Starting a New Plane . . .

I have had the "Almost Ready to Fly" kit for almost a year now. Cleared out a bit of junk and crashed a few old ones so it is time to assembly this airplane. As with all such airplanes there are yet things to do. And the instructions are less than specific, that is they seem to ignore certain construction requirements. Almost Ready to Fly (or ARF) literally means the airplane has its cover, the skin, installed/ That means all the structure is completed. One needs to glue on the "tail feathers," install servos and receiver, battery and engine. One must rig the airplane make sure the servos are going the correct direction, and the balance is correct. Sometimes one has to move things around or even add weight to achieve the correct balance.

The ARF usually comes with landing gear, fuel tank, control rods, hardware, wheels and so on. This is usually matched stuff for the kit. Sometimes it is first class hardware and sometimes it is cheap stuff. For the most part this is first class stuff.

But, and there are lots of buts, the fuel tank is a tiny affair, not of sufficient capacity for the selected engines. It is basically a six ounce tank, and I need eight to ten or even eleven ounce capacity. The internal structure is sized to accommodate the little tank but there is plenty of room. So I will have to go for an after market tank. And the tank is situated quite far behind the engine firewall. That is a no no. Generally, the engines do not have fuel pumps and rely on pressure from the exhaust system and gravity to feed the fuel to the engine. The engine does not always have sufficient draw to pull the full forward. There are several systems to fix this but they are sometimes hard to keep up. So I may resort to a pumped engine. I just do not need an engine that powerful for the airplane but . . .

The landing gear is two pieces, one for each side. This is rinky dink and not the best solution so I may have to get an aftermarket landing gear. I have found one but it is pricey. Probably will go for it.

I have the receiver and the servos from previous aircraft. One tends to build up inventory of those things. Same is true of landing gears and fuel tanks but not of them will work or at least no work well.

So ARF it may be but it will take some time, thought and maybe modification to get it airborne. But when it does get there it will be a work of beauty.