4-Star 64 EG
The landing gear components received high marks from Larry for their sturdiness and fit. The wheels (above left) are a dense foam that seem to wear well and at the same time provide some landing cushion. Paired magnets
inch in length and width to accommodate the servos. That may not be the case for oth- er brands of servos, and those two openings were the only ones that were sized too small. The servo openings in the fuselage tray for the rudder, elevator, and throttle servos fit perfectly, so that may have been an anomaly with my particular wing panels. Before leaving the aileron servos, I should mention that the manual advises you to connect an aileron extension wire to each servo lead and simply drop it down through the aileron mounting hole to the wing root. By “turning or gently shaking the wing pan- el you can get it to fall through the openings in the ribs.” After doing the “turny-shakey” thing for a while with one wing panel, I reverted to the time-honored “nut-attached- to-a-string-attached-to-the-servo-lead” tech- nique and threaded both leads right through.
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Also, the manual instructs you to bend the aileron servo pushrod wire at a 90-degree angle, inserting the bent end downward through the servo arm. Be very careful to clip the 90-degree bend short enough that it doesn’t hang up on the servo case when it op- erates. It looks neater with its nylon snap keeper turned that way, but it can run into the side of the servo case and impact aileron movement if it is left too long.
I liked the sturdy triangular based control
that I had to dress down the openings nearly 1
(above right) fasten the rear of the top tank/battery hatch. Pins secure it from the front. Larry found it very handy, even with a glow-powered plane, to be able to instantly check the remaining fuel level.
horns that fit accurately into pre-drilled mounting holes in all the flying surfaces, be- ginning with the ailerons. That was a nice touch that saved quite a bit of time and as- sured accuracy in the control horn mounting process. The instructions call for clipping off the excess length of the screws that extend past the top retaining plates using a pair of side cutters or a rotary tool. I find the latter to be too dangerous to the covering and the former to create shrapnel that flies all over the shop.
The technique I have developed is to posi- tion the side cutters on the screw shank to be cut, and then place a piece of blue masking tape over the top of the side cutters. When the excess piece snaps off it sticks to the masking tape and doesn’t ricochet around the shop in a dangerous manner.
All control surfaces use Sig CA hinges. The slots for the hinges have been cut very accu- rately allowing the ailerons and the main wing panels to mate up nicely. As the photos show, using two pins to center each hinge works very well before removing them and applying thin CA as per instructions. Once the ailerons are hinged, allowed to dry, and flexed to make sure the hinges are firmly in place, the two wing panels can be slid togeth- er using the aluminum joiner tube. I should mention that the butt joint between the two wing panels at the root was perfect and left no gap as I slid the two panels together.
The fuselage assembly begins with the landing gear—and a sturdy unit it is, too! As the photo shows, the axle, main gear, and all hardware are heavy-duty products, includ- ing the 20mm socket head bolts that attach the landing gear to the fuselage. The wheels seem to be made of an unusually dense foam rubber that so far has handled take-off and landings with no evidence of wear at all. Likewise, the nicely finished wheel pants re- ally dress up the overall appearance of the plane—and they fit to perfection over the axles and attach to the main gear using small socket head bolts.
Little needs to be done to the main fuse- lage other than mount the tail surfaces and tail wheel, making sure the stabilizer and fin are square with the wing in all respects. Two nice touches were to have the covering al- ready stripped away from the stabilizer and the fin joints, and to have the fuselage/fin fairing already covered as an integral part of the unit. Everything fit squarely and perfect- ly. Screwing the tail wheel in place was as- sisted by the pre-drilled holes, although you will need a small-shank Phillips screwdriver to get to the rear screw tightened down in the tail wheel bracket.
A couple of minor problems occurred as I began the process of attaching the elevator to the stabilizer and the rudder to the fin. First I found that the joiner wire in the right side of the elevator seemed loose, so it was
The tank is held in place with hook-and-loop straps. The fuel lines run through a pre-cut hole in the firewall (above left) for the tank stopper. When fully mounted, a small supplied balsa block will be glued at the back of the tank to keep it from sliding backward, and a specially cut tank bracket will be glued in place mid-way between the straps to keep it centered in the compartment. The
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roomy fuselage interior (above right) provides lots of room for installing all components as well as having handy cutouts for whichever type of power selected. Note the standard receiver switch cutout on the far fuselage wall. The near wall contains a larger cutout for switches with integral charging jacks. The circles at the right are mounting supports for the hatch magnets.
OCTOBER 2013
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