Scatchbuilt trainer with powerpod by TOTAL newbie!

Hello All,

Just to let you know, I am a real NOOB as it comes to r/c flying (anything r/c actually). I used to fly a "cessna" in flight simulator 9 and X by Microsoft. I had a homebuilt cessna-like cockpit hooked up to my computer with all the gauges, buttons and switches. You didn't need a mouse or keyboard anymore. So, you can see I am not new to the priciple of flight.

I started r/c flying about two months ago. I bought (on a impulse buy) a rtf cessna from an unknown brand. It came disassebled in a plain brown box with instructions probably meant for another plane. This is where I learned all about the electronics, servos, clevisses, control horns and so on. After putting everything together, I took it out for its maiden, thinking this was going to be easy. Wow, was I wrong. I crashed it three times since, and now I gutted it for parts.

Thanks for youtube and the internet. I soon came across the Flite Test site. Josh and Josh make everything look so easy, so I decided to take up the build of my own trainer plane. So I went out and bought everything needed and looked around the house for the rest. I bought a Spektrum Dx6i too, to help me further along with this hobby, which I really started to like.

I downloaded the plans for the powerpod (by Josh Bixler from FLite Test) and the trainer (by http://www.youtube.com/user/smit6089) and went my way.

Here is a picture from the two put together. Notice the long motorshaft. That's the way it came out of my cessna. In the end the CG is good so lets hope she flies this way

Here is the video;

After testing and fitting I decided to put some reinforcement and coloring on it. This is how the fuselage turned out. Everything is reinforced with pakking tape.

On day two I started the wings. I felt this was going to be the most challenging part of the build. After carefully transferrrng the plans to my foamboard, the wngs were cut out. Here you can see it, pre-bent before it is all folded over and glued together.

Not bad of an airfoil for a newbie. Servos built in, wires lead thru, ailerons cut out, now it's time to hook everything up with controlhorns and pushrods put into place

here a video of the elevator and rudder hokked up and working;

Here you can see the final result. Now all I needed was an undercarriage and tailwheel to keep her from the ground. I chose these colors on purpose thinking it is very well vissible in the air.

So back to Josh Bixler from Flite Test where he builds his own wheels. I wrapped them in packing tape to protect them a little.

And the final result after three days looks like this. Everything is ready for her maiden flight. Now let's hope she flies. Servos are all centered, CG is correct, just one thing left to go wrong, and it probably will, that's me. But now when I crash it, at least I know how to rebuild her.

Everything hooked up and checked, time to do a little prayer and take her up.