Ep 125: Let’s talk ARFs!

[00:00:07] Hello, everyone. Welcome to the RC Plane Lab podcast. I'm Ron.

[00:00:15] I'm Tom.

[00:00:16] And I'm Dave. And I'm Lori. We have an extra and today. We do. Yes. So, Lori built an ARF. I did. So, we're going to talk about Lori's ARF building escapades, although it wasn't an escapade.

[00:00:31] It took way longer than I thought. Maybe it would be like a…

[00:00:34] That would have been a perfect segue had it been an actual escapade.

[00:00:37] Which is ironic because you have an escapade you could have had her put together.

[00:00:41] That's true. Cut. Start again. I can't deny that. That would have been a great idea. But at the time, we were looking for like a beginner airplane. That's true. She could also fly. The escapade MX or whatever that one is. Not really a beginner airplane. Although a perfect beginner ARF because the symbol is even easier than that one.

[00:01:06] Even easier, Lori.

[00:01:08] He gave me this with the crappy black and white pictures and no guide for what screws are which.

[00:01:14] We'll get through that. So, there's some complaints apparently on this. But no. So, what we thought we would do is have you come on. Yeah. Since you very bravely went ahead and said, I'm going to put an ARF together.

[00:01:26] I'm a pioneer for the wives.

[00:01:28] We are going to… Oh. I like that.

[00:01:30] Because Crystal wants to put one together now.

[00:01:32] She does. Kind of. We bought her a small kit that will probably still be there in a couple of years. So, that's… I mean, that's okay. There's nothing wrong with that. There's no pressure. No. Not at all. Before I retire, hopefully. No. So, the point of this episode is we wanted to talk about building an ARF. Yeah. We wanted to talk about the things that go into it.

[00:01:51] Some of the downfalls a beginner, like yourself, might fall into with not knowing or not having the experience of having done it before. So…

[00:02:02] Now, I will preface this by saying that her husband did not prep her for modern ARF building. Right? Because the ARF that we located was… It's an older one.

[00:02:15] Which a lot of the things you find, especially if you go to swap meets like we do, or go to hobby shops that have older stock and that kind of stuff, that's kind of what we go after.

[00:02:24] That's true.

[00:02:25] Or it fits into your price point. That's what you're going to buy.

[00:02:27] And that's really kind of why we ended up with what we ended up with. And also, let's not forget that times are getting difficult to find even ARFs these days because the production was behind due to COVID and they're finally starting to catch up, I think. But there wasn't a lot of ARFs available at the time we decided to do this.

[00:02:48] So, we have a compare and contrast kind of thing to talk about today. So, oddly enough, the married couple sitting here, I'm pretty sure I'm safe saying this, are the most recent ones that put an ARF together, Dave? Absolutely. Yeah, because I haven't done one for a little while. So, Lori built the EZ Sport 40, which, Tommy, I'll let you kind of talk about what that is and where it came from and why you chose that one. And then you just finished up assembling the Hangar 9 Brave.

[00:03:15] Almost finished, yeah. It's very, very close. What have you been doing? Well, I mean… You said that last time a few days ago. The RC-56 glue, as Dave can tell you, takes forever to cure. So, I'm waiting for that to cure so I can move on to the final steps of hooking up the LEDs and stuff.

[00:03:33] But, yeah.

[00:03:34] But other than that… It's a modern… It's a brand new modern ARF, yes. The hard part is finished.

[00:03:38] Absolutely.

[00:03:38] Yeah. Absolutely true.

[00:03:39] So, compare and contrast that and you guys will just… You can have a nice little conversation just on building ARFs. I'm going to put it out there. I can't remember the last time I actually built an ARF. That's what I was trying to think, too.

[00:03:50] It's been a few years. I mean, I've had my foamy things that just kind of slot together in a hurry, but an actual traditional ARF-ARF, I don't know. I've inherited a lot of ARFs that I've gone through and redone, but as far as opening a box and putting something together or just assembling something, I can't remember.

[00:04:10] And let me just cut this off before it becomes a topic of conversation, potentially derailing the intent. And there are those out there who we consider assembling an ARF, not building. It's assembling. It's assembling. Yeah, right. We're not building an airplane. We're assembling a pre-built airplane.

[00:04:30] So, just before anybody in the room or who might be listening, yes, we understand that we are technically not building an airplane, but please forgive us if we use the term building because we are assembling an airplane. The purest.

[00:04:43] Interchangeable. Yeah.

[00:04:44] In this, I feel that as well, but there are those out there that…

[00:04:48] Well, I'm just going to say, I built it.

[00:04:51] But have you flown it?

[00:04:53] The weather's been bad.

[00:04:54] But are you going to actually, like…

[00:04:56] Yeah. Okay. The plan is… The plan is to fly it.

[00:04:59] Once we get our maiden and…

[00:05:01] Nice.

[00:05:01] I'll get the buddy box set up the way we're excited to do with the iX-12. Yep. Which is so cool. It is really cool.

[00:05:08] I see your old DX8 is sitting here on the table. And it brings me back to many moons ago because I… Would you call it earlier?

[00:05:14] The what? The OG.

[00:05:16] Yeah.

[00:05:16] It is the OG DX8.

[00:05:18] Yep. Generation 1.

[00:05:20] It looks new to me.

[00:05:21] Fantastic radio.

[00:05:22] I will never get rid of that radio. No reason to. Rock solid.

[00:05:26] Anyway, yeah, that's the radio we decided to use for Lori's airplane because this will now be Lori's radio for as long as she wants to use it.

[00:05:34] You're going to have to change that, though. The iX-12 is the one that has to be bound to that in order to use that as a trainer.

[00:05:40] Okay. Either way, we would use that whole cool system to make that work. Nice. Yep. It'll be neat.

[00:05:46] And then Lori will have to have her own spreadsheet with her own number of flights.

[00:05:53] So let's just say that will probably be the only time I fly it this year because of his travel schedule. It's okay.

[00:06:02] Well, we'll have hopefully some good weather in the fall when I return. Hopefully. And we've still got, what, three months before I leave?

[00:06:10] Yeah, well, we were just talking about all the plans that you have before you leave.

[00:06:13] Every weekend except for like two is already taken up.

[00:06:16] Well, but there could potentially be some weeknight flying or Friday evening flying or whatever. Time change is coming up. Yeah, yeah. There's time. Yeah.

[00:06:25] Okay. So enough of that. Let's talk about Lori. Yeah. What was your experience like? What would you tell anybody else thinking about doing this for the first time? Okay. What else can you think about to say? Because I'm out of questions.

[00:06:40] What's really funny about this whole thing is, well, I think it's funny, is he told me several times, read the directions all the way through and then read it again. And I was like, yeah, yeah. Okay. So I read them. So let me back up. I was originally going to do this.

[00:06:56] I'm going to say read air quotes.

[00:07:00] She flipped through and looked at the pictures. She looked at the pictures.

[00:07:02] I'm going to go through this and I'm going to tell you I was a little bit arrogant to begin with because this humbled me, I will tell you, because I've had a bird's eye view of everything that he's done our entire relationship, which is like 33 years. So, but even having a bird's eye view, there were still some things that I didn't know, obviously, but I mean, I thought I knew more than what I thought. So this really did humble me.

[00:07:26] And it also showed me like how proficient you guys are at this because he probably could have had this done in two evenings.

[00:07:35] Easily done into he's shaking his head.

[00:07:38] Yes. Over there, but easily he could have had it done in two evenings. And originally I was going to solo do this all by myself without any help from him, just to see if I could do it. And he was scheduled to go on a trip and that's when I was going to do it. And then that trip got canceled. So I was like, well, I have time now.

[00:07:54] And that was July.

[00:07:55] That was July.

[00:07:56] July. Yeah. So nine months ago.

[00:07:58] Yeah.

[00:07:59] Well, the plane has been finished for a couple of months. No, that's fine.

[00:08:03] Yes.

[00:08:03] Yeah. I was finished before this year. Yes.

[00:08:05] Yes. That because you challenged me to do so. And I did. I finished it. Congratulations. The day of, like New Year's Eve.

[00:08:12] It was like the day before New Year's.

[00:08:14] No, it was New Year's before. No, it was New Year's Eve because that's when you guys came out. Yeah. Yeah. We were finishing it that morning.

[00:08:21] Wasn't that the day before New Year's?

[00:08:22] I'm sorry. It's like the eve of the day. It's the same to me. Well, whatever. Anyway. What day does Christmas Eve come before?

[00:08:32] New Year's? I don't remember. Thanksgiving, that's it.

[00:08:37] That's it. Truly, it does. So anyway, he did lay out everything he thought I would need. And some of it I did do independently. And I think he was out here one night and I just kept texting him questions. He's like, I'm recording. Stop. Because how much epoxy do I mix together? It just says mix it. It doesn't tell me exactly how much I'm going to need.

[00:08:59] Well, so many of those things we, the three of us, take for granted that it's easy to forget that somebody who's never done this before doesn't know how much of part A and part B to mix together to make as much as they need for a particular step. So, yeah, it's easy to forget what we actually know.

[00:09:17] Six-minute epoxy. And I'm like, well, we have five and ten.

[00:09:21] Does it really say six? Yeah. It does. Because great planes used to be six. Yeah. Okay.

[00:09:26] Truly. And I'm like, well, what do I use? Because we only have five and ten. It says I need six.

[00:09:30] Right. Mix them together.

[00:09:34] One of A, one of B. So, before we get too far into it then, Tommy, what is this airplane? What time frame are we talking about? Like, when would this have been made? To kind of talk about difference in instructions, because I'm sure you've read through both of this and the one you just did. So, what are we talking time frame?

[00:09:51] Yeah. So, this is a Great Plains Easy Sport 40 ARF. It was produced late 90s, early 2000s. That sounds about right. So, we're looking at 20 plus years old, 20 years between then and ARFs that are now. So, yeah, there's quite a bit of difference in both the amount of work that has already been done and between then and now. So, yeah, Easy Sport 40 ARF, Great Plains, good flying airplane. We'll just say early 2000s, I think is probably pretty safe.

[00:10:27] Okay. So, you're talking about a couple decades. Oh, I'm about 20 years old. Since it has been out.

[00:10:32] Okay. And this is not one of Great Plains' very first ARFs. It's one of their early ones, obviously. But Great Plains, when they first got in the ARF business, they were using a, not to derail the conversation, but they were using a covering that wasn't monocoat.

[00:10:49] It was some other sort of self-adhesive. Self-paper.

[00:10:53] Yeah. Very brittle. And that is actually what led to purchasing this ARF, because if you have been listening to the podcast at Toledo last year, I actually came home with a Great Plains stick ARF, if you recall. And we were very excited, we were going to have Lori build that, and then I discovered that, yeah, it's not, we didn't get instructions with it.

