RV4 Progress

Well, the Stevens Aero RV4 has entered into the closing phases of construction. This phase may take a while because of the large number of components I need to finish of.

All of the components are assembled, and I have started the final sand, and will hopefully start covering in the next day or two (maybe tonight depending on how things turn out).

The SA kits use "pull/pull" setups for the elevator and rudder, which is different to what I have seen - the "push/pull" model using a stiff piece of wire. Pull/Pull uses two thread attached to control horns on each opposite sides of the control surface. These two threads are then tied to opposite sides of the two pronged servo horn. As the servo moves in either direction it will pull one thread or the other, thus making the control surface move in that direction. I must admit it seems a bit fiddly, and I'm not sure why it is seen as better than push/pull. Perhaps it gives you a little more option in terms of running the control lines; a stiff piece of wire needs to run pretty much straight otherwise you get too much friction whereas these threads can curve some. It might also be a bit lighter, but I wouldn't have thought enough to make a difference.

Putting the kit together has been a lot of fun although there have been moments where tiredness, and desire to make some progress has caused some pretty significant mistakes. However, with the hobby knife, and a bit of frustration these all seem to have been recovered from.

Currently I need quite a few things to get it in the air. Probably the most important and expensive is new radio gear. There is no way I am going to fly this on the electrafun gear. The two radio sets I'm looking at are around the $300-400 mark. However, because I don't actually need that all that soon I'm putting it off for the moment.

More pressing things I need to finish up are some hardware like control lines, velcro connectors, an engine and speed controller etc.

I'll keep you posted.