MThemadhatter

Thanks for the advice, I have started building mine and am doing a seperate build thread here, **LINK**

I have picked up one of these for my birthday I got the ARF version and am transplanting the power train and servos from my HABU Here is a link to the kit with a buddy discount **LINK** I am not going to do the whole unboxing thing, there are loads of threads and videos covering this out there but rather sharing my thoughts about putting one together from scratch. Having said that the quality of the packaging and the kit its self is very good. The first job I tackled was working out the installation of the ESC and routing the wires to the DF unit. I put the ESC on the underside of the battery tray, the only snag with this is it will make removing it a bit of a pain in the future. Routing the cables so that they do not interfere with the airflow is a little trickier. This is made harder because the ESC is on the top half of the fuse and the fan unit bolts to the bottom half so you can't finish the installation until the two halves are glued together. The Eflite DF-15 unit fits in neatly enough but I ended up digging out some foam and running the cables past the cheater holes and then down a channel on the side. I am planning on hand launching and belly landing mine so I am leaving the landing gear off and will make some covers for the wheel wells. I have used 30 min epoxy to glue the to fuse halves together, wings and booms the fit of these parts is nice and tight. As it is going to be a belly lander I am reinforcing the fuel tanks. I am glassing them and then running some 2mm carbon rod through them and up into the wing. I am not going for a perfect finish here as these fill take the brunt of landings. I am not planning on fitting the rest of the ordnance until I have flown it a few times.

I have received mine today, I got the ARF version as I am transplanting the radio gear over from my HABU, and I aslo have a set of servoless retracts I could use. However the vampires at the club struggle to ROG unless the grass has just been cut. Obviously as mine is ARF all the components are loose and the fuse is in two pieces, so I have one question what glue would you use ? I think its made of elapor/EPO type foam so I was thinking medium and slow CA with kicker and maybe epoxy for the wings. Also did you remove the paint from the glued surfaces ?

How did you get on with belly landing with those mods ? I am thinking about getting the ARF version of on of these and using the radio gear and power set up from my HABU. I fly off grass and a couple of guys have got the Vampire and have a hard time taking off so I was thinking of a lighter hand larunched version.

Ok switching on my brain , the leg in the above link is 145mm to the axle so that's 45mm short x2 gives me a 90mm wheel to get it to that lenght. Or a smaller wheel with the leg extended slightly

Thanks, what size wheels are you using ? I am going to all this trouble as in the past I have had problem's with the nose gear on trike models + grass. The nose wire on my elflite 120 retracts is only 4mm so it tends to twist and compress causing drag and dropping the nose. Trailing link should solve this problem.

Thanks for that, I presume that measurement is top of oleo to the axle ? I was looking at these **LINK** Althought that would mean either sticking them on the end of the leg or makings some kind of extension. They might serve for the main wheels as well if they are not to long. This would mean re-shaping the wheel wells but that should not be to big a job. I might have to put softer springs in as well I plan on using my eflite 120 retracts, the nose leg pin is 4mm on these what size are they on oleos that come with the kit ?

Hi All I am considering buying one of these and doing it electric to run off 8cell using 2x4.5Ah batteries in series as I have these from another model and using a PP5065-320 motor and a 16x10 prop. One thing I would like to do is replace the nose leg oleo with a trailing link one, can any one tell me what the lengh of the legs that come with the kit ?