Based on some posts elsewhere in this forum I ordered a Cermark Pitts S-2 ARF. I'm impressed with the quality of this model but have added a few of my own touches.... I intend to mount a Saito 180 in the nose so the changes so far have been to beef up the nose section and firewall. I have used vibration reducing motor mounts before and really like the result, so some of the additions to the firewall were to allow the use of EVE's from www.apacheaviation.co.uk which require a 1/2" thick firewall. The first few pictures show where I've added 1/32 ply to the inside of the fuselage in the nose section. These areas were only covered/protected by the exterior covering material so to add strength and help eliminate holes caused from working inside the fuse I added the ply sheeting. ....Other pictures show the firewall from the rear and the various stages of installing the EVE's and the motor.....I think that Golden Knight looks pretty good in there!!

Randy

A little more progress on the plumbing. The fuel tank is one that I had bought from Hobby-Lobby for another project. It is a great fit and holds about 18 oz....It is held in place with Velcro and has some foam rubber between it and the framework to cushion the vibration.The throttle linkage can also be seen alongside the tank.The muffler is the one supplied with the engine. I made the brass clamp/standoff so it can be secured in place. That is a 6.5 inch Saito exhaust extension.

Good luck with the build buddy.
Keep posting these nice pics!
Kostas

These planes are know for loosing their landing gear. Add stock to the landing gear plate with lots of glue. Have had 3 of these planes plus many at our club and all have lost their gear in flight. Dennis

Hi Dennis,

I added a 1/8 ply plate to the inside of where the landing gear attaches, and
I thoroughly epoxied it to the existing formers, fuse sides and bottom ....I hope that will be enough... I also replaced the 4mm steel bolts with four 1/4-20 nylon bolts that pass through the old hard points and go into blind nuts anchored in the new ply plate....The model is very nicely built but is pretty lightly built..almost as though it was intended to be electric powered....

I'm always open to more suggestions or comments. Now is the time to make any needed modifications...!!

Randy

Installed the rudder and elevator servos today, the picture shows the control linkage and the carbon fiber tailwheel assembly. The tailwheel assembly is the 15 lb variety from Troy Built models..the springs are from Ace hardware. Also made a bracket to support the fueling valve. I will cut a small hole in the cowl and reach through it to fuel the airplane..I soldered an extension on the fuel filler nozzle to make this work...

This model is small enough so that once assembled, I can transport it and store it without taking it apart, so the charge jacks had to be accessible from the outside...so I installed two pretty ugly switch/charge jack assemblies in the side, one for the radio and one for the onboard glow-driver.....just could not come up with a really good way of installing the switches and jacks short of making some sort of door or hatch..... well, this is a sport model after all...!

Pictures look great. Wish I still had mine. Never lost my gear. Don't know what is up with that, but iI usually beef up the gear mounts on ARFs anyway. Did you check those wing dowels yet? Light yes, but still able to handle the power. I did put guy wires on the tail though. I could do knife edge loops with mine. It was light, and had that much power.

The wing dowels seem to be an issue with this model....the wing that came with the ARF had the wing dowels installed at such an odd angle that when you attached the wing there was a gap of about 1/8th inch on one side at the wing saddle, and since the bottom wing is used to align the top wing this was not acceptable...I contacted Cermark and sent a couple of pictures, and they were very helpful and sent a replacement wing which arrived in less than a week. Excellent service. The new wing fit great but on the advice of ram3500 who once had one of these models, I checked the dowels to be sure they were secure and one came out with just a tug, and the other took just a little more effort. Since they were so poorly glued the holes were not distorted so I cut some new, longer wing dowels and thoroughly epoxied them in place. Everything fits snug and secure now, so as soon as the Virtual Cockpit arrives from www.wrightrc.com I'll be ready to fly....

We are nearly there...I like to use Goop to attach the servos to the hatch covers. If you use this method don't just apply the Goop and leave it to cure..the servo will slide with the slightest pressure..keep an eye on things till the Goop sets a bit... I like to minimize the number of servo plugs if I can. So the servo extensions were soldered into the existing servo wire-with fewer plugs there are fewer things that can vibrate loose... I used Dubro ball-end links for all the pushrod attachments. This is the upper wing. Other pictures show the battery location, behind where the bottom wing attach screws are fastened. I needed this location to balance without adding any dead weight to the tail. The other pics show the location of the onboard glow driver and the throttle servo. The rudder and elevator servos are in the tail so the fuselage looks a little empty, except for all those wires everywhere. The model looks pretty good..The Virtual Cockpit from www.wrightrc.com arrived today, so once that nd the pilot are installed, I'll attach the canopy and go flying....!

The Virtual cockpit is installed and the canopy is in place...the model came with screws to attach the canopy, but I used Formula 560 canopy glue instead. I marked the fuselage with a Sharpie fine point pen, as the ink can be removed with rubbing alcohol, and then poked a thousand or so( or maybe a few hundred!) little holes in the covering and into the wood with a pin, where the canopy would contact the fuselage. I'll post pics when the tape is taken off... These pics show the cockpit just prior to attaching the canopy, and also the Pitts logo on the fin that I bought from www.litepilots.com ....

