Marty puts his on right before he flys and takes it off as soon as he lands. We plan on doing the same thing. It would most certainly get bent at all of the flyins we go to...

Bob

Any sign of your probes yet, though I guess the 25th has something to do with this as normally takes a week

Alan

Not yet, but you are right, the holiday probably has something to do with it.

Bob

did if you put the stickers on. Would love to see the finished model
izzy

Still working on it...

We've got the nose light in, the tail light in, the APU exhaust done, and now we're working on the intakes on the top of the fuse (that are also for the APU, I believe). That's after spending 3 weeks or so on the cockpit/canopy...

Still to come is the wing with the gear doors, lights, and flap hinges. Then I can turn it over to Louie to finish the equpiment install (it is his airplane, after all) and then we'll get the decals on.

I'll post pictures as we go. Some of the new strobes from Alan are coming up next...

Bob

Anyone else not able to mount the leading edge rails of the main gear even after grinding away the flange? I mean it isn't even close to possible?!?!

Bob
i would live to see the work on the APU and intakes
can u also describe how it's done. I don't have much experience with composite so I am reluctant to try
but would love to have them .....
thx
izzy

Actually, it wasn't possible on ours either - the mount was way up under the wing skin. We cut the area around the mount away as a hatch so we could easily get to the mounts. After we get the gear finally mounted, we'll put them back in with 1/8" ply mounts on the corners and small screws...

Bob

I'll try and get some pictures in a day or two - things are pretty crazy at work and I haven't been in the shop in a week...

Bob

seriously??? I'll have to look at mine as I'm not that far yet. How disappointing, I expected better from CARF

I initially mounted the gear in the wings as it fell into place. I was barely able to secure it on the rails by having cutouts for the bolts that went right to the edge of the door depression, by cutting the bolts short, by using a ball driver at an angle, by grinding away supporting plywood, and by trimming away a portion of the mounting flange from the blind nuts. Then after adjusting the toe in of my gear I found the tires were clearing the back edge of the wing surface by a millimeter with all the gear door depression ground away. I flew in like that for awhile but was never really comfortable. After a bad landing I lost my millimeter of clearance on one side so I decided to relocate the gear. After plugging the bolt holes and relocating the gear to put the wheels more centered in the well and giving me 5/16" clearance behind the tire when it passes the wing skin I found the bolts much easier to access and the peace of mind priceless. So it appears the plywood mounting is not being placed properly in the molded wing.
The first step should be to place the gear where it needs to be in the wing cutting away ply as necessary to accommodate the gear and cylinder. You will still have to grind away the ply support below the ply mounting rails (I used a dremel tool with a Permagrit cutting wheel) in some spots if you want to use trimmed blind nuts but that is pretty easy and fast to do just a bit of a pain to get at. I believe some have just tapped the ply for the 4mm bolts which would be easier but I used the blind nuts. Looking at my Ultra Flash the ply gear rails in it are approx. 10mm thick, that would be fine for simple tapping into the ply. But the gear on the Hawk is much bigger and the ply only approx. 6mm. Anyway if I were to simply tap the holes on a Hawk I would Hysol another layer of ply below the rails to add some material.

Yea, its probably possible to do it without making a hatch, but its so tight and was going to be such a royal PITA, that I said "screw it" and made the hatch. Now we have all kinds of room and the blind nuts were relatively easy to get in there. We have the wheel centered in the well with the proper toe-in and we have somewhere around 1/2" or more clearance around the wheel on all sides...

Overall, I think cutting the hatches is going to be the easier way to go. Its going to make getting the gear in and out and routing air lines, etc., much easier. We're thinking of hinging the lower gear doors like the full scale, but if you wanted to go the route of just notching them for the gear leg to extend like the instructions show, you could simply glue the lower gear doors (with the notch cut into it) to the hatch you cut out and just make the thing one piece. Four pieces of ply (or polyply) on the corners and 4 screws, and you're all done...

Oh, and we did have to grind away some of the gear mount and also put two washers under the outer gear mounting bolts to get the gear properly positioned in the center of the well and to have it go far enough into the wing (with the required toe-out) to keep from interfering with the gear doors.

