I am looking through the posts and I think its to everyones best interest to chime in on models performance or lack there of. Also any tricks you had to do to make it better.
Please no scorned people looking to beat on nitro planes. Just good UNBIASED suggestions or praise as to how they fly. This will help us and NP. It would be nice not to buy a"loser" or Know you are buying A good plane.
Thanks

Lancair 360 MK2

Some things I noticed in the construction.

Need to make clearance in the motor mount for the nose gear on an MDS 68 or any large engine
Dont forget the 2 washers under the left side holes of the motor mount to get the thrust (not built into firewall)
CMP measurement for face of prop to firewall too large - measure first - I have more than 1/4" gap - I'll leave it for now
With the large engine I needed tail weight so I cantelevered the 2100 NiMH 5 cell pack off the back of the servo tray in the middle of the Fuse with a Lowes paint stirrer - this will reduce need for dead weight in the plane - at 70mm will target 72 - 75 from leading edge by adding a little more weigt to the stirrer.
Trying TowerPro Digital (they call them digital) w/995 MG - better than expected for $13 ea.
Put the nose wheelpants on before putting the gear on the plane.
Zap a Dap a Goo works well for Front wheelpants components as well as rear windows (dont use old glue in a 40 degree garage)
Replace the wing screws with 1/4 - 20 nylon - ease of replacement
Elevate the rudder servo further and cris cross the rudder pull pull wires to get the right exit angles as well as the rudder matching the correct steering direction
Make rod standoffs for steering and throttle servos as appropriate - did not use one on the rigid (CF) elevator rod

First pics

Eric

Lancair 360 MK2 more pics
Eric

Lancair 360 MK2 more pics
Eric

Perfect! Thats what will help everyone out! Please post on flying. That thing looks great.

I am not finished with my spit yet. I had to raise the engine mount 7/16 to fit the cowl better. I have read of guys having issues with some wood selection for the rudder and tail. I will be either cutting with great care not to penetrate the wood,or using a soldering iron to cut off covering. Its best to leave as much strength as possible to the structure. I am modifying mine quite a bit but it seams as though the CG of 90mm is very close After the mods( I cant answer for before mod).I added a fiberglass sheet to the bottom of the wing for extra support. The wing bolts are 4mm x 30mm (steel) for those guys that like nylon bolts. Also the wire landing blocks were not well glued in(maybe for ease of replacement) so if you plan on keeping them probably pull them out for a good once over.
This plane is already set up for retracts that fold TOWARD the fuse. Also using a slightly bigger wire to connect the tail surfaces together wouldnt hurt. I have read that while a bit wiggly, the plastic retracts will work if they are not abused.Time will tell

Just grabbing a spot for more stuff...

Nitroplanes Ultimate 40S
------------------------------------

I LOVE this plane!

Throw in a high output.46-.47 engine such as an O.S. AX .46, or T.H .46 with an 11x6 APC prop and you'll have an unlimited vertical, highly acrobatic plane that is just a blast to fly!

Snap rolls are blindingly quick, yet the plane is very well behaved and settles into a gentle glide on approach.... always come in with at least 10-15% throttle on this setup and you will NOT get in trouble, as the 11x6 provides enough pitch speed to keep you from stalling the plane out. Other props will not produce as docile flight...

This plane is small enough that you can toss it in the back seat or trunk w/o problems and yet large enough that it is the equal of very nimble monoplanks in acrobatics.

Tips to make it better:
-------------------------------

- Fuel proof everything. This adds strength and protects the inner surfaces. A light 50-50 mix or more diluted is fine.
- Remove any wrinkles then clear coat the parts when you get the plane. This will help seal the nice finish and prevent it from coming up in flight over time.
- The NP Ultimate 40S has great wheel pants, which are made of fiberglass. PUT THEM AWAY! Put larger 2.75" or bigger Ultralights on it, and enjoy the ease of takeoffs & landings over short grass. Save the pants for later.
- Re-enforce the gear wood areas. Insert a short piece of hard ply along the fuselage sides, epoxy to both the bottom and side walls. Harden the wood with CA and Epoxy.
- Re-enforce the wing strut hold downs by using small pieces of angled balsa against the "white" supports, Epoxy and then CA the remaining exposed wood to re-enforce this area greatly and prevent crash damage.
- Use a Carbon Fiber rod cut in half to form a tail support going from the fuselage towards the outer part of the elevator. Partially drill to make attachment points then epoxy the CF in place.
- Install wing tip skids to prevent runway rash damage to the wing tips and keep the finish looking good.
- You do not need wing "jigs" with this plane see next point.
- When you install the wings, look inside the fuselage for either laser etched or manually penned circles that represent where you should drill for the center carbanes. Drill these holes out with a manual drill or bit. Install the center carbane but do NOT attach the wing top, then install the outer struts and tighten, and true. Finally affix the wing to the center carbane. True again.
- You may want to CAREFULLY remove a small bit of wood material around the lower wing hold down screw to permit full range servo & wire travel. Not a biggie, but worth doing to improve the roll rates. Use a longer servo arm too.
- Mount the battery inside the fuselage so as to offset lateral imbalance. e.g. mount the battery opposite the engine head or muffler, to avoid having to add weight to the wing tips.


