Originally Posted by sfaust

Same here, about 75 flights, solid airframe. I wouldnt worry.

flying mine with a DLE35... i have really been wringing it out! even using the stock CA hinges. i have my high rate with throws maxed completely out and i can get it in a nice tight flat spin... it is a fun literally DO ALL airplane! i can actually make it through the sportsman IMAC sequence... i have the 10cc on pre order hoping it flys exactly the same!

I actually like the looks of the 10cc better...lol

Originally Posted by Carruthers43

flying mine with a DLE35... i have really been wringing it out! even using the stock CA hinges.

I'm flying with the DLE-35 as well, although I had the CA hinges fail on multiple surfaces on mine. I replaced them all with Robarts and its been fine so far. That was the only real fault I have with the plane. I should have replaced them from the start, and would recommend others to do so.

I also had the flap control horns fail, but that wasn't a design flaw as I 'exceeded the design limitations of the aircraft' as a fellow pilot put it. Full power inverted, deploy full flaps, pull hard to upright and landing. Not something they designed for I'm sure But a sweet maneuver when the flaps hold up

All in all,even flown hard, it is a sturdy and well built airplane. I'd buy another in a heartbeat should something happen to mine. It's also very versatile, with big tires for STOL, floats for water, skis for winter, tow hook for gliders. A really nice all round fun airplane.

Seal Gap.. the hinges...
if your a long time flyer as I have been you see things..
and once you have those things happen to you
then you adopt a method of doing things NO MATTER WHAT.
one thing I do to all my planes.. are SEAL GAP the hinges..
even the Rudder.. lol... so I have NEVER had a hinge failure
after I started doing this.....

Originally Posted by Teammuir1

Seal Gap.. the hinges...
if your a long time flyer as I have been you see things..
and once you have those things happen to you
then you adopt a method of doing things NO MATTER WHAT.
one thing I do to all my planes.. are SEAL GAP the hinges..
even the Rudder.. lol... so I have NEVER had a hinge failure
after I started doing this.....

I also do this to all my airplanes

Sealing the gaps helps, but is not a cure. My gaps were sealed, and my CA hinges still failed.

Originally Posted by sfaust

Sealing the gaps helps, but is not a cure. My gaps were sealed, and my CA hinges still failed.

HA.... HA... lol I have NEVER had a hinge fail after I have
Seal gapped them... guess I just know how to do it ..
LMAO....

gotta Poke fun..

Originally Posted by Teammuir1

HA.... HA... lol I have NEVER had a hinge fail after I have
Seal gapped them... guess I just know how to do it ..
LMAO....

gotta Poke fun..

I guess so!

I've never had cancer, a heart attack, or died. I guess I'm immortal and those things just dont happen 😉

Has any one else converted their Valiant to a Bush Plane. ?

Is that 41 or 43?

here is mine on PR Bush wheels... once I get to the field I will
take better pics ....

here it is my own scratch built with a RCGF32cc and complete wood and carbon rod hinges a 2 piece fuselage and bolt on stab and fin

hope you Valiant lovers like it

the problem i have is that i have put my elevator servos right under the stab and it needs 800gr of nose weight which brings it to 8000gr of total weight without fuel.

For you guys that are using a DLE35 in your Valiant, could you give some insight on how you mounted it? I'm assuming I'm going to have to remove the blind nuts and redrill the bottom holes to mate up, The standoffs are designed to use a screw through the firewall, but there isn't enough room in there to get a bolt through from the rear. Possibly replace the 10-32 blind nuts with some 5mm ones and use a 5mm stud?

I can't detail installing the exact engine you're using but I can give you general guidelines based on the VVRC Gen-2 40cc twin I'm using.

My engine came with a removable back-plate (mounting plate) which I used to lay out the new hole locations (it's lighter and easier to work with verses the whole engine assembly). In the 1st image, it's "resting" on two rounded tooth picks (at the bottom). The other object (that's hard to identify) is actually an old aluminum hobby style c-clamp, which is holding the back-plate in place until I could mark the new hole locations (shown outlined in red in another photo).

Although you can buy (Dubro) 10-32 blind nuts (among other brands), there's no reason you can't drive-out and reuse the originals. For driving the original nuts out, use bolts, with the threads fully engaged in the nuts. I used some spare machine screws I had on hand for this, but using the factory supplied bolts will work, but it'd be a good idea to protect the bolt heads by using a plastic tipped hammer, or a piece of wood (or brass/copper) between the bolt head and hammer. Because the original nuts appear to have been epoxied in place, removing them will leave some sharp wood fragments protruding out of the backside of the firewall. It's difficult to get back there to sand them down so I got creative and wire-tied (twist-tied) a small folded piece of (80 grit ?) sandpaper to my finger (see image).

For my wooden dowels (to fill the old holes) I took the "easy way out" (verses risking my poor health and life, going into a store) and cut the handle up on an old (spare) wooden kitchen spoon. When gluing the dowels in (w/epoxy), get them as perfectly flush at the rear as possible (it's very difficult to sand back there, so allow any excess length to protrude out of the front only!). If anything, have them slightly recessed at the rear verses sticking out (flush is very desirable though). Sand the dowels flush (at the front) once the epoxy is fully dry. If the dowels are not flush at the rear, they'll likely keep the blind nuts from sitting "square", and/or keep them from going fully into place, which you don't want!

You'll want to epoxy the blind nuts into their new locations. Use the included short, large diameter, aluminum spacers against the firewall (on the bolts) for "pulling" the nuts fully into position, also use flat washers under the bolt heads (leave the bolts/spacers in place until the epoxy is 100% fully cured). Before epoxying the nuts in, you need to coat the threads of the bolts with good oil to prevent (accidentally) gluing them into the nuts (I keep some Mobile 5W-30 synthetic motor oil in a little needle tipped squeeze bottle, which is what I used). What ever oil you use, make sure it gets down into the threads ("twisting" the bolts in a lightly oil soaked rag works great for this), but you don't want it dripping all over the place. You'll need to go back later with Q-Tips (and brake cleaner, alcohol, de-greaser) and clean the oil out of the nuts so the Loctite (you should use when mounting the engine) will be effective. Make sure (before the epoxy dries) the blind nuts are fully seated into the back of the firewall buy jamming a finger back in there and feeling the edges. If not fully seated, tighten the bolts a little more, as needed, but don't go crazy and over tighten them.

Without knowing more about your specific mounts, it's hard for me to suggest exactly how to do things. I did look at images of the DLE 35cc engine (with rear exhaust) and it appears the mounting bolts go from the front to the rear, just as on my engine, so you should just need to lay out the holes as centered and even as possible (centered inside any of the original mounting holes on the firewall), mark the new hole locations, drill, etc.


Note: I didn't take any photos with the nuts installed, just the work up to and prior to epoxying them in place.

when you say there isn't enough room to get a bolt through, what does that mean? I hung a 35RA on the front of a US 30 and a 20cc Phoenix Corsair, both of which I suspect are similar to the Valiant. I used the stock hardware.