AT A GLANCE Type:
Construction: Wing span: Wing area: Airfoil: Length: Weight:
Wing loading: Motor: ESC:
Battery: Radio:
Manufacturer:
R/C electric sport foam
51.18 inches 496 sq. in. symmetrical 43.7 inches 65.26 ounces 18.95 oz./sq.ft. Himax HC3528
Castle Creations Thunderbird 54-amp
3S 3200 mAh Li-Po 4–6-channel Multiplex
Dist. by: Hitec RCD USA, Inc., 12115 Paine Street, Poway, CA 92064 858-748-1767
www.hitecrcd.com
The Multiplex Tucan arrives in typical Multiplex fashion. With perfectly molded foam, nice hardware, and extremely accu- rately cut wood parts laid out on the table, it immediately looks like this airplane will achieve the status of other Multiplex air- planes. Upon first inspection the Tucan seems to have a relatively low parts count. Within a minute or so of opening the box the entire fuselage and wing can be dry-fitted together. This is a familiar feeling for a great number of foam aircraft on the market today; however, this airplane won’t be ready to fly for several hours.
The wing is assembled from three pieces,
The Tucanas it appears out of the box. Although the model is of foam and some plywood construction, it will require a fair amount of time to assemble the model.
a center section and the left and right halves. Ultimately the three pieces are glued together and fortified with some car- bon fiber spars. The fuselage is split into two pieces and the vertical and horizontal stabi- lizers need to be glued to the fuselage. The Tucan has a somewhat uniquely light ply structure that fits inside the fuselage making for a very strong airframe. The structure is assembled using the fuselage halves as jigs and is tacked together using CA while taking care not to glue it to the fuselage. Using thick CA to tack these parts together should help to keep it from sticking to the fuselage. Once completed and re-
moved from the fuselage, the structure re- ceives more adhesive before permanently at- taching one fuselage half to the other. Being a tricycle gear airplane with the ele- vator and rudder servos located in the tail, another servo is necessary to do the steering commands on the ground. Multiplex recom- mends using Hitec HS-65s on each control surface and an HS-85 on the steering servo. While the receiver and radio combination had the available channels and mixing capa- bility, I decided to see if this airplane could easily be setup using Y harnesses. The rud- der and nose wheel servos were tied together as were the ailerons servos and in turn every-
The Tucan features a long slender fuselage that is internally braced with a plywood structure (above left) that not only aids in strength but also allows for
FLYING MODELS
easy installation of the electronics. Aileron servo pockets (above right) are cleverly hidden thanks to the large self-adhesive graphics.
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