Originally Posted by pprussell

Note that golden rods will fit right inside the tubes. And then I used the cutoff ends, about 2.5 inches, from the supplied rods and threaded them into the golden rods. then used ball links on the horns for both elevator and rudder. Soldered the ball link brass fittings to some more threaded rods. AND....the stock servo location was too close to the locating crossmember and it does not leave enough flex room for the servo arm side to side motion. So, i moved the servos forward an inch. And now everthing is super tight and perfect, no binding, no slop.
Would anyone like to see pics of all this? I am new to this, and if you tell me how to post the pics with a reply, I will put them up.
Russell

Would love to see some pics.

OK, I am new to this, do I simply attach the JPG files to a reply? Sorry to be such a newbie on this.
PPRussell

I'm not very good at this, but I'll try.

After logging in, under your message box there are two options. Post Quick Reply and Go Advanced. Select Go Advanced.

This will open Additional Options under the Message window. Select Manage Attachments which will open a new smaller window. In this new window are several fields with a Browse button next to them. Click the first Browse button which will open a window on your computer to find the picture you want to upload. Click (or double-click) on the picture to load it to the first field. Click the next Browse button, and repeat untill you have the pictures you want in the Browse fields.

Then click the Upload button, wait until the upload is done, then click the Save Changes button under the pictures.

Submit the post, and that should do it. At least, that's the way I do it.

By the way, the picture I just loaded of my SSEP is the original version after several modifications, including landing gear.

Don't forget to close your Manage Attachments window.

Good luck!

Flylower, I like the different wheelpants than what came with the ARF, and the landing gear. NICE!! I want to get rid of the wire gear and go with dural myself.

Here in Alaska, wheelpants are a pain on snow and ice, so mine aren't going on till summer.

Thanks Taildragger55.

I bought the gear at a swap meet, so don't know what they came off of. I did post some pics on the first page of this thread of the gear with a ruler for reference in case anyone was interested. And the wheel pants are from a 40 size Pulse XT 40. The stock pants were to small for the larger than stock wheels I use. There doesn't seem to be any difference in the way it flies, though it's obviously a little heavier.

Flylower, I prefer to use larger than stock wheels because our flying fields are a little rough so "tundra" tires are the norm in Ak. This winter our field is nice, smooth ice, but I'll go to larger wheels after break-up.

Originally Posted by Taildragger55

Flylower, I prefer to use larger than stock wheels because our flying fields are a little rough so "tundra" tires are the norm in Ak. This winter our field is nice, smooth ice, but I'll go to larger wheels after break-up.

How large? What make?

And I'm fascinated with the cold weather flying.

Originally Posted by flylower

How large? What make?

And I'm fascinated with the cold weather flying.

Don't know yet about the wheels yet, right now our runway is ice and smooth as asphalt so I have the stock wheels mounted and they work fine. I'll make a decision this spring.

As far as cold weather flying, our organization set a personal record last winter flying at -31 below. I wonder if anyone has flown in colder weather? Glow engines don't like to start unless heated up with a butane torch, servo's become sluggish, and batteries don't last long. I wanted to fly last weekend but I didn't feel like going a 9 above!

I think pasted this link on this thread before but nevertheless click on the link to check out our organization. Click on the "Forum" button to view threads and posts.
http://www.frontierfunflyers.org/

Hi Taildragger55,

Yes, I've been to that link before. Spent an hour or two going through the pictures, but haven't checked out the "Forum" button yet. The scenery is breathtaking. I'd probably crash all the time being distracted by the view!

I can't imagine -31 degrees. The coldest temperature I can remember being in was -19, and I was only out in it for about 15 seconds, which was enough for me!

Originally Posted by flylower

Hi Taildragger55,

Yes, I've been to that link before. Spent an hour or two going through the pictures, but haven't checked out the "Forum" button yet. The scenery is breathtaking. I'd probably crash all the time being distracted by the view!

I can't imagine -31 degrees. The coldest temperature I can remember being in was -19, and I was only out in it for about 15 seconds, which was enough for me!