[00:11:15] And I wanted Lori to have the complete experience, opening up a package new with the instructions, and this ARF didn't have it. So, which turned out to be a good thing, because that stick was, I had to completely recover it, because I built that for our friend Bob, and the covering was so brittle that, like, you look at it, and it shattered. So, turned out to be a blessing.

[00:11:36] But anyway, that was, that was Great Plains' first foray into ARF building, and they used that, whatever that shelf paper was, it was terrible.

[00:11:43] And there was another one that you had bought, correct? Or am I wrong on that? I thought there was another one that you had thought about having her do.

[00:11:49] Yeah, that was that Funstar 40, 50 thing. But that was never, yeah, that was never really in the, in the conversation to have Lori build, because same thing, it didn't know me, no, and actually, I don't think that one even had hardware, if I remember. Oh. Yeah, it did. I take that back. No instructions, though. Same, same kind of setup. But that was really more of a fun fly, kind of crazy plane, airplane, which would not have been a good first airplane, so, yeah.

[00:12:16] Well, I'm glad you chose this one, then. Me, too. Me, too. So, now that we know what it was. Yes. What do you want to talk about?

[00:12:22] Well, let's talk about the instructions. So, like I said, he told me to read through it and read through it again, and, yeah, okay, I'll read through it. So, I read through it, and we just got here. We brought the instructions with us, just to refresh my memory a little. And on the, there's like a big box at the bottom that says, read through this instructional manual first. On the cover of the instructions.

[00:12:45] Under the picture of the airplane. Under the picture.

[00:12:48] And I just noticed it.

[00:12:49] So, that just tells you a little bit about how religiously you read that manual. Well, let's just be honest. I've heard it. It says, it has the picture.

[00:13:00] It's a bad idea. I did.

[00:13:02] Can we get a definition of read? I need to know what we're working with here. Right.

[00:13:09] Well, I read it. It's just the comprehension part probably didn't stick. So, anyway. In here, they have like the complete parts list and whatnot. But the picture is so small, and it's numbered, and it's pointing to everything. And then, let's talk about the hardware bag. So, you open up the hardware bag, and there's all kinds of little parts and pieces and all kinds of stuff that like, it shows this teeny tiny, literal teeny tiny picture of all the hardware bag laid out.

[00:13:39] But it doesn't tell you what is what. And it doesn't tell you what size is what. So, 6-32 by 1-inch screw. I should have four of them. Okay. Well, what would be helpful is if you had a one-to-one diagram of exactly what that screw was.

[00:13:56] I was just going to say, we're not looking at each other now. We had that same conversation when I was watching him put the Brave together. Yeah. They still don't have that.

[00:14:03] Yeah. But not every manufacturer, I will say, does that. Like, there are some manufacturers out there that will actually put a full-size diagram of whatever screw you're talking about right there in the manual. So, you can lay it over the top of the picture and get the right one.

[00:14:17] Well, Lego does it.

[00:14:18] This isn't Lego.

[00:14:22] Now, I'm rolling my eyes and shaking my head. But, Hanger 9 on the manual that Tommy was looking at actually has pictures on it, but it's not true to scale. Right. It was oversized.

[00:14:34] It was actually oversized, yeah.

[00:14:37] Well, oversized would be better than microscopic on this thing. So, at least you can kind of deduce which one you need.

[00:14:44] Well, and sometimes you can sort of use the quantity as the indicator. Well. For example, if they tell you to use four, 632 by inch and a half, whatever, you can go through your hardware pack and say, oh, well, I have four of these that match. This must be what they're talking about.

[00:14:59] Except there were four 632 one-inch screws and four 632 three-quarter-inch screws. Yeah.

[00:15:06] Okay, but when you start doing something like this, there's, I would think, be some sort of base knowledge on inches. I mean, like, I understand, like…

[00:15:17] Do you want to know how I measure? Oh, it's two dashes past the four. That's how I measure.

[00:15:23] Well, three-quarter-inch is less than one inch. Yeah, well… So, if you just have those two to compare, as a general, somebody that is getting into this, they should be able to figure that part out. But what I have found is nice, and I don't remember who made it. I bought it at Toledo last year, and I think you guys have them, too. The little board that has all of the screws and nuts in it. I don't have one of those.

[00:15:45] Oh, you don't have one of those, really?

[00:15:46] Microfasteners is where we have them. That's right. I'll get one this year, I promise. No, those are so handy, because it literally has labeled on it. It's laser-cut with label on it what size bolt or what size nut it is, so with whatever you're trying to figure out. If it screws in, perfect. This is 632.

[00:16:02] But he's so smart with that stuff, he probably doesn't need it. Like, he would know. Oh, it's this one, and this one, and that one, and that one.

[00:16:09] Sometimes between metric and standard size, when it's that small, which one you're actually working with. Yes, I agree. So, there you go. So, write that down as what we need to have for putting an ARF together.

[00:16:21] There you go.

[00:16:22] That's a very handy tool.

[00:16:23] It is a handy tool. And then, also, I wasn't prepared to have to cut anything on this plane.

[00:16:29] Oh, really?

[00:16:29] No, I thought it would be like a puzzle. You just put it together. But, like, installing the aileron servo tray, you actually had to cut into the wing and glue the thing on and fit it.

[00:16:40] Really?

[00:16:41] Yeah.

[00:16:41] And we had to cut, well, I say we, Lori, had to cut a little bit extra. I did. Because the Toledo special servos that we bought were physically bigger. Yeah. A little bit than a standard, like S-148 or whatever.

[00:16:54] And then I thought, oh my gosh, I'm going to cut through this wing and then it's going to be messed up. That was my fear the entire time. Everything that I did, I was afraid I was going to mess it up so much it wouldn't be able to fly. But, that still didn't, I still didn't read the directions properly sometimes. So, I mean, my fear did not spawn me to read the directions.

[00:17:21] Had you read the instructions, maybe a couple of times, I think some of those fears would have been reduced. Yes.

[00:17:29] And it's not for his lack of trying to get me to read them. Oh, I'm sure.

[00:17:33] Like, I absolutely do not doubt that at all.

[00:17:36] So, I'm clear with that.

[00:17:38] So, really, I think we could probably replace the word read or read in Lori's vernacular with the word skinned glass.

[00:17:47] I looked at the picture.

[00:17:48] Skimmed glass. Skimmed glass.

[00:17:50] I looked at the picture.

[00:17:52] Highlighted? Well, yeah, maybe.

[00:17:55] Well, and also, I should have read thoroughly the next steps before I attempted them. Yeah. Because I was doing the action with each individual instruction instead of reading through the whole thing to see what I needed to do from start to finish. So, number one, lay this out. Okay, I did that. Now what? Oh, now I did that. Oh, wait. I should have, like, not done this because this happens later on.

[00:18:23] Like, I don't know how many times I had to install and uninstall the stupid engine because I didn't realize that, like, you're going to have to take it off a bajillion times.

[00:18:33] So, not understanding why you were having to do something.

[00:18:35] Correct.

[00:18:36] Yeah, when the end goal of what you're doing, then the steps to it make a lot more sense.

[00:18:41] Yes, that was very well put.

[00:18:42] Yeah.

[00:18:42] I couldn't make that connection probably because I didn't read it.

[00:18:45] Almost like reading the directions would help a little bit. Like it actually says on the directions.

[00:18:49] Like, I know. That is a weakness of mine. I'm a skimmer. So, anyone listening, if you're doing this, read the directions, read them again, assemble all your parts, and then dry fit everything and go through it before you actually glue anything.

[00:19:04] Now, I will tell you that sometimes reading the directions doesn't always answer the question that you have. For example, in this new Hangar 9 Pawnee Brave ARF, they tell you to install the LEDs into the wing leading edges. And I searched and searched and searched, and then Ron searched a little to find out how they recommend hooking these LEDs up, and the manual never mentions it. No matter how much you read it, you'll never get that information.

[00:19:35] So, yeah, read it.

[00:19:37] Like it's just forgotten. But sometimes even the more experienced will not get the information they need out of the manual because it's just not there.

[00:19:47] However, on something like that, I don't consider that a main building point. No, no, no, no. So, all of the important main things should be taken care of in the directions.

[00:20:00] Do you agree? I agree.

[00:20:02] Yeah.

[00:20:02] Yeah, everything to make it safe for flight. Would have been covered. Yeah, definitely. Yep.

[00:20:08] Well, the first thing I did right off the bat is I had to join the wing panels. And so, I was like nervous to glue anything together.

[00:20:15] That is the scariest part. Yeah. It can be, absolutely.

[00:20:18] Because I had to use a nail, like a file to like make sure they fit, but you didn't, they warn you like, don't do too much because then it's going to move around.

[00:20:25] Sanding. Sanding block. Yeah. Sanding bar to make sure the nails fit. Oh, gotcha. Yeah.

[00:20:29] It looks like a nail file to me. So, anyway.

[00:20:32] A really, really big one. Yeah.

[00:20:35] But I was worried like, I was literally like doing two little passes and then going, okay, still not enough. Because it says like, don't do too much because then it's not going to glue properly. So, I was worried about that.

[00:20:45] Mm-hmm. So, I assume this has the, I can't, it's behind me. I can't see. Is that a flat wing or is there a dihedral? There's a little bit of dihedral. Yeah. So, it has a dihedral brace you had to put in. Yes. Yes. Yes. Probably glue those together.

[00:20:56] It's worth, yeah, it's worth noting that this is a one piece wing. Yes. So, yeah, the, they can't afford to package an ARF with a, 50-whatever-inch wing this is. So, they separate it into two panels that you have to glue together. So, yeah, that could be somewhat intimidating. Modern ARFs, most modern ARFs that are of this size or bigger normally, usually incorporate two-piece wings. So, they've eliminated that, that particular step.

[00:21:21] That's probably a good idea.

[00:21:23] Yeah. It can be intimidating. I get it, too. Yeah.

[00:21:26] Because even, even now, whenever I have to join wing panels, I'm very, very cautious and make sure everything's lined up. Like. The E-streaks. Electro-streaks, yeah. Mm-hmm. I had to join that panel and I was very cautious and, yeah.

[00:21:38] Well, let's discuss that really quick then. So, somebody that's never built or built one of these before, you have to get into the mindset of, okay, this is final no matter what I do on this. Mm-hmm. So, epoxy. Mm-hmm. What are the steps to doing that? Either one of you.

[00:21:54] Do you remember?

[00:21:57] Remember to do, like, how did I do it?

[00:21:58] Yeah, like, what did it?

[00:21:59] Well, for this part, because this is in the beginning when I was, like, really wanted to be, like, perfect. I read the directions thoroughly before I glued anything. And it, I was, like, I mean, they say six minutes, but then it was five minutes, so I felt like I had less time to mess with it.

