I have the next eight days off from work and I thought this would be a good time to update my Align T-Rex 700e with a Black Shark Fuselage.

I've been a big fan of this fuselage design from the very first time I saw one which was probably close to 30 years ago, give or take. I've had this fuselage kit for about four years now and it's high time it gets flown!

Ralph

The first step was to remove all the parts from the T-Rex that won't be used with the fuselage along with the tail rotor gearbox.

The original tail rotor gearbox mount was then replaced with the one provided in the kit. The replacement mount is a slightly more compact so it will fit inside the fuselage a little better.

Ralph

The ESC had to be relocated because the back half of the fuselage will attach to the frame assembly where the ESC was originally mounted. The recommended location is on either side of the main frame just below one of the cyclic servos.

To do this I made up an aluminum plate and some spacers to bolt to the main frame. I chose the right side of the model. Once the plate was attached, a piece of Velcro & a zip-tie was added and it was done.

Ralph

Added a short piece of flexible U-channel edging to the opening in the frame to protect the ESC wires from chafing.

Ralph

With all the nonsense the FAA is spewing about a 400' altitude limit in controlled air space I wanted to see for myself what 400' AGL actually looks like. So, I purchased a Futaba telemetry altitude sensor and installed it in the T-Rex. I set my 14SG transmitter to start beeping when the model hits 400'. Should be interesting!

Ralph

The rear fuselage is attached to the main frame assembly with some anti-vibration foam pieces that are epoxied to aluminum and carbon fiber plates.

Ralph

The front half of the fuselage is partly held in place by a magnet which is embedded in the new front landing gear mount. The magnet was installed using a small amount of Loctite 271 thread locker.

Ralph

The new landing gear mounts raise the main frame assembly about 3/4". They are also used to attach the fuselage.

Ralph

The lower front fuselage mount also uses a couple pieces of anti-vibration foam which are epoxied to a carbon fiber plate. The magnet is glued in with thin CA.

Ralph

The anti-vibration fuselage mounts have been attached to the main frame assembly. The forward mount was epoxied to what used to be the ESC mount and the tail boom stabilizer just slides over the tail tube and relies on friction to keep it from moving around. I added a few wraps of electricians tape on either side of the tail boom stabilizer for a little extra help in preventing it from shifting.

Ralph

The lower front anti-vibration mount was added to the back half of the fuselage. Due to the irregular surface at the fuselage joint line I added some micro balloons to the epoxy to give it a little more body to fill in any voids.

Ralph

For some reason the vertical spacing of the rear fuselage mounts are off by roughly 5/16". My best guess is that the hole for the single upper mounting screw was located too high which resulted in the fuselage hanging a little lower.

I added a spacer to the lower mount to make up the difference. Seemed to work out OK, but I hope the lower hanging fuselage doesn't cause any issues with the cyclic linkage.

Ralph

With the lower hanging fuselage, the kit provided landing gear strut spacers are now too short! Fortunately I had some main frame spacers that I made years ago for another model and they worked out perfectly. I guess you just have to get lucky once in a while.

Ralph

Almost there!

Ralph

The tail rotor gear box assembly has been re-installed.

I had to do some grinding on the fuselage to gain access to a couple screws as well as create clearance for the tail rotor pushrod and control lever. That was a bit nerve-racking! One slip with the Dremel tool and I could mess up that nice fuselage. Fortunately things went pretty well.

Ralph