Bill Hempel 30-35cc Extra Build Thread

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Just introduced to the market spring 2016.
This will be my first build thread so bear with me and ask questions and I'll do my best to keep up. The 'reserved' pages are to allow the entire build to be together with the q&a posts following.
I ended up with a limited run yellow/blue/white scheme. Sounds as though Bill had the green light for this scheme which had been done as a custom one off for a much larger custom plane but apparently that approval changed somewhere after this limited production run.

This kit does not include wing bags nor SFGs.

I will be building this out with an electric 12s / Hacker A60 setup.

http://www.billhempel.com/extra-25/index.php

 

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Unboxing. Kit construction looks very close that of the 35cc PAU birds I've seen. Would venture a guess they are produced in the same facility but appear to be different designs.

 

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This evening (5-17-2016) I was able to cutout the servo and control horn holes with a soldering iron and install the control horns.

The horns were all dry fit (the elevator horns needed shortened by one tab) then sanded and finally installed with epoxy.

This was the first time I used epoxy with a mixing tube - certainly made easier and cleaner work and was able to place epoxy exactly where needed without any slop.

 

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Ailerons and elevators hinged (5-18-2016). I used the trick learned from Tseres and used a hole punch to create some glue masks for the hinge points. Hinge holes were taped over, hinges lightly sanded, hinge point oilded and finally installed with gorilla glue. I taped the surfaces in a fully deflected position while the glue dried.

 

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Motor and ESC mounted. Managed to find a Hacker template online and after 4-5 ties, finally printed out the correct size to use.

 

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Servo's mounted.

 

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Cowl cooling cut and cowl installed, radio programming completed, motor run up...ready for a maiden. Canopy glued together but forgot to grab pics.

 

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Obligatory pre maiden pics you know just in case.

 

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Should I add another hinge or two to the rudder? I was thinking of adding another two (double up the top and bottom hinges) or will I be fine with three hinges on the rudder?

 

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Should I add another hinge or two to the rudder?

As these are 3/16" size hinges, I ended up staying with 3 but did use genuine Robarts.