[00:22:17] And that is scary, too. I mean, like, one thing, if it says five-minute epoxy, you really don't have to use five-minute epoxy. You can use 30 minutes and be just fine. It gives you more open time and it ends up being a stronger bond.

[00:22:29] Yes, however, I was afraid, too, if I used anything a longer time, that it had more time to move around and not stay where it needed to be.

[00:22:37] It does.

[00:22:38] So, that was my other thought process with that, too. Like, I wanted to make sure that it was right and I stayed with it probably longer than five minutes just to make sure that it didn't move or warp or whatever. Yeah.

[00:22:50] And not every manual is perfect, right? So, the procedure for this particular airplane is, in the manual, they tell you, prep everything, make sure the panels fit together nicely, make sure the dihedral brace fits in nicely, make sure when you slide everything together you don't have any gaps, things like that. Makes no mention of slicing or cutting out the wing servo.

[00:23:11] This is a one-servo wing, meaning the ailerons are driven by torque rods, right, at the center. So, it's a center-mount servo. Yeah, so they make no mention of cutting out the servo hole for the servo until after, later on, you already have the panels together. In my opinion, it'd be much easier to do that when the panels are separated.

[00:23:30] Yes.

[00:23:30] And the manual, like I said, no manual is perfect, but it's still worth reading ahead of time.

[00:23:36] Right.

[00:23:36] One or two.

[00:23:36] And then I would have also known that I needed to carve out more room for the servo. Servo, right, yeah. Because I was, like, literally getting really mad that it wouldn't fit. And I'm like, I did something wrong, it's broken. And then he's like, it's not broken.

[00:23:50] Yeah.

[00:23:51] You just need to take the dremel. You just need to take the dremel. And I'm like, oh, my heavens, you want me to dig into this wing? You realize, like, what if I hit something wrong and the thing breaks? And he's like, everything's fixable.

[00:24:02] It is. That should be your main takeaway. It's true, because mistakes were made. With the exception of taking the wing and just slamming it on the table, because you're so upset. And even that, really, is probably fixable if you want to spend the time doing it.

[00:24:18] Right.

[00:24:18] Depending on the splinters and the size. Yeah. No, but anyway, so back to joining the wings together. What are the steps that go into doing them? Whoever wants to take it.

[00:24:28] Well, it depends, because they're very different planes, right?

[00:24:32] Now, we're talking about, because his was a two-piece wing, so he didn't have to do that on his. He didn't have to do that on mine.

[00:24:36] Well, I had to glue the wing joiner together, and it was, like, several pieces. And then I had to make sure, like, draw the center line.

[00:24:44] What did you glue with that?

[00:24:45] Or what glue did you use? Five-minute epoxy.

[00:24:47] Okay.

[00:24:47] That one, too? Yeah. I used five-minute, unless it called for 30-minute, and then I used 10-minute, because why not?

[00:24:53] Why not?

[00:24:56] Well, probably because all we had was five and 10. So, is that right? Accurate statement. Yeah.

[00:25:02] I have 30-minute now, but yeah.

[00:25:04] Yeah. We didn't have any. I'm like, is it okay? And he's like, it's going to be fine. Yeah.

[00:25:08] So, what do you normally keep on hand for epoxy?

[00:25:11] Normally, I try to keep all three, five, 15, and 30. I use the Bob Smith epoxy, because it always seems to work well, and it doesn't dry yellow, for the most part, unless you get to 30-minute. Sometimes it does.

[00:25:26] But my 30-minute's gone really yellow just in the package, but it's like 10 years old, because I don't use very much of it.

[00:25:32] So, I try to keep all three of those, and there are definitely times, so with experience comes comfort, right? On a wing panel, like on this one, because it's such a simple assembly, and everything sort of self-aligns, there was really not a whole lot of fitting of the joints, right? I, maybe had to sand a little bit to get the wing joiner to slide in one of the panels.

[00:26:01] Yeah, I did.

[00:26:02] But as far as sliding the panels together, the fit was actually really, really good. So, me personally, like I said, with experience comes comfort sometimes. Five-minute epoxy probably would have been fine had I been assembling the ARF, right?

[00:26:18] Especially if you practice your steps, and how it's going to slide together, you're not going to get any surprises.

[00:26:22] Exactly, yeah, I was just going to say that, the instructions even tell you slide everything together first, get the, kind of get the process down, make sure everything's fixed together, and once you do that, once how, if how everything is going to slide together, then it'll kind of give you a little insight into how much time you actually have to work with it.

[00:26:41] Yeah, and it went together fairly well, but the instruction says enough epoxy should squeeze out, so like, well, how much is enough? That's a good question. How much should, and I was probably not using enough glue, because there were a couple times he's like, no, you need more glue than that, so.

[00:27:02] Yeah, so you want, you want enough epoxy in there to, hopefully, as it's curing, to sort of soak into the wood.

[00:27:08] Yeah.

[00:27:09] And then also provide a nice, you want the pieces to fit close together, so they can bond to each other. So you want enough glue in there to facilitate that, and as long as you can see glue coming out of the joint, it doesn't have to be dripping.

[00:27:22] Right, right.

[00:27:22] But as long as, any glue that's not in the joint is not doing the joint any good, right?

[00:27:26] True, but then you don't want to put too much to where you have so much movement that it's hard for it to line up properly.

[00:27:32] We, we took tape, right, painter's tape, but we wrote, ran that around the joint.

[00:27:39] Well, honestly, we didn't, because you were not with me for this part. I did this by myself, and I did not use painter's tape. You're thinking of the tail, yeah, yeah.

[00:27:48] And that's how I would do it, is run a piece of tape. But before that, take your alcohol and clean up all of the uncured. Yeah.

[00:27:57] Don't look too closely at that wing point.

[00:28:00] It really looks fine. Plus, it's covered. It really looks fine. Plus, it's covered with the, with the little center pilot. That's true. It is.

[00:28:10] Yeah, the worst part, the worst part is covered, so it's fine.

[00:28:13] Yeah. It looks fine.

[00:28:16] And then once I got the wing part done, then we went on to the fuselage, and I had to paint epoxy around the engine area because of the fuel. The fuel proofing. Well, fuel proofing, correct.

[00:28:29] Did you paint it first or just go straight?

[00:28:31] What do you mean?

[00:28:32] She means paint it with epoxy.

[00:28:33] Paint it with epoxy.

[00:28:34] No, I'm sorry. I didn't know if you painted a different color first.

[00:28:37] No, I did not. I used epoxy. And then again, how much is too much? Well, I, in my thought process, I thought, well, I surely don't want any drop of fuel to be in this, so I like lathered it. It's shiny on the inside. Yeah, which is good. It's covered. No, that's good. It's 100% covered.

[00:28:56] That's exactly what I did, by the way, on the telemaster. Yeah. Because that was just plain wood that hadn't had anything done to it. I painted it black first because I wanted it to look decent. Oh, that's a good idea. But then I was in the same boat as you. How much epoxy do I really need? Because this is, I mean, that's a big area you have to cover. Yeah. So I did a 30-minute epoxy, got it all mixed up.

[00:29:14] Then you don't want to run out because then you've got to mix more.

[00:29:17] I know. And it takes time. And it's a different drying. Consistency. Yeah. Are you thinning it or using it straight? Yeah, well, I thinned it too. I used it straight. Oh, okay.

[00:29:26] Straight up.

[00:29:27] Well, so I thinned it with alcohol and that makes it a little bit more runny. But then the other stupid thing I did, which turned out okay, it had bubbles in it. And I didn't want a bunch of bubbles. So I got out my heat gun. I'm like, all right, we're going to pop the bubbles and stuff. Yeah. Well, when it gets hot, obviously I knew this but didn't think about it, it gets runnier. Yeah. Runnier. More runnier. So then I just had all these drips. The viscosity changes.

[00:29:48] That came down on the bottom and I'm trying to wipe it off. And so I've got this, I mean, that's eight foot long fuselage and I'm holding it and just twisting it like every 30 seconds. So it's set up okay. Yeah. It looks great. I like the way you do your firewalls. Once again, that's something that you don't know how much to do, but you really are not going to mess it up because if a problem arises, you're going to figure out how to fix it or you'll fix it later. Yeah.

[00:30:14] I mean, that's the biggest thing. Just don't be afraid to try something.

[00:30:16] Yeah, exactly. Because it's all fixable. All of it.

[00:30:20] So when it, yeah, that's what you kept telling me. But in my head, I was like, mostly I just didn't want to embarrass myself probably by screwing it up.

[00:30:29] If you don't know what you're doing, there's nothing to be embarrassed about. Exactly.

[00:30:32] It's probably my own expectations in my head through this whole process, probably.

[00:30:36] Yeah. Not, not everybody feels that way. I can guarantee you that because some of the airplanes that we've seen, yeah, clearly people were not afraid to just appear to be made by five-year-olds.

[00:30:46] But I do feel your pain. There are several things I've done that I'm like, oh, how do I hide this so Tommy doesn't see it? Yes. Because his judging eyes are going to come out and he's going to tell me, you did, you did, you did fine. That's fine.

[00:30:59] Yeah.

[00:30:59] But really, isn't that what we strive for though?

[00:31:02] Fine. Mediocre. Just okay.

[00:31:04] I thought we'd strive for mediocre.

[00:31:05] Fine is better than okay. That's true. So fine is good.

[00:31:09] Yeah.

[00:31:10] Well, no, fine's not quite too good.

[00:31:12] It's better than mediocre.

[00:31:14] Fine's a step under good. No, but I get what you're saying there. There is a little bit, if you're, if you're not sure about what you're doing, you're sure of yourself and somebody else is going to be inspecting it.

[00:31:24] Yeah.

[00:31:25] There is a little bit.

[00:31:26] Well, the three of you looked at it. He looked at me when he said inspecting it.

[00:31:29] Did you see that? Especially a spouse.

[00:31:30] Oh, I don't think that he would have told me if it was bad. I think he would have, I think he would have spared my feelings.

[00:31:37] You went to bed early one night and they almost fixed it.

[00:31:39] Yeah, probably. That looked better than when I left last night.

[00:31:42] That's amazing. I can tell you I did not do any of that. No, he did not. It is exactly the way she assembled it. It looks good. Yeah. It looks. I said good. See, he said good. That's better than fine.

[00:31:53] I'll take, I'll take good. Good is better.

[00:31:57] Anyway.

[00:31:57] Anyway, getting to the fuselages. It's probably when not reading through the directions all the way before you start anything really came to bite me with the assembly of the fuel tank.

[00:32:07] Yeah. That, that really, really frustrated her. And to be honest, looking through the manual, I understood her frustration because the manual didn't do a great job of preparing her for how many times.

[00:32:18] It didn't.

[00:32:19] Or limiting the number of times you would have to install and remove the engine.

