Cosmic Wind
The two-piece landing gear is held in place with screws (above left) that go through the fiberglass fuselage molding and attach to a plywood plate epoxied inside the fuselage. The author found it useful to clean out the existing holes in the fiberglass with a small drill bit (at right), and drill pilot holes into the plywood plate for easier installation of the screws.
plywood plate. I then tightened the screws into position, then backed them out and hardened the screw holes with drops of CyA.
One niggling little point in assembling
the landing gear, wheels, and wheel pants, was having to find the very tiny loose Allen head wheel collar screws in the hardware packet and to keep from dropping them once I found them. It would have been help- ful to have these tiny screws partially screwed into their wheel collars. These wheel collars space and lock the wheels into position for installing the nicely-finished fiberglass wheel pants, as one of the photos shows. I did have to widen the wheel pant open-
ings slightly using my Dremel tool and a flat sanding stick to accommodate the width of the wheel assembly. Also, it is important to have the inside axle head bolts at 90 degrees
to the front of the landing gear legs in order for the molded mounting slot to fit over the bolt head. Hinging the elevator and rudder, epoxy-
ing the stabilizer in place, and mounting the tail wheel assembly as indicated sequential- ly in the well-illustrated instruction manu- al, completed the airframe assembly.
The power train The power train components were provid-
ed by Great Planes and they proved to be a perfect combination for the little plane. The ElectriFly “RimFire .10” brushless outrun- ner motor was the motor around which the plane was designed, so naturally it fit the laser-drilled mounting holes in the pre-in- stalled plywood firewall. To save the weight of a receiver battery,
the ESC of choice was the ElectriFly “Silver Series” SS-35A brushless ESC which fea-
tures a 5V, 2-amp BEC. That ESC was cou- pled with the recommended ElectriFly “Power Series” 1800 mAh 11.1V, 25C Li-Po battery. Given the static current draw of 24 amps, about a 10 minute flight envelope was anticipated before the BEC kicked in. While the plane has not been pushed to its current limitations, half-throttle flying with an occasional burst to full throttle (the plane is fast!) will get at least a 10-minute flight on a fully charged battery. Using the alter- natively recommended 9–7.5 E APC prop rather than the APC 8–8 E prop gives a slight reduction in speed, but better vertical performance.
Radio installation Radio installation is about as simple as it
gets with just three servos and a receiver. Being a Futaba person, I was very comfort- able using my Futaba 6EX FASST transmit-
The matched power system chosen for the plane (above) included the ElectriFly RimFire .10 outrunner motor; the ElectriFly SS 35 Brushless ESC; and the ElectriFly 1800 mAh, 11.1V, 25C Li-Po battery. The propeller used for test flights was an APC 9–7.5 electric version, although the instruction manual also specifies an 8–8 prop. The supplied collet fits over the RimFire .10 shaft with no shimming necessary (above right) and can be adjusted to allow the spinner to clear the nose ring. The RimFire .10 is mounted using four supplied screws and washers, which fit through the pre-drilled holes in the firewall. The ElectriFly SS 35 ESC (at right) snugs up against the inside of the fuselage wall above the battery platform and is held in place with the supplied strips of hook and loop fastener.
40 APRIL 2012
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