I have several of these planes a couple of which obtained over 100 flights this past season alone.
One particular plane sustained one end over end cartwheels across the field (and flew again immediately), a landing hard enough to collapse the gear, a ripped out wing support (and I didn't know about it so I flew it again immediately), the loss of ailerons (I was able to bring it down w/o damage!), and two hard nose in landings, yet in each case the plane was in the air the next day or sooner.

Several flyers were so impressed after seeing the cartwheels, that they came and asked for more information on the plane as they wanted something as "sturdy as that".


Thus far the Nitroplanes staff has been very good with me and others here at dealing with problems and issues, even spare parts.

Since they do support primarily by e-mail you need "PATIENCE" when you have a problem.

E-mail them, wait, then e-mail them again after a day or two w/o a response. The people who respond may just be away for a while and will be swamped when they get back.... that's my $02 worth.

The Stearman went together really fast. Aside from the 2 windscreens ,they have nice hardware in this kit. They also drilled out every hole that would take some thinking to put it there,wings and fuse(except cosmetic stuff). I wish I put another CA hinge in the rudder,because there was room for it. You will see what I mean if you get one. Not finished yet but will post if I have any problems. Oh yeah, has nylon lower screws. The aluminum parts are sandblasted with a fine media when you get them.
Like the plane alot, hope it flies as good as it looks

That looks quite good. Better than I would have expected.

How is the covering? Are you going to clear coat it before/after you put on the decals?

No clearcoat, Would you have to scuff everthing or is covering special? Looks like the same as another plane. Another thing is, I read somebody had problems with the wing mounts. They are on an angle on this plane(predrilled).
At the risk of sounding like a salesman, I am suprised too. If I get a warm spell I will try to fly this one. I am too chicken with the spitfire though

I've applied a light clear coat to prevent the covering designs from lifting on my Ultimates.

I did this before the build, but you could do it afterwards.

I did not "scuff" the covering, I just made sure the model was extremely clean.

The covering on the Ultimates tends to loosen\give with exposure to Nitro and repeated cleanings with Windex.

That is why I am wondering if you are going to do anything about the covering.

Others at RCU advocated doing this on these planes and so I did.


The wing mounts problem was/is with the Pitts .40 NP sells. I have one and see this too.

The strut retainers are offset from one another by about 1/2".... upper wing retainers being 1/2" further out from center than the lower ones.

That would put the struts at an angle... but there is one problem... the retainers themselves are perfectly vertical!

A design flaw... which fortunately is easy to correct. (Nitrostaff please talk to the factory...).

If you attempt to install the wooden struts as directed they would be bent and eventually break from the force...

The fix is to install a 1/2" wood block on the upper strut retainer, and use a longer screw bolt to hold the strut perpendicular to the wings... unlike the real Pitts however...

This idea for a forum is great....only thing better is to start a thread for each plane...I tried for the pitts challenger...but it didn't take off..no pun intended. Just makes it easier to find the info you want without alot of surfing.

I agree it would be much better if people would post about individual planes. Getting people to post,That is a different story though....

Opjose, You make alot of work for me. After your post I started thinking about clearcoating.
So I scuffed up and coated.
I read the stuff you wrote about the ultimate.
I bought an ultimate.
Reading your posts is getting expensive

Heh... your going to love the Ultimate....


I like it so much that.... I'm just finishing my Ultimate 120R from Nitroplanes.

What a beauty... in spite of the pink colorscheme, I've made it look quite good.

The new version has the gold/yellow/black white scheme which I may have to get as well.
I really like the new scheme.

I purchased the decal sheets for BOTH the WM Ultimate 120 and the GP Ultimate 160 and used decals from both sets to customize the plane.
The included cut lettering doesn't do it for me.... but the decal sheets were about 5.00/ea.

IMHO does it looks VERY nice now. I'll post pictures when I'm done.

I have a Surpass 120 III FS Pumped engine in it and Nitroplane's high torque servos all around.

Most of the hardware is stock (what comes with it is not bad at all) but I did install larger 3 1/2" Ultralite wheels in it.

The cowl is well done with a nice air exhaust cutout on the bottom... it has plenty of room for larger engines.
There is ample space for a larger fuel tank.

Changes & additions:

Larger Ultra-lite wheels after enlargening the wheel pants.
Metal adjustable Engine mount
GP 2 3/4" Aluminum spinner
WM Ultimate 1.20R Decal Set
GP 1.60 Ultimate Decal Set
Sullivan quick fill
Sullivan Tail Wheel w/aluminum hub
Dubro 32oz fuel tank
Tail wheel assembly from GP Skybolt (by them by the dozen at 1.98/ea!)
4 misc quick connects
Nitroplanes/Tower Pro high Torque servos all around
Nitroplanes Pilot figure
Instruments (from HL).
OS Surpass 1.20 FS-III Pumped mounted inverted w/ stock muffler
Dubro 4 stroke throttle assembly lever
2700mAh JR 6v RX battery
JR Slimline 600R RX
2 Hitec/JR Y connector cords
DuBro strut angle connectors
Misc Carbon Fiber tube to make tail re-inforcement struts.