[00:32:24] So is this three or two line?

[00:32:26] It's a two line. We put a two line in it.

[00:32:27] Okay. It's a two line.

[00:32:28] Because you can reach the fuel feed on the carburetor pretty easy. Yeah. Just for simplicity's sake.

[00:32:33] Really quick, talk about the differences and why.

[00:32:35] Oh, so a three line setup is basically, like the name implies, there are three lines coming out of the tank. Two lines that are pickup and one that is a vent. And on a two stroke or a four stroke nitro engine, we use that vent line that goes to the muffler to pull a little bit of pressure off the muffler to help pressurize the tank, which assists in fuel delivery to the engine.

[00:32:56] But the other two lines, so one pickup with a clunk on the end of it inside the tank draws fuel from the tank, takes it straight to the carburetor. On a three line setup, you have another line set up exactly like that, except it's not hooked up to the carburetor. It has a cap in the end of it that you use to fill the fuel tank.

[00:33:14] And that's handy for like fully cowled in engines when you may not have access or easy access to the fuel pickup line to read, because we don't refuel the tanks through the vent line, because then you pressurize the tank and then it floods the engine, right? Because that fuel, that pressure has to go somewhere and it usually pushes the fuel out of the pickup into the carburetor. So a three line setup facilitates refueling on a fully cowled engine.

[00:33:39] So, if you can't get to the engine. Where you can't get to that, the nipple that comes off of the muffler.

[00:33:43] Yeah. So we'll run that third line, that fill line out through either a fuel dot or some other fitting external to the fuselage. So you can hook up your fuel filler line to fill up the tank. That's the difference. And we went with the two line here because it was simple.

[00:34:00] Yeah.

[00:34:00] And easy to get to.

[00:34:02] And also installing the engine too, that engine has a little, what is that little pin on the side?

[00:34:09] The needle valve.

[00:34:11] The needle valve. And the instructions, this engine does not have a needle valve. So I didn't know that I needed to.

[00:34:18] It has a needle valve. What she's talking about is, so this particular engine has a rear mounted, it's mounted to the rear back plate, which, which, yeah, which interferes with the, the cheeks, right? Yes. Of the fuselage. So on a front mounted needle valve or a needle valve that's actually attached and coming out of the carburetor, that wouldn't have been as much of an issue.

[00:34:42] But I didn't know. I was like, why isn't this fitting? I didn't know that I could, I didn't know that I should, but I also didn't know that I could put a hole in the side of it. Yeah. Like that just seems counterproductive to put a hole in the side of the fuselage.

[00:34:55] Yeah. Cut a hole in a brand new fuselage.

[00:34:56] Yeah, exactly. No, I get it.

[00:34:58] Yeah. I get it. Yeah. That's, that part is just there for fun. Yeah. I mean, it's just for looks. You can cut those off completely and you would be just fine.

[00:35:06] Yeah.

[00:35:06] They're just the cheeks.

[00:35:07] Didn't know. Just the cheeks. Didn't know. Yeah.

[00:35:10] From somebody with zero experience.

[00:35:13] I'm like, I think this is important because it's sticking out. So I'm sure it's got to go somewhere, but it doesn't fit.

[00:35:19] Lori, I got to admit, you did a great job with that. That needle valve is centered in that hole. Yeah. I'm impressed. Not in a way oversized hole. It's perfect. It is.

[00:35:26] Thank you. She did that all by herself. All by herself. I didn't help with that at all. No, he did not.

[00:35:30] So I get these egg shaped holes all the time.

[00:35:32] Nope.

[00:35:33] If I was doing it, that would not be a hole. That would have been a slot. Just because.

[00:35:38] Oh, just like a rectangular slot from the top?

[00:35:41] Well, I would have rounded the bottom. Oh, got it. But yeah, I would have had a slot that went all the way up so you didn't have to angle it to get it in and stuff. You could just set it up and down to take it in and out.

[00:35:48] Well, I didn't want to mess with the integrity of the cheeks. How about that?

[00:35:55] Cheek integrity.

[00:35:56] Cheek integrity. I wanted to keep the cheek integrity.

[00:35:58] That is of utmost importance. Well, yeah.

[00:36:01] Mostly I was like, well, if this crashes, it's really going to break if there's a big cap. I'm really trying to behave myself in there. It'll be okay. But installing the fuel tank, like there, he says it's a two line and you had to bend one of the tubes. I'm guessing that's the, it's not the intake.

[00:36:19] The vent.

[00:36:19] The vent.

[00:36:20] That went up.

[00:36:21] That went up. But then you also have to remember which, it just says, hey, assemble it like it's shown. Okay, great. And then you put it in there. And, but this is where reading ahead would have really helped because, truthfully, because you have to remember which one has a little stopper at the end and which one is the intake or the intake and the vent.

[00:36:42] Which line is which.

[00:36:43] Right. Because it matters because where you're hooking up the lines from the engine, does it go to the exhaust or does it go to, is that right? The carburetor. The carburetor. Yes. And then I was like, so I need to put these lines on. And he's like, okay, well, which is which? And I'm like, well, ah.

[00:37:03] So then you have to take it apart.

[00:37:04] Let me pull this out. I'm like, oh, okay. Well, I did do one thing right. I assembled it exactly like it was. So reasonable. In the picture.

[00:37:12] They gave her a picture, yeah.

[00:37:13] Reasonable deduction that this bent one here over on, I guess it would be my right, would be where the exhaust would go. And the other one is the carburetor. But then it also didn't probably, if I read the directions properly, it would have told me, install these lines before you reinstall the engine for the 16th time. Yeah. So we had to work around that too. So.

[00:37:37] Yeah. And you'd like to just mark it too. Yeah. She had the engine off at least on and off at least three times during that process that I witnessed. Oh, and the other thing. And I think she may have had it off a couple more times.

[00:37:51] I'm sure I did. And then I was like, please don't look at the holes because they're not completely straight.

[00:37:57] The holes for.

[00:37:58] The engine mount.

[00:37:59] Oh, to the beams. Yeah. To the beams. So on this, on this airplane, it gives you a, a fiberglass black mount, right? The two piece.

[00:38:08] On the beams and then you drill the holes.

[00:38:10] And yeah, the holes weren't drilled straight, but I mean, it'll be fine.

[00:38:14] The engine is mounted. It's more clamping power. What difference does it make?

[00:38:17] Yeah. I was going to say, it's, you've got a nut on the back and it's not actually getting screwed

[00:38:21] Into it.

[00:38:22] They're drilled and tapped, I believe. Oh, they are?

[00:38:24] Yeah. I think we tapped them. Did we?

[00:38:26] No. Oh, no. They're self-tapped. They're done by myself. That's right.

[00:38:28] So they're like sheet metal screws. Yeah.

[00:38:30] Really?

[00:38:30] That's what they gave her in the kit. Okay. So.

[00:38:32] And then I was using a big old drill and he's like, please don't do that. You're going to strip it. And then he gave me a different tool to use. To put the screws in. To put the screws in.

[00:38:40] Oh. Yeah. So that's one thing that I have found with many ARFs or kits or anything like this. You don't get top of the line hardware. No. it's, it's not a hardened screw that you would get at the store or anything like that. That is true. So you got to be more careful.

[00:38:56] Yeah.

[00:38:56] With what you're working on.

[00:38:57] And he could already tell like with as many times as I'd already taken it off and on that the.

[00:39:02] The head.

[00:39:03] The head of the screw was not looking sharp.

[00:39:05] Yeah.

[00:39:05] So. And then also I had an issue with installing the tank once it was in there. So the instruction says secure the rear tank with a stick. Well, mine didn't back up all the way to a support. It was a shorter tank. So then we had, he engineered, showed me exactly how, what I needed to do, how to glue it and get it in place. So I had to do deviate from the instructions because my, my fuel tank was shorter than the one shown in the picture.

[00:39:32] Yeah. So it's not uncommon for manufacturers, manufacturers to make running changes as they produce stuff. Yeah. and yeah, the tank that they included in the, in the kit was different than the tank that is shown in the manual. And that's not uncommon that happens stuff like that happens frequently. so yeah, we had to, we had to build a little, support at the back end of the tank to keep the tank from sliding back to the fuel station.

[00:39:56] Not a big deal, but one of those things that if you've never done it before and you're going by the instructions and it doesn't tell you, you, you just don't know. So that was one area that I had.

[00:40:07] Oh, and then I also forgot to use the set screw on the fuel tank and Tom noticed that too. Yeah. There's a little screw that for the stopper.

[00:40:18] Oh, on the back?

[00:40:19] On the, well, I don't know, on the front.

[00:40:21] The Phillips screw that, that clamps the stopper together.

[00:40:24] Yeah. So I didn't, I didn't.

[00:40:25] She didn't have it tight.

[00:40:26] I didn't have it tight.

[00:40:27] I didn't know I was supposed to tighten it.

[00:40:28] It just says.

[00:40:29] Because it doesn't actually tell you. No, it doesn't. To tighten that.

[00:40:31] No, it doesn't.

[00:40:33] Of course not. Again, we just take that for granted. Oh, I got to build this tank. Yeah.

[00:40:37] Yeah.

[00:40:38] I know it's got to have pressure to stop it from leaking.

[00:40:41] Yeah. If you've never put one together, you probably, it wouldn't have hurt you.

[00:40:45] I just read this. Mark the tube that's connected to the clunk.

[00:40:48] Oh, my gosh. This is, what's that front page say? To read?

[00:40:55] In the above photo, we marked the tube on the right side of the tank with an F for fuel. I'm like, oh, well, that would have been helpful if I would have read that a while ago.

[00:41:04] Nine months ago would have been. Rule number one.

[00:41:08] Read the directions thoroughly. Don't skim them because you can't, you can't, you'll just get it messed up.

[00:41:14] That's a good thing to read before you're going to bed.

[00:41:17] Yeah.

[00:41:17] Like for a week, just go through it a couple times.

[00:41:20] No, I would highly recommend that. Highly recommend it. Make sure you are, exactly what you're going to be doing before you start doing it.

[00:41:30] Well, it's a good practice to get in. If you plan on staying in the hobby, it's a good practice to get in to read the manual because even now, like I don't know how the designers designed a particular model. Sometimes, and I've had this happen and I'm ashamed to admit it, but I feel like I, oh, I know how this goes together. I don't need to read this. It says mount the stab. Well, I know how to mount a stab.

[00:41:53] I'm just going to go ahead and mount it and then I'll mount it and then I'll realize I don't have room to get the elevator through the fuse slot. what I'm talking about, Dave. I've done that before. I mean, I've done that. So now I'm cutting the elevator halves apart or cutting them off the joiner rod so I can then rejoin them. Had I assembled the stab correctly and read the manual, that's a, that's a step that I wouldn't have had to do.

