Great lookin' Great flyin' Plane

I thought I'd start my blog off on a positive note with the E-Flite PT-17 Streaman. This plane goes together very smoothly very few hick-ups often encountered in other ARF's. The landing gear struts have a minor gap when mated to the fuselage but this allows for hard landings without breaking the scale wraps around the legs. I chose to install Hitech HS-81 MG's for the elevator and rudder because it's what I had in my servo bin. I would never purchase these servos again because they stall when nothing is hooked to them... but what do you do The stab and fin went smoothly into the fuse and the CA hinges slid in with minor "freeing up" of the slot with a Xacto #11 blade. The tail wheel wire is one part I found that needed some help. The hole drilled in the fin was about an 1/8th inch too low and would put the stress of the tail wheel on the rudder and hinges instead of the bottom of the fuse. I decided to cut an 1/8" of of the tail wheel wire and ground a new flat spot. This worked well without trying to drill a new hole and weaken the rudder more. Everything lined up perfectly without the need to sand parts. Installing the cabane struts was a breeze with no surprises but needed to be splayed and forced just a little bit to mount the top center wind section. I decide to use Futaba 3114's for the ailerons and these fit great in the wing. For the power plant I went with the E-Flite Power 25 and 60 pro switching ESC. This gave...Continue Reading