Laser Cut Wood Sheets
There are two sheets of wood pieces in the kit, that are used to build the mechanics mounting base and the wing supports.





Wing Support Backplate
In the first photo, there is a red circle around a male tab. This is where the wing support backplate will be mounted.

This is the wing support backplate assembly. Note the location of the female tab.






Mounting Wing Support Backplate to Mechanics Base
It is import to note: DO NOT USE 1-3 Second Glue here.
When gluing together the wing support backplate to the mechanics base,
you will need a little time to properly align the tabs.
So use a glue that will take 30 seconds or longer to set!




Building The Wing Supports
It is important to note, as this is not covered in the manual, that there are two sizes of the wing support arms.
The wider arm, goes to the front of the fuselage.
The narrow arm, goes to the rear of the fuselage.
The is due to the shape of the wing.





Engine Mounting
The manual does explain the correct orientation of the engine.
Of course, I already mounted and glued mine on upside down.
Here's a reference for the correct orientation.





Lowering The Tail Boom
You'll need 8 ea, M2x8mm screws for mounting the tail boom.




Fuselage Modifications
Two areas that required some Dremel work, to fit the mechanics, were the rotor head and tail rotor openings.




To mount the mechanics to the fuselage, the pre-drilled holes needed to be widened.


Using a shaker can of Krylon camouflage, I re-painted the entire model, so
that the plastic parts matched the fiberglass parts and make it more true to scale color.





I fabricated and installed a cascade 4 blade tail rotor:





All of the electronics are installed in the front of the fuselage.
Spektrum AR6110E Receiver, Skookum SK360, Spartan DS760, Ice 50 ESC, Lighting controller, CC BEC, and 4S 2200 mAh LiPo.

Kip @ 2011 fun fly (4 min 40 sec)

You noticed the strange factory baseplate also, eh? I just redrilled the baseplate holes forward some and no Dremel to the fiberglass necessary then

Originally Posted by SidewaysLS4

You noticed the strange factory baseplate also, eh? I just redrilled the baseplate holes forward some and no Dremel to the fiberglass necessary then

With the mechanics moved forward, how does the tail covers fit?
I had to make some cuts, to fit!

So far so good (knocks on wood, lol). Here's a pic with the mechanics screwed down to the box...

After seeing the engine mount, gear mount, and wing mount holes marked in crooked and unsymetrical spots, I figured this fuse was a "youre on your own" type of assembly process. I based the floor box position on a 'centered' spot to the wing shape profile on the main fuse sides and went from there. Then the rest kind of fell together.

I noticed that the sides of your tail opening are somewhat wavey, seems these have the tail crunched forward and taking a set with the crunch in place. This changes the tail angle and makes things somewhat interesting to get your adjustments in. I reinforced the tail area like the photo below, pulling the tail back as the 5 minute epoxy dried so as to straighten this area. The vacuum formed pieces seem to be modeled after an uncrunched fuse, so I guess they will fit better this way as well

what are the raised tail mechanics like ? does it look reliable ? and the cable ?

ps. there are some pics that arent working.

The tail mechanics look bulletproof. The cable sure is smooth, better than what heliartist sends with theirs for sure. It is all plastic though, and I'm not going to use mine as my tail servo will be forward mounted for balance I'm planning. BT used his...hopefully he flew his and can give some impressions, I'd be curious how that works myself

If I build one of these I'd go for cascade 4 tail blades to match. Especially the tail gearing is 4.24:1 on quad head.

BT, sorry for jumping in before you finish your narrative and build review.

Originally Posted by SidewaysLS4

The tail mechanics look bulletproof. The cable sure is smooth, better than what heliartist sends with theirs for sure. It is all plastic though, and I'm not going to use mine as my tail servo will be forward mounted for balance I'm planning. BT used his...hopefully he flew his and can give some impressions, I'd be curious how that works myself

Agree, the cable is very smooth!
However, I didn't use the kit's cable because I already had a Sullivan cable setup.

There isn't much room at all, for a servo installed forward.
I used a 4S LiPo setup, and the CG was almost centered, just a slight tail back.

I have found that with the elevated tail models, to eliminate tail wag, using a Align DS510 servo, or one with equal or higher torque, works best.


BTW, I crashed mine! I failed to thoroughly pre-test the mechanics setup, in a rush to have it flying for the weekend fun fly.


I had only hovered it in the backyard, with a little forward/back & side to side flight. I didn't have enough gyro gain set in the SJGD FS600 flybarless 3-axis gyro, and it was a winding day.
When I took it out to an open field, I upped the gain about 10 clicks before the first flight, and I noticed the wind vanning of the tail.
I added another 10 clicks, hovered to feel it out, and then tried a little forward flight.
The wind gusted up, and whipped the tail.
I countered to correct, but giving more throttle to gain altitude started a piro.
While trying to recover, wind was pushing the heli down field.
I fought to recover, but trying to fly back towards me, was flying into the wind.
Giving more throttle to fly into the wind, resulted in more pirouetting!
It was now getting too close to the parked cars at Lowe's, so I had to bail and hit throttle hold.

Seems it landed port side, nose in. Broke off the port wing, broke off the tail wheel, broke the belly gun, destroyed the nose sensors. damaged the rotor head and stripped some servo gears.

Re-kit ordered, from Hobby-Partz.com, and in the mail!

Originally Posted by sidneyw

If I build one of these I'd go for cascade 4 tail blades to match. Especially the tail gearing is 4.24:1 on quad head.

BT, sorry for jumping in before you finish your narrative and build review.

No problem! You're welcome to go ahead and discuss the build.

Yeah, a cascade tail would be nice. I just ordered the 4 blade tail from Fung last night. I'll have to get rid of the blue anodizing!

Is there a cascade tail available for sale, or are you going to fabricate one?

What's the link for that 4 blade tail?

Originally Posted by mligosh

What's the link for that 4 blade tail?

http://www.flying-hobby.com/shop/ind...oducts_id=6167

I fabricate my own from two sets of tail grip (cheap EXI 450 from xheli $4.30 each set) .... Gaui 3mm or similar Esky Honeybee main (cut to proper length afterward), JB weld is used to secure a metal tail pulley (24hr dry time) + two short links.

Originally Posted by sidneyw

I fabricate my own from two sets of tail grip (cheap EXI 450 from xheli $4.30 each set) .... Gaui 3mm or similar Esky Honeybee main (cut to proper length afterward), JB weld is used to secure a metal tail pulley (24hr dry time) + two short links.

Didn't you post a DIY thread on that?
Could you post a link here?

Originally Posted by BlackTitanium

Didn't you post a DIY thread on that?
Could you post a link here?

Sure, that was Super-Hornet's Special treat ....
I did that on my 5-bladed MD500e, still in service after 30 flights.

http://rc.runryder.com/helicopter/t392402p1/

Bummer on the crash. Re-kit..I love that term, lol

You trying to run a SJGD on that? That is kind of scary, my experiences with that told me it was a serious POS. For the price, an Align 3G from GrandRC will cost about the same...and it works. If you already have a tail gyro...the Skookum 360 is like $180 now from Helidirect.

As a side note...I did some measureing and found that 360mm blades will fit with the extended tail. So I'm rolling the dice and ordered 4 of 'em. Really need to find a source for the 22T counter gear so I can do the 4.95 base ratio on the tail and go from there though. Anyone know of anyone who still stocks that gear? I dont have anything left I can cannibilize for one, accck.