Jeff,

beautiful..., what else can I say.

Question: why such a large battery though? If you could shed a couple of ounces there, you might just wind up golden at 3.5 lbs (56 oz) finished. I don't think you'll add more than ~5-6 oz in the finish tops.

David

Originally Posted by doxilia

Jeff,

beautiful..., what else can I say.

Question: why such a large battery though? If you could shed a couple of ounces there, you might just wind up golden at 3.5 lbs (56 oz) finished. I don't think you'll add more than ~5-6 oz in the finish tops.

David

Where would I put it?

Jeff,

is the issue balance? You need those ~4 oz behind the wing TE?

The engine setup must be heavier than Kato's although I can't see how - the only difference is really the slightly larger pipe which in any case straddles the CG. Maybe the spinner?

For lightness wouldn't it make more sense to put a lighter pack in front of the servos and then a smidgen of weight in the tail? Amazing you wound up nose heavy even with the solid stab...

Nice wing servo setup by the way. Smashing wheels!

David

Only the engine, spinner, prop, fuel tank, and nose wheel retract are in front of the CG. ALL servos, Rx, main gear retracts are aft of the CG. Other than using a ~heavy battery aft of the CG, I could move the rudder and elevator servos to the tail. For all that work, I would save ~2oz? with a lighter battery. Not sure if its worth it.

I wouldn't move the servos to the tail - that's a pain.

All I was thinking is that perhaps you could shed half the battery weight, avoid the hatch and add a few grams to the tail to balance but yes, the net gain might be ~2 oz. Not a biggie.

David

I finally committed to a paint/covering scheme. I wanted to stay with the "box art" theme, just modified it a little to my liking.

I made a hatch in the bottom of the fuse behind the stinger extension for the Rx battery and ordered a custom battery pack from CheapBatteryPacks.com.

Monokote and glass this weekend.

I like it, should look pretty cool

The wing has the base color Monokote applied and I'm laying out the stripes.

Fuse bottom got a coat of glass cloth and resin last night.

Nice,,,,,,, one of my favorite any chance we can get a copy of the instructions and Plans. Id love to build one.. Ill tell you waht Ill trade you a set of plans and instructions for the MK Aurora 25 lmk and thank you for taking the time to post your build , I know it takes time.......away from family and building. lol . thanks again Geoff

Jeff,

so where are things at? Any primer/paint action?

David

Hi David.
The wing is Monokoted and the fuse is glassed. It has one coat of primer applied and sanded. Ready for the next coat. Winter cought me by surprise. Spraying the KlassKote in 40 deg weather is not an option.

Very good, can learn a lot of things.

I was just looking a this plane on the shelf wondering where/why I abandon this project. It all came down to painting. I think I'm going to pull it down, look it over and see if I can't get some paint on it and get it in the air.
Hard to believe I last worked on it 2 1/2 YEARS ago. Where does the time go??

Goody, goody! Perfect KK weather.

It sure does baffle reason... Where does the time go!

What's the left fuse side opening for?

David

Originally Posted by doxilia

What's the left fuse side opening for?

David

A big ugly switch with charge jack. Funny you noticed that cause it bugs me.... I will come up with a better solution and patch that hole. Also thinking about actually making a wye exhaust and ditching the "through the fuse" stinger. Still don't like where I have to mount the flight battery, but I've got to finish this thing.