Construction (Page 1)

Last year, I decided that I wanted to get a backup IMAC plane. However much I love my Carden, I didn't really want to go through the entire build process one more time, so I decided on the 42% Aeroworks Extra 260 ARF. I purchased the kit in Aug of 2007, and now have decided to finally put it together. I'm not much for ARF's, but they do have there place in this hobby as a quick way to get something in the air. A few friends of mine have one, and have been raving about the way they fly. I took the bait, and now I'm going to see what the rave is all about. Since a few friends that I fly with already own one, I've decided to take the ARF a little further in that I'm planning to take the covering off, and do my own colour scheme. I have to admit, that the way the kit comes is pretty good considering it is an ARF. It is very complete, and looks like it will need very little work to complete. I did have some damage in the shipping, but I wasn't overly concerned, as I will be taking the covering off anyway.

Here are a few pics of the parts prior to having the covering removed.
        

Here you can see where I had the shipping damage.


Here is the fuse with the covering removed:
       

Here are a few pics of the wings and stabs:
     
 

Motor Installation:

The motor installation on the kit is fairly straight forward. Aeroworks supplies the necessary templates depending on what motor you plan to use. They also have constructed a tunnel in the fuse if you plan on using a canister set up. Included with the kit is all the necessary items to facilitate the installation as well. I'm going to be using the new 3W-170 CS with a 3W canister setup. Here are a few photos of how everything lines up.
        

Since the motor is mounted with right thrust, and the position of the headers are slanted, it doesn't make for a very straight fit of the canisters. I did get flexible headers, but even with the flex, there is still not enough give to allow the actually canisters to like up straight. To solve this problem, I had to remake the canister holders that were supplied with the kit, to allow the canisters to sit at an angle. Here are few pics of the installation.
        

Lightening
Now that the covering is stripped off, it gives me a chance to see the construction, and where I might be able to save some weight. The motor box seems like an area that in my opinion is a bit over built. As well the landing gear plate is one very solid piece that can be lightened a bit as well. Here are a few pics of the original, and then a few lightening holes.
       

Covering
Now that I've gone through most of the framework and fixed up all the little bumps and bruises on the airframe. It's time to cover the Extra again. I've decided to go with a scheme I've used in a few airplanes in the past. Mainly because it is easy to do, looks good, and is extremely visible when flying. I'm a big fan of Monokote, and have been using it for years. I think it works really well and looks good. The only draw back is that it doesn't really work well when trying to lay one piece of Monokote over another. Since this kit has many open bays, and I need to intersect over some of these bays, I've decided to add some small pieces of wood to facilitate the way the covering lays and intersects. If you look at the following pictures, you will notice that I'm gluing small pieces of wood across the bays, at the points where my colours intersect. This way I will have an solid area to join the covering and makes life allot easier!
Wing
     
       

Stab   
 

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