Working out the receiver, switch, battery and throttle servo locations. The battery and throttle servo still need to be mounted, but their locations are shown .

I made a tray to hold the receiver and located it directly beneath the pilot station. I glued in plywood pads to mount the rx tray. I am using a Futaba 617 rx so I needed to fabricate something to hold the antennae in place and away from other wiring. As you can see, I am using Velcro to hold the rx to the tray.

With this receiver location I won't have to use any servo extensions for the throttle, rudder or elevator servos.

And a shot of the tray arrangement for the tank as well as a picture of the battle tested Zenoah 445 twin.

The 'turtle is running' report.......

The fire wall has been drilled for the Zenoah 445 and epoxied into place.......hardwood triangles have been epoxied to the back of the firewall.......the hatch has been fitted to the fuselage .....I glued the hatch locating dowels to the firewall and drilled for the screws which hold the hatch in place.

I also changed the switch mount from flimsy plastic to a plywood base.

Next up is to fit the throttle pushrod and the choke rod to the engine.

I think I can see the finish line - that rabbit ain't go nothin' on me!
(I'll post pictures later when the site allows)

Thanks Jim. It'll look lot better when its flying (soon, I hope).

couldn't resist seeing it assembled (sort of)

that's a Balsa USA 1/3 scale Pup cowl - it's not quite large enough in circumference - but it gives you a good idea what it might look like.

more pics.......

I had some Colortex Cub yellow but don't have a Cub, so I used it on this project. (after all, it IS the Balsa USA Cub airfoil)

The national marking is black Solartex - for me its an easy way to apply markings - (I'm not very good at painting) (read that as SLOPPY!)

I think I am going to paint the airframe green and mark it like the Austro-Hungarian EIII on the front of the Windsock Data File.

I finally finished the covering job........it needs paint in the worst way! ......... that Cub yellow hurts my eyes.

Looks great Art!

Put some bumble bee stripes on it!............I will loan you my wheels off my EIII LOL!!

HPA

I was thinking maybe a black lightning bolt down the side.......I got wheels, just don't have any axles to hang 'em on.[]

I like the yellow Art. Besides it will be easy for you to see in the air

Don't encourage him.

don't hold your breath waiting on the paint - it just might fly in these colors [X(]

NOPE ! NOT A CHANCE !

I started to paint it green, but the green was more of a Kelly green and definitely looked BAD (as in ugly)......so I opted for a cream, beige, tan, clear doped linen......these are all non-descript colors........pick what you want to call it........the typical Eindecker color.

It's a true work of "RC" art.

Hey, shouldn't those Futaba antennas be in different planes from each other? I always thought that was the way the Futaba antennas were to be mounted. Maybe it's just an old wives tale but I have always mounted mine that way...one on a vertical plane and one on a horizontal plane.

Tim,
Rotate your installation 90 degrees and it will look like mine.......if I fly knife edge it would be like you describe......right?

No, my antennas are in two separate planes...picture one is flat horizontal as yours and the other is vertical or rising up the side of the fuse by way of example. Maybe this diagram will work. My understanding using this diagram is that one should be on the purple plane facing straight up or down and the other should face fore or aft on the blue plane. Clear as mud?? That was harder than I thought it would be.

My Futaba book on my 7C says to place the antennas as far away as possible from each other and at 90 degrees to each other. The picture shows one antenna on the side of a fuselage and the other across a bulkhead ( neither one being vertical)......another picture shows a heli and a similar arrangement as my installation.

When it comes down to it - there are only 2 antennas and they will always be on the same plane relative to the receiver - what you are talking about is relative to the model. And that is where the debate lies........

Another consideration is surrounding metal such as what the front of this model will have totally enclosing it and also the big metal power plant up front which can block the signal if the receiver is too close to the front of the plane. And then there are all the flying and landing wires, not to mention the squirrel cage of a landing gear.
Oh, and don't forget the three pairs of control cables going to the tail surfaces.

An interesting conversation, isn't it?

It is an interesting conversation. I wish I could remember where I was informed about this antenna setup. It was included in a test of range strength compared to a 2.4 JR radio. If in the plane diagram the antennae are placed 90 degrees to each other and one of the antenna are not placed on the intersection line of the two planes then they can never be on the same plane regardless of how you turn the plane. We can continue this conversation this weekend. In the meantime I am going to try to find the article or video where this was discussed. Seems to me that is was a few years ago.

I would imagine that what matters are the planes of the antennas relative to the transmitter on the ground.

Oh yeah.........a real "cliff hanger"!












HPA

Yes, you are absolutely correct. From what I had read, my understanding was that the purpose of 2 antennae were so that they can be placed on different planes and the tests they ran showed the signal was more secure in this scenario. I don't even remember if it was a Futaba report. I will continue to see if I can find this report or whatever it was I read.

Hang in there HPA this is going to be riveting!!!!

tevens55 is correct on placement of the antennae. 1 pointing up or down, the other pointing out either side of the model, although I prefer the second to point fore or aft.

the latest from futaba is now to wrap the receiver in 1" of foam, like we used to do.

That's all well and good.....however, I seldom fly straight and level, so my antennas are always changing position relative to the transmitter.

What it all boils down to is the fact that there are two antennas and they should be spaced as far from each other as possible. The reason for two antennas in the first place is because the 2.4 wave length is very short (look at your own receiver) and to prohibit signal blocking from the model itself (engine, batteries, cowls etc.) a redundant antenna system was devised.

If antenna placement were as critical as some of us think, there would be a continuing problem with signal loss and subsequent crash after crash after crash. And that is just not happening!

That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

You go Art!
Doc

I love when you "boil things down to the facts" Your a Ninja Turtle baddd ass!

HPA

I got the landing gear from Larry........there was a problem with the fellow who was making the gear and fitting the cowls........long story short, he is history and Larry is looking for another fabricator.

Anywhoooooo, I got the first gear mounted to the fuselage. I had to hammer on it some to get it to fit (like I said, there was a problem). I also fitted the tail skid and added the wings. Now it looks like an airplane!

Now I'm in the home stretch. Time to add all the wires and cables.

Here are some pictures as it now sits..... oh yeah, still need to paint the wing, too.......and add the national markings on the fuselage sides.