With my first plane, I cut in from above the wings as suggested. My second landing (term used loosely) cracked the fuselage behind where the wing met the fuselage.

I just started another Viper; instead of cutting in from above the wing I removed the canopy and am cutting away the exposed foam. My hope is that this will give greater strength to the fuselage where the wing is attached. I will report back.

I haven't bought the servos yet so I may choose the HS-50J from Hitec. Boy, are those tiny!

They are also $9 more per servo than the HS-55J.

Originally posted by miker:
With my first plane, I cut in from above the wings as suggested. My second landing (term used loosely) cracked the fuselage behind where the wing met the fuselage.
.

Some suggestions that others may be overlooking:

Remove the canopy and seperate the fuselage halves - do the work and then close it up. No need to cut anything and makes for easy motor removal. This works great on the viper but the P-40 is a bit more difficult as the tail group is pre-installed.

On the viper, I reconfigured the stock on/off switch to work as an on/charge switch and use the stock viper charge port to charge the batteries. Just cut the plug off the battery powered charger and fit to your peak charger.

Use some thin balsa sheet cut to match the wing and apply with 3M-77 adhesive to strengthen the wing if needed. I'm not sure it is needed though. I have an aileron wing and it seems as stout as the non-aileron version. Of course if you are running ailerons, you will probably need to cut the wing saddle free to let the servo fit.

Have fun!

Steve McBride

Greg: Check out the GWS Picos. They are around $20 - 22 and the same size as the HS-50s.

Originally posted by Greg Covey:
I haven't bought the servos yet so I may choose the HS-50J from Hitec. Boy, are those tiny!

They are also $9 more per servo than the HS-55J.

I have both the Viper and the new P-40. Since I changed the motors in my KP fan's
I have two of the stock motors. They fit perfectly in both planes and are rated on 4
cells. Pull feels pretty good but they sure eat through 4 110's in a hurry. think I should
try them? I can use 270 cells the weight increase is not so bad because the motors
work best on 4 cells.
Also has anyone tried the P-40 yet? It's really pretty and is pre painted in the Flying
Tigers scheme. Same size as the P-51.
What in your opinion's with all the experience you've had, is the best motor to use?
Really enjoy flying micro as a break from all the heavy scale and EDF birds. It's
fascinating. Always wondered when I kid if one day we would be able to fly models
the size of plastic kits. I don't wonder anymore.
Steve Neill

Sure - the P40 is just as easy. I used tilerons on mine with GWD DX motor direct on the P40 prop, CS-10 servos, 6x150mah NiCad, GWS micro receiver. Flew well but I think the stock dihedral kept it from rolling real well. It still flew, but the roll authority was not as goos as it could have been. Add a GWS heatsink to the motor and cut the scoop open for maximum cooling

Have fun! It's a great conversion that looks quite well.

Steve

Thanks Steve. I'll pick up a couple of the motors. I do have a POT-2A. Any chance this might work? Been trying to find something to use it in.
Steve Neill

Running on 4 cells could allow the voltage to drop below what would make the receiver and servos happy pretty fast. Especially when the servos draw current. What has your experience been?

Been in RC planes for 16 years, electric only 3, however most of this has been with
sp 400 and up and EDF.
I'll run 6-7 cells on the pot but the KP EDF fan's stock motors can only be run on 4
cells or they burn out. Actually the
EDF's that I've scratched built use these units and 7 cells seems to be best. 8 cells
burns them up pretty fast, there were lots of threads on the KP fans talking about the
stock motors.
The instructions that come with the fans ask for 4 cells max. with a single fan unit. I
just happen to have these motors laying around because I replaced them with DMC
motors. Thought they might work on the micro stuff. I was also wondering if the POT
2a would work in these little guys because I have one of these as well. I'm a little new
to micro size planes but love them.
Steve

rkissin,

I'm glad to hear that your pavement-seeking plane was only scratched. It reminded me of my 4lb Helio Courier landing last weekend when I hit the top of a parking lot lamp post. You couldn't do it again even if you tried!

I'm not familier with your Westek servos. I plan on using HS-55 servos.

Have you done the wing undercamber mod. with DEPRON as on Mike's site?

Greg,

If you can, go with the GWS Pico or HS-50 servos, save yourself half a dozen grams. Makes a difference! LS-2.5 servos can be found on David Lewis' site, www.homefly.com. A slightly bigger model, the LS-3.0, is available from Todd Long at www.toddsmodels.com. The LS-2.5s weigh only 2.5 grams compared with 5.9 grams for the Pico/HS-50s and 7.8 grams or thereabouts for the HS-55s.

Haven't tried the undercamber mod, waiting for new inventory to arrive (i.e., more planes to play with).

A weak point in the plane is the wing saddle.
An ounce of prevention goes a long way here.
Glue TYVEK strips along the wing saddle joints inside the fuselage. Also check the canopy joints as it gives some torsional stiffeness.

SteveM,

Are you using the stock batteries in your Viper or did you replace them?

rkissin,

That price looks better, thanks! I'll check out Balsa Products for them. I keep ordering those GWS R4P receivers from them for $28.

I'm still getting used to the HS-55s on my last two projects. Going smaller is very cool! I just finished my mini-Zagi and started my Acro Champion from Hobby Lobby this morning. The Viper is next on my list after that. This micro-flight aspect of R/C is addicting!

Postie just deliver an order of GWS props including a 4.5x4 that's just slightly larger but with greater pitch than the Viper prop (which I'd guess is a 4x3). It can also easily be reamed out to accomodate the pinion on the GWS motor. I'm going to have to give this a try...

I use 6 of the stock Viper cells - there are 2 in each kit. Kinda lets you figure out how many of these I went through before getting one to fly well

Good luck!

Steve