I am building an Extra 300S for Standoff scale.  I hope to make the 08 NATS.  It all depends if I can get to fly.  It will have a 60" wingspan and be powered by a ST 90. The reason I chose the Extra 300S is that I am hoping that it will be really good in the air.

The deal is that I just realized that the stabilizer on the real bird has an airfoil cross section.  The scale documentation I have makes this quite clear.  The GP kit I am using has a slab stabilizer.  Even at 15' it will be evident that that the cross section of the stabilizer is not scale. Is this a big deal in Standoff scale judging?

John, I agree with Chuck. Not about his mouth, but about "its not being a big deal". The experience of competing at the Nats will help down the road. I don't think there has been that perfect scale built yet, so improvements can be made for the next contest you compete in. Have fun with it. See ya at the Nats.

Blessings
Allen

I have a Global Raven R/C ship that I intend to fly C/L Scale with, and it has similar problems. For Sport Scale I decided to fully sheet the wing where the kit had open bays in contention with the real ship, and do some minor shape corrections, put a super nice paint job on it matching the documentation I have, and lettin' 'er rip.
One can get wound up in the details when it is a losing proposition. Save the super detailing for a few model's down the road, I would think.

Well I won't make the 08 NATS but there is always 09.  My Extra 300S is almost ready to cover.  I have finished the electronics instillation. Even though this is a big model it took some doing to get it all in. You can see in the picture the 4 servos across. the first two are for the elevator. The next is the rudder. The forth is for the throttle. The one on top of the bellcrank is the smoke. The tank you can see is the smoke oil.  The bellcrank is connected to the electronics that drives the 4 servos that controlls the flaps and the elevator.  And of course a battery to power the mess.  Sitting on top is the controll head that goes on the handle. I will soon post a picture of the whole airplane before I cover it.

Cool John,
Tell us about the bellcrank to servo setup, potentiometer to drive the servos?
Gotta see more pics, John. More pics!
Chris...

For many years I built and sold on eBay a servo tester called the Pit Stop Radio. To date a probably built and sold 1000 to 1500 of them over the past 20 years. It is based on a 556 timer.  My bellcrank to servo driver is simply the guts (slightly modified) out of one of the servo testers.  I gave up selling them because the offshore people cut the price to the bone.

See:

 Sky RC EK2-0907 Servo Tester for Radio Controlled Toy Item number: 230277714439

I suspect that you could convert one of these to work.  I prefer to build my own because the airplane life depends on it working. I use a really good pot for reliability. Picture attached of servo tester

Looking great to this point in construction.  Just take your time and get it to match your documentation.  DOC Holliday

I am going to have to build my Raven. John, you have gotten me fired up.
I have, however, the opposite trend in regard to weight, in mind. My idea is to build the lightest scale model I can.
My plan is to use very little ply or lite ply, only for the motor mount and gear mount. Use light balsa as I would in a Stunter, stunt style bellcrank, electronic throttle and smoke and have as few servos as possible, (2) thus a smaller and lighter battery. I figured mine would weigh 85 ounces, (5 1/3 pounds) painted and trimmed.

Like Doc suggested John, spend your time now doing the necessary stuff to match the documentation. A quick look at any Extra picture is that there are no open bays anywhere on one. My Global kit has a bunch of open areas on the wing, which of course was solid carbon fibre sheeting. I will sheet the entire wing (not with hard 3/32nd though!). The tail on the Raven is flat and fabric covered steel tubes, so I have to redesign it so as to make it look like the prototype. Etc...
That is a really cool looking model. My original thought was to build a Byron Extra in the Gene Soucy scheme, but then met Wayne Handley at the Reno Air Races and decided that was for me, plus the Global kit was so much lighter and CHEAPER!

Have fun, send more pics.
Chris...
 

I was doing this stuff in the mid-nineties. The Global kit as well as the Byron stuff is OOP. However, someone bought the rights and molds to Byron stuff and are remaking certain models. The majority are the Giant Scale stuff, as byrons used to have a couple of different sizes. They had a nice 60 size Extra in several schemes and I liked this one, the Gene Soucy version. Iron Bay is the new name and here is a link;

http://www.ironbaymodelcompany.com/index_files/ModelAirplaneKits.htm

Chris...

Old Red Bull picture. Is that Steve Jones airplane?
Chris...

Well it FLIES! I am not sure if it will loop but once I get it diled in it should.

Hey great job on the maiden flights.
Looks like your project is coming together well. Just an observation, looking at the first in flight picture, it looks liek its flying outboard tip high, probably from the high placement of the leadout guide. This could cause you some fright when you go to loop as it will lighten the line tension considerably. You may look at ways to lower the leadouts so they are inline with the  vertical CG before you try to many tricks with it.
other than that, hey admirable project,, keep it up!

Atta boy, John!

Pictures of the plane look great.  Especially the one with the smoke.  I would not worry about doing aerobatics as you are limited on number of flight options.  Let us know when you enter it in your first contest and don't forget the documentation.  Have fun,  DOC Holliday

Doc,

First contest will be Broken Arrow 21 Stunt and Scale Contest Vally Park Missouri.  I am in the clean-up mode of the airplane and am getting my scale documentation put togather.  The scale in on Saturday September 27, 2008.

Broken Arrow?  That may be a bad omen for my first contest flight LOL 

John, good luck in St. Louis. I was able to attend that contest four years ago and it was very well run. They had neat trophies too.
Chuck

John,  you will have a blast in St Louis.  The guys are some of the greatest.  Frank Beatty should be there and anybody that doesn't know who he is does not follow scale.  The Baeur clan should be there also.  Maybe next year I will get my ME-109 ready to go and attend just for the fun of it.  Again, remember to have fun,  DOC Holliday