FYI,
I know there are a lot of you racing WarBirds, so I thought I would post an issue I just had with my new World Models Dago Red.
There were a lot of issues with this last ARF, I just assembled. I wont go into all of them as I have had 6 of these through out the years and all have been very good quality. This last one nearly went in and I feel I need to give a warning.
The engine thrust line (vertical), incidence, was so far off when I maidened it, all it did was loop under power. I couldnt grab enough elev trim and had to get it down on high rates and no power. When we got back to the shop we discovered it needed over 1/4" of shims on the top motor mount bolts. Not sure if anyone else has experienced this. I was very fortunate to get this down in one piece.
I had never checked an ARF in that area before, but you can bet I will in the future.

Thanks for the info Marty.  I have found all the ARF's that I have assembled in the last two years have some kind of incedence other than 0*.  Even my sport planes.  So I have a drawer of Ernst shims now that I always work at getting a 0* engine incidence.  I found on my PM Stregas that the cowl wouldn't line up worth a darn and when I looked Darn, I had 2-3* right thrust and a1* up. 

Great job saving the Dago Red.

Hey Marty,

Most of the racers that I have talked to set the incidence to 0 down and 0 right before they maiden them. Did you have trouble getting the cowl to line up? On our T-34s we add a 1/16" shim to the bottom of the mount and that little bit is enough to throw the cowl line off.

Like Barry said, good job getting it down.


Chris

On these WM the cowls are generous enough to allow manipulation in a larger way so the incidence is not highlighted by a bad fitting cowl. On my GSRers we set all incidences at 0 as you stated, but with these arfs I just always left them alone and went out and raced for fun.
This flight wasnt "fun".

Marty On the Dago before this last one the fuse had a lot of probs. The formers weren't square throughout the fuse and it had a lot of waves ,I didn't check the thrust ,flew OK. Only lasted 3 flights (my bad). The new one seems much better quality.

Yea I have one with waves, loose formers, engine blind nuts not threaed correctly, wing tie down holes not lined up, poorly glued retract servo mount rail, poor quality threaed control rods for rear surfaces. I said I wouldnt mention all these things earlier but I changed my mind. These were all things I had to address in this build. I really like the WM Product, just seems the quality isnt what I was used to.
It may have always been an issue, but now that I am racing these at over 150, rather than sport flying, I guess the little things have become big things.

I really dont want to be "Product Basher". I see that all the time on some forums. I only brought it up for those of us using these in a race environment. The safety issues could become a real threat to our venue.

In the future I'd return the plane or call Airborne Models about it. From what I hear they will take care of you. It sounds like a Monday model. You know the ones that are made on the Monday after a holiday.

Thats funny Chris,
i told the guy I got the ARF from it was the first one after the lunch break at beer thirty.
Something really was wrong with this one, and many somethings at that.

This doesnt discourage me from WM. I really like their Dagos. I will just have to keep an eye on them and in the future call as you stated.