Great planes Lancaires ARF: A sport-scale ARF with elegance and class!

Model Airplane News, Oct 2003 by Coleman, Fred

The Lancair ES is the result of a continuing evolution of a good design that the general aviation community has taken to heart. The ES certainly is one of the most exotic-looking homebuilt airplanes today, and it turns heads wherever it goes. Now you can get those same admiring looks on your flightline with the Great Planes Lancair ES ARF. Like its full-size brother, this classy sport-scale model has quickly developed a dedicated following-just check any modeling discussion group on the Internet. After flying the Lancair, I can see why.

THE KIT

The Lancair comes in a very colorful box with many photographs of the model that are helpful during assembly. To achieve the curvy, flowing lines of the fuselage, Great Planes wisely chose to make it of lightweight fiberglass. The vertical fin is also molded in, and the entire structure is beautifully painted. The wing panels, stabilizer, elevators and rudder are built of balsa and covered in MonoKote and trimmed to match the fuselage. All of the components are individually wrapped for protection, but my fuselage had a few abrasions, and the fin had some minor chips. The kit also includes hinges, wheels, painted fiberglass wingtips, wheel pants and cowl, painted-aluminum landing gear, a fuel tank, an adjustable engine mount, a spinner, a generous hardware package, decals and a photo-illustrated assembly manual. Did I mention that the tinted glass is installed at the factory? It took me only about 24 hours to get this beauty ready for flight.

ASSEMBLY

The 39-page manual contains a lot of information, and it's a good idea to read through it before you start any assembly. To outfit the Lancair, you'll need seven standard servos, a .61 to .75 2-stroke or .91 4-stroke engine; I used an O.S. .91 FS .91SII-P 4-stroke.

Wing. Begin the wing assembly by installing the ailerons and flaps with the included CA hinges. I found that the precut hinge slots were not quite deep enough, so I enlarged them with a no. 11 hobby blade. Next, after I removed the covering over the four servo openings (2 ailerons, 2 flaps), I installed the aileron and flap servos; you'll need an extension for each aileron servo. Because of the wing's thin airfoil, it's necessary to glue the aileron servos to the underside of the top wing surface. Instead of using epoxy as recommended, I used PFM adhesive; it should make it easier to remove the servo, if necessary. Great Planes' "Expert Tip" that you first shrink-wrap the servo with a battery sleeve before you glue it in place is also a good alternative. I then covered the aileron servos with the provided plastic hatch after I had trimmed it to size and opened a slot for the servo arm. I then screwed the hatches into place over the servos.

The flap servos are installed on the underside of the plywood covers. I found that the covers fit a bit loosely and left small gaps around their perimeters. After you have mounted the flap servos on the covers, check the servo-mounting blocks and make sure that they don't hit the plywood tabs to which the covers are screwed; mine required some trimming.

My kit came with an addendum sheet regarding the fact that the holes in the control horns and the backing plates do not line up. This isn't a big deal; just drill 3/32-inch holes in the horns so they line up with the holes in the backing plates. After I had installed the servos, I joined the wing halves, and they went together easily. All that was left to finish the wing was to add the painted fiberglass wingtips. The section on joining the wings recommends that you drill out the wing dowel holes in the fuselage with a 21/64-inch-diameter drill bit, but a 5/16-diameter bit works just as well.

Fuselage. The fiberglass fuselage is a great asset to this kit and a thing of beauty. Not only are the windows installed, but the servo-tray rails and the blind nuts for the wing hold-down bolts are also installed. I first opened up the pushrod exits in the fuselage with a rotary tool. To facilitate the installation of the pushrod tubes, I used the wire pushrods as a guide and then slipped the tubes over them and into place. When you glue the blocks for the front pushrod-support former into the fuselage, be sure to allow at least 3/8-inch clearance from the bottom of the servo-tray support rails to the top of the blocks. You need this room to be able to install the servo tray later.

I then installed the removable horizontal stabilizer onto a carbon-fiber rod and an aluminum tube. The stab is screwed to the aluminum tube, or, for more security, you can permanently glue the stab into place. I now hinged the elevators and rudder and installed the control horns.

To power the Lancair, I used an O.S. .91 4-stroke engine and mounted it on the supplied engine mount. It's easier to install the engine-mount blind nuts on the back side of the firewall after you've cut the opening for the exhaust panel. I decided to mount the muffler on the outside of the fuselage (it doesn't fit inside the cowl very well), and I used an O.S. flex pipe (item no. 1111A) to extend the muffler out to a hose clamp that I modified by drilling a hole through it and securing it to the fuselage with a screw. I insulated the pipe from the clamp with a piece of silicone exhaust tubing.