Pilot RC 122" Extra 330SC

[HRRC Flyer]

Hey @Joe Hunt & @Notorious B.E.N. ,

I'm no Bill Hempel, but FWIW, a good friend of mine has been flying almost exclusively 3W motors for allot longer than I've watched him fly. In the 15+ years that I have watched him, I have only seen one ignition module of his go bad, and that was on one of his 3W28's about six years ago. I've heard other people the same thing about 3W ignitions, but I would bet EVERY manufacturer has made a few faulty ignition modules.

Joe,

Your Extra looks AWESOME. Between you and @stangflyer talking about them, I may have to try a Pilot ARF. I saw one when they first came out and I was not impressed with their quality at all at that time. Obviously, they must have improved.

Keep up the AWESOME work . . . . .

 

[Notorious B.E.N.]

Hey @Joe Hunt & @Notorious B.E.N. ,

I'm no Bill Hempel, but FWIW, a good friend of mine has been flying almost exclusively 3W motors for allot longer than I've watched him fly. In the 15+ years that I have watched him, I have only seen one ignition module of his go bad, and that was on one of his 3W28's about six years ago. I've heard other people the same thing about 3W ignitions, but I would bet EVERY manufacturer has made a few faulty ignition modules.

Joe,

Your Extra looks AWESOME. Between you and @stangflyer talking about them, I may have to try a Pilot ARF. I saw one when they first came out and I was not impressed with their quality at all at that time. Obviously, they must have improved.

Keep up the AWESOME work . . . . .

I never had a problem with the ignition when I had my 56 twin. That was back when there were problems with them overheating so all I did was mount it on some pieces of basswood so there was a gap underneath it.

 

[49dimes]

Lets see some updates! I haven't touched a plane in two days. To busy building a BBQ island. Only plane thing I've done is call around looking for a spinner bolt. I'm going through with drawls. Starting to get the shakes

A BBQ ISLAND!?!?!? Now yer talking my kinda lingo! Uhmnnnnnn......Barbie...Q.....

 

[Joe Hunt]

Lets see some updates!

Okay... I got out in the garage for a couple of hours tonight.

I decided I didn't want any spacers off the firewall (like on the H9 Sukhoi) so I measured 1/2" in on the motorbox sides and bottom and marked that:



Then I lined up the firewall there and bolted it on. I used my fancy drill block to keep the holes straight:



More updates in a couple of hours...

 

[Joe Hunt]

Okay... where were we?

I marked the center line of the aluminum bracket and spaced out my machine screws 1/4" offset from the machine screws on the firewall so I could easily get a wrench in there to tighten up the locknuts. I've been asked why I use a lot of stainless steel machine screws. I'll use alloy steel, aluminum, or stainless depending on the situation. SS is harder than alloy steel. SS is heavier and doesn't seem to have quite the same hold with locktite that alloy does, so I don't use it everywhere. Aluminum breaks and strips easy, so there are only a few places I use it. Here I drilled my holes nice and tight for the 4/40 screws. So I went with SS because the head is hard to strip:



I used 3/4" machine screws, but 1/2" is all you need, I just didn't have any handy:



I drilled pilot holes for the pilot holes, haha, and was pretty accurate drilling the Pilot RC laser marks for the DA-170.



Once you have your pilot hole you can run your drill in reverse to start your final hole and it will keep the wood from getting splintered up. Then switch to normal drilling direction and finish the hole off. You can start it in reverse on each side of the hole for a nice clean result:



Final hole after reversing trick:



I used 1/4-20 blindnuts for the engine bolts:

 

[Joe Hunt]

I trial fitted the motor without gluing in the firewall:



The Pilot manual said to space out the engine 1/4"-1/2", but I went with an 1/8" for looks.



Also, I wanted to make mention of the material used for the firewall. It's much harder and has many more layers than either the H9 Sukhoi or AW Yak. It has at least 8 layers and is super hard. I usually epoxy in my blindnuts but I thought to myself, "no need."

 

[Joe Hunt]

I may have to try a Pilot ARF. I saw one when they first came out and I was not impressed with their quality at all at that time. Obviously, they must have improved.

Hi David! I remember hearing that about them years ago, too. This is my first. It doesn't have a two piece cowl or some of the other features of the AW yak, but the quality of the wood, covering, design, and workmanship look as good as any ARF I've seen. I haven't run into any trouble on it yet, either, with about 2 days to go until RTF.

 

[HRRC Flyer]

That's good to know. . . . .

Thanks

 

[Notorious B.E.N.]

I like a little more gap than recommended too.

Are you putting the RE3's in this one too?

 

[Jetpainter]

Hi David! I remember hearing that about them years ago, too. This is my first. It doesn't have a two piece cowl or some of the other features of the AW yak, but the quality of the wood, covering, design, and workmanship look as good as any ARF I've seen. I haven't run into any trouble on it yet, either, with about 2 days to go until RTF.

No two piece cowl? That's odd considering the 107" 35% has a two piece.