Tmorelock

I need some help with my new Morris TopCap ARF. It's a great looking plane and seems really well made, BUT........

When I removed the covering over the precut slot for the horizontal stab and slid the stab in...lo and behold the clearance gap for the elevator hinge line is about 1-3/16" too far forward. So either the clearance hole is in the wrong place or the slot for the stab does not go far enough forward. Not good enough pics in the instructions or website to tell.

Can somebody take some close up shots of the tail of your Top Cap ARF for me?? I've left an email with Morris Hobbies several days ago and got no response. I want to get this baby done and in the air and it's holding me up right now.

Also, is everybody leaving the slot open behind the elevator, or closing it up with some scrap balsa and covering??

Trying to post pics of what I'm talking about but not sure it's going to work.

joeyc

Looks like the slot is cut incorrectly. The back of the elevator shouldn't extend past the back of the fuse. The way it's installed now won't allow the rudder to move. Regards.

John Wells

My Feedback: (10)

Yup, the slot isn't cut correctly. No biggie, just trim out the area where the movement is. The topcaps are nice flying planes, and plenty 3D capable.

JW

Tmorelock

So I'm thinking that they have the elevator hinge line in the correct place and that I just need to elongate the stab slot more to the front of the plane. I would like confirm this before I go cutting on it.

If I leave the hinge line where it is in the pics then the back of the elevators is just in front of the rudder hinge line. Sound right?? Can somebody measure their Top Cap and give me the dimension from the elevator hinge line to the back of the fuse??

Tmorelock

Here is a pic where I have taped the elevator in position using the precut hinge line and and also taped on the rudder. Does this seem like the correct placement of the elevator relative to the rudder?? If so, I'll increase the stab slot forward and move on with construction.

One more question...are people really just using CA to glue the wing to the fuse?? I can see where it would be hard to use any other glue on the ARF version but the thought of using CA on that critical joint scares me a little.

sloanfs

Your last pic looks right. Just elongate the slot forward and you'll be good to go.
About the CA glue, I've done it that way and I've used gorrila glue. I've never had one fail either way. I'd say if the wing fuse joint fits good thin ca will work fine.
I maidened mine today, It is one I bought used and repaired at a swap meet for $10.00. It's a bit of a pig at 5lb 2 oz but it didn't fly too awful bad.
Heres a few pics of the maiden

Dave McDonald

My Feedback: (19)

T, you're on the right track. The rear edge of the elevators should be even with the rudder hingeline. Therefore you will have to enlarge the cut out for the stab.

Here's a photo of the tail section of my Topcap that shows how it should look.

sloanfs

Nice Dave! I must have done something wrong on mine, cause my rudder doesn't look anything like that........ Yet!!!!

Tmorelock

Awesome guys...thanks for the help. I have hacked open the slot to accomodate and should have this baby together soon.

Scott Crownover

I am assembling a Top Cap ARF myself and found the same problem. I notified Morris Hobbies of the situation so that they could correct other runs of this kit. Their rep said that the slot should extend 6 3/4 inches forward from the rear of the fuse, but it looks as if it needs to be at least 8 inches. I was concerned that I might unknowingly cut through a vertical cross member, but he said it is a solid piece in that area. Prior to finding out about the elvator slot problem, Morris replaced my original fuse due to a bad warp. They had it to me in two days after I called their 800 number (1-800-599-6887). I decided to fix the elevator slot myself since it seems the fix is straightforward.


Scott

PaulD

My Feedback: (39)

Geez,

Just got my kit and thought I might go pick up some tips on the build before I tore into it. This will certainly help some.

I see an addendum came with the manual that talks about the horizontal stab installation but no mention of the slot.

Paul

Tmorelock

I cut mine to 8-1/16" from the back because that looked right with the stab placement. In hindsight I would have stopped at 8". I just barely broke through the wood in the middle of the two side pieces at the front of the stab. I don't think it will be any issue at all, but if I had it to do again it stop shorter.

I also was not real happy with the fit of the wing in the wing saddle. With the wing in the fuse I would see 1/32" daylight between wing and fuse on the top side. Since the instructions said to CA the wing into the saddle I decided that it need to be tighter. I glued a piece of 1/16" balsa in the top of the wing saddle cut out, then sanded it down until the wing is a tight friction fit in the fuse. It will be much easier to get the wing to sit still while I check alignments now and will make gluing it in much easier.

I do believe I have a slight warp in my fuse. With the wing in the fuse I measured leading edge to fuse, and trailing edge to fuse...both were equal. However when I measured wing tip to the back of the fuse it was about 1/8 - 3/16" out of square. I will check a few more things to see if I can square it up.

Still like the ARF even with the issues. I paid $99 for it which was the same price as the kit version. The way I build it would have had way more problems if I had done it myself.

cal.45acp

Just wait till you try to mount the fuel tank in the wing bay, wont fit even without any foam around tank, made a bracket and mounted externally other side where engine mounts. you will have to construct better fitting servo mounts and still hatches are tight fit, trim strips started peeling after first few flights even though I ran iron across them with iron before flying first time. I am using saito 56 had to engineer throttle hookup, airframe is set up for 2 strokes , did you get two sets of landing gear? if so use the shorter of the two, taller gear is soft as butter "useless" BTW saito 56 not enough power, all in all plane flies o.k. , but wish I had bought goldberg 330 extreme profile instead

Scott Crownover

Ditto on the tank fit. Very tight compression fit between the upper and lower spars just to get the front 1//4 through. Coulda maybe squeezed it in with no foam but was worried I'd bust those skinny spars and joiners. Also I'd never get the tank back out for servicing. I'd much rather have it out on the fuse where I can check for bubbles, leaks, and fuel level better anyway. I used a DuBro profile gear I had laying around cause I heard the aluminum ones were soft. Still for $99 not too shabby. I think I'll peel off some of the stripes before they work loose.

Scott

Tmorelock

I checked mine out today and the tank fits fine in mine. I will make sure I seal down the edges of the stripes so maybe I can get them to stick around for a while.

I did find that my fuse has a slight warp front to back, and also top to bottom. Not much, but enough that it makes lining up the wing and stab difficult.