Help! Anyone own the 104" AJ Slick?

[acerc]

Throttle and choke are in their tray and bolted in, if it turns out I need to remove a tad bit of weight from the nose the choke servo can be it. But I don't think it will be needed, especially after talking with that nice fella at AJ Aircraft earlier today about weight and balance. Next up is to clean all the cut work, epoxy in the shelf, and coat everything with finish resin.

 

[Snoopy1]

Throttle and choke are in their tray and bolted in, if it turns out I need to remove a tad bit of weight from the nose the choke servo can be it. But I don't think it will be needed, especially after talking with that nice fella at AJ Aircraft earlier today about weight and balance. Next up is to clean all the cut work, epoxy in the shelf, and coat everything with finish resin.

It took quite some work to fit the Valach into the plane. But once it is all done you will have a unique plane. Looking good so far.

 

[acerc]

The Booma pin flag is in as well as the Tech Aero, everything has also been given a coating of resin. If I manage to get to a hardware store and pick up some brass I will make the servo and choke arm extensions then final mount the engine.

 

[acerc]

What does eight 1-1/4" squares of 1/4" ply get you, four 1" x 1/2" spacers!!! LOL! Digging threw some boxes of scrap stuff looking for some 4-40 threaded rods I found a sheet of brass. So I made the carb arm's out of the brass, added some ball links and the 4-40. Tomorrow I will mount the engine and connect the 4-40 to the servo's, then it will be time for brazing up some exhaust.

 

[acerc]

I decided I did not think ply stand-off's were a good idea so I picked up some stainless one's and installed the engine. Everything is in except for the batteries, they are slated to be here tomorrow. I used BB's to compensate for the batteries, the pos kit spinner and checked cg one more time. Look's good to me anyways. I still have to put in the rods on the linkages, baffle the engine, and open the cowl for airflow. Once I get the batteries I can set up the radio and start plugging things in to make the rods to length. Maybe tomorrow evening.

 

[Snoopy1]

Ok please explain the stainless steel stand offs. Why would you not use aluminum just as good and much lighter or am I missing something.

 

[acerc]

I don't know for sure what type of metal they are, I called them stainless because they looked like it but they don't weigh like it. I guess I could go ahead and order some aluminum and change them out at time of arrival. I just knew I wanted to get the engine mounted.

 

[acerc]

Just for those curious, according to AJ's site this airframe is listed for 26-28lbs using the max of 28 that equates to 33.25 oz per sq ft. If I add 4lbs for the difference of my motor it is 39.19 oz per sq ft. The part I don't know is how much lighter my exhaust will be compared to others but it is definitely lighter. I talked with that nice fella at AJ about all this and he felt it would be no problem at all. He also asked about posting a video of it in flight, said he would love to see it, and hear it.

 

[acerc]

Ok please explain the stainless steel stand offs. Why would you not use aluminum just as good and much lighter or am I missing something.

You know, the more I think about this the more I know you are right. If the one's I used are any kind of metal other than aluminum they are most likely 3-4 times as heavy, even an ounce saved at this point would be a great thing. I think I'll drive over to Graves tomorrow and pick up some nice light aluminum ones, and weight both.
I am also going to see how feasible a choke rod would be instead of the extra servo.
Thanks Snoop!

 

[Snoopy1]

It’s a pleasure only in the past year have I become very weight conscious. This is because I got into 3D stuff and trying to do it and found by building to minimum weight really helps and I need all the help I can get. I have gone back and rebuilt two planes and got the weight down and it improved the planes performance considerably.