Thanks for the compliment. We have 4 fields we can fly at, all of them have million doller views of the Chugach and Talkeetna mountain ranges. But as you're aware of, when your flying a model, your attention is on your plane, regardless of the scenery, thanks anyway. To tell you the truth, we have six month long winters, I'm looking forwards to May when we can fly in warm weather, I really don't like flying in the cold, but one must make do.

The nice thing about our long winters, it lends itself to building. We tend to spend more time at the workbench in order to have more planes to fly in summer.

OK, here are the pics, as promised. The linkage on the Super Sportster Brushless kit are near useless. They will cause your servos to bind. There are many issues:
The pushrod tubes should cross inside the fuselage to make the bends gradual;
The servos are so close to the pushrod tube cross brace in the fuselage that the rods cannot flex as the arm traverses its horizontal arc;
The supplied rods are not flexible music wire, but a cheap metal that does not flex and is not smooth inside the tubes;
The exit holes in the fuselage are in the wrong places;
The tube length after exiting the fuselage is too long, allowing flex on the elevator linkage;
The supplied horns are too short to allow the low-rate throws specified even in the top hole;
The effect of all these design and component errors is to make the stock linkage bind to the point it is unusable. It will drain the flight pack with the extra servo loads, shortening air time, and it causes delayed and sloppy movement of the control surface.
The rest of the kit is OK. At least the incidences are in tolerance and with some care it builds straight. That is a lot more than you can say for most ARF's these days. The ARF issue seems to be, you have to pay for quality. The Sportster is cheap. I paid $99 bucks. Look at the Hyperion Mustang. You pay $209 for that. Same size plane. Now the Hyperion is quality through and through. No linkage monkeying around for that one.
In the future, I am spending the bucks for the Hyperion, TopFlite and other first rate kits. They are worth it.
The Hobby Lobby stuff is also troublesome, and some of those kits have had major incidence issues necessitating rebuilding the wing saddles. Have not tried their premium lineup, the Pilot One, and maybe those are better. The E-Flite kits are nicely done, but construction is delicate to save weight, and they need a bit of reinforcement here and there.
Good luck to all with your Sportsters. I am waiting for a weather break to maiden mine and will post back a flight assessment at that time.

Flylower,
You were right on! It worked!
PPRussell

Originally Posted by flylower

I'm not very good at this, but I'll try.

After logging in, under your message box there are two options. Post Quick Reply and Go Advanced. Select Go Advanced.

This will open Additional Options under the Message window. Select Manage Attachments which will open a new smaller window. In this new window are several fields with a Browse button next to them. Click the first Browse button which will open a window on your computer to find the picture you want to upload. Click (or double-click) on the picture to load it to the first field. Click the next Browse button, and repeat untill you have the pictures you want in the Browse fields.

Then click the Upload button, wait until the upload is done, then click the Save Changes button under the pictures.

Submit the post, and that should do it. At least, that's the way I do it.

By the way, the picture I just loaded of my SSEP is the original version after several modifications, including landing gear.

Don't forget to close your Manage Attachments window.

Good luck!

Hi pprussell, I like the dural gear you added to your SE-5. Sooner or later I'm sure I'll bend mine up, their too fragile and there's no "give" to them. I've been thinking about doing it but I didn't want to detract the scale appearence of the plane, but yours look just fine.

Here is the best part. With the stock gear, and the dirt field, it was all over the place on takeoff due to the stock gear never being straight. Now take offs and landings are less eventful and bystanders don't have to duck as often. the dural gear come in differerent colors, and the red ones look good on the SE5A. This is the wrong thread for it, but send me a note if you want to know how the SE5A was rebuilt to stiffen up the flimsy ARF structure.

Originally Posted by Taildragger55

Hi pprussell, I like the dural gear you added to your SE-5. Sooner or later I'm sure I'll bend mine up, their too fragile and there's no "give" to them. I've been thinking about doing it but I didn't want to detract the scale appearence of the plane, but yours look just fine.

Battery 4sA123 will not fit in though the hatch. Do 3cell lipos 3200-3700 fit?
Did GP intend for the battery to go in the wing opening and use the hatch for charging?

I am about to cut out the rear magnets and cross brace. Structurally it looks unnecessary and the front magnets should hold the hatch on?