This page contains a Flash digital edition of a book.
The entire contents of the box (above left) are individually bagged and protected in shipping from the warehouse to your work shop. All of the goodies


Next we get to the engine supplied for the purpose of this review, the O.S. Max .55AX. This is a high performance, two-stroke en- gine designed for sport and aerobatic mod- els. The power output of this engine is very surprising and moves the model along to the limits of its design. More about that later. Right out of the box, this engine started and ran like one that is well broken in. While O.S. suggests a very short and simple break-in, running it slightly rich the first several flights was all that was necessary to achieve full power output and the rated rpm. While it seems that the Cirrus SR22T was designed around this engine, any of the current .40 to .55 two-stroke engines on the market will do well in this model. Should you decide to go electric, the as- sembly manual has a whole section dedicat- ed to the correct equipment and installation, but that is outside the scope of this review. Just know the model was designed for either power. As is typical of all of the Great Planes models, the assembly manual covers all as- pects of not only the construction of this model, but all aspects of safety, and flight planning. Following this manual from page one to the very last page will not only guar- antee a model you’ll be proud of, but you’ll also get a good understanding of building and flying in general. A very nice feature of the manual is that each step is presented in a logical order, so that there is never a going back to redo any step up to that point. An-


(above right) that were supplied for this review are those outlined within the instruction manual.


other nice feature of the manual is that each step has check off boxes. If there are two boxes, you do the step twice. When you reach page 31, you’re ready to fly. If you’re familiar with the Great Planes Lancair, the .60 to .90 high performance civilian sport model of several years ago, you might think that this is just a smaller copy of that model but you would be wrong. Trust me, it’s not. Although it has much of the look and features of the Lancair, the Cirrus SR22T is a different model in many ways. First, the entire top of the cabin area from the firewall to behind the rear windows is re- movable as a one-piece hatch. While this gives you total access to any and all compo- nents, it also makes installation of the servos and radio equipment easy, yet it in no way compromises the strength of the fuselage. The model is constructed with what I’ll call a “hybrid-composite” structure. The fuselage, minus the cabin top, is a one-piece fiberglass molding that is extremely light, yet very strong. The compound curves and lines of the fuselage give it strength without internal formers being necessary behind the cabin. This makes balancing a non-issue. As you can see from the photos, all of the inter- nal structure is designed to accommodate all of the necessary equipment without any unnecessary wood being used. All of this in- ternal structure is of very good quality light ply. All of the necessary servo holes and lightening holes have been drilled and pre- cut making installation easy and foolproof.


The finish and trim on the fuselage is just about perfect. Whatever top coat is used looks almost hand rubbed to a high gloss. This being a mass produced product, a hand rubbed finish is not possible, but the overall appearance here is just as good. As with the fuselage, the rudder is also prefinished fiberglass and is factory at- tached. Hinges on the rudder as well as those on the flaps and ailerons are perma- nently glued in place at the factory, however it is always a good practice, to give a good tug on each surface to insure continued at- tachment. The manual also suggests this. The wings, stab, and elevators are built up in the normal fashion and are balsa sheeted. Judging from the light weight and size of the components, very light 1


⁄16 -inch


sheeting was used. These components are then covered with brilliant white MonoKote film. The elevators are the only flying sur- faces that need to be hinged by the builder. Pin-type hinges work well here and the holes are pre-drilled at the factory so there is no guess work involved.


Installation of the wing servos is a very easy task thanks to the pre-installed pull strings to pull the servo leads through the wing. This really saves a lot of time due to the tight dimensions of the wing. Landing gear components are well made, strong, easy to install, and are finished to the same high quality as the rest of the model. As you can see from the photos my grand- son, Christopher, actually did 95% of the as-


With the exception of the elevator, all of the flight surface hinges are pre- installed. Here Chris (above left) makes sure the flaps are secure. Because of


FLYING MODELS


the model’s airfoil, micro servos are used on the flaps and aileron surfaces. Futaba S3115 servos (above right) were used in the review model.


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