[00:42:15] So it's, it's a good habit to get in with the, and with anything really, ARVs, kits, whatever, ready to fly, read the manual. I mean, there's stuff in there that even us experienced old timers can learn.

[00:42:28] One thing I did appreciate though, is like you didn't correct me. Like you let me make the mistake, not in a bad way. I didn't take it in a bad way, but you were like, this is your experience. Once you figure out you did it wrong, then I'll tell you.

[00:42:43] Mistakes that were easy to fix.

[00:42:43] Easy to fix. That's what you make. Yes. Yes, that is true. He did. That's a good way to do it. Yeah. And I was like, gosh, darn it. He goes, did you blah, blah, blah. Yes, that's exactly what I did. He goes, you didn't read the directions. Probably not. So.

[00:42:56] Yeah. Mistakes that were easy to fix.

[00:42:58] That were easy to fix. He did.

[00:42:59] Now, at this point, I feel as though I have to say one thing just because I am me. So all the pains that you're, you're talking about now. Yes. With all the crud you went through. Does not happen with electric. Okay. Now we can move on. I just figured out. I think you said that before we even started.

[00:43:22] Well, I, I, I'm that guy.

[00:43:24] Yeah. So I've got to make sure that we know. No. And I know what I said was. I was looking it over and we were talking about how well it was put together and you were all like gushing like, oh, stop.

[00:43:34] Oh, I was not. I was like, no. Did you see the glue dripping off the horizontal step?

[00:43:38] And my, my, my point was if I saw this airplane and I wanted this type of airplane at a swap meet, I would have no problem buying it. Like looking at how it was put together, looking at all that kind of stuff. There's no signs to me that it was put together by somebody that I would be leery about buying an airplane off of.

[00:43:55] You mean someone who didn't read the directions and just put it together?

[00:43:57] Well, I'm glad Tommy was there, but that is when I said the only thing that would give me pause on this airplane was what is sitting on the very front of it.

[00:44:05] Oh, the engine, nitro. Yeah. Has nothing to do with the assembly. Nope. No. Just the fact that it's nitro. Although having, this would actually make a nice electric airplane. It's a good size. Yeah. And plenty of room for battery and all kinds of good stuff like that.

[00:44:20] And it's well glued.

[00:44:23] We can see the glue.

[00:44:24] You can see the glue. It's not much, but. No. One thing I was confident about was installing the hinges.

[00:44:32] So I was going to ask you about that. I was going to swing back to it. Yeah. So obviously when you, I'm guessing before you put the wing panels together, you had to do those or was it after?

[00:44:43] No, it was after.

[00:44:44] I believe it was after. It was like way after. Weird, I know.

[00:44:46] Yeah.

[00:44:46] I would think it'd be easier to work on a smaller panel to get those installed. Nope. Okay. Well, what did you think of that? What did you, what kind of hinges first?

[00:44:55] They were easy hinges.

[00:44:56] Okay. So this is the glue in CA side pinches.

[00:45:00] And I had, it came like the little, I don't know, the papery, I don't know what it's called, but it's like the white.

[00:45:05] The fuzzy paper.

[00:45:06] The fuzzy paper. Where I actually had to measure and cut and all of it because they didn't come pre-cut. Really? Yeah.

[00:45:12] That is old school.

[00:45:13] Yeah. Just a sheet? Yeah. A sheet of it. Okay. I had to measure and cut.

[00:45:16] Yep.

[00:45:16] And I was like very diligent. And then I ended up with way more than I needed because it didn't tell me.

[00:45:22] Save it.

[00:45:23] We did.

[00:45:24] Okay. I've got it.

[00:45:25] He saves everything. He did the cleanup. I don't know what we saved.

[00:45:27] You can't find that stuff anymore.

[00:45:29] Yeah. That's almost worth waiting gold. Really? You can't find that anymore?

[00:45:31] Mm-mm. No.

[00:45:32] They don't make SIG like those easy hinges anymore?

[00:45:35] So, yeah. There are companies that are still producing them and including them with their ARFs. Yeah. SIG is kind of going through a transition right now. Oh, yeah. Ownership and a move and all that sort of stuff. And we hope eventually that SIG produces easy hinges again.

[00:45:51] Yeah.

[00:45:51] But, yeah, right now I think I'm not even sure you can buy them from Hangar 9.

[00:45:57] Wow.

[00:45:57] Nope.

[00:45:58] Well, we probably have about eight extra because I cut them. So, we have lots more than that. Not only did I cut them, but I also cut the clip, the corners exactly like it says in the directions. I did pay attention to that.

[00:46:11] To make them easy to insert?

[00:46:12] To make them easy to insert. And then I went to YouTube and watched Tom's video on how to install SIG easy hinges so that I was doing it properly.

[00:46:23] I forgot about that. That's good. Yeah, I did. Yeah. Then you didn't have to bug him.

[00:46:28] I didn't have to bug him. I bugged him about everything else, but I did not have to bug him about that. Not that one thing. Yeah.

[00:46:35] So, for each hinge, did you use one or did you use two pins?

[00:46:40] So, I don't think the manual, this manual described that technique and she did the hinging kind of without my assistance.

[00:46:47] So, I put it in and then like, you're supposed to leave like, I don't know, about that much. So, and then you just squirt the glue in there and then that's all I did.

[00:46:58] Well.

[00:46:59] Isn't that what I did?

[00:47:00] What I was, yeah, I mean, that's the basis. But, so normally whenever I do it, I will use two pins as the, when the hinge is out, you find the center line. Oh yeah, I did that.

[00:47:11] I had to do that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:47:13] So, I use two because I'm always paranoid as I'm putting one in, especially the ones that have the hole cut out in the center. I'll use two of those. That way it doesn't twist on me.

[00:47:22] Oh, okay.

[00:47:23] So, I didn't know.

[00:47:24] No, I didn't know that. Everybody's different.

[00:47:25] She used one.

[00:47:25] Used one? Okay. I've never used the pins. Really?

[00:47:28] I didn't use the pins. It's handy.

[00:47:29] I just fold it in half and leave it creased. It'll only go in so far.

[00:47:34] What do you mean? Use a pin? Like an ink pen to mark it? No, a pin.

[00:47:37] A pin.

[00:47:37] I did not use a pin. Oh, okay. I did not use a pin.

[00:47:40] Like I said, she did that without.

[00:47:42] Your instructions on YouTube did not say put a pin in there.

[00:47:45] I'm pretty sure for easy inches.

[00:47:46] Maybe I didn't watch it all the way too.

[00:47:50] Sort of like reading the manual. I'm pretty sure we would have said that.

[00:47:54] Tom's looking it up.

[00:47:55] Yeah.

[00:47:55] You probably did, and I just skimmed over that part. Well, so.

[00:48:00] What?

[00:48:00] She might have skimmed over that part.

[00:48:02] Yeah, I caught that. So, the thing that the pin does, and Dave has his own way.

[00:48:06] It keeps it from pushing it in too far.

[00:48:08] Too far on one side. Yeah. Because I've seen it before to where if you try and get the aileron on, especially when there's multiples on the longer, it's kind of hard to get it all on directly. For the wings, yeah. So, usually that's what I will use with. Yeah, I did not use a pin. Two for each one. Nope. Put them all on together so I know it's centered. No. Pull them out and then glue it.

[00:48:30] Mm-mm. Okay. I did none of that. What I did do, I made sure it was.

[00:48:33] We'll need to do a pull test on the ailerons before you buy them.

[00:48:36] They're there. I've already done it. Okay. I made sure they were flush with the edges of the wing so that, like, they weren't crooked in there. So, like, one end was flush with that and the other end's flush with that. I don't know. It just, it worked. They're glued.

[00:48:50] Yes. They are glued. They're small ailerons. They're not going to take a lot of pressure on. No, they're not. They're not. I'm not too concerned about it. No. So, that way, no, it doesn't go too far one way or another.

[00:49:02] Yeah.

[00:49:03] What's next?

[00:49:04] Well, we're talking about the glue overflow with the vertical and horizontal, mostly the vertical stab on the back.

[00:49:11] So, the epoxy.

[00:49:12] Yeah.

[00:49:12] Mm-hmm.

[00:49:13] It bled out a little bit. I wasn't thinking that I should have cleaned it up.

[00:49:16] Yeah.

[00:49:17] I just glued it and I was like, well, I'm going to let that sit and I went upstairs.

[00:49:20] Yeah.

[00:49:20] And then I didn't even think about cleaning it up until I came back and I was like, crap.

[00:49:25] And that is when it's too late.

[00:49:27] It is too late because it was cured because I don't think I came back to it for a couple days.

[00:49:30] Yeah.

[00:49:31] So.

[00:49:32] So, normally then, after you, and I've seen people.

[00:49:35] You just, like, clean it up just a little bit and it's okay, but I just kind of left it. So, there is glue on the vertical stab back there.

[00:49:41] You can start with a dry one if you have too much on there. Yeah. But then a little bit of alcohol on that will completely just clean all of that up.

[00:49:49] Well, and here's the other thing. Once I got it in place and glued it, you can still see some of my pen lines because I, you have to put it on there and then draw around it so where to put it when you're gluing it.

[00:50:01] Yeah.

[00:50:01] So, I should have cleaned that up just as I, but I didn't. So.

[00:50:07] And is there glue on it now?

[00:50:08] There's glue over the pen marks on the back.

[00:50:10] Over the. Okay. So, I can't clean it up. That's why I was going to.

[00:50:12] You can't clean it up.

[00:50:13] That's what I was wondering. I tried. Because normally you can get to it.

[00:50:16] Nah. If you, yeah, if you would have cleaned it.

[00:50:18] Yeah.

[00:50:18] If you would have cleaned it before it's set, you totally could have. But no, I did not. So, there's that. That's the part that probably bugs me the most about the whole thing.

[00:50:26] And it's minimal. I didn't even notice that, so.

[00:50:29] See the aesthetics of it all.

[00:50:31] Maybe I need to look closer.

[00:50:32] Tom's over there. Does it say use a pen?

[00:50:34] It does not. Really?

[00:50:35] Yeah. Well, well, well, well.

[00:50:38] One step I forgot.

[00:50:40] Well.

[00:50:42] I did, I think I did draw a center line on it, so you can at least see.

[00:50:45] I did do a center line on it. I did do that.

[00:50:48] We all missed that one, then.

[00:50:50] Okay. Mm-hmm.

[00:50:51] Way to point out our failures, Laurie. Wow. I don't like.

[00:50:54] But it's on there. It's not wrong.

[00:50:57] True.

[00:50:58] So, they're on there. The next thing I was really frustrated with was installing the push rods.

[00:51:03] Well, so, let's get back. Before you glued the tail in place. Yeah. Did you have any issues with alignment? Did you have any? Because that's what always gets me. That part, too.

