Yes, the side fuse area is huge for creamy KE goodness.

Originally Posted by crossup

Picts this evening with wings installed...normally no biggie but you have to see(like ToxicT's) how big the fuse is compared to the wings

Dats watt I'm talkin' bout...
As promised a couple more pics , wings glued on. I guess we're talkin maiden this week/weekend

Originally Posted by edfrules

Yes, the side fuse area is huge for creamy KE goodness.

Those little bitty wings still do the trick. I thought the proportions of the plane looked different at first too. Then you fly it and decide it's just about right. I quess they spent 2 years coming up with the correct amount of area/shapes/sizes for the F3P regimen. Fortunately for us it translates well into larger/smaller planes. Mostly designed for "indoor pattern" but still does some 3D too.

Should be rigging controls tonight...which leaves only the motor mount plate and paint touch up. Hopefully a few more photos showing CF bracing and LG tonight
Then its little bitty wing test fly time

3mm and 1.5mm wing bracing
3mm tubing LG,

Yup, make 'em stiff. Don't want the old elevator flex that you get on a lot of foamies. Doesn't help with precision. And let's face it, we all want a plane that makes us look good flying! This one will. I love the rock free elevators I get out of mine. The next version I do will have some balsa corner stock or leading edge stock for the elevator and ailerons to eliminate the tape hinges(not the best for precision) and I'll use some Robart hinges instead of CA hinges. Nice, solid and precise.
There's no CG mark in the instructions so I quessed at about 30%MAC. You need all the servos/equipment as far forward as possible to meet the CG requirements. If you're having a hard time making it track and all it wants to do is hover then move CG forward. Once you find the sweet spot it will track much better but still do 3D too. Pretty forgiving in the CG dept. My 2 cents

Originally Posted by crossup

3mm and 1.5mm wing bracing
3mm tubing LG,

glad you mentioned CG.... I would have tried more like 40%
ended up working all day yesterday so no progress but today things are moving along:
servos mounted- using 3 minis w/47oz torque and one std Futaba also 47oz
going to use wire pushrods for ailerons, a too small 1.5mm CF pushrod for elevator and pull pull rudder. All servos ahead of CG.
and of course its a perfect day to fly while I build

In case anyone is closet building one of these, unless your using a heavy motor- mine is 105 gram you're going to need to extend the nose for balance.
I have everything in front of the CG except the 2 gram elevator pushrod and pull pull cord( milligrams) but its going to take a LOT to balance anywhere near reasonable with a
stock nose. I hoping a second battery pack will do the trick and have the side benny of doubling endurance

Pretty much as I thought: she balances at 33% MAC with 2 1700 packs an inch behind the motor
so for the maiden at least I have to fly with about 5oz extra weight to be safe
Im hoping that like a lot of foamies, I will end up with the CG WAY aft of sport fly norms
Right now I'm figuring 33% is 4" in FRONT of the hinge line so thats the setup,
as you can see she's nice and level on the balancer

Don't know about going aft with the CG. I ended up moving the motor forward 1-1/4" and the pack too. It would hover like crazy but getting it to track straight was a problem. After moving the CG forward it was much more controllable. This design seems to like the forward CG better. It was designed more for precision flight and not 3D but it seems to do well with both. My 2 cents. Good luck with your maiden.

Originally Posted by crossup

Pretty much as I thought: she balances at 33% MAC with 2 1700 packs an inch behind the motor
so for the maiden at least I have to fly with about 5oz extra weight to be safe
Im hoping that like a lot of foamies, I will end up with the CG WAY aft of sport fly norms
Right now I'm figuring 33% is 4" in FRONT of the hinge line so thats the setup,
as you can see she's nice and level on the balancer

Hey Crossup, that is looking great! Any chance you could do a couple of close-up photos that show how you did the pull pull at the servo and linkage? I'm about to move in that direction myself, so any help is appreciated. I've never done a pull pull do you have suggestions or techniques? I was thinking of using spider line from the sports store along but I'm not quite sure how best to interface it with the servo arm or the horn.

Great paint job! I take it you use frisket material with an airbrush, right?

Thanks, and again, beautiful paint job!

Toxic,
Sorry to say you won't learn much from me...my pull pull is basic- #15 Spiderwire tied with a bolen knot in a homemade plywood rudder control horn. At the servo I just used the standard pull pull hardware like Dubro sells, basically just 1/16" cotter pins held in EZ connectors, again tied with a bolen knot
Paint wise, its Krylon H2O which varies from fine to miserableto work with depending on color
masked with standard 3/4" fineline and paper. I'm gonna switch to Short Cuts or maybe even enamel as I'm tired of slow drying with water based paints which require better masking too. I'd rather have the risk of melting the foam from excess paint(enamel) than deal with the water based issues

since I hate adding weight to balance I'm gonna try it with the motor reversed from my original design which puts the motor a couple inches forward and allows it to balance at the same point but with only a single 2100 pack right up against the fiberglass motor mount I made

Originally Posted by crossup

Toxic,
Sorry to say you won't learn much from me...my pull pull is basic- #15 Spiderwire tied with a bolen knot in a homemade plywood rudder control horn. At the servo I just used the standard pull pull hardware like Dubro sells, basically just 1/16" cotter pins held in EZ connectors, again tied with a bolen knot
Paint wise, its Krylon H2O which varies from fine to miserableto work with depending on color
masked with standard 3/4" fineline and paper. I'm gonna switch to Short Cuts or maybe even enamel as I'm tired of slow drying with water based paints which require better masking too. I'd rather have the risk of melting the foam from excess paint(enamel) than deal with the water based issues

Thats actually easier than I was planning, I'm going to use your setup as the basis for mine. I'm wondering if I can do pullpull on the elevator as well...I think edf did that on his if I am not mistaken.

I've had mixed results with the h2o paints myself. The blue was excellent on depron, the black glossy was in the miserableto category you mentioned. I havent tried shortcuts marked paint yet but I've heard good things about them.

For mine, I'm actually taking airbrushed paint ("cobalt blue") and yellow cub econokote on the same plane. I was worried it wouldnt work well but it seems to hold up at a distance and using so little that there is only a minimal weight penalty.

Thanks for the info!

Well I guess weather permitting the maiden may be this evening, I still have to cutout the SFGs etc and I'm planning on putting in the 45 deg depron fuse fillet/reinforcement on top and probably the bottom too, but can't see any reason why not to fly her "naked"