Hi guys. I am a newbie here and to RC flying… I just received my first plane,e-Flite “Timber” BNF. When I began unwrapping the fuselage I noticed that the red beacon light on the bottom was hanging out by the “BARE” wires...this was not good I thought. Upon calling MotionRC support the initial route was to possibly ship the plane or the fuselage back to Horizon as this may have been more of a warranty problem than what Motion RC could handle. I tried calling Horizon's support and the wait time was over an hour. I called MRC back and got Mat and suggested to him to send me some 2mm heat shrink tubing and I’ll have that repair done in an hour at the most. It was a done deal.
This plane is constructed quite light in a lot of places in the fuselage…I guess that is why this plane can get off the ground in less than 2 ft. After removing the cowl to make sure all of the motor screws were indeed tight, I noticed a beefy point inside the fuselage on both sides about mid way up the side where I could drill in and glue in a solid carbon fiber rod back to where the rear servos are glued in (about mid wing). It seems that the nose of this aircraft back beyond the motor mount is where this and other long nose foam planes want to completely break off and hang by the motor wires. I think that at the very least that perhaps 2 solid carbon fiber rods would make the nose much stronger.
Another consideration is to add in an extension to the main wing carbon fiber rod, which goes in about 12 “ into each wing leaving the remaining 24 “ of the wing out to the wing tip unprotected. This is a beefy carbon rod at about 3/8” dia. and needs to be removable. So I'm thinking another carbon fiber rod glued in that will run inside of the existing wing carbon fiber rod out to the wing tip should make the wings stronger. Also the rear horizontal stabilizer’s carbon fiber rod is about 6” short of the tip and could also use a longer carbon rod.
I plan to later on repainting this cub bright yellow, as most bush planes were that color in scale. The problem is how do you remove the decals...this plane has a lot of them. I have a good idea on how to prep the foam and which paints to use and don’t think that task will be a problem once I rid those decals.
I know most new RC pilots out there would want to slap this baby together and go flying but the techie me wants this plane to last through a few, hopefully, minor crashes before major rebuilding / painting.
The only other issue I may have is setting up the AS3X receiver and the Spektrum DXe transmitter and enable SAFE. I know its all spelled out in the manual but sometimes the manual is not always correct or is lacking some additional information that can make life a bit easier.
So what do you experienced RC pilots here think about this project and could offer some sound advice.
Thanks,
J.Michael
This plane is constructed quite light in a lot of places in the fuselage…I guess that is why this plane can get off the ground in less than 2 ft. After removing the cowl to make sure all of the motor screws were indeed tight, I noticed a beefy point inside the fuselage on both sides about mid way up the side where I could drill in and glue in a solid carbon fiber rod back to where the rear servos are glued in (about mid wing). It seems that the nose of this aircraft back beyond the motor mount is where this and other long nose foam planes want to completely break off and hang by the motor wires. I think that at the very least that perhaps 2 solid carbon fiber rods would make the nose much stronger.
Another consideration is to add in an extension to the main wing carbon fiber rod, which goes in about 12 “ into each wing leaving the remaining 24 “ of the wing out to the wing tip unprotected. This is a beefy carbon rod at about 3/8” dia. and needs to be removable. So I'm thinking another carbon fiber rod glued in that will run inside of the existing wing carbon fiber rod out to the wing tip should make the wings stronger. Also the rear horizontal stabilizer’s carbon fiber rod is about 6” short of the tip and could also use a longer carbon rod.
I plan to later on repainting this cub bright yellow, as most bush planes were that color in scale. The problem is how do you remove the decals...this plane has a lot of them. I have a good idea on how to prep the foam and which paints to use and don’t think that task will be a problem once I rid those decals.
I know most new RC pilots out there would want to slap this baby together and go flying but the techie me wants this plane to last through a few, hopefully, minor crashes before major rebuilding / painting.
The only other issue I may have is setting up the AS3X receiver and the Spektrum DXe transmitter and enable SAFE. I know its all spelled out in the manual but sometimes the manual is not always correct or is lacking some additional information that can make life a bit easier.
So what do you experienced RC pilots here think about this project and could offer some sound advice.
Thanks,
J.Michael
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