Chief shipped it UPS? Interesting, I got mine direct from PilotUSA and they shipped truck freight.

Glad they are sorting you out.

Ok got my replacent kit in with less damage than the first so im going to fix and fly. I will def never order a giant scale kit on black friday again as ups obviously cant handle it. That said its got a small crunched area right behind the front bulkhead in the sheeting. Cant see any way to get to it from the inside. If i can push it out and wick some ca to the crack should be fine. Was thinking of cutting a hole in the bulkhead any suggestions?

Pic2

Oh and pilot rc in 24 years in the hobby your manual is the most pathetic thing ive seen in a high end kit you need to step your game up.

None of the control horns and slots line up with the hingelines. Is this normal? Should i elongate the slots? Or use as is?

Originally Posted by scooby61

None of the control horns and slots line up with the hingelines. Is this normal? Should i elongate the slots? Or use as is?

I just confirmed this on mine. Ugh.

Reinforces my theory that they just blindly reused the 87in parts.


I’ll have to contact Pilot about replacements.

Thinking this through, there is another solution if Pilot doesn't have better control horns.

The usual solution for an offset control horn is to offset the servo arm to match. I am not going to go buy offset horns but we can get pretty close by angling the arms at neutral.

I guesstimated some number in the servo calculator spreadsheet and it comes up with something like 5-10degrees forward angle on the servo arm at neutral to get equal throws, assuming everything else is square. I can take some measurements at home and refine this.


I may just do this, and since I am using sbus servos I can reprogram the neutrals and not have to mess with subtrims and ATVs.

I got a response from pilot:


"This horn is common to all aircraft. Will be a bit biased and does not affect use. If you need extreme precision, you need modify it yourself."

So its a confirmed design flaw. Using the same horn is fine, but the mounting slots should have been further back from the hinge line. I have to do some experimenting now to see if re-drilling them is an option or offsetting the servo horns will be better. One thing I am fairly sure of is that if I go the offset method, down travel is going to be limited to 40 degrees or so. That's fine on the ailerons but will have to see if its enough on elevators for really flat inverted spins.

Originally Posted by jharkin

I got a response from pilot:


"This horn is common to all aircraft. Will be a bit biased and does not affect use. If you need extreme precision, you need modify it yourself."



So its a confirmed design flaw. Using the same horn is fin, but the mounting slots should have been further back from the hinge line. I have to do some experimenting now to see if redrilling them is an option or offsetting the servo horns will be better. One thing I am fairly sure of is that if I go the offset method, down travel is going to be limited to 40 degrees or so. Thats fine on the ailerons but will have to see if its enough on elevators for really flat inverted spins.

Basically same thing i got from them. I built a pilot extra some years ago and all was good. So far so many issues with this aircraft from the useless manual to mis engineered parts this will most likely be the last pilot airframe i ever buy. They advertise "highly prefabricated to get you in the air quickly" then tell us if you want it to work correctly modify it yourself. Probably should have waited for the flex mamba to come back in stock. But preferred the more scale look of these.

They set my hinges so tight that i couldnt get full throw if i wanted to anyway. I spent 4 to 5 hours digging epoxy out of the installed hinges the rudder ones were locked solid.

I havent checked yet but if you move the mounting slots back youll probably need longer servo arms and control rods. Also will need extra torque from servo at extreme deflections. My ds305's may not be enough for elevator and rudder.

Originally Posted by scooby61

I havent checked yet but if you move the mounting slots back youll probably need longer servo arms and control rods. Also will need extra torque from servo at extreme deflections. My ds305's may not be enough for elevator and rudder.

I think you will be fine. I used the servo calculator to figure out the loads - look at my build thread. The surfaces on this plane are pretty small... about the only way you are going to overload a 300oz servo is if you set 50 degrees of rudder and prop it for 100mph. not likely.

I do agree the hinging is too tight. I really dont like that any of these companies are pre-gluing the hinges, I'd much rather do that myself with hinge points.


I hear you on the Mamba but I just never liked the looks of a Model 12 so much and I really dont like the color schemes... but reading the manual it looks like a plane built as well or better than an EF.

I toyed with the idea of building an EMHW kit for a while, but I have too many other project right now to take that on. Live and learn.

So far i know several who have recently gotten Extreme flight and skywing arfs with preglued hinges and they were all perfect. Pre hinging is great if done right imho. Pilot is supposed to be one of the top names in the hobby. So far im pretty dissapointed in their design and qc on this kit.

Originally Posted by scooby61

So far i know several who have recently gotten Extreme flight and skywing arfs with preglued hinges and they were all perfect. Pre hinging is great if done right imho. Pilot is supposed to be one of the top names in the hobby. So far im pretty dissapointed in their design and qc on this kit.

Just curious what your serial number is. I have 003.

That's a bummer you have to deal with these problems. I almost bought this air frame... I asked PilotUSA a question about the quality issues I heard about in various threads this year, and they gave me a generic "Everything is better" response. I went with a SkyWing kit instead and so far the quality has been top notch.

PilotUSA... These are not acceptable issues on a $900 air frame.