Bob

i must admit that I too had same difficulty as Husafreak , but I added 0.8mm ply on one side and the wheel now have enough clearance
BUT!!!!
we pay enough money on these kits that CARF should do it right from the start
I think they have excellent quality kits and would buy another but this is really disappointing issue that seems to come from the start looking at Daves bulid from day 1 and this hasn't been fixed

PITY ........
I hope someone from CARF is listening

I'll let you know within the week. I'm due another Hawk this week and its the first aeroplane where we particularly referenced it as a major issue that needed looking at.
There are actually two arriving but the other is going direct to a customer, so will see with his too.
Seems to have got worse as time has gone on as I have built other Hawks without the issue.

Don't forget about the flap horn angle.

Yeah! > Not wanting to "gang up" on Dave but I do feel that the cracking the horn fix is not quite right. Too scary! Like many I simply used ply packing to raise the flap servos 6mm, and it would be so simple to just include that in the build manual for those who don't frequent the site. But the gear issue is way more work and should be fixed. That said I don't mind a few challenges (don't exactly enjoy them though) for an aircraft of this caliber. I'm up to 34 flights and this is a GREAT airplane. It flies so well. I am surprised there aren't more of them at the fields here in the states.

Will let you know on that too...
There are good numbers out there and flying World wide, there have been Eight in my local club alone, but like you say it should all have been sorted a long time back. With this latest push it takes a while for everything to filter through with stock travelling long distances.

Yep, definately don't want to gang up on Dave - your info here on this subject, and all for that matter, is invaluable so please don't take it as anything more than disappointment that on something SO GOOD, there are a tiny few things that are SO POOR. I'm definitely not trying to make a top gun scale Hawk as just like my Flash and Bobkitty, this baby is gonna be flown - a lot, but damn, can we not get the cutouts or plywood mounts or whatever in the right place? I mean, this layup is masterful - built so well, with so much integrity and then there are things like the flap horn in the wrong place and the rudder servo cut out not there, gear issue, etc etc. I looked very seriously at the Skymaster but wanted the CARF after comparing them side by side at Kentucky - I just really like CARF stuff and how the fuse feels more rigid, etc.

The factory is not making the changes you are recommending or even attempting to in my opinion. I was told my 2010 Display Scheme was "made to order" and at the time of deposit was just a bucket of resin in late July. The QC date seems to confirm this as it was 10/13/2013 and then i received it approx 3 weeks later. Flap issue = still there, Gear issue = still there, sounds worse even, Rudder cut out, not there. All of this not as advertised.

Don't get me wrong, happy with the model and the service from Andy Kane is/was top notch, info from Dave the same but man....... I really do expect to be able to mount the gear without grinding into the wing skin so much that I have to make a hatch. I know they just kind of make these when people want them now - it seems like they just sorta gave up on it after the skymaster came out? Dunno... It seems like a popular model - enough to get this stuff right anyway.

Here's some pictures of our gear mounting with the hatch...

Here's some pictures of the details on the top of the fuse - including the APU exhaust...

Does anybody know what these parts are for????

The two like parts are the stabulator slot covers ie. they attach to the stab to cover the "hole" in the fuselage. They don't fit very well and I don't use them for fear that they will jam the stab by catching the edge of the elevator servo hatch. I'd rather live with the gap there, which is not that noticeable to me.

The other piece, I'm guessing is CARF's attempt to replicate an antenna blade.

MIke

OK, thanks. I did wake up this morning with the realization that those are the stab slot covers - my brain must have been working on it over night, but I was lost on the other piece. I can't find an antenna on the Hawk that is shaped like that. I did find ones that are shaped like the other antenna pieces on the "parts tree" and they did not supply one for the "blade" antennas on the fuselage...

Bob

Bob
can you describe hwo you did the APU exhaust and also intakes ?
thx izzy

FWIW those stab slot covers are not very scale like. Which is fine for this sport scale kit. But if you are going for scale accuracy you won't want them.