Hi Steve,
I have even better news for you. I weighed each and every component of the plane tonight on a very accurate digital scale.
My total came to 34.4 oz The best part for you is that this included all the heavy protective plastic that each part came wrapped in! I wanted to simulate the MonoKote covering. The MonoKote will be much lighter than the plastic all the parts were wrapped in so the plane should come out as good or better than your prototype. :-)
Here are the individual weights in case anyone wants to compare them to their plane of similar size:
Inside WING with LO and BC = 8.1 oz.
Outside WING = 6.1
Wheels and all HW = 4.6
EL and Stab = 2.9
Both Wheel Pants (wood) = .8
Fuselage with RD & cowl =11.9
TOTAL = 34.4 (this includes all the heavy plastic wrapping of each part)
Est Total E power = 33 (this includes powerful Plentenberg motor, 5S bat, all wires, safety devises, etc. ) Please remember to include your fuel wt. and 2 oz for your metal tank, plus your pipe wt., when you compare this to your wet power system.
Est Total TO wt. = 67.4 oz (Wing loading = 13.87 oz/sq. ft. ) This will be great for many, but too light for my tastes. See below.
Because this would be too light for my style of flying
, I will add longer heavy duty LG with 2.75" wheels, and make it a take-apart. This will add an est. 4 oz. This will make it T.O. and Land better at my rough grass field and allow me to put it on the airlines to distant meets. And at 71 oz. (14.69 oz/sq. ft. wing loading) it will be perfect for me.
BTW: my ARF P-40 (E powered) with tall heavy duty LG and large wheels weighs 59 oz (wing loading 15.17 oz/sq. ft. ) and it flies great in both calm air and in the turbulent wind we have here at the Beach! So your E powered ARC with a still light weight wing loading of only 14.69, with a REALLY thick airfoil, and better Reynolds numbers should still fly like a dream!
ARC NOTES:1. The 4" BC is REALLY thick but has nice cutouts for lightness. It looks strong enough for a 100 lb. pull test! ;-)
2. The crimped LOs look better than most ARC/ARFs. They look like they were done with an almost rounded tool (not the wire cutter look of some others ;-) I think I will use them.
3. The ball links look 4-40 size with modern style inserts (not titanium like we normally use, but still very nice ;-), Pls. use ONLY J-B Weld on these into the CF rods provided.
4. 2" light weight wheels included.
5. Very nice LG wire. It seems stronger than the normal soft ARC/ARF LG we see in other planes. (For our E power 13" and 14" props I will need to make a longer LG. This is not hard to do. I use 5/32 MW and it seems to work well and it is easy to do with my large K&S wire bender.
6. The FG cowl is beautiful. It is very light but with nice end pieces fore and aft it is very stiff and does not flex. It is smooth and is already in a white gell coat. It is a perfect fit fore and aft. In the middle there is a small (1/64") gap from the fuselage. For those that are AR, it may take a little filler to make it absolutely perfect! ;-)
7. The BC mounting is very nicely done and looks bullet proof.
8. The ply doublers go from the nose ring all the way back to about 3/4" behind the TE of the wing point. The top of the fuselage also has a rounded carved block of balsa that looks about 1/2" thick. This looks like it helps make the fuselage really strong in this high stress area near the wing TE area.
9. The wing is very strong and stiff. I grabbed it at both ends and tried to give it a twist. It moves just a very little, but only when you get to the point that you fear your fingers will go through the balsa. I can't imagine any CL flying that would stress this wing!
10. The Flaps are straight, thick and more than stiff enough for me. If you need them to be like a CF canoe paddle then you may want to put a carbon vail over them.
11. The Stab and EL are sheeted, stiff and light.
12. All the hinge slots are neatly cut and ready for the strong looking Kelet style hinges.
13. The fuselage has all the huge lightning squares cut out of the sides just like the plans show on Paul's original plane. The aft fuse. is really light.
14 A nice touch is that the wingtips are sheeted all the way into the last one or two bays of the wing. This seems to add to the stiffness and will look good when covered.
15. Did I mention that this plane has a REALLY REALLY thick wing! Even with it's taper out to the wing tip, I think the wing tip thickness is still larger than a Nobler wing at the root! ;-)
16. The welds (brazing?) on the control horns looks fine. It is done very neatly on BOTH sides of the upright. But only around approx. 50% of the wire on each side. The flap horn is the modern angled type. they both have nice bushings included along with the 2nd metal bushing that goes into the wing.
17. This ARC is beautifully sanded and for most of us it is ready for tissue or film covering as is. This will be good news for those who have allergies and/or are dust adverse in your house.
I can't think of any other details to add. The photos will come when I have it put together and ready to fly. :-)
This is a VERY nice ARC. I think anyone wanting a top of the line, competitive, AP legal CLPA plane that is almost ready for covering will be more than happy with this plane!
I now have nine CL ARC/ARF planes. The last three are Brad's T-Rex, Randy's SV-11 and now Steve's/Paul's beautiful Impact. These last three are all a giant step forward for the world of CL ARC/ARF planes. I would say that if we could get John Brodak to send a quality MacMasters type crimping tool ($135) to the mfg. then we would really have CL ARC/ARF planes that are completely ready for prime time without any changes needed!
I was involved in doing this in the RC world years ago so I know how much work goes into bringing these fine ARC/ARFs to market for us. I appreciate all their hard work on our behalf. They have saved thousands of hours of building time for all of us who don't have the shop, and or the time to build, or those who have allergies, etc. Thanks Steve, and all the others, your products are worth every penny!
Regards,
Topic: Impact ARC is available (Read 1809 times)