Well here I am again. What a surprise huh? LOL... I am just almost done with the Cessna. Lets see what I got done today.
I started out by making sure the servos in the tail were still all good to go. Once that was done, I slipped on the bottom tail section. I noticed that in the two plus years that she has been standing in the corner, apparently the tail cone got bumped and knocked one of the tail cone bolt blocks loose. No big...nothing a little CA won't fix.
After I re-attached the block, it was time to break out the new cowl that has been hiding in the box for almost three years.
Since I used the original cowl that was cut for the Saito 180, then adapted to fit the 32 gasser, I used it as a pattern for the new cowl. This is one of those jobs that I just "LOVE" to do. It's always fun to whack up a brand new cowl.
I figured this would expedite the cutting process and leave more margin for error. I never seem happy with cutting a cowl, but what ya gonna do right?
Cut-fit, cut-fit, cut-fit...wow, tedious. Ugh... but it's coming along.
Although lots of cutting and fitting needed to be done, the cowl came out looking pretty good. Now to attach it to the fuse and drill the holes for mounting.
Once the mounting holes were drilled and the cowl was attached, I restriped the cowl to match the stripes on the fuse. After that, I made provisions for the choke rod. I like using the older style servo grommies for the choke rod holes. It cleans up the look a tad and helps eliminate the vibration of the rod on the cowl. I also added my normal little touch of screen door material to simulate radiators in the cowl openings.
Now with all this done, all that is left is to finish up the servos in the wing. I got started this afternoon but then realized two of my servos are not programmable so I will need to order two for the ailerons. I will take the HS 5625's I was using on the ailerons and shift them over to the flaps since they need to be programmable servos as well. Also still waiting on the spinner to arrive. I sure hope it makes it this week. I am just so close to be done. It would suck to not be able to do a maiden simply because a spinner is holding me up. I guess I could always forgo the spinner and fly it the way it is, but that just wouldn't be right.
I will try to get the start up of the motor video posted shortly. And tomorrow I will get the flaps taken care of. Then it's just bolt in the aileron servos, put on the spinner, balance and flyyyyyyyyy!!
Stay tuned... more to come.