Golden Eagle Aircraft "Talon" BUILD

[Fishdeth]

Hi guys,
When I went to the "Nall" this year, (first timer), I picked up a pretty trick Giant scale profile plane, The TALON F1-P by Golden Eagle Aircraft for $325.00.
If you all care to indulge me, I'd like to do a build thread on this plane !

Jim

[Fishdeth]

I usually don't follow the exact order of the instructions and start wherever the heck I feel like !
As I was lookin at the kit and components, I noticed that the area of the fuse where the tail wheel mounted was only 1/8" ply... IF that thick.
So I hogged out some of the foam and glued in a piece of hardwood and I feel this will be much stronger for any side forces.

[Fishdeth]

Of course this would interfere with the fin install, so a little mod had to be done there to ride over the TW support stick.

[Fishdeth]

I wanted to get the gear and wheels on so the fuse would be supported for further work so I installed the high quality aluminum LG legs and the profile wheel pants & wheels.
Installed the tailwheel assy which is also a springy aluminum.

[Fishdeth]

Next I wanted to put on the cowl strakes (dry fit) but the right one needed a slight mod to clear the engine box area.

[Fishdeth]

The kit provides a solid wood rails for glow engines or rail mount gas engines, but also suplimental instructions for fabricating and installing a mount system for a DA-50, Brison 3.2, or in my case A Thor 45 CDI.
I basically followed the Brison instructions and had to use a different bolt pattern to mount the engine.
You have to cut out a sizeable portion of the front area, basically, the rail mount area.

[Fishdeth]

I didn't take pics of this, but I laminated 1/16" lite ply to the verticle cut area and thin balsa to the underside of the nose area, then I covered those areas with the covering that I scavanged from the removed portion.

[Fishdeth]

Next step was to install hardwood dowels 5/8" diam and 5/8" length right up against the engine rails that continue back through the fuse.these will be drilled all the way through so that the 1"x1"x4" aluminum angle brackets can be bolted on each side of the fuse to provide a wide aera to bolt the engine and spacers/standoffs.

[Fishdeth]

To get the dowels pretty much right on the rails, I had to cheat the measurement up a little from the manual. This made the top dowel encroach into the slot for the cowl strake tabs, so a little dremmel work was needed.

[Fishdeth]

The manual called for the top hole in the alum bracket to be 5/16" from the top, but again, I had to reduce that by almost 1/8". but now the bracket rides right under the cowl strake and the hloes line up good with the dowels and when bolted through, will provide a sturdy platform to mount the engine to. (A bracket on each side of the fuse.

[Fishdeth]

I used Elmers Yellow Wood glue to glue the dowels in, as well as the ply and balsa on the fuse cuts.
I may even use it to glue in the provided Robarts hinges for all the surfaces.
Just as strong, if not stronger than epoxy and a lot easier to keep the mess to a minimum.

[Fishdeth]

I also got both switches installed and routed a tube through the fuse to push the antennae wire up through from the reciever compartment.

That's all for now, will add more as I do it.

Jim

[TEKE]

Jim your makeing good progress on the Talon. One of these days I'll get motivated and take mine out of the box. At least I now know what I have ahead of me.

Carl

[Fishdeth]

I laid the fuse on my drill press and first drilled half way through with a bit smaller than the intended size and repeated on the other side, then drilled with the intended 1/4" bit, once again, half way on each side.
Then the brackets were bolted to the fuse and the motor template was taped to the brackets and the motor mount toles were drilled.

[Fishdeth]

I got the engine bolted to the brackets with the supplied standoffs and noticed that I had a slight problem.
Somehow the thrust angle came out to around 2 degrees LEFT thrust.
A bit too much to adjust with washers on the left side or grinding the right standoffs or even a combination of the two.... so, back to the drawing board.
I believe I can correct it by only remaking one new bracket.