Don't you just hate it when life gets in the way of your hobbies? I hate it even more so when some of my hobbies get in the way of my other hobbies. Having four full time hobbies (drag racing, golf, 3d R/C flying and Control Line flying) plus a full time job and a full time wife makes it really tough to get one project completely finished before starting on the next one. Plus I have ADD when it comes to all my hobbies, I often stop one thing to pick up another and you know how that usually turns out. My wife is constantly urging me to stick with one project until it's finished but I'm always thinking "well, while the glue is drying on this plane, I can change the jetting in my carb or maybe reset my valves, etc, etc." Not a good way to keep things on track.
Anyway, I'm not whining, life is good. I'm attaching photos of my new SV-11 ARF.
I flew in a couple of contests last summer with my Vector, which I liked very much, but I wanted something a little bigger and more able to handle various wind conditions. My good buddy and stunt mentor Mike Palko steered me toward the SV-11, and well, here we are.
I powered it with an E Flite 32, Ice Lite 50 ESC and one of Will Hubin's FM_9 timers. I just got some props from Dennis Adamisin, I"m going with the 13 X 4.5 to see how it feels. I haven't really decided on a battery yet, something in the 3300 to 3700 range most likely. I've decided to try the Anderson Power Pole connectors on this plane, I am not a big fan of the Dean's connectors. I'll let you know how it turns out.
I completely gutted the fuselage, removing all of the maple engine bearers. I made the top of the fuselage removable for battery access. I'm hoping that one of these days we'll be able to buy electric versions of these great planes without all the extra junk under the hood that we just have to remove anyway. I pleaded my case with John Brodak when I stopped and talked to both he and Dennis at Toledo, not sure if I made my point or not. In all honesty, I'm just grateful that we have this great platform to start with, I don't have much time to build anymore (see reasons above). Thanks to Brodak for providing these awesome planes for us.
After speaking with a few guys last summer about the wing mounted landing gear in the SV-11, I decided to change to fuselage mounted gear. Mike gave me a brand new CF landing gear that he wasn't using and I made up a plywood mount for it. No worries about ripping the gear out of the wing.
I also ditched the cowling that came with the ARF. I just couldn't get it to fit properly, wasn't happy with it. I built a balsa cowl and permanently attached it. My battery loads from the top, I mounted my ESC and my timer in the cooling area in the bottom of the cowl.
I decided to start with 63 foot lines and take it from there. Hopefully that will be in the ballpark.
I do have one question. Does anyone know what blue covering will match the blue that's the trim on the bottom of the airplane? I need to get some to finish off my new cowling.
Well, that's about it, hope to have it finished by the end of the year. My race car is calling me, it's jealous that I'm not spending time working on it. Like I said, life is good.
Have a Merry Christmas everyone.
Vince