the parts with rubbing alcohol, a paper towel and a modified Q-Tip, then glued the titanium rod ends into the carbon fiber tubing with JB Weld. I found that the holes in the elevators that were pre-drilled for the control arms were off slightly on the angle at which they were drilled, so my pushrods ended up 1/16" different in length. Not perfect geometry, but pretty close.

The throttle and choke servo installation had me getting creative for a little while, then I just decided to mount them where I've seen other people do it...a secure place, out of the way, and pretty well lined up with the throttle and choke on the carburetor. I chose to use ball links on both ends of the throttle and choke pushrods because the geometry isn't perfect.

The choke is basically an ON-OFF switch (I might use half choke once in a while) and the throttle curve can me massaged in the programming, so I'm not too worried. You can see from the pictures that I was a little hesitant about cutting out a large chunk of the firewall, so I kept the hole for the throttle and choke pushrods as small as practical, while leaving plenty of room for the rods to move. At the same time I also drilled a hole for the fuel line to exit the firewall at a conveniently aligned location.

I had originally taken the spring and ball off of the choke in the carburetor to give it a smoother actuation, but found that the choke itself became a little sloppy, allowing for metal parts to vibrate together...not good. That metal vibration could cause harmful RF interferance, so I put the ball and spring back into the carburetor and it is nice and tight again, my standard ball bearing JR 537 choke servo only has about 48 oz/in torque, but it should be able to actuate the choke lever reliably.

The throttle has a return spring built in. As per the Desert Aircraft instructions I did not remove the spring, just released the tension...again, not really a problem for the HiTec 5245MG mini servo, but I felt that the digital servo would unnecessarily be eating up battery power the whole flight holding the throttle open against spring tension.

The throttle and choke servos have different sized cases, so to solve the mounting problem I took some 1/4" aircraft ply and cut out a slot for the larger choke servo. I used socket head servo screws and CA to secure the mount to the main frame of the aircraft. I had to trim the frame only slightly to accomodate the choke servo where the slanted cut-out didn't allow for a secure servo screw mount. The angle that resulted from overlapping the 1/4" ply brace gave the servos pretty good alignment for the pushrods, but not perfect, hence the use of ball links.

I used Central Hobbies Titanium Rod Ends and carbon fiber rods for both the throttle and choke. Those rods are simple to make and are stiff, light, and look great when I "pop the hood." I used the second hole out on the HiTec aluminum servo arm to give me the best resolution (the innermost hole was not enough, even with travel adjustment maxed out). I ended up using 135% of the 150% available. For the choke I used a Dubro heavy duty servo arm and used the innermost hole and only needed about 75% travel, which is fine because resolution doesn't matter in this case.

Where I mount my RX will determine how long the extensions are on the throttle and choke, but it is looking like 6" will work for mounting the RX in front of the rudder servo on the rear tray. We'll see...

Edit: You can see the fuel dot behind the servo mount...I had to mount the fuel dot before final installation of the servos to make sure I could get back there. I put plenty of CA on the balsa where the fuel dot would be mounted after I cut the hole and drilled holes for the screws. It is solid, no flexing.

After painting the firewall with some thinned epoxy and covering the rest of the motor box with carbon fiber printed Ultracote [8D] I mounted the motor permenantly. Blue Loctite accompanied all of the motor mounting screws as they were installed. The final mounting of the ignition battery and ignition module along with the wraping, routing and securing of ignition related wires is finally done.

Throttle and choke pushrods went on next as well as the ignition switch. I used a push-pull Dubro switch mount with charge receptacle.

The aileron servos were next. I chose to use H9 Titanium Pro Links since there was a size that would fit. The 4-1/2" links were just barely short enough to work with my aileron setup. They were tightened pretty close to the stops. Another note: to get the thows Tom recommends for the low rate and high rate it only took the second hole out on my SWB arms...we'll see after flying it if I need more aileron. The length of the studs sticking out of the wing was 1-3/16" to give me 1" from the aileron to the center of the pivot on the aileron control horn. The geometry isn't perfect with the aileron linkages, but it will have to do. Definitely don't get servo arms longer than 1-1/4" from the center to the outermost hole.

I used 3M Blenderm tape to seal the gap in the ailerons...man I love that tape! It is flexible and really sticky. Lastly I checked the throws with a throw meter to make sure the ailerons had the same throw up and down, and that it was the recommended 16 and 23 degrees. I will put in differential later if I need it.

The cowl is finally cut and fine tuned to fit. I drilled a 3/16" hole on the right side of the cowl to allow carburetor adjustments with the cowling on. I got some vacuum line at the auto parts store to use as the trim for the cowl opening...it also keeps that sharp fiberglass edge from cutting anything that might rub up against it.

I put on a prop and my carbon fiber spinner and she looks pretty awesome! Only a few more things to do, then I'll hinge the rudder and check my balance point to see where I stand...

Well, I put her all together to get a rough estimate of where the balance point would end up. I was afraid it would balance quite tail-heavy as I went with the carbon fiber spinner and wing tube. Well, it ended up at 3" back from the leading edge at the wingtips!!! I am slightly nose heavy! That is a good thing, because when I put on the SuperGear Carbon Fiber landing gear that will allow me to put the batteries on the servo tray next to the receiver and in front of the rudder servo in the middle hole, with no weight added to the nose...so I get to keep my 15-1/2 pounds without adding balast.-/

I think the biggest factor in being able to use a CF spinner and keep my batteries back on the tray by the RX is the CF Stab Tube from Troy Built Models. I'll get a more accurate CG measurement with everything bolted and strapped down and see where I stand. I would like to get the CG back to 3-1/4" to 3-3/8" per SilverSurfer's suggestion for a perfect flying model. I can't wait to find out what that feels like.

Edit: I found that I had entered parts and sub-assemblies in the computer when I was adding up the weight! The total weight (no fuel) for the 28% Extra 300LX is an amazing 15.4 pounds!!!