Allan Bennett

I don't remember what the plan shows, but I created a front-hinged hatch on the underside of the front fuselage.

I've built it. Only flew it once, but crashed it due to loss of orientation and control (due I think, to the battery shifting in flight). The only damage was to the nose though, so I'm waiting for good weather to fly it again. I never thought about ease of replacing/maintaining the fans, but consider that rebuilding a nacelle would be not too difficult if necessary.

I'm pretty sure it must be 0.1" pin spacing (2.54mm) if it's to go onto the 4 header pins on the PRM-01. I get sockets like that from RadioSpares (RS) in almost any number of pins in 1 or 2 rows, like this one. You need the crimp pins to go with them like these. Look for "Crimp housings" and pins on other sites and you'll possibly get them cheaper/easier.

I agree. In my earlier post I was thinking of A10 Thunderbolt and Learjet, both of which I have, so I should have said as close as reasonably possible, or something like that.

As close to the fuselage as possible sounds right to me too, for the reason you've stated, and to minimise the structural load on the wing. I would also question whether a little bit of down thrust would be good, as is usually the case with normal front-mounted props, to counteract the lift when the throttle is increased.

I file rudimentary teeth into the end of a brass tube, and use it for drilling holes through foam cores. Should be easy to direct it by eye straight to the servo position.

Yes, with a flybar the mixing is normally done in the transmitter, and a 'flight controller' is not needed other than the gyro for the tail. Whether the swash moves up or down to increase pitch might depend on the way the linkages attach to the blade holders, but on my 3 TRexs the swash always moves up to increase pitch

I started flying RC helis with a Twister Bell coaxial indoor heli, but then moved on to a TRex 500. At that time we had a few club members flying TRex 450s, and they recommended them for learning. But I noted that those members were unable to fly when the wind got up a bit, so I chose the larger TRex 500 which I was able to fly in much windier conditions. Nothing on a model heli is a 'push fit'. As Frank has pointed out, there are bolts which positively attache each blade-grip to the feathering shaft that goes through the head.

I concur with the advice to get an experienced user go over the model, and supervise the repairs. But I would also advise getting hold of a manual -- looks like one of the 450 manuals with the suffix 'FB' (FlyBarred) from this page would show you how it's supposed to go together. In my experience Align's manuals are very good for setting up the model correctly too. I built and setup my first TRex 500 by following its manual to the letter, finally having it checked and test-flown by an experienced flyer.

Err, what update/version are we talking about? I thought my S8R was using the latest V2 ACCST EU LBT firmware, and I've checked the FrSky web site and see that the latest version was in July 2021. Self-check is on channel 12 switch, and I've programmed my Taranis so that it can't be activated while the motor arming switch is armed.

Welcome to the hobby/sport. Hopefully you've been able to find a club so that experienced members can help you out and give tuition.

First-class service from Unmannedtech! They've sent me a returns label and will give me a refund., even though it was my mistake to order it.

Unfortunately I've been advised by the vendor that this is a 'CAN' device rather than an 'I2C' device, so can't be connected to my 'regular' FC.

I've just taken delivery of a Matek M10Q-3100 GPS/compass module, but I don't see the GND/+v/Tx/Rx/SLC/SDA connections that I'm used to. Instead there's a 4-pin socket (with plug and lead supplied) labelled G/C-L/C-H/5V, and 6 solder pads labelled Rx2/Tx2/5V/G/swd/swc. Looks like the 6 solder pads are what I need, but am I safe to assume that swd and swc are the compass connections normally referred to as SLC and SDA?

Dohhh! Problem solved!