I got my 1/6 scale PA-12 this evening. Ever since the 1/8 scale came out, I've been waiting for a bigger one. At first peek, it looks absolutely perfect. I'm kinda hiding this one from the wife so I didn't even take the time to remove it from the plastic. I'll build it stock probably. I have no time to get fancy with incorporating flaps,...but it'd sure be fun. I'll replace these pics with better ones tomorrow. She's about to get home any minute now.

Edit: replaced pics with better ones. Maybe too many for one post,.. I got carried away.

Dont you love it when the wife NEVER walks into your shop? I mean never! I could have a girlfriend living in there and she'd never know! Great for secret projects.

hahah, yeah!

"Bye honey. Have a nice day at work. I love you. Gee, you look nice today".

As the door closes, I'm already half way down to my basement shop. It's a nice day so I quickly checked out the "kit" while some batteries charge. I am going flying today. I honestly could not find anything I didn't like.

The fuselage felt a bit heavy for it's size, but it didn't really bother me. It felt very strong. It's all ply construction. All covering is drum tight. I love Oracover/Ultracoat. There was no instructions in the box. A quick call to Hobby Lobby and they are going to either email it to me or snail mail it. I just edited the post above with better pics.

Fred

Well I didn't get the instructions via email. I guess they are sending them snail mail. I'll just wing it until they get here.

I trail fitted the stab and fin and checked for squareness. It's right on. I glued them on with Titebond white glue. Tomorrow I'll glue in the hinges, rudder, tail wheel, and elevator.

I tried installing the landing gear. It's going to be a very, very tight fit, and I didn't immediately see how they were held in place so I'll wait. I guess I better order some servos, a motor and esc. This is going to be a fast build.

Before I finished my first cup of coffee, I already had the tail hinged (with tail wheel installed), and the main gear attached. This is going so fast, I almost need a seat belt for my workbench stool.

For those that have followed the 1/8 scale threads, this is all probably just a repeat of that thread, but bigger. I haven't read the thread yet. My flying buddy has the 1/8th, and he says it looks pretty much the same but bigger,...makes sense even to me.

All the big stuff is done. The only thing left are horns and linkage, struts, motor mount, cowl mount, servos. I took her outside and took some pictures, but they just didn't do her justice without the wing struts attached, so I won't post them. Maybe tomorrow.

Geez, I guess I got a little carried away with the tape! I used R/C 56, Canopy Glue,... or whatever they call it now. The bad thing about using this much tape is it takes longer to dry. Air can't get to the areas that are really covered with tape. Usually it dries over night, but I used too much tape. I pulled the tape this morning, and it's down, but needs another 6-8 hours to dry fully.

Whatever you do, install the pushrods before putting the windshield on. I had a heck of a time getting them installed. I went through the firewall and almost poked holes in the side of the fuselage. But the dents ironed right out. Then I removed them because I didn't like trust the threaded rods. I had two clevis's slide on the rod threads. One was an aileron link, and one was a R/E pushrod . And I think they are metric. I would never use them. Mine were bad. I'll make my own pushrods with good hardware.

The cowl attached without any trouble.

Heads up, Hobby Lobby just put this kit on sale $199.

Wow thanks for the heads up No Step. It looks like I'm the only one following your thread but I'm sure there are others lurking. Thanks for sharing your experience with this great model. \\Yak

You're welcome. I'm just about done. Installing pushrods and wing servos today or tomorrow. That will finish her up. I've been sidetracked. I'm trying to knock out some projects around the house (outside) before it starts raining again. I'll post again soon.

Fred

After checking out Hobby Lobby's site I noticed that their Pilot-1 prices are permanantly lowered..ie not a sale. This is great news since I thought they were going to have a hard time competing against EFlite and Great Planes which were lower priced for the same quality. I hope the Pilot-1 brand flourishes because so far they've developed ALL of my favorite planes.

Before I go any further, I'd like to give kudos to Hobby Lobby. I bought this model 19 days ago. Earlier this week, they reduced the price by $90,..... $90.00 !! My first thought was oh cr@p, I got screwed. Then I figured I'd contact them to see if some kind of "deal" could be worked out. Yep, they are going to fix me up. I'm waiting for the details to be worked out now, but they are going to honor the lower price evidently. So if you bought one already and paid full price, get on the phone today and talk to them,..... sooner the better!

Hobby Lobby,... a great place to spend your money

I'm done. I still need to glue on the side windows, and adjust travel throws. But for all practical purposes I'm finished.

I set CG at 32.5%,... 3.375" back from LE. I have no instructions remember. So I'm using the percentage I normally start out with on a scratch built model. Battery location is right about where the pilot seat would be. I tried a 3s 2600 ma, and a 3s 3850. The model, RTF, weighs 4 lbs 9 ozs (73 ozs) with a TP 3s 2600 ma pack. It weighs 4 lbs 15 oz (79ozs) with a TP 3s 3850 pack. They advertise 80 ozs.

Pros: It's a sweet looking model. I'm really impressed,... and for $199?! It's a no brainer. It went together very easily, parts fit was perfect.

Cons: It has metric Hardware. I replaced the 2 Tee nuts used for the wing attachment with 8-32 hardware. But the tee nuts inside the wing used for the strut attachment are staying metric. Be sure to buy extras. I also replaced the metric threaded hardware for pushrods, to standard 2-56 Du-Bro hardware. Just my preference. In the end, I guess you just have to learn to accept some metric stuff.

I just love this size of model size model. "Please Sir, may I have some more". I hope they offer another model in this size.

Fred Guilfoyle
https://home.comcast.net/~guilfoyle72/

Btw, they provide are some >very nice< strut attach point covers made out of fiberglass,.. all painted to match the wing. But I don't think I'm going to use them.