Hodges Hobbies in Andersonville, GA is releasing a 310 ARF with air operated retracts that is the same size as the Nosen model.As I remember Mac said the model would ship air freight to your front door for $1,650.

I asked about an ARC version and Mac said that should not be an issue and he would look into offering one.The ARC version would still come with the retractable gear; which looked like very sturdy units.On each landing that I observed you could actually see the struts compressing and doing a good job of dampening out the ripples in the grass runway.

Production Model (four pictures in Post #78), http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_8767200/mpage_4/key_/tm.htm

The Production model flew with Area 51cc gas engines. The stock mufflers were used and did not require too much of the lower cowlings to be removed. Mac was using the Biela 3-blade 19x10 carbon fiber props and polished spinners.Mac said this model was overpowered and required good throttle management, but would easily fly on one engine with the proper control inputs.Some of the flight demos that Mac put on at Joe Nall where fast and furious, with a lot of inverted maneuvers to show what the model could handle.Mac has his radio programmed where he can go into a spin then idle the inside engine while having throttle control on the outside engine.This makes for some serious flat spins.Opposite rudder input reverses the throttle mix so that he can recover from the flat spin in short order.

Pre-production Prototype (Picture in Post #6), http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_8767200/tm.htm

The Pre-Production Prototype flew with Zenoah G-26 engines.Mac said this made for a marginally powered setup and he usually kept the model at full power during the whole flight. Mac stated that he had an engine quit with this setup and the lightly loaded model was a handful to get back to the runway; i.e. not recommended.

Sounds like 35-40cc engines would make for a good setup, but from my observations of the two models in flight I wouldn’t think twice about using the 50cc engines and keeping the throttle use in check.

Mac said to contact him at his shop for getting on a pre-order list, or for any specific information that anyone might want.

E-mail Mac from his contact page:http://www.hodgeshobbies.com/index.php?option=com_contact&view=contact&id=1%3Am ac-hodges&catid=12%3Acontacts&Itemid=90

Hodges Hobbies at (866) 924-9505, http://www.hodgeshobbies.com/

The 310 looked real nice for a semi-scale model and the shipped price to your front door seems reasonable.With an ARC version it would take little effort to scale the model out a little more and then finish with covering, or fiber-glass and paint.

That’s all I know and remember.Hopefully most of it is correct.

Mike

Several things came to mind that I forgot to mention.

- The main wing consists of three removable sections. The main landing gear and engine nacelles are mounted on the center section and the outer wing panelsplug in just outboard of the nacelles.

- The nacelles are removable from the wing center section.

- The stabilizers are removable for transportation.

- The rudder is pull-pull.

- The nose cone appeared to be held on with a strip of covering material. With a new shortened nose cone, angling the nose gear forward, some tip tank modifications (depending on model type), and nacelle mods on the rear, this model could be converted into the C-310D, E, F, and Gcivilian models.Also, the 310E was the basis for the U.S. Air Force U-3B “Blue Canoe” delivered in 1960 and 1961, so this would allow for a Warbird version as well.This would make for some ARF or ARC bashing fun.

http://kynghistory.ky.gov/equipment/U-3B.htm This U-3B has 3-Blade propellers.It’s also shown in the link below along with a few other military versions.

http://cdn-www.airliners.net/search/photo.search?aircraftsearch=Cessna+U-3B+Blue+Canoe+(310M%2FL-27B)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cessna_310

Mike