Larry: Beef up the landing gear attachent and make sure you have good wood to wood contact when attaching the wing. I know my wing came loose and I think Doc H. had a problem with his. The B-40 should be fine, I use a 10-5 in my Hawker Hurricane. I think I used the tank listed.

Larry, I would add that you should take along an APC 10 1/2 X 4 1/2 prop.  It seems to work great around here on the Brodak 40.

Larry,
Here are a few observations from my experience with my Oriental ARF.

1.) It builds nose heavy even with a light engine.  Mount the engine as far aft as possible and then trim the back of the fiberglass cowl to fit.  I think there is a note to this effect on the Brodak website.

2.) With the 1/1 flap to elevator ratio, mine would not turn very well.  Set it up for the old 3/2 ratio and it turns much better.

3.) In switching from the kit to the ARF, Brodak changed the LG from wire to aluminum and in the process moved the wheels forward a bit.  If I were going to build another, I would get the wire gear from Brodak and mount it on the aft firewall with "J" bolts.

4.) The covering around the nose comes off easily.  As a minimum, when you fuel proof the tank compartment and bottom hatch area, let the epoxy lap over the covering a little.  Again, if I were going to assemble another, I would strip off the fuselage covering and paint the fuselage black.

5.) Unlike some ARFs, this one has lots of tank space and good access, so might as well go with the 4.5 oz tank.

6.) I assume you will replace the hinges, pushrods, and clevises.

Steve

Larry,
I have mine set up for somewhat more elevator than flap movment--maybe close to the 2/3 flap to elevator ratio.

Jim

Larry, you probably don't remember my Oriental at VSC.  It is the one I had to almost completely rebuild.  Stripped the covering down to bare wood.  Reinforced the landing gear mount and also moved the metal gear as far back as I could.  Cut top off fuselage so I could get good epoxy joint between wing and fuse.  I also replaced the pushrods that came with the ARF.  One of the clevises broke when I tried to put it on the horn.  Also had to bush the horns as the holes were too big.  I too have more elevator movement than flap.  Best prop for me so far is Top Flite Power Point 11-4 on Sig 10% fuel and 4.75 ounces of fuel.  Let us know how yours comes out.  DOC Holliday

Mark,
I'm not Doc, but I thought I would add my experience to your data base since not everyone has the same perspective.  When I assembled my Oriental ARF, I had a new Magnum 36 that really wanted an application so it went into the Oriental.  I knew that putting the 8 oz engine (about the same as an FP40) would cause the airplane to be a little nose heavy so I built in 1 oz. lead in the aft fuselage.  When I got it together and checked the CG, it needed another ounce to balance.  This was with a wood prop, very light spinner, and light tongue muffler.  My tank is a 4.5 oz uniflow that fit with no effort.  The long nose takes care of tank room and the tank compartment hatch makes access easy.

Unlike Doc, I did not move the landing gear aft and have had problems landing the airplane on paved circles.  My Smoothie ARF with the gear located aft of the aft firewall lands pretty well, so location is probably a contributor to the problem.

Steve

Thanks gents, that is the kind of help I was looking for. Did you use the fiberglass cowling? I am thinking of making a balsa cowl in a more conventional manner, extend the top block and build a lower cowl. I am not real fond of the glass cowl the way it is set up.

Brodak put an announcement on the web site to cover missing this info on the instructions.  CG should be 1-7/8" back from the LE.  I'm not sure this is the "final" location you will want, but it is a good starting point.
Steve

Jim: I'd like to see the cowls you made for the Oriental and the Score, Pics Please.

Well I can show you what I did with mine. FWIW, seemed to work fairly smoothly and I like it lots better than the glass cowl look. Note I also created a hatch for access to the rear elevator control horn. cut an opening, lined it with 1/64 ply for strenght and made a tab on the back of the hatch cover. I plan to hold it in place with a really complicated latch method,, ok so Im gonna use hinge line sealing tape.,, All I have left is to install the tank, I am going to use a uniflow vented Dubro 4 oz tank that reportadly holds 4.5 oz. add the tongue muffler and the wheels, then go fly. I built an ounce of lead into the tail. there is the solid balsa "cap" that fairs the horizantal area into the rudder. I hollowed that enough to bury my lead in it.  initially it appears that it will be very close to balance. I do have a nice little tailwheel thats pretty heavy should I need it. Just put it on the scale with all the other stuff, looks to be right around 40.5 oz,, hmm still need tip weight so probably about 42 with tip weight and the tongue muffler.. hope she flies good.

Oh hey, DOH!,,
guess I should post the picts huh,, sigh, sorry I was in a hurry, Stepdaughter was playing division playoffs for Softball, I was headed out the door.. so here you go now,,,,

Thanks Mark, I will use that cowl set up on future projects.

Unless you expect to do a large amount of elevator adjustment, why not just Moneykote over the hole?  It worked fine on my Noblarf.  I only had to re-do it once in the trim process, and that took less time than a hatch would have.  Practicing what I preach (for a change) I am doing the same on my Smootharf.

Leester,

Here are some pix of the Oriental (not quite finished) and the Score.  I shortened the nose of the Score to help the "Droop nose" look abd used a 2.5 in. spinner
Jim

More

Sorry to use so many posts!!

Oriental

Oriental

Last one!!

Thanks for the pics Jim, more ideas I can borrow.