Tuesday 10 May 2016

The tail section is held to the mid section by 4 3mm bolts. They go into an aluminum clamp that clamps down on a carbon rod. I am not a fan of this method. I would much prefer to bolt the two halves together directly.
Anyway the kit comes with some nice shinny bolts as you see on the right. The problem with these is that they are soft and it requires a lot of torque to tighten the clamp down enough to hold it secure on the rod. I am sure you know where this is going. Sure enough they hex portion stripped on all four after a few cycles. Unfortunately the bolts were put in place on the clamps prior to the clamp mechanism being installed so the head of the bolt would not come through the hole that you see.
After some swearing I carefully enlarge the holes and removed them and put in some proper hardened bolts instead.
The fuel tank and air trap have been installed and I will need to start the programming soon but it is nice out and it is time to go fly something.