[00:51:14] Oh, where you had to do, like.

[00:51:15] Where you have to measure to make sure it's perfectly aligned.

[00:51:18] He did help me with that.

[00:51:20] Because if you don't, that is when you can get into problems with how well they fly.

[00:51:23] Yeah. And he did help me with that because he could see that I was struggling. Like, I don't know how, what, I don't know what the measurement should be. I mean, obviously.

[00:51:31] Well, that's not. There is no measurement. They just need to equal. They just need to equal each other.

[00:51:35] Right. But he did help me a little bit with that because I'm. I mean, he's going to be flying it, so we want to make sure that it didn't, like, crash into the ground.

[00:51:43] So, he did help me with that alignment. Crash into the ground. If it's off a little bit, it's just going to take some trim and fly a knot as well as it could have.

[00:51:50] But he didn't do it. He just showed me. No, that's fine. Yeah. There was a lot he did hands off. He was like, this is what you need to do. And other times, probably the more complex stuff, he said, this is how you do it, but I'm just going to go ahead and do it because I can do it faster and then you can just move on. So, but there wasn't a whole lot of that.

[00:52:06] Yeah.

[00:52:06] So, once we got the measurements and stuff done, then it was time to, like, move on to the push rods and stuff. Mistakes were made.

[00:52:17] Probably the most entertaining, for me, the most entertaining part of the whole process.

[00:52:22] And this is the part that I think she was most concerned about, even though we kept telling her, if you make a mistake, you throw that away. Throw it away and we'll make it happen. Or not even throw it away. Keep it for a shorter project later.

[00:52:37] Well, he may or may not have had to get into his stash of push rods because, like I said, mistakes were made.

[00:52:42] I think we've mentioned before that her favorite tool during this build was the Z-bend flyers. Yeah. She's got a lot of practice.

[00:52:48] She really likes using the Z-benders. It's true.

[00:52:52] Because when we were doing the nose, the nose gear, the nose gear. The steering push rod. The steering push rod.

[00:52:59] Yes, this is a tricycle airplane.

[00:53:01] Yeah. He said, don't do both ends yet because he has to go through this push rod. I'm like, okay, well, I'm just Z-bending everything. And I'm like, I Z-bended. They're over here just going, oh, my God. But we had to get a new push rod for it because I did Z-bend both ends. And I was really proud of myself. Look, I did it without your help. And he's like, yes, you did.

[00:53:25] Here's how that went down. So I told her, I said, okay, put a Z-bend here in this end and then run it through the tube. And then, we'll put the easy connector or however the other end, oh, it was the other end was threaded. But she cut off the threaded end and put a Z-bend so that the other end, there was no threads. So she just saw that in and was like, oh, I must just put a Z-bend here. And then she didn't come.

[00:53:50] So the important part.

[00:53:51] Yeah, she didn't come to get me until she was actually trying to hook up the steering push rod or the tiller arm on the nose gear to the Z-bend. She's like, how do I, I can't get this. So I'm actually trying to help her hook it up. And then it dawns on me. I'm like, why don't I just, it would be a lot easier to take the push rod out. So then I try to take the push rod out and it won't come out. And I'm like, why won't the, there's a Z-bend on the other end.

[00:54:15] There's a Z-bend on both ends.

[00:54:17] So you, okay.

[00:54:19] Without measurements. Without measurements, yeah.

[00:54:21] So you actually put, you put, I'm sorry, I'm dumbfounded right now. You put the rod through the tube.

[00:54:32] And then put a Z-bend in.

[00:54:34] That had, at this point, it still had the threads on it? No.

[00:54:38] Yes, it did. Yes, it did. Yes, it did. I cut it off once it was close to there. So it did.

[00:54:44] Oh.

[00:54:44] It did. But I cut it off thinking it needed a Z-bend and it didn't. Yeah. And I was like, oh.

[00:54:49] What do we need these for?

[00:54:53] Wow. I'm putting a Z-bend here. I don't need these threads. Wow. Clips. Yes.

[00:54:59] What? If that's the worst thing. I don't need a stick of clevis. If that's the worst thing you did, you did a great job. Oh, man. We had a good laugh about that.

[00:55:07] We did. And he was like, I think I specifically told you. I'm like, yeah, well, that was a few minutes ago. And.

[00:55:13] I don't read the instructions.

[00:55:14] I don't read the instructions. Apparently, I don't listen well either.

[00:55:17] So. Yeah, that was a good time.

[00:55:20] And I was like, crap. What do we do now? He's like, I have that. It's fine. It's going to be fine.

[00:55:25] Yeah. A whole box of pushrods will make a new one. Not a big deal.

[00:55:27] But one thing that I did realize is like, okay, some of this is going to rub the wrong way. So this is going to hit this and that's going to hit that. So what do you do? And the instructions don't tell you, hey, if things are going to rub together, it's okay to bend these.

[00:55:41] To put a bend in.

[00:55:41] To put a bend in it. But I didn't know that. So a beginner wouldn't know. Because one of the pushrods was absolutely going to rub up against one of the servos.

[00:55:50] Yeah.

[00:55:51] It was unavoidable. So, I mean, I'm like, I don't know what to do. Like, what do I do? And he's like, you can bend it. I'm like, okay, the directions don't say to bend it.

[00:55:59] Now she reads the directions.

[00:56:01] Yeah. I learned. Towards the end, I did learn. Did I not?

[00:56:05] After lessons were learned, yes.

[00:56:07] I did. I learned. I read through it. And then I, like, mimicked the steps so I knew what it was going to be like. And then I would actually execute. But that was towards the latter end.

[00:56:19] Yeah.

[00:56:19] Yeah.

[00:56:20] Oh.

[00:56:20] I know. Yeah.

[00:56:23] Now, so having assembled a modern ARF recently, I can tell you that manufacturers have gotten a lot better about pre-shaping and pre-running pushrod routes and things like that. The only pushrod I had to bend in this Hangar 9, the Pawnee kit, is the throttle pushrod. And because that's going to vary depending on what type of engine you use or whatever. the throttle may be on the right side. It might be on the left side or whatever. But Hangar 9 does a good job.

[00:56:54] And they have pre-drilled holes on both sides of the fuselage at the nose for whatever type of arrangement for, throttle you have. And it also routed the pushrod out of the way of the tank automatically, which older ARFs, you had to be careful about how you ran the throttle pushrod specifically. Because sometimes that, the throttle arm is usually pretty much in line with the tank.

[00:57:16] Yeah.

[00:57:17] So you got to make sure your, pushrod doesn't hit the tank. Well, modern ARFs, they have done all that homework for you in that it just makes things go super, super quick.

[00:57:26] No, we had to put a lot of bends in, especially for the throttle pushrod too, in the front and the rear.

[00:57:31] Yeah. Because we had to get it around the tank. Yeah. Yeah. So that's something that's something that time has, given us this techniques or whatever the manufacturers have really gotten, smart, if you will. A lot better about doing. Yeah. On pre-doing stuff for you. So you don't have to have all that knowledge ahead of time. And you can, be a beginner and be successful without having help from anybody.

[00:57:59] Yeah. Oh, and one other thing too, I forgot to mention too. It's really important when you're drilling holes to make sure your drill is straight.

[00:58:07] And that technique comes with practice. Yeah. Like I can remember like when I first started drilling holes in airplanes, how do I make sure this is straight or perpendicular or whatever? There's a lot of forgiveness. Yeah. There's, there's a lot of room for, room for air. Yeah. Room for air.

[00:58:24] Because of the wing bolts. Remember they, I'm like, well, how come they're not lining up? Well, because I may have gone it at an angle when I drilled it. Didn't think about like going straight down.

[00:58:33] Well, in some of them, you're supposed to go at an angle. Right. That's the other thing. That gets me in trouble.

[00:58:36] This one didn't tell us either way. It just said, drill the hole. Drill the holes. And I drilled the hole.

[00:58:41] It didn't say, hey, be careful because, and this is something else, modern ARFs have all taken care of. Well, actually most modern ARFs, we don't use. We use separate servos for ailerons nowadays. But back then you had to be careful, your torque rods coming off of the, the wing that, your servo, your center mounted servo connects to a lot of times those will interfere with anything you have going on in the fuselage.

[00:59:07] Well, the manual in this case didn't say anything about, hey, make sure your torque tubes don't interfere with your mount or whatever. So we had to clearance, a little bit of the mount to make sure we had adequate movement for the ailerons. Yeah. That sort of thing. We don't even think about today.

[00:59:23] Yeah. And because it had been so long since I had had to think about that.

[00:59:28] Done one that way. Yeah. We, again, we had to have that issue on hers. So.

[00:59:32] Just minor, just little minor adjustments. Right. Yeah. Not much.

[00:59:37] Not all. Yeah. I don't know of many more recent ARFs that have single. Yeah. I'm trying to think like none of the ones I have or have seen recently have just that single center servo. Yeah. And I don't like cooking them up that way anyway. I like having a little bit more.

[00:59:53] Well, it gives you the flexibility to run, to play with flapperons or differential air on. You can do it all on your radios nowadays where we don't have to use the offset servo horns

[01:00:02] And all that kind of stuff. So.

[01:00:03] Yeah. It just makes things easier. Mm-hmm. And the hookup, it's, it's really not that much more work. Yeah. Because by the time you bend up a torque rod, if they're not already pre-bent and then glue it to the trailing edge of the wing with a brass tubing or a plastic bushing, if it comes with that, by the time you do all that and then hook up servo, you're really about the same amount of work as mounting two servos and running two push rods. It's really.

[01:00:26] I think it was actually easier to set up the E-streaks with individual servos instead of a single instead of trying to build that weird setup. Yeah. Yeah. I agree a hundred percent.

[01:00:35] And then plus doing the dual servo, you don't have to have that ugly notch in the side. You don't have the notch in the fuse. For the push rods. Yeah. So just differences between then and now. Mm-hmm.

[01:00:47] How things have.

[01:00:48] Yeah. Come. So how many. Oh, go ahead. You're going to say.

[01:00:52] Yeah. So this is in this part. Once I used a lot of brain power trying to figure that out, that's when the big lull came in and that's when the big break came in.

[01:01:02] That's how far you made it?

[01:01:04] She was.

[01:01:05] Before I was. That's almost done.

[01:01:06] Honest to goodness.

[01:01:07] She was within.

[01:01:09] An hour.

[01:01:10] An hour of being done for about two months. Two months.

[01:01:15] It just, it took up so much brain power. I'm like, I don't know if I have the mental capacity, if this is how the rest of it's going to go.

[01:01:20] And honestly, that's how, that's how a lot of projects, airplane projects are. That last couple of hours are always, seems like they're always the most tedious. And that's what. But that's my MO anyway, though. Slows so many. Well, the finishing is, that's your strong point. Strong point.

