Originally Posted by Visor

This is my setup - I made a motor mount out of 1/4" steel plate and placed the battery as far forward as possible. All this weight in front is needed for the proper CG.

Attachment 3933140 Attachment 3933141

This is modification to cowling for easy battery access:

Attachment 3933142 Attachment 3933143

One of the first flights

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vau2FCND84

Nice idea with the battery hatch - probably going to do something similar - what tool did you use to cut fiberglass on the cowling?
I'm new to working with composite.

Originally Posted by Ryleh

Nice idea with the battery hatch - probably going to do something similar - what tool did you use to cut fiberglass on the cowling?
I'm new to working with composite.

I used a razor saw. If you take your time you will get a nice clean cut.



I also made a small ledge for the hatch to line up with - a masking tape reinforced with epoxy:



For hinging I used a Scotch tape - nothing fancy, but it works.

Some progress on the build (thanks for the assistance BrotherBloat-y - your patience is gold!)

Wing is finished - this includes making adapters for high-end 20g Hyperion servos so they could fit in.
Navigation lights are in as well - and we (this being Bloat-y) did custom connectors on servo and nav light wires to eliminate the cable clutter:

Attached the pictures!
The only things remaining are mounting the motors, drilling the battery hatch compartment in the firewall and doing a custom battery hatch.

Still waiting for robart metal strut :/

Awesome!

---
BrotherBloat
London RC Project
www.rc-forc3.com

Hi guys,

I'm building my CMP Pro Cessna 182 (the bigger version).
I read some of the posts but I have 2 questions:

1. Upgrading the nose landing gear. Which the best? Robart 654?
2. Do you suggest me to glue the wings?

Thanks for your help, bye!

Fabrizio from Italy

Originally Posted by Ryleh

Some progress on the build (thanks for the assistance BrotherBloat-y - your patience is gold!)

Wing is finished - this includes making adapters for high-end 20g Hyperion servos so they could fit in.
Navigation lights are in as well - and we (this being Bloat-y) did custom connectors on servo and nav light wires to eliminate the cable clutter:

Attached the pictures!
The only things remaining are mounting the motors, drilling the battery hatch compartment in the firewall and doing a custom battery hatch.

Still waiting for robart metal strut :/

This is what I do to LED to get a wider angle of viewing - cut off the top and place a drop of epoxy instead.

For my Cessna 400 I paired up two modified LEDs.


And this is what it looks like from different angles.

Cessna 400 Corvalis (1 min 3 sec)

Hey it looks like Nitroplanes has this plane back in stock. Slightly higher price and different paint scheme. Wonder if the nosegear is improved?

http://www.nitroplanes.com/cmp061-cessna50-kit.html

My last flight... It flew up

Good Bye (1 min 12 sec)

Ummmm...wow. Any ideas as to the cause? What batteries were you using?

Originally Posted by scatsob

Ummmm...wow. Any ideas as to the cause? What batteries were you using?

It was intentional
Downsizing my fleet... in a rather original way!
LOL

Who or where did you get this plane ???

Did you buy it from a guy named Gord ???

Thanks,
Sam

Originally Posted by Tracon

Who or where did you get this plane ???

Did you buy it from a guy named Gord ???

Thanks,
Sam

No Sam, I was the only owner. There was nothing wrong with that plane, but I moved to a smaller place, and needed to get rid of some of the planes I hardly used. I know, I could have sold it... but then we wouldn't have seen that video! LOL

Nothing against Cessnas
But here is another one!

Oops... (1 min 19 sec)

Originally Posted by Visor

Nothing against Cessnas
But here is another one!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nfxHTB1hSg

WOW! I saw one burn up on the runway but never saw one explode in flight. YIKES!! I think I'll just stick with glow power.

Hiya guys,

I have followed most threads on this bird with keen interest since the day CMP launched their little Cessna. Being in SA I found them a little hard to come by, the larger version seemed plentiful in the hobby stores but for some reason the only .50 size Skylanes were proudly owned by fellow fliers who were not going to give 'em up for anything. One hobby retailer did have one for sale that they had built witha Hacker setup with lights and all, ready to fly for a customer who then pulled out but they wanted an absolute fortune and as much and as long I have dreamed of this airee I just couldn't spend what would essentially buy me two similarly sized birds so the search continued.

