] purchased a built but not completed Sterling Fokker D-7. The control horns, servos, engine, fuel tank, etc had never been installed. I have been wanting this size WW1 era biplane for electric power for a while. The plane will get new covering after its flying, but for now I can live with the ugly covering job. I have a Monster Power 60, ESC and Battery form another project I will be using. I located the motor and determined thet the maple mounts for the glow engine had to be removed forward of the firewall. I cut that out and used a piece of 1/4 inch ply to space the motor out properly in relation to the the cowl. The plane was built with a screw down panel over the fuel tank location, I will convert this to magnet held and the area will be perfect for the 5 cell Lipo batttery. This looks like it will be a very easy conversion and if I dont have to work too much overtime, I should have it ready to fly in a couple weeks. It was strange, but two more Sterling D-7 kits came up for sale so I got them also. One of the kits had barely been started but the good thing is that it came with an extra cowl. The plane I am working on was missing the cowl, how lucky am I?
The other D-7 is completely built and was ready to fly except that it weighs 13 pounds without engine, servos, fuel tank, battery, etc., just the airframe itself. It is one beautifukl plane and would be a great garage hanger, I may hang it, or strip it and try to lighten it.
Denny

The nice looking D7 is now hanging from the ceiling of a friends place. The ugly one has flown with the power setup I pictured earlier. The plane flew great. It did so good, I am in the process of recovering it. Really tough to completely recover an assembled airplane but the fuselage is almost done.

I had one of these kits way back in my oily days, well before I left England for the US. 'Built like a tank' still springs to mind... Oddly enough, mine only sat in the shop for a few months, before 'moving on' - I never even started on building it.

The new colour scheme will be much nicer, but watch out for that CG aft migration as you re-do it. Happens a lot to scale models if you don't stay awake and ahead of it.

Good luck with the project

D

Thanks for the helpful reminder to re-verify the CG. It now balances 4 7/8 from the LE of the top wing. It balanced before at 4 3/4 so it should flu close to the same. I finally have the plane recovered and its not the best covering job I have ever done but I like it a lot more. The shade of red it was before looked so dull and drab, this deeper red is much nicer and the white gives it good contrast. The black markings didnt hurt anything either. I am excited about taking it out to fly, hopefully soon.
Denny

That looks nice. I have a Lanier RC DVII (nowhere near the same class) that I want to recover as well, just to make it more interesting.

I have a smaller Global Hobby Fokker D-VII, flies nice but the GH goons put the ailerons on the lower wing, and made them undersized.

It will stably fly a good bit below the airspeed at which the ailerons do much!

I have a smaller Global Hobby Fokker D-VII, flies nice but the GH goons put the ailerons on the lower wing, and made them undersized.

It will stably fly a good bit below the airspeed at which the ailerons do much!