Hits:

- Good plane.
- Good easy to see size.
- OK hardware
- Thicker covering than smaller planes.
- Guide tubing already installed for all tail linkages and antenna.
- Easy assembly
- Wonderful cowl and wheel pants

Misses:

- Manual (as always!)
- No place to mount switch/charger, must make your own holder. (Hey NP take note! A simple change at the factory!)
- No retainer for fuel tank, you must fabricate your own. (Hey NP take note! A simple change at the factory!)
- Throttle wire really needs a guide. I made my own from the supplied tubing. (Hey NP take note! A simple change at the factory!)
- There are a lot of lightening cutouts in the wood. Reducing the oval size would make the plane sturdier at the expense of some weight. (Hey NP take note! A simple change at the factory!) At worst the long rectangular cutouts could be cut in half... so to speak.
- You really SHOULD re-inforce the inner former & fuselage joints. I had two pop out with little pressure. I merely applied a thined expoxy mix to all inner surface joints with a long brush. This fixed it.


The negatives are fairly small when you consider what this plane costs!
I would highly recommend it to someone looking for a larger BiPlane, that has built 1-2 ARF's already.

I've model this bird in G3 and if the real thing flies like my G3 model, I'm going to have a fun flying year...


Awaiting in my "must build" area for this season... are...

Nitroplanes Pitts Biplane
GP Skybolt Biplane ARF
Ultrafly Ultimate BiPlane (Foamy)
Nitroplanes CMP Yak 54 160 Fiberglass Fuselage
Nitroplanes CMP 120 Hellcat
Another (yes another!) Nitroplanes Ultimate 40S Biplane


And of course every time I see your Stearman... I hear it's siren song...

It never ends...

What did you guys use for clear coat ?

I used an automotive 2 part clear. I had it laying around. I am not sure if it is the right thing to use .I was willing to experiment. I would research if this plane you want to do has to be flawless.

Pictures of the Nitromodels 120R Ultimate.

A beauty of a plane....





And the G3.5 version for the Simulator

I use this stuff

[link=http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/WTI0001P?&I=LXCZW4]Click me for Flat gloss.[/link]

Or this

[link=http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/WTI0001P?&I=LXCZW5]Click me for high gloss.[/link]

Perfect my LHS sells that stuff. Just as well cos Tower (love em) won't ship that here. When you say "scuffed it up" what is meant by that? I assume you scuff the covering with sand paper of something.
Good info here

The idea is to take the sheen off the covering so the clear coat adheres properly.

I use a PLASTIC brillo pad, the dark green type used to clean plates.

It is soft enough not to scar anything but hard enough to affect the shiny finish.

at this tread i am building a manula of pictures for the T 34 as i go along . modifications and strghtening tips. }

NitroPlanes.com T-34 Mentor ARF this is the tread
regards
david

3D Passion 3D
----------------------

While this is a great flyer, IMHO it has a design flaw that the builder needs to correct before the first flight.

The leading edge of the elevator control surface ( where the CA hinges go into ) and the trailing edge of the non-movable part of the elevator ( again where the CA hinges go into ) are made of a SOFT balsa.

With the large control surfaces, the balsa will rip out in NORMAL flight.

This area needs extensive hardening.

Do this BEFORE assembly.

If you do not wish to remove the covering, the easiest way of handling this, is to poke pinholes into the wood all along both the upper and lower surfaces of all four areas. Then apply thin CA to the pinholes until the CA beads up. It should immediately begin to soak into the underlying wood.

Once this happens wipe off the excess CA with a rag soaked in acetone. You may then need to regouge the CA holes, etc.

Also consider using something other than the supplied CA hinges. The supplied hinges will dry to a SMOOTH finish when coated with CA.

Also consider sealing all of the hinge lines. Clear monokote works well for this.



I had the stock elevators rip out in flight TWICE.

The first time the elevator turned into a "tiller". After a harrowing few minutes I was able to get the plane down safely.

A week later I was back at the field with a repaired plane, and the same thing happened yet again.

Fortunately once again I was able to get the plane down safely, but these areas were now well chewed up.

I have since replaced the software balsa with hardwood shaped to the original configuration, and recovered.

This has held up rather well.

---

Edit:

This "fix" has permitted me to fly the heck out of this plane very reliably.

I no longer fear tearing out the tail.

With a T.H. 75 engine this thing will NOT come down even at full engine idle!

I need a LOW pitch prop with it...

As posted in the "Bad Super Stearman" thread.... ( there is nothing "bad" about it... just a caveat is needed. )

Be CAREFUL when assembling the interplane and carbane struts.

It is very easy to put these on backwards, resulting in an unflyable plane.

When properly assembled this is an EXCELLENT plane and a great flyer.