| Day 1 |
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This is the box that the plane was stored in. It's huge.
I didn't think it would fit in my car, but it did, barely.
Note the "90% Almost Ready to Fly". I could have gone for 95% :)
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A lot of little parts came in with the plane that did not come pre-installed like the fuel tank,
control horns and various do-dads. |
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This is my little work area, Since I live in an appartment I do not have any space for a workshop, I work with
what I have. Note the two big bottles of epoxy. That should last me a lifetime.
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The first step in putting the plane together was to glue the hinges on the ailerons & wings using 30 minute epoxy.
When I was shopping for the epoxy I was planning to buy the 6 minute epoxy, It's a good thing I didn't.
30 Minutes was barely long enough for me to align everything in place before the epoxy hardened.
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Next came the Tail and Rudder hinges, I had to mix a new batch of epoxy because the old one has completely hardened by now.
I gotta learn how to work faster with this, problem is that I had to take care not to have any epoxy leak out or
it would stiffen the ailerons or rudder making it impossible to fly, I never knew how well rubbing alcohol cleans off epoxy.
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Joining the 3 V panels was a snap, this is used to join the two wing halves together.
That also forms the dihedral of the wing once they're attached.
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The fuselage of the plane with the wing dowels installed and the servo tray glued in place. This
is going to be a pretty cool plane :).
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End of Day 1. I have not purchased the engine yet, the model is rated at .40-.60cu engine. I was thinking
something along the lines of .45 to start with, not sure which brand I'll be getting. I guess we'll find out tommorow.
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| Day 2 |
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I've decided to name my plane, "Freedom Fries" to remind me what ridiculous steps U.S. took to show France that
it is serious about war with Iraq, I've seen 8 year olds act more mature.
I'm sure right now the French population is quivering with anger over the French Fries renaming.
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The wing halves have been joined together using a LOT of epoxy, the ailerons that I glued the pervious day have stiffened up
a bit so I'll have to work them before I can fly this plane.
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I've attached the tail to the fuselage, this is a very tricky part because the tail has to be perfectly centered
and even the slightest misalignment will greatly affect the handling of the plane.
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Yesterday I was working on the fuel tank but during the course of shaping the fuel line I've created a kink
which after straightning out completely snapped the line. I bought a short piece of brass fuel line the following
day and completed the assembly.
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I've bought an engine!! Yes it's used but I figured, I'd rather spend half on my first engine because it's
very likely that I'll crash and wreck it. I also got a gallon of 10% Nitro (or as my friend calls it KoolAid).
And all the necessary accessories to get the engine running.
The Engine is a MAGNUM XL40.
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Installing the stabilizer was a breeze, cut, glue and install. The only trick is to have the stabilizer at exactly 90°
to the tail.
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End of Day 2, The plane is pretty much all glued up, the only place I'll be using the epoxy is
when installing the gears. However there still is a lot of work to do, from the mechanical standpoint.
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| Day 3 |
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Well, Day three was pretty much full of foul-ups, big and small. Hopefully the plane will still fly semi-well.
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When I originally glued the wings together I was supposed to mark off the hollow area for the servo tray, which I did.
However when I finished gluing the wings toghether, I was wiping the wings with rubbing alcohol to clean up the excess glue,
and I accidentaly wiped off the markings. Finding the proper spot to cut into was "scary"
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The servo tray to be inserted into the wing. This is the only part of the plane that required super glue.
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The control horn for the tail and the fuselage opening. This was a snap to install.
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Another major screwup, when I was pre-drilling holes for the screws I must have nudged the drill bit because
now the control horn points 45° up. Hopefully this will still work but I won't know until I install the linkages.
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Installing the gears was pretty simple, but when I used the drill to screw in the plastic holder, I completely shaved
off the phillips shape inside the screw, I had to remove the screw (very slowly) using needle nose pliers and try a new screw.
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First fitting of the enigne, I have not alligned it yet just wanted to makre sure it'll all fit, turns out the
custom muffler won't fit without cutting into the plane, so I've decided to use the stock muffler instead (not shown)
I could not install it tho because I don't have any allen keys.
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The gears installed and secured, you can also see "World's most expensive foam", this is a packing foam used
to secure the radio receiver inside the plane, it's memory foam that remembers it's shape, however at $8 for that little
"patch" seems awfully high. But then again, this is NOT a cheap hobby, the plane at this moment is probably running
upwards of $400 CDN.
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End of Day 3, The work is coming along quickly now, not much left to do, I have to wait till my tx/rx crystals come in (ebay)
before I can center the servos to install linkages. I probably won't break the engine until then either.
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| Day 4 |
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The fuel lines connected to the engine and muffler finally secured properly.
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The wing servo and pushrods installed and aligned. Unfortunately I snapped one of the screw holders as I was
inserting the rubber gommets. I was still able to secure the servo but still a minor screw-up.
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Installing the rubber gommets and the metal shafts was a pain in the ass, well thumbs actually, the little brass
shafts took a lot of pressure to get the to insert into the gommet. Since there are 4 servos at 4 gommets each,
my thumbs were very, very sore.
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The prop installed and secured with the backplate for the spinner. I found that the kit was missing the spinner
screws and I had nothing in the house that would fit. Will have to stop at Canadian Tire to pick some up.
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The servo tray for the Rudder, Tail and Throthle with pre-drilled servo holes.
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Installing the servos was a snap and took only few minutes, installing the linkage on the other hand
was very time consuming as bending the pushrods with pliers was not very easy. Additionally aligning
the pushrod length to the centered servo, while making sure the tail (or rudder) is aligned perfectly
was very hard, too many variables.
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Installed the on-off switch for the battery, I haven't installed the charging jack yet, Not sure if I will since
taking out the battery for charging might be easier.
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The fully assembled plane (minus prop spinner). The plane is pretty big, but not huge mind you, I've seen some models
at the hobby store. They can get pretty enormous. Hopefully today I can break the engine in and fly the plane
in few days when the weather gets nicer, wind specifically has to be below 10km/h.
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