Neil says:
"I'm including some photos of my DV during
construction
and at completion.
I flew it last weekend for the first time. It was a pretty windy day so
I only
put in one flight. Seems to fly OK but it's a little early to pass
judgement.
"With all the mods to the airframe the CG came in at
21.5 inches. I didn't
add any weight. The engine is a JettFIRE 95 with a 14x6 prop. Seems to
pull it
along just fine. Ground clearance is a little close. I ,may go to a
13x10 prop.
The nose wheel is 2.5 inches and the mains are 3. I moved the firewall
back
about 7/8 inch and cowled the engine (balsa).
"A couple of other construction details I forgot to
mention that might be of
interest:
- Added a top and bottom balsa spar behind the retracts extended to
join the
main spar
- Added a bottom balsa spar in front of the retracts (used the original
cut-outs
in the ribs intended for the main gear hard wood block)
- Couldn't figure out a clean way to run the activation wire to the
nose gear
from the main retract servo, so I added a second retract servo for the
nose gear
in the nose gear compartment.
- Sheeted an additional 2 bays on both wings - top and bottom. I almost
convinced myself to to just sheet the entire wing but decided it was
over-kill.
- Moved the steering and throttle servos to the rear compartment.
- Put the battery in the back of the wing, right in front of the TE-
1200mah 4
cells
- Placed the tank behind the "engine box" since the nose gear occupied
that space now
- Since I had to split almost the entire bottom sheeting to gain access
to
center compartments I use 3/32 aircraft ply for the single, long hatch
cover and
screwed it to hardwood rails glued to the outside bottom of the center
2 ribs.
"That's about it. Haven't weighed it so don't how much
extra weigh was added
but I would guess it weighs at least 1 LB more than stock.
"The retracts are DB Southern
Pro."
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