MODELTECH SE-5A ARF

Model Airplane News, Mar 2005 by Hampton, Scott

Quick-build WW I fighter

'Every time I fly the plane, I'm impressed with its performance."

THE SESa HAD A DISTINGUISHED CAREER DURING WW I, and it turned the tide of air supremacy for the British when it proved to be a deadly match for the German Albatros fighter. Now, ModelTech's .46-size ARF version continues that tradition of innovation and superiority. Not only does this plane look good in the air, but it's also one of the easiest and fastest ARFs I've ever assembled.

ModelTech's SE-5A features all-wood construction; an ironon covering; a painted fiberglass cowl; wire wheels; adjustable, metal center-cabane struts; wooden outer struts; and a vacuum-formed gun. A 4-channel radio and .52 to .61 4-stroke are recommended.

IN THE BOX

Inside the box, everything is wrapped in its own plastic bag-even the nuts and bolts. I sorted the bags by construction steps so I would have only a few loose parts on the bench during any step of the assembly. When I removed the fuselage from the bag, the first thing I noticed was that there weren't any wrinkles in the covering. Next, I checked the wings, and they, too, were wrinkle-free, as were all the other covered parts-not unusual, as the covering is Top Flite MonoKote. On inspecting the parts, I could tell right away that this is a high-quality kit that would be fun to build. The kit is so complete that the only things I needed to complete it were a Magnum .52 4-stroke, a radio, 5 servos, two 14-inch servo extensions, one 6-inch Y-harness, some fuel-line tubing, fuel and glue.

WING ASSEMBLY

With most of the kits I assemble, I like to start with the wings-mainly, attaching the ailerons. The slots are already cut, so all I had to do was insert the hinges, align everything and glue them into place with CA. Both wings are of one-piece construction, so no assembly was needed. Each wing has its own hardware bag, so it is easy to find the various nuts and bolts you need to attach them to the fuselage.

I test-fit the bottom wing onto the fuse-lage, but before attaching it, I made sure that the wingtips were equal distance to the fuselage tail. My next step was to install all of the mounting plates and hardware necessary to bolt on the top and bottom wings. The instructions were very clear about where everything went. I used 2 Cirrus 26BB servos for the ailerons. Then all I had to do was to glue the mounting blocks on the tray and bolt down the servos. In this kit, you won't find the usual string that pulls the servo extensions through the wing. ModelTech installed paper tubes in the wing for you to guide the servo wires through. I found this to be a much easier way to accomplish this task. I used two 14-inch servo-wire extensions and one 6-inch Y-harness to connect the servos to the receiver.

FUSELAGE ASSEMBLY

The first step in the fuselage's construction is to install the tail section. I inserted the vertical stabilizer into precut slots in the horizontal stabilizer and temporarily aligned it. I made marks to show where I needed to cut the covering material from both the horizontal and vertical stabilizers. I used 30-minute epoxy to attach the stabilizer and fin together; before the epoxy cured, I used a square to align everything. After the epoxy had cured, I pinned the tail section to the fuselage. I measured from the wingtip to the tip of the stabilizer to make sure that the tail was aligned with the wing. After some minor adjustments, I epoxied the tail section to the fuselage using 30-minute epoxy. I hinged all the control surfaces to the tail section and installed the HS-422 servos into the servo tray before I epoxied it into the fuselage. I assembled the fuel tank and installed it into the front of the fuselage with foam packed around it to insulate it from vibration. The last thing I did was to attach the engine mount to the firewall. This was simple to do because the mounting holes had already been drilled into the mount, and the blind nuts were preinstalled.

FINAL ASSEMBLY

I installed the pushrods on the servos for the tail section and connected the pushrods to the rudder and elevator using the supplied clevises. I then put the battery under the fuel tank and secured it in place with foam. I used the Magnum .52 4-stroke for power. The engine is positioned on the mount so that the prop washer is 4 ¾ inches from the firewall. I marked the locations of the holes needed for the bolts and locknuts and drilled them into the firewall. After the engine had been mounted, I slid the throttle pushrod into the preinstalled pushrod sleeve and connected the throttle servo.

Before I installed the fiberglass cowl, I used thick paper to make a template and marked the exhaust, needle valve and glow-plug cutouts on it. With the cowl in place, I transferred the locations of all the holes and then cut them out of the cowl. I slid the cowl over the engine and attached it to the front of the fuselage.

Now that everything was installed and hooked up inside the fuselage, I remounted the wings. I mounted the bottom wing first and then added the N-struts and the top wing. Because this is a biplane, it's important to check each wing's angle of incidence. The bottom wing should have O degree of incidence, and the top wing should have 1 degree of incidence. After I checked the center of gravity in my SE-5A, it was ready to go.