Finally some fellow contacted me in response to one of my many posts requesting this little Cessna, with news that his brother who lives in a small town thousands of miles from me had one for sale in great condition ( around 3 flights only) and it has arrived at a friend's house for me to collect at a decent price.

I am soooo excited since I really fell in love with this thing first time I saw it and with a lifelong love for Cessnas and a type rating on the 182, this thing is perfect and will take prize of place in my collection. That said there are one or two things I plan on modifying or replacing alltogether, some based on what I have read on forums like this and some based on my own careful study of the model during the two weeks of daily visits to the hobby store to 'inspect' her to help me decide to take it or not.

First thing is quite drastic and will raise some eyebrows but I have given it a lot of thought since the first thing that I didn't like was the diherdral on the outer wing panels. This is typical of Chinese scale models where a picture or two of the real bird with it's tapered outer wing panels which from some angles may look to be dihedral'ed which essentially makes for a polyhedral wing which the real design certainly does not employ. It is not a small detail error in my opinion and is a sore point of this model for me. So my idea is to build a new wing completely!

I plan for a much more scale wing profile although I will retain the existing airfoil more or less so I get a good fit on the cabin but it will be slightly increased in size - with more scale, larger flap and aileron areas, I plan on a much crisper, neater trailing edge with less pronounced corrugation detail on the surfaces. The new wing will be a hek of a lot lighter and this with my other mods and the wing's increased size will go a long way to correcting/improving the high wing loading inherent in CMP's bird. I plan on internal flap linkages and will try bury the aileron servo deeper to avoid the horrible massive linkages this thing has which again ruing the appearance.

One thing I and fellow bush fliers do on the Cessna high wings is to droop the ailerons slightly with the flaps to a few degrees in nuetral which improves short field performance massively and on this bird should make for a more stable less snappy model especially in slow flight. Other mods that I may do based on STC's done on our 'bush Cessna's' are things like VG generators, STOL kit which includes leading edge or 3/4 chord wing fences, drooped leading edge extensions etc, all proven on models and most I have replicated on my other birds with good results. I manufactured a VG kit for the E-flite super cub 25 which worked a treat.
Most of all when I rebuild the wing I can get rid of that STUPID outboard dihedral which would make for a much more scale looking Skylane.

Another thing I disliked was the stock wheel pants, draggy, massively oversized and not of scale profile, I will either look for a more suitable set and paint match them or make a perfectly scale set or leave them off alltogether - further remedying the weight issue. I am definately going to repaint her and am considering a bush scheme of matt drab olive green in which case the wheel pants will not feature and larger more scale 'bushy' wheels will take the place of the silly stock wheels, lighter ones will also help with weight. I will look at if it's possible to slightly shorten the stalky gear legs and strut so it looks less like a model. I am leaning more towards a vintage/classic 70's era Skylane scheme, something like the old yellow and brown or Green and brown classic liveries of the Earliest 182's with the swept surfaces and cut down rear deck.This will require the classic shaped wheel pants which I will make up myself.

Another important mod for me which will improve weight even more will be to widen the cabin windows to more scale sizes and to better match the windscreen line per the full size. If the structure is such that removing about 3-5mm of material from the bottom of the window cutouts weakens it in any way then I can reinforce with a light balsa window frame. I will replace the stock molded window sets with cleaner flat plastic.

I will be installing lights since I have a beautiful full set not being used and will likely employ the cowl landing lamps. I am going to use a nice large metal spinner which is more scale and will open the cowl inlets slightly to more scale size and shape. I will open up the bottom of the cowl and install cowl flaps in the 2 notch position for better cooling and appearance.

I have not yet figured out what to so with the interior but will certainly do even minimal clean up and detailing, even if it's just to detail the panel, paint and clean up the formers and structure visible through the glazing and stick in a lightweight pilot figure or bust.

I am quite practiced at 'kit bashing' and am confident of weight loss when all is said and done despite the added detail! I will add some small detailing here and there only where it significantly contributes to the overal scale appearance.
In the end I should get something like this: