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(Hot-Rod Spicy Wings... pg2)
The battery fits diagonally across the forward
fuselage right behind the motor with a little trimming of
the fuselage corners. I tried various schemes for equipment
placement, and the only way to get the balance I wanted was
to put the charging jack and switch under the battery. Remove
just enough of the sides and bottom as required to get the
jack and switch to protrude through the bottom skin. These
will be glued in place after they are wired. The center pole
of the switch is wired to the positive side of the battery.
The pole nearest the charging jack goes to the jack’s
center tap. The other pole is wired to the receiver’s
positive power jack. The negative pole of the battery is wired
to the negative tap of the charger and a second wire goes
to the receiver’s negative power jack. When the switch
is toward the charging jack, the receiver is off and the battery
is connected to the charging jack. When the switch is slid
to the other side, the model is ‘on’ and the charger
is disconnected. There is little room to spare inside, so
all connections should be shrink-wrapped after soldering to
prevent short circuits.
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The LiPoly cell provided in the kit has a “solderable”
tab welded to the aluminum positive tab for easy soldering.
Corrosive aluminum solder is no longer required to make the
connections. After the battery has been soldered into the power
system, fold the battery tabs and leads over a small piece of
servo tape. Either shrink-wrap or tape may then be used to insulate
the tabs and provide some strain relief. |
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When the power system is complete, check the top half for clearance;
some material must be removed. Glue the jack and switch to the
fuselage with RC-56 and let it dry. I initially mounted receiver
just behind the battery. Two short 1/16” wide strips
of servo tape will secure the receiver to the fuselage. |
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Cut the motor and power system leads to match your installation
and terminations (plug ends) for each wire. To make the
plugs, use short lengths of .020" brass rod, or strip
a piece of #24 copper wire for the plug ends. Strip 1/8”
of insulation from the end of each wire to be terminated,
tin and solder to the pin. Shrink-wrap the joint and cut
the pin off about 1/4“ beyond the shrink-wrap.
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Tail Feathers
Cut the elevator from the horizontal stabilizer. To make clearance
for the control surfaces, sand away all area that forms the
molded-in line. The elevator is controlled with the Bob Selman
Designs (BSD) actuator and a push rod. I used a length of .02”
CF rod for the joiner, but you could also use .020” brass
rod.
I chose to center the control horn between the elevator halves
to conceal the controls inside the fuselage. This works well
and protects the rod and horn, but take care to assure clearance
(alternatively, you could mount the control horn on either elevator
half and run the rod through a hole in the rear deck). Cut a
notch in the middle of the elevator halves for the control horn.
Make the horn from 1/64” ply. I left 5/16” between
the hole for the CF rod and the .015” hole for the control
rod. Slip the horn on the CF rod, and join the halves with a
minute amount of epoxy or foam-safe CA. Once this has dried,
cut away the center elevator section (with the tape on it) leaving
two elevators joined with a gap in the middle. Hinge the elevator
to the stabilizer with narrow strips of tape.
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I used
a 2” piece of .014” music wire (guitar string) for
the horn connector. Hold the center of the wire with the tip
of needle-nose pliers and bend the two sides back parallel to
each other. Slip this through the .015” hole in the control
horn, and join to the CF pushrod with a 3/8” long piece
of heat shrink tubing. Shrink and secure with a drop of CA.
Leave the other end of the rod free for now.
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a notch for the elevator horn in the fuselage bottom. The
horn fits up through the notch. Make sure there is freedom
of movement for the horn, and glue the stabilizer to the fuselage
bottom. I found the supplied tape to be pretty weak, so I
used foam-safe CA to join the assembled tail to the fuselage.
Mount the BSD elevator actuator as far forward as possible.
The photos show it at the rear edge of the wing, but this
required several grams of ballast to correct the CG. Mount
it ahead of the RX near the leading edge of the wing. You
may need to clip off one horn to get clearance. The control
rod must be low enough to clear the wing surface and high
enough to clear the receiver. The ‘z’ bend brass
rod that comes with the BSD actuator is attached to the control
arm, and the CF rod is trimmed to length and bound to the
rod with shrink tubing (Go easy with the heat gun). Adjust
the elevator to neutral, and secure with a drop of CA. A small
1/8” x 1/16” magnet is CA’d to the actuator,
over the rod-mounting hole, to provide centering force.
Cut away the center of the fuselage between the wing rails
to allow access to the radio gear. Join the top and bottom
fuselage halves. I used spots of RC-56 (every half inch near
the tail, solid bead up front) to glue it together, but take
care to avoid gluing the controls in place. White glue, epoxy,
foam-safe CA, or even tape could also be used. |
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© 2003 - 2004 Small Flying Arts
All rights reserved
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