Except for the addition of the Eagle Tree Guardian and an upgraded ESC to get a stronger 3.5 AMP BEC, my PZ T-28 uses all of the original equipment. The Guardian is running the latest firmware available at the time of writing. Many of the sections below have a screenshot or photos that go along with their text.

Guardian installation:

I installed the Guardian near the CG on the right side of the fuselage. It is not necessary to have Guardian right on the center line of the fuselage, and on the T-28 there is a opening here to allow passage of the aileron servo wires. There were some bumps molded into the foam along the side of the fuselage, but I used a blade to cut these off to prepare a flat surface for the Guardian. After the bumps were cut from the foam, a layer of clear packaging tape, much longer and wider than the dimensions of the Guardian, is placed along the right side of the fuselage, followed by a strip of Scotch Heavy Duty Fastener that is slightly larger than the dimensions of the Guardian. These two together provide a stable base for the Guardian which is attached using another strip of heavy duty fastener that's cut to exact dimensions of Guardian.

Guardian General Tab:

Set the default flight mode to 2D mode. That way if the receiver enters fail safe and isn't driving Guardian's mode the model will automatically level itself, which could save it. If your receiver allows for preset fail safe value for all channels (many do not), be sure to set up fail

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I recently picked up a Parkzone Focke-Wulf 190A, which is now ready for its maiden flight after I applied some minor enhancements.

To aid visibility and to make the model more attractive to my eye, I painted the rudder and the underside of the wingtips to match the yellow on the underside of the cowl. I got the paint from local Home Depot, who scanned cowl to match paint perfectly.

Installed an Eagle Tree Guardian inertial stabilizer to improve stability in windy conditions and assist hand launching. The combination of the yellow highlights and Guardian should reduce potential for crashes caused by disorientation, the highlights by making the model easier to see and the Guardian by providing a self leveling mode at the flip of a transmitter switch if orientation is lost.

Installed a pair of wing skids near the aileron servo arms to protect the servos from stripping if wing were to strike ground during a belly landing.

I'd be happy to provide more detail in this post about the Guardian installation and configuration, please comment if you're interested.

Because we fly from a grass field that's incompatible with our Parkzone Spitfire's landing gear, whether fixed or retractable, we hand launch and belly land it. Occasionally the tip of one of Spitfire's wing mounted cannons will catch on landing and pull it off the leading edge of the wing, leading to minor damage. To prevent this, we cut the cannons, which are hollow, and installed within them N45 3/8''x 1/16" magnets, which are held in place with epoxy. These magnets are strong enough to hold the cannons in place while flying, but weak enough to allow deflection when belly landing.

Video showing manual deflection and then magnetic rebound of cannons:

Magnetic cannon attachment for Parkzone Spitfire Mk IX (0 min 13 sec)

No flying today, we have a nasty winter storm in progress, but we got the warbirds out of the hangar for a photo shoot by the fireplace.

Here's a photo of an Eagle Tree Guardian installed in my son's Spitfire and some screen shots of its settings. Also attached are the Guardian and DX8 settings files. Note that the Spitfire is not the roomiest bird, installation in my T-28 was much easier, but it does fit in the Spitfire.

The Guardian is mounted to the top of the wing within the fuselage near the front of the belly compartment. This gets it out of the way of the tail servos and also allows access to its gain dials from the battery compartment. The receiver has been relocated to the right rear corner of the battery compartment. This limits how far back the battery can be slid back, but I found no problem obtaining recommend CG using 3S 2200 mAh batteries. A layer of clear packaging tape, much longer and wider than the dimensions of the Guardian, is placed on top of the wing, followed by a strip of Scotch Heavy Duty Fasteners that is slightly larger than the dimensions of the Guardian. These two together provide a stable base for the Guardian which is attached using another strip of heavy duty fastener that's cut to exact dimensions of Guardian.

The Guardian's mode input is connected to the receiver's Aux1 output and Guardian's master gain input is connected to the receiver's Gear output. My DX8 is programmed (see SPM attachment) to control the mode using the 3 position Flap switch and the gain using the knob. With the Guardian's gain dials as shown in the General Tab attachment and the DX8's...Continue Reading