[01:01:36] Doesn't have good follow through.

[01:01:39] Well, we may or may not have had a paint swatch color on the wall in the kitchen for maybe six years before I finally changed it over. Well, you have to make sure she liked the color. Yeah.

[01:01:49] You have to live with it for a while. Yeah. A decade is about right.

[01:01:52] Well, what's funny is like in all the kids' birthday pictures, that same spot is there.

[01:01:59] True story. Oh, that's awesome.

[01:02:01] We just, you just, whatever. But yeah, that's when it, I think, I don't know why, just, I know I needed to get down there to finish it, but I was just like, that took a lot, like mental brain power. And like, I had to rely on him a lot and I'm like, I just, oh, I just want to finish it. But then I don't know what's next. Probably. I mean, I read the manual at this point. Let's put it that way.

[01:02:25] I know what's next. Or where to find what's next.

[01:02:27] Right. But then there was, once we, once I had the challenge to finally finish it before the end of the year, and we were putting the cowl on, and this is where it being a 20 year old kid. Putting the what?

[01:02:39] There's no cowl.

[01:02:40] Not the cowl, but the.

[01:02:42] Canopy.

[01:02:42] The canopy. That's it. The canopy. Where this being a 20 some odd year old kid kind of bit us a little bit because I put it together as a kit. Okay. I glued things.

[01:02:56] I don't want to get emails. I don't want to get people yelling at us.

[01:02:59] Well, they can address them to me and I'll be like, listen. So anyway.

[01:03:02] So that's Tom at our segment.

[01:03:09] The canopy was very brittle. And so I started to cut it. He's like, yeah, just cut it around here. And I'm like, okay, this is breaking up. Like literally it's disintegrating. So then he had to be like very careful, just like one little tiny snippet at a time. And then it wouldn't glue down properly. And so I think he did mostly the canopy and then that was it. Then we were done.

[01:03:31] And that's one you could have even done without. Honestly, it could have looked more stickish without a canopy.

[01:03:36] It's not something that's structural to the airplane. It doesn't need to be on there for it to fly. So just in the effort of making it look like the picture, I went ahead and glued the canopy

[01:03:47] On it for her.

[01:03:48] But she was there the entire time. I showed her how to do it. So she could do it now.

[01:03:52] And that's almost just like school glue. I mean, the old white glue that you put on stuff that takes forever to cure.

[01:03:59] I don't know. What did you use on it?

[01:04:02] RC56.

[01:04:03] I don't know what that is.

[01:04:04] It's RC56. It's canopy glue. Oh. It's Elmer school glue.

[01:04:07] Okay. I mean, pretty much.

[01:04:08] That's almost exactly what it looks like. Yeah. Same color. Same consistency. Stick to Monaco really, really well. It's amazing for what that glue is, how good a job it does for it.

[01:04:17] It is not Elmer school glue, but very similar looking. Yeah. Yeah.

[01:04:22] And then the last thing we did, we just went over the whole thing with covering iron just to get all the wrinkles out. And then I accidentally, he says it was there. I don't think it was. I burned a hole in it. In the wing.

[01:04:35] I don't think you burned a hole in it. In the wing tip. So it's a flat. So the wing tip, at the very last rib, it has a perpendicular piece of balsa or light fly, who knows what it is, glued end on, right, to the rib. And then the covering is rolled over. To give you a shape. To give you a shape. And there was a small, I think there was already a pre-existing small cut. And it's in the bottom. Big deal.

[01:04:58] It had to have a pinhole in it.

[01:04:59] And then as soon as, yeah, as soon as you hit it with the heat, it, the hole opens up a little bit. Not a big deal. So we patched it. Yeah. I mean.

[01:05:05] And honestly, when I was pointing it out to you, Ron, Tom was like, we did? Where?

[01:05:09] Yeah.

[01:05:09] I don't even remember doing it. He totally forgot that we were doing it.

[01:05:11] Well, in his defense, it's been nearing a year. So.

[01:05:13] No, it's been two months.

[01:05:16] No, but like, seriously, with that, you're not going to burn a hole with a covering iron with any of the settings you're going to have on that. So. Yeah. It was already there. Okay. You might have put it there.

[01:05:28] I may have. I mean, like, really. Because it did sit around, like, for a while. So.

[01:05:33] It's been bouncing around for 20 years. I mean. That's true, too.

[01:05:36] And then it was down in our basement. So, I mean, yeah, probably. I don't know. But.

[01:05:40] I mean, it's going to be a fun ghost flyer. I mean. Yeah. I don't know how it's going to actually fly without anybody sitting in the cockpit.

[01:05:46] Oh, yeah. We did not put a pilot. That's okay.

[01:05:48] I knew that was coming. Yeah.

[01:05:49] Yeah.

[01:05:49] I forgot, though.

[01:05:51] Whatever.

[01:05:51] Yeah. We did not put a pilot in it. I don't even think the ARF came with one.

[01:05:55] Nope. It did not.

[01:05:56] Yeah. So we would have had to.

[01:05:57] And the instructions didn't say to put one. And I was.

[01:06:00] And it's a really small canopy, by the way. It is. It would have to be a really small pilot.

[01:06:04] Yeah. Yeah.

[01:06:04] I mean. No, we did not put a pilot in it.

[01:06:08] We didn't. Nope. But it's done.

[01:06:11] So what are your thoughts? Follow up. Just end up. Top looking down. You're done. It's behind you.

[01:06:17] Yeah. I think the instructions need to be better. But Tom said that has changed between that kit and current kits.

[01:06:23] What you should do is look over the instructions. I should. I was just going to say.

[01:06:26] I didn't say read.

[01:06:28] I said look over. Just look at the pictures. There's no reason to read it. I'm not putting it together. I can skim them to see the difference. See the difference in pages. It's like how many pages there are.

[01:06:37] I think the visual representations of what they want you to do could be better. But I get it. It's mass produced. They probably don't want to put a lot of time and money and energy into that.

[01:06:46] And see, I think that's when you should put a lot of time and money and energy into it.

[01:06:49] Absolutely. I agree with you. I agree.

[01:06:51] Yeah.

[01:06:52] And maybe a diagram for the screws so exactly what you're doing and which ones you're using. It wasn't difficult, but I can 100% see why people get halfway through and stop.

[01:07:07] I can see it. Yeah.

[01:07:09] Yeah, I get it. I've got so many halfway finished projects.

[01:07:12] Well, like I said before, like the servos, there were no instructions with the servos on how to assemble them.

[01:07:17] Yeah, that's another thing. Like, I remember, I mean, really not even that pre-Spectrum, but when you bought a Futaba radio and looked through the Futaba manual, it would tell you, here, put the grommet here. Yeah. Put the eyelet here. use these types of screws to mount it. Drill this type of hole. Here's even, I think even some of them had the mounting, like a template. Yeah.

[01:07:41] Yeah, you buy stuff like that nowadays that it just doesn't, Spectrum doesn't tell you how to assemble their servos. Here, you figure it out. Yeah. Yeah. So.

[01:07:49] Or, should you, like, it doesn't say, hey, this has to be on there. So, you could just, well, those are extra parts. Why do you need to have it on there? But there is a reason.

[01:07:56] And there are extra parts.

[01:07:57] Yeah.

[01:07:57] I'm with them, too.

[01:07:58] Exactly.

[01:07:59] And if you're of the type that, oh, they would only give me exactly what I need, well, what are all the, then, now I have all these extra parts. Oh, my gosh, I've forgotten something. What is that going to work now? Correct. I couldn't install this or whatever.

[01:08:10] Yeah.

[01:08:11] So, no, I absolutely agree that manufacturers could probably do a little bit better job of demonstrating or at least showing that.

[01:08:19] Well, I think they're assuming that they should know. Yeah, an exploded diagram on the back of the package would go. Exactly. That's not a servo manufacturer, though.

[01:08:25] Not on the ARF.

[01:08:27] No, it's not on the ARF. But, I mean, there was no instructions on how to do that. So, I did Google it to look because I didn't want to bother him with yet another stupid question. No stupid thing.

[01:08:38] Stupid question. Just stupid people.

[01:08:39] And that's what I kept telling her. I know. But it was supposed to be my experience, not one that you just did it. So, I tried to minimize the amount of questions that I threw your way. Unless I was truly stumped or sometimes I would say, okay, this is what I need to do. Is this right? Am I doing this right? So, there was very, very, very, very little that he did for me on this.

[01:09:05] Truth.

[01:09:05] So, yeah. Other than the instructions need to be a little more clear, a little more concise. And, like, there were some tools that he said, hey, this would be better at doing it than what you're doing. So, I mean, if you have someone who can kind of guide you a little bit, that would be better than just coming, like, not having any knowledge at all and then trying to do it. But I can see why people would get frustrated and quit.

[01:09:31] Do you have an example of a tool that was better? Not to put you on the spot. Z-Bend pliers.

[01:09:38] The Z-Bend pliers. The Dremel tool was really helpful.

[01:09:41] For cutting the hole for the needle valve, for example.

[01:09:44] Yep. Oh, and the on-off switch. I had to cut a hole around that and fit that in there. There were no instructions with the on-off switch either. Let me just say that. Because I didn't know that a back plate goes on the back of it to squish it in between.

[01:10:00] It's an MPI switch that has the nice back plate.

[01:10:02] Yeah, I just screwed it on there. And I was like, why is this loose? Oh, my God, I didn't. He's like, well, you didn't put the back plate on. I didn't know there was a back plate. You didn't tell me there was a back plate.

[01:10:12] Something for the screw to hold on to and actually clamp it in.

[01:10:15] Yeah, but it didn't say that.

[01:10:16] Yeah, but if you look at the switch manufacturer's instruction, it doesn't say that.

[01:10:19] It's not on there. Yeah, so you didn't. I don't know. I don't know what I don't know.

[01:10:23] Nobody does.

[01:10:24] Right. Exactly. And then the other thing, too, was it doesn't say, hey, maybe you shouldn't use a drill. To screw these screws in because you're going to jack them up. So what did I have, like a ratchet screwdriver?

[01:10:35] Like my DeWalt. She was using.

[01:10:37] I was using a DeWalt.

[01:10:38] Oh, what you build houses with.

[01:10:40] Impact driver. Yeah. It said, use a drill. There's absolutely nothing wrong with, because I use it all the time for that. Yeah. Like, especially long-winded screws and stiff plastic. I'll get, whip the DeWalt out. Yeah. But I, no offense, but I know what I'm doing.

[01:10:54] Correct.

[01:10:55] I know that I need to make sure there's a lot of pressure on that tip. Because if it starts jumping in the screw, it's going to round off the screw. It's going to get stuck. Right. And then now it's got a whole other issue. Yeah. Mm-hmm. But I think. For somebody who's never done that before.

