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EGN-1 Construction Log
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Please note: these entries are arranged in reverse chronological
order with the newest entries at the top.
Maintanence Tasks
- Engine installation.
- Need to enlarge the cowl openings a bit for better engine
access.
- Radio installation.
- Need to fashion better strain relief for the antenna where it
exits the fuselage.
- Apply decals.
May 13, 2005.
This project is officially moved over to active flight status!
May 11, 2005.
Today I threw on about 10.5 oz of lead up front to balance the airplane.
I think we are just about ready to top off the batteries and go fly!
May 9, 2005.
Sealed gap (on one side) between horizontal stabalizer and fuselage.
Balancing: now that pretty much everything is in place, I have done
some initial test balancing. I have 4 3/4 oz of stick on lead in my
inventory, but I think I will need a bit more than that in the nose for
it to balance right. I always hate adding dead weight, but what can
you do. I think the remote servo in the tail + the tail wheel is what
did it to me. That said, the Kadet starts out with such a light wing
loading that a few extra ounces should be unnoticable.
May 8, 2005.
Today I installed a remote fuel valve, as well as a 12x6 prop and the
spinner. I screwed on the cowl, and tighted up the muffler. I then bolted
on the wing and set it outside for some pictures ...
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May 7, 2005.
Today I finished off the main gear installation. The aluminum main gear
was special ordered from TNT landing gear. I wonder if I should have ordered
two so I could install floats someday? :-)
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I also padded the receiver and battery, and routed the antenna out the
bottom of the airplane and to the rear.
Finally I cut out and installed the side windows.
It looks like she may come out a tad tail heavy, but I haven't put the
prop and spinner on yet. We are getting close to being ready for the
maiden flight. It's down to a few details now.
May 2, 2005.
I had previously mounted the tail wheel and tail wheel servo, but I
needed to rig up the pull/pull spring/wire system. Today I bought
some thin piano wire and did just that. It's not perfect, but looks
fine from 10' away and is solid structurally so I guess it will do.
April 23, 2005.
Maisy expressed interest in being chief test pilot ...
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April 23, 2005.
Last week I glued on the tail surfaces. Yesterday and today I installed
the cabin servos. I then constructed the elevator and rudder pushrods,
and installed them. The provided hardware/wire for one end of the
pushrods broke when trying to make an "L" bend. Fortunately I had some
replacement wire pushrods laying around that worked out just fine, probably
better.
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I also fabricated and installed the throttle pushrod and connected it to
the engine.
April 10, 2005.
Today I glued in the elevator and rudder hinges and then test fit the
tail surfaces.
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The tail surfaces are glued on with epoxy and care must be taken that
the horizontal stabilizer is aligned with the wing (when viewed from
behind), and also that it is perpendicular to the fuselage (when
viewed from above). It should only require a small amount of
balancing and leveling to achieve this, but 5-min epoxy means I have
to work quickly.
I also purchased a micro servo and tail wheel assembly for my
tail-dragger conversion. I plan to plug a "Y" harness into the rudder
port of my receiver and run two servos. A standard servo will control
the rudder surface, and a second micro servo mounted in the tail will
control the tail wheel steering. The servo will be linked to the tail
wheel with springs so it won't need to generate (or endure) a lot of
torque.
March 6, 2005.
Today I drilled a new throttle pushrod hole. I filled all the extraneous
left over fire wall holes (I moved the engine mount up, The throttle push rod
had to move, and I am not using a nose wheel.) I also left two holes/routes
(temporarily sealed) back to the main cabin if I ever want to install a
larger tank. Finally, I sanded the cowl cutout so it is nice and smooth.
February 27, 2005.
For this project I have chosen a 4-stroke engine. This has caused me
a fair amount of grief. With the default upright mounting scheme, the
throttle arm is dead center with the tank; not exactly ideal. My
final solution is to mount the engine upside down to the bottom of the
motor mount arms, and move the mount up by the height of the arms so the
thrust centerline stays the same. This keeps the motor mounts from needing to
extend above the top of the firewall. This also puts a lot more of
the engine inside the cowl and lets me use the original nose wheel
push rod for the throttle. I need to be a bit careful about tank
height vs. carb height, but we'll see. I might want to add a
pressurized fuel system to avoid this problem and allow me to install
more fuel capacity.
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September 18, 2004
I'm a little hung up on an engine mounting problem. This kit is setup
to mount a 2-stroke engine upright, and everything is laid out
perfectly for that. I'm trying to install a 4-stroke engine, and
*everything* is in exactly the wrong spot for that ... no matter what
I come up with. Here's a page I setup to describe my problem.
Kadet Senior ARF 4-stroke mounting problem.
September 9, 2004.
Today I took a few minutes from the daily grind and finished installing the
aileron servos and linkages into the wings. For all practical purposes the
wings are now finished and flyable.
Here are some various pictures of the wing:
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Just to reference the size of this model, I'm about 5' 9.5" tall
(1.77m for people outside the USA.) The wingspan is about 6' 8" (2.03m).
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And finally, here I am testing the fit of the wing with the fuselage:
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July 14, 2004.
My engine arrived today. I purchased it off of ebay ... a Magnum 61
four stroke, but was sent an ASP 61 four stroke. As best as I can
tell they are the exact same engine from the same manufacturer, but
the instructions are in Chinese. You get what you pay for I guess.
Here are online
Magnum 61 instructions.
Just Engines sells ASP engines and parts.
July 12, 2004.
Today the flight pack arrived. I purchased it new from Tower Hobbies
to match my existing transmitter brand and frequency. I also
purchased an extra servo (one servo per aileron) and the necessary 24"
extension cables and a "Y" harness.
I needed the aileron servos and extension cables to start construction
so now I'm ready to begin.
July 1, 2004.
I purchased the airframe from rcuniverse.com "new in box" for about
$50 less then I could get it from any hobby shop. It arrived today.
Yikes! It's huge! Much bigger than I expected!
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