Darren

Don't know, I'll work it out. I know it's 35mm behind the spar but that's no use to you. Give me a few minutes

Don't want to talk about the pox, we should be sitting on a BA 747 about 2 hours out over the atlantic about now I'll bring the R30 and the offer is still there, I'll even have a search of t'web for some gyro instructions

Probably about 1:30 - 2:00, do you want me to bring your new carbon heli?

And now truly the last bit, fit the cowl stripes that arrived in the post this morning (good timing Glen ) and to fit the pilot and canopy permanently. Subject to weather, engine and range tests being OK we should have a test flight tomorrow. At the very least some fully assembled pictures.

For final balance I use a couple of rounded pieces of 1.5" x 1.5" with some foam protection mounted level in my workmate. The cap was almost spot on so it wasn't too hard to get balancing. A few pieces of masking tape on the bottom of the wing so I could mark the final battery positions.

Onto the last stretch and because of a whole chicken pox and holiday cancellation saga I'm not going to get into, I might even be able to fit in a test flight tomorrow. Anyway, the last things to do were fuel plumbing, rx install, canopy and final balance. So first, install everything except the batteries

Jimbo, That's an idea, but I'm not sure I can be bothered yet. Gives me easy access to the engine whilst I'm getting use to it and I'm not sure anything I could make wouldn't look worse

And a few final pictures of the completed thing. All that is left to do is the final fitment of the radio gear, a couple of battery switches, the fuel pipes, the pilot and fit the stripes to the cowl (I'm awaiting these from Glen). So I believe I'm on target to have it ready by the end of this week.

Well, it's basically done. Worked out the final engine and ignition box mounts and cut the cowl to suit, think I'm going to expire from the amount of dust I've breathed in (despite using a mask!) Would have preferred to hide the silencer in the cowl, but it just wouldn't fit. An alternative pitts style silencer would not have quite worked either, so unfortunately I had to cut out a chuck of the side of the cowl.

Trevor, Looking good, wish I had the time to have a go at scratch build. If the dimensions are similar to other kits/plans then I'm sure it'll fly. My experience with these types (CAP/Extra/Sukhoi) is that you can always do with a bigger engine. I've had a couple of kits that were supposed to be for 25's and I flew them with 46's !! So the idea of a bolt on engine box is inspired, look forward to seeing/hearing how it turns out

Rather than shorten the cowl, I've spaced out the engine done a complete assembly to confirm CG is in range. Looks good so I'm commiting dremal to cowl later and will make sure all the engine components fit. Hopefully I'll get that done tonight and post some pictures tomorrow. Final tweaking of the CG will be done by placement of the battery and then it's onto radio setup and engine tests. Unfortunately I'm off on me hols next weekend, so whilst I'll get it finished You'll all have to wait a few weeks before engine runs and the first flight.

.... whose building anything? Come on guys, let's hear your thoughts on that latest addition to your fleet. It doesn't have to be a full review or even have any pictures - a simple post like "brought brand x super trainer, it didn't go together well and flies like a dog" will be useful. From now on I'm going to try and post a thread on anything I build. hey I just realised I've just gone over 100 posts

Trevor, I'm doing a fairly lightweight review of the Glen's CAP232 in the plane review section and I'm fitting the mvvs160 (26cc) petrol, have a look at http://www.camfc.co.uk/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=78

I've decide to try out some of the new 'cheap' futaba digitals. S3050's for rudder/elevators and S3152's for the ailerons. As usual, throttle will be some cheap old s**t I'll find in my radio box (actually a low end JR digital ) p.s only a few posts to go to number 100 for me.

Jimbo, Loads of piccies from Sunday but I can't be bothered to re-size them all and post. I'll bung all the heli pics on a CD for you. I won't make the field over the next few weeks, but I'll give it to Roger at next monday's committee meeting - OK? Darren

This time I really will post the 'in the box' picture. The cowl is huge, I will need to stand off the engine to get the prop driver far enough forward which will help with CG. My man Gary is getting some ply spacer made up for me. Gary has also kindly made me up some new registration decals, plus some southernmodelairshow and croydon airport model flying club decals. Despite giving only rough sizes and colours they fit real well and the colour is almost spot on.

I guess I should have shown the 'in the box' picture first, here it is. Then add tailplane and fin/rudder in about 2 minutes. The elevator servos are mounted in the rear fuselage so nothing more than extending the servo leads here. Aileron servos were no more difficult. As I am fitting the mvvs 26cc petrol, Glen suggested mocking up the engine box and trila fitting before deciding if it needs shortening to help with CG. The mvvs is quite light and the radial mount means it fits quite far back and mocking up the engine box with sufficient strength to hold the engine was quite tricky

Well it's about time I posted an update. It's not really been a build, more of an assemble. The ailerons are prefitted and you have to do little more than run over the covering with a hot iron and expoxy in the ply brace and wing root faces.

and the sun is shining. As promised here are a few shots outside so you can get a better feel for the size.

Here are a few piccies Some of the engine itself and a couple of the CAP next to my Wot4 for comparison. The shopping centre beckons but when I get back and if it's stopped raining I'll get the cap and wot4 outside and take another couple of shots

Wiring is simple, ignition unit is either run from a separate battery or off a magneto on the engine itself. My mmvs's have a separate ignition unit connected to a separate battery by a switch. The ignition unit has an HT lead to the spark plug and a sensor lead to the prop driver - that's it. Again I'll take a picture or two to show. The zenoahs have magnetos which do away with the 2nd battery but this makes them a bit heavier - but you don't have to worry about charging. So in my aircraft I have 3 batteries, 1 ignition, 2 rx and 3 servos but you could run with just two and have

I was seduced by the easy of starting and the lack of field equipment, in theory all you need is the plane, your tx and a can of petrol. Switch it all on and flick it over. The reality is a little different as those watching roger starting his 62cc zenoah today will testify, it needed two 12v batteries and a good starter to get it turning over. For some reason the hand flick just wasn't working. Anyway to your question 'where to start' and how big? You're spot on with the engine size, the 26cc petrol motors are about as small as they come, but the mvvs 1.60 (26cc) weighs the same

Club night on Thursday is skills night, seems like a good question to ask? I would think Roger, Peter Shaw or Don would be the people to ask. I did make a few small mouldings a few years ago, you need a plug shaped as required and made perfectly smooth, I think I used epoxy then sanded with wet and dry until it shined. Next is a fair strong base board with a hole cut to match the plug but slightly larger Plastic from an old coke bottle was heated and flattened, then clamped on top of the base. Heated again a lot and the plug (on a stick) pushed into the hole. Took a fair numb

It's just like buses, I don't build anything for ages and then 3 come along at once. I need to find time to skin the wings and do the fuselage sheeting on the Mig29 and I'm not enthused to do that at present. A lot of effort has gone into the Warbirds Replicas Spitfire over the last couple of weeks but I really want another sports plane to just use. That's the reason a Glen's CAP232 arrived this morning, I should be getting my hands on a 26cc MVVS petrol on monday and as it's ARTF it should be up and running quite quickly. So not some much a build thread, more of an assembly th

Oh no, the CAP has arrived and only a couple of weeks before my holiday I'm not sure where my efforts will be directed. I suspect that the CAP will win as it should be assembled and ready quicker than the Spit - so please forgive me if it goes a bit quiet here for a while