Here is the finished product. The virtual cockpit from www.wrightrc.com looks great. the canopy fit just fine and all I need to do now is start it up and keep it straight down the runway...I'll get some better pics when we go out for the test flight...

nice job Randy!

i have some questions re. the cockpit:

where did you get the cockpit from & how did you mod. the area around the front of the cockpit (white styrofoam)?

thanks, V.

The cockpit is from www.wrightrc.com . It is a virtual cockpit in that it is really a 3-d photograph of a real cockpit. I just trimmed the foam at the front around the instrument panel, and gave it a thinned coat of 12 minute epoxy to toughen it up a bit...then some flat black water based paint...

Randy

Randy, i looked about 2 monts ago for a virtual cockpit and http://www.wrightrc.com/ did not have the Cermark Pitts S2B yet... i am glad they make one now

thaks for the info!

Vasek

Vasek,

When I first ordered my Pitts I emailed Kregg at wright rc and asked about the cockpits for the Cermark Pitts....he said that if I were to make templates from my Pitts he would make the cockpit...it looks great and the service was excellent....

Randy

[sm=thumbup.gif] way to go Randy!

i was in the same position as you but did not have the time to send Kregg the info [sm=drowning.gif]

the cockpit looks good

good luck for the maiden!!! it looks like it's getting closer 4 U

Vasek

Ditto. Everything looks sooooooooooo good. Hang on for the ride when you get her airborn. She will do it all. I didn't 3D. Just not that kind of plane, but torque rolls are awsome, and she has the power to do them pretty low with the 180 under the cowl. Waiting with others, for the maiden report.

No need to hold your collective breaths any longer....the first flights went just fine. Used just a little more than 1/2 throttle on takeoff, it tracked well with the Troybuilt tailwheel, and took a click of "up" trim and a couple of clicks of left aileron. I think I only completely opened the throttle once or twice in three flights. The 180 is plenty of power. a 120 would probably be fine for most sport flying. It gets small pretty quickly when you point it up at full power with the 180... So far I've only used low rates set at 65% and 50% expo on the ailerons. Still it will roll very quickly... Did one near full power takeoff and the airplane will begin to roll once airborne due to the torque...not a model that you want to pull off early...

Hopped on the first landing a bit but the second was beautiful...this plane is going to be a lot of fun....and there is no doubt that it will do the IMAC routines!!

Great news. Now, the fun begins, right? Knife edge loops are within your reach with this one. I was able to do them with mine. It will knife edge all day. Slow, high alpha, knife edge passes look cool as well.

I agree about the 120, but I was glad I had the 180 on just about every flight. You got it, you use it. I rarely opened it up straight and level though, unless I was entering a manuver that requiered extra energy. Just too fast for a bipe, IMO, and I NEVER snapped it while wide open unless the nose was pointed straight up.

Yeah, this plane is going to be a lot of fun....now all I need to do is learn to fly all the maneuvers that it is capable of!! I agree, a flat out snap roll might just show you what this model is made of, literally! All that power available is really worth it, the 180 doesn't weight that much more than a 120, and at 1/2 throttle most the time I get well over 12 minutes from 18ozs of fuel. Did you ever deadstick yours?? I'll bet it comes down pretty fast...

Randy

Worse. I ran it out of fuel in a hover at less than 30 feet, in the middle of the runway. It fell on it's back, so, I went with it and dove for speed inverted, rolled with just enough room to clear the wing tips, and landed on all three at once. Bent the gear a little, and my pride, but the save made up for that. I had witnesses. It all took about 5 seconds. The plane is so light, it will save you if you give it a chance. Never give up on her.

V2plus10,
I had a deadstick with mine just today. I was doing an inverted pass and luckily I had some altitude. When the engine died I rolled it over real quick and got the nose down. I kept the nose down as I had to make a pretty sharp turn to get back to the runway. Keeping the nose down kept the airspeeed up enough to glide right in. After that I went and cleaned my drawers.
By the way you have one nice looking Pitts!
Here's mine

WCB,

Your Pitts looks great..I had a tough time deciding between the red/white and the blue/white color scheme....did your model come with the N-number and the Pitts script on the fin?? Which engine/prop combo are you using??

Randy

r

Randy,
Yes mine came with the N number and the Pitts script. I can't remember now if they were on a seperate decal sheet or not. I've been flying the plane about 2 years and this was the first deadstick I ever had with it. One of the guys at the field bought it and never opened the box. He changed his mind and traded it to another guy for another plane and I bought it still new in the box from him. I think I ended up paying about $250 for it. I put a Saito 1.50 with APC 17x6 on it. I have been pleased with that combo. The planes flies real well and that engine has always ran perfect. I have to be easy on the throttle for a scale looking take off. If I punch the throttle it will practically leap into the air. I adjusted the high speed needle yesterday and I think I got it a tad lean. I didn't do any modifications to the plane except for using a different tailwheel setup. I did remove the bolts inside the fuse that secure the cabane struts and lock tite them. I heard about them sometimes vibrating loose and that could be a bad situation. I used a 24 oz. tank instead of the stock 18 oz.
Bill

You all make me miss mine I had a used one that I mounted a OS 1.60 on. Looking back I wished I had put a Saito 180. I used only one servo per aileron with interlinks to save weight and had no issues. I am thinking of getting another one to compliment my SkyShark Eagle.

Very nice build with excellent attention to detail. What was the total time you had into the build?