[01:11:05] Mm-hmm. There's too much torque in that.

[01:11:08] You can do a lot of steel.

[01:11:08] And you're really going to.

[01:11:09] Oh, there's a lot of power behind it.

[01:11:10] Behind it. Yeah. And then he gave me the ratchet screwdriver. And he was like, use this, it's better. And it actually really was.

[01:11:16] Yeah.

[01:11:17] I mean, I have to say, it really was. You had more control. You had more control over it. Yeah. And it wasn't just like, oh my God, I went too fast or whatever.

[01:11:24] Yeah.

[01:11:24] Yeah.

[01:11:24] That's the right tool for the job. Exactly. And you don't know it until you start doing it a few times.

[01:11:27] I mean, it gives you a suggested list, but they're not always optimal.

[01:11:31] Right. Right. It's the basic list of what you need. Right. But not the best list of what you need.

[01:11:36] You can assemble this airplane with this basic tool set. Yeah. Yeah. But there are better tools.

[01:11:42] And you could do that if you want to pull your hair out. But there are better tool sets to use. Yeah. Maybe you should do a video on that.

[01:11:49] We've done it.

[01:11:50] When it says this, use this instead because that's why you see. Yeah. That's what I'm saying.

[01:11:54] That's kind of our tool of the week sort of thing. But yeah, I could see a series on, hey, use this tool for this instead of whatever.

[01:12:01] When it says this, this is probably better.

[01:12:03] Not a bad idea.

[01:12:04] Yeah. I'm full of ideas.

[01:12:05] Write it down.

[01:12:06] Write it down. Okay.

[01:12:09] Well, is there anything else you guys want to cover with ARFs or are we?

[01:12:11] One thing I wanted to ask. So I didn't keep track. Yeah. About how many hours would you say?

[01:12:17] Oh, gosh.

[01:12:18] I mean, because let's be honest, really, your longest build session was really only an hour or two at a time. Yeah. So really, though, I mean, you don't have, honestly, a lot of time.

[01:12:31] No, I would say maximum maybe 10 or 12 hours, maybe a little more than that.

[01:12:36] I'd say it's probably closer to 20 to 25 hours.

[01:12:39] Yeah, you're probably right.

[01:12:40] Total. Total time work, which is really not bad if you, if you look at it from a full-time job perspective, that's really only like three days worth of work, right?

[01:12:50] Yeah.

[01:12:50] So that's not bad.

[01:12:51] But I also had really high expectations for myself as an RC airplane wife that I shouldn't have been a little more knowledgeable. And like I said, that's why I said at the very beginning, it humbled me a lot.

[01:13:04] Yeah.

[01:13:04] It humbled me. And I was fine with it. I thought it would come together a lot quicker than it did and that there were a lot more steps than I anticipated also. And they took longer. The steps took longer than I thought they would take.

[01:13:18] It's too bad there wasn't like a bunch of pieces of paper that told you what steps you were going to have to do beforehand. With pictures and descriptions.

[01:13:23] Yeah.

[01:13:24] There were, but they were not that great.

[01:13:26] Now, would you say your next one's going to go much quicker?

[01:13:29] Next one.

[01:13:30] If you were to build another.

[01:13:31] If there is a next one, yeah. Yeah, if I were to do a next one, it would go a lot quicker because the experience that I had with this. Yes.

[01:13:39] And sometimes you just have to get through a crappy ARF and even if you don't plan on flying it, just do it to get the experience and then move on.

[01:13:47] Well, and he would gently pressure me. Hey, do you want to go? Are you going down? Are you going to finish? I'm like, okay, realistically, I need to know before I go back down there. How much time do you think I have left so I can mentally prepare for finishing it? And he's like, babe, you really only have like an hour, hour and a half tops. And I'm like, okay, let's do it.

[01:14:06] See, that's the difference for us. It's not meant well, although I'm getting worse at building for some reason. That is just, I'm more drawn to the flying side of things, but it's not dreading going and doing it. It's the excitement, the fun, the seeing something come out of what you're working on. Yeah. And it makes it a hobby.

[01:14:22] Yeah. Some parts of the build are more enjoyable than others. Yeah. I went the opposite way, but yeah. Even though, yeah, even though I, I think probably I'm more on the tinker and build side of things. I get more out of that than flying.

[01:14:36] I would agree.

[01:14:37] There are tasks that I, that I, dread, so, I mean, it, it affects everybody. I mean, everybody has, yeah, for Dave, it's covering. I happen to like covering, but yeah. for me, I think some of the tasks I dread is wiring. I like my wiring to be nice and clean, but it's so tedious and time consuming and all that. that's one of those tasks that I just don't look forward to.

[01:15:04] Don't look in my fuselage.

[01:15:05] Yours looks fine from what I can see. Fine. See, not quite good. Right. It's what I would do. You want to see something look inside the F-15.

[01:15:14] I didn't bundle anything together. The wires are all.

[01:15:17] I don't know. Well, the T-34 is pretty messy too. Sorry. Yeah. At least the wing. Wow. Well, he's got a lot of stuff in there. the, the battery for the lights, the two micro switches that are servo operated because it was before we had the cool, electronic switches.

[01:15:30] There's a lot of stuff.

[01:15:31] There's a lot of wire in there. A lot of stuff, which I'm probably going to clean up. So.

[01:15:35] What's your airplane now?

[01:15:36] Well, because it's, because we have modern stuff available now to clean it up with. So that's what I'll do. Yeah. Eventually. Anyway.

[01:15:43] So, Laurie, since we, asked this of all our guests. Yeah. What's your number? Oh, one.

[01:15:49] I am net one.

[01:15:52] Very nice.

[01:15:54] Net one. Net one.

[01:15:55] Hey, it's easy to keep track of.

[01:15:56] It is.

[01:15:56] It'll stay that way probably till next year, right?

[01:15:59] Probably. Maybe forever.

[01:16:00] Who knows? It might go down sometimes.

[01:16:03] Let me just say, I will not be independently buying or building anything while he's gone. So it will be at least a year.

[01:16:11] Yeah.

[01:16:11] Yeah. And that's fine.

[01:16:13] Easy. It was good that you wanted to do it just to see how it went.

[01:16:17] Well, and I think it's, yeah, I think it's important for people to know too. Like they make it say, look, it's easy. It's, and it is compared to, to stick building. I'm sure it's way easier because you don't have to cover or anything like that. but there are things that you really should know before you do it. And one is absolutely, it says on the front page, read the directions, read them. Front page on the cover.

[01:16:41] Right.

[01:16:41] Read them. Under the picture. It sure does. Read them thoroughly. Yeah. Extremely thoroughly.

[01:16:47] Yeah.

[01:16:47] And then maybe you'll learn before I did that you should put an F next to the part that for the fuel line.

[01:16:52] So I'm, I'm really looking forward to, to maintaining the airplane because I know it's going to fly. It's going to be great. Yeah. and yeah, hopefully it's, it, it motivates her to, well, we just need some good

[01:17:04] Weather.

[01:17:05] Yeah.

[01:17:06] It's been crappy, but it is February. Yeah.

[01:17:09] True. So there you go.

[01:17:11] Yeah. That's it. That's it in a nutshell.

[01:17:13] So you want to talk about the hangar nine assembly really quick.

[01:17:17] So I'm nearly complete. Like there's just a few very, very small tasks left and I've kind of been keeping track of my time and I have 17 hours. wow, that's now I take my time.

[01:17:30] You do.

[01:17:31] And a lot of that time, believe it or not, is in masking because we have the two lens covers that go on the wing and then we have the canopy, which is also a large canopy that has to get glued onto the hatch.

[01:17:44] Yeah.

[01:17:45] And, a lot of time masking cause I want it to look nice, right? Cause we're doing this in collaboration with, with a dynamic ball. So Brian, Burkhart and I want it to look nice. So I'm a lot of time masking those joints cause I don't want goop, the RC 56 just all over the place.

[01:18:01] Oh, yeah.

[01:18:01] So a lot of time in masking and making sure everything looks nice. So if, if it was an airplane I was doing for myself, it would probably be around 15 hours total.

[01:18:12] But then there was also something you had to figure out too, because you were asking Ron, Hey, does this work? The LEDs. Yeah.

[01:18:19] Yeah.

[01:18:19] Which, well, and that's hard because you don't know what the LEDs are supposed to be powered by. Right. Without knowing. Resistors they put in there. Yeah. You don't know if it's a manual.

[01:18:27] It doesn't tell you.

[01:18:28] Three volt LED or if it ends up being.

[01:18:31] For anyone listening who's going to build one of these, you can power these with 11 volts

[01:18:35] Or a three cell lipo.

[01:18:36] That's 12.6.

[01:18:38] Straight. Fully charged. Straight from Horizon.

[01:18:40] So, so I'm going to put a little three cell in there with one of these little micro, not micro switches, electronic switches and, probably tie it into the flap channel. So when the flaps are down, the lights are on.

[01:18:51] Yes. Which ironically enough, you have a no three cell lipo in there at all. So you have to add one.

[01:18:57] Yeah. And I've got a really, really tiny one I'm going to put in there. Just, it'll just be for the lights. So. Yeah.

[01:19:02] Have you tried way off topic? Have you tried running them off of a six volt, like just off of the battery in there?

[01:19:08] I haven't picked them up at all. I've just got them installed. I would do that and just say, you don't need them to be very bright.

[01:19:13] I mean, it shouldn't. You don't see them. I would try it on that first. Why? Just to see the difference in brightness between full three cell lipo and then a six. Well, you're running, what battery are you putting in it?

[01:19:25] Well, so I've got two, one for ignition and one for the, one for the radio, they're fromicos. Those 7.4 volt.

[01:19:35] I would. Yeah. I would plug it into that first. Just see what it looks like. Okay.

[01:19:40] Anyway. Just to see.

[01:19:41] Yeah. Right on. It's not going to hurt it. Anything else? We done?

[01:19:46] I'm done. Good. I said all I needed to say.

[01:19:51] Mark that in her baby book.

[01:19:55] On this subject.

[01:19:56] Oh. Yeah.

[01:19:57] There we go. Here we go. There it is.

[01:19:59] All right. Dave, anything else we good? No, I'm good. All right. Everybody, thank you for listening. Until next time, I'm Ron. I'm Tom. I'm Dave.

[01:20:06] And I'm Lori.

[01:20:07] Good night. Good night. Good night. Good night.

[01:20:09] Hope you enjoyed this episode of the RC Planelab podcast. For topic suggestions, to ask questions, or to give any feedback, connect with us at rcplanelab.com or email us direct at either ron at rcplanelab.com or tom at rcplanelab.com. You can also text us or leave us a voicemail at 818-351-9846. Please subscribe, rate, and review us on your favorite podcast app. Until next time, may your landings be gentle.