Phoenix 7
with the large sander. Attach the mount beams to the firewall using the supplied 8-32 bolts and blind nuts. Talk about prefabrica- tion! Hangar 9 has even trimmed two of the blind nuts so that they will clear the nose gear mounting beams. One photo shows an alternate engine installation method. Make sure the throttle lever is free to
move completely up to full throttle. The en- gine chosen for this airplane is the Evolu- tion .60 NX (EVOEO600). This is a very hot engine and will turn the Evolution 11–7 inch propeller at over 12,500 rpm using just its included muffler. The addition of a tuned pipe exhaust system jumps that rpm level to 14,000 but with a price (more later). Another fuselage cutting template is in-
cluded to create the nose wheel retract well. Tape it in position and open the outlined area. As did the main retracts, the nose gear screws onto the mounting beams. When us- ing electric gear, the nose gear spacing blocks are not required. Trial fit the retract- ed nose wheel with the wing in place. Make sure that the wheel does not contact the wing in any way. If it does, flight stresses can prevent the wheel from extending. The servo tray is already installed but you
should run a thin bead of epoxy/micro-bal- loons along the fuselage/tray joint just for extra protection in this vital area. The in- structions say to mount the elevator servo close to the fuselage side. Instead, mount the servo so that the arm’s output hole is ex- actly centered in the fuselage. The twin ele- vators are operated by a single pushrod. Having it centered insures that both halves move identically—a must for this precision aircraft. Installing the horizontal stabilizer com-
pletes the construction. The stabilizers slide onto a carbon fiber tube and are then epox- ied onto the fuselage. I used rubber bands to hold the stabilizers in place while the 30- minute epoxy cured. Positioning the stabi- lizer halves tightly against the fuselage also insures the perfect alignment so vital to this airplane’s performance. The Phoenix is so prefabricated and the instructions so well done, that only the con- struction highlights were covered here.
Not many major airframe parts as the wing is 1-piece and the vertical fin part of the fuselage. All control surfaces are attached and fitted with control horns.
Take your time during construction with this 8.25-pound airplane. Remember the Phoenix is a high-speed, ultra-precision air- plane. Even the slightest misalignment will ruin this airplane in the air. Allowing extra alignment and re-checking time, total con- struction time should be 25–30 hours.
Equipment and setup The only critical equipment choice in-
volves servo selection. Use digital servos for best performance. Weak servo centering on a 120+ mph precision airplane like the Phoenix is nauseating. A strong statement but a very true one. The JR DS821 digital servos (SPM3702) used on this Phoenix cost just $30 each, produce 88 ounce-inches of torque (6 volts) and are relatively fast at 0.16 seconds. They proved the perfect choice as did the Spektrum DSMX AR 9010 receiver. The transmitter is the JR 12X and there
just isn’t anything this transmitter cannot do. Fortunately, its wonders were not need- ed. The Phoenix was designed in the analog era when the airframe, not computer mix-
ing, had to do all the work. It still does. The engine is the Evolution .60 NX. It
proved powerful but can be tricky to tune. When equipped with the included muffler, both idle and high-speed settings need to be on the lean side and a hot 4-stroke glow plug used to allow reliable transitioning. The top rpm was in the 12,600 rpm range on Power- Master 15% fuel using the Evolution 11–7 inch propeller. Adding a MACS Products header (MAC2591) and a tuned pipe (MAC1250 recommended) eliminated all the transition restrictions. The .60 NX just seems born to have a pipe. The top rpm jumped to over 14,000 with
the pipe. However, this is not really a usable figure as, at this speed, the engine will use a glow plug per flight. The best practical op- erating mixture should be in the 13,400 range. At this setting, idle is around 2,400 rpm and glow plugs will last longer. If you are new to the wonders of tuned
pipes on 2-stroke glow engines, the tuning procedure is simple. Mount the pipe as per the instructions. Let the engine warm up for 30 seconds, then bring to max rpm and note
All this fits into the 1-piece wing and, once installed, the wing is complete (above). The electric retracts are the simplest retract installation Frank has ever done. The kit’s hardware package is complete (at right). Not much hardware needed as most is already installed.
30 DECEMBER 2011
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