Small ARF Build Part 1, Extreme Flight 48" MXS EXP

So in preparations for building the 1/4 scale Gilmore Red Lion, I wanted to get a box out of the way and decided to put the 48" MXS from Extreme Flight together. To follow along to just my posts on building this MXS, use the Topics to the right and click MXS and you'll see only the posts related to building this model.

Before I begin, I strongly recommend reading this article by our friend, Scott Stoops. Assembling your new ARF. I'll refer to this article at some points, so bookmark that and jump to it if needed.

SETUP:

I'm usually like going with the recommended setups for high performance aerobatic planes, so I ordered the Torque 2814-820 motor. However, I have a Castle ICE lite 50, so I'll be using that. For servos, I'm mainly a Hitec guy, but because many people are suggesting using a larger servo for the elevator on this plane, it gave me a perfect opportunity to try out Savox servos. I'll be using Savox SH-0255MG digital servos. These will give me the more power on the elevator without having to enlarge the opening for the elevator servo. (and not mention save a little weight) EF calls for an APC 12x6 but I don't have one right now, so I'm going to use a Xoar 13x6.5 and watch the motor temps on the first few flights.

FIRST STEPS:

Scott Stoops recommends going over the covering and re-shrinking first thing. My model was in VERY good condition and I just quickly went over the whole plane with an hot air gun. I really didn't need to, but thought it wouldn't hurt to just tighten everything a bit.

Next, Scott talk about covering reliefs. These are the holes in the covering where you mount servos, run the wing tube, anti-rotation pins, etc etc. On most ARFs, this is not done, but I have to give EF credit for having this done already. Even hot air exhaust holes on the bottom of the fuse are cut out already. I got to skip this step!

ASSEMBLY BEGINS:

The manual has you begin on the wings first. Gluing in the aileron control horns is very straight forward. Before you do, look at all of your G10 control horns that come with the plane and one will have a slightly shorter tab. THAT one is for the elevator. If you do use it elsewhere on accident, it's not that big of a deal because you can always sand down the one you end up using. To glue these in, just make sure you sand/scuffs of the G10 to give your adhesive a better grip. The manual says to use medium CA, but I used the white gorilla glue. No problems here.

Next is hinging the ailerons. The manual doesn't mention T-pins, and I really like using them to make sure the CA hinges are centered. So check out Scott's article and the section entitled "Flight Control Hinging". Scott describes perfectly how to hinge the ailerons and this is exactly what I did.

All that is left is to remove the pins and drop some thin CA on the hinges and make sure you're getting the throw that you desire.

That's it for part one. Next post will have installing the aileron servos and setting up the control linkages.