Man, never knew that building a PT40 Trainer Kit is so tough and time consuming, I'm no where close to finishing it. It's getting late, nearly 4am here. I best be going to bed soon. I will be sharing my pictures and then after the maiden flight - I hope to add the ArduPilot into the plane soon.
:D I'm off to sleep.
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I just inherited a couple of airframes, a PT40 and an Ultra Stick. I figure I'll strip the aged MDS power out of the PT and convert it to electric (easier than re-plumbing and resurrecting a questionable engine anyway, I'm guessing). I'll fly it for a while, to get the hang of it, while I install power on the Stick as well. It'll be a much livelier plane, and I've been warned that the PT40 will be boring to fly once I've getting some Stick time.
Bah. I'm planning for that. The same qualities that make the PT40 "boring" seem like they'll make it a pretty good candidate for a UAV build, so that'll come soon after.
RealFlight (the RC simulator) has been a real help, by the way. It has a PT40 in its lineup, and I'm hoping that it'll help save me a few crashes in the long run.
I think you'll be happy with your choice it's a good TX. The PT-40 was my first plane 20 years ago! I still have it, though it's gone through a few modifications in the past 5 years. I put a set of floats on it about 5 years ago when I got the urge to try flying off the local lake. It was a little underpowered with the O.S. 40FP I had installed in it, so I went to a Magnum 80RFS 4-stroke, flew great and the extra thrust really helped get it off the water! A .40-.46 2 stroke will be great with the standard gear if your doing glow. I had a radio failure after flying it for 19 years without a single crash. Flew fine for the first 2 laps around the field, then I banked on the final downwind leg and it remained in the bank with a shallow descent angle, no recovery was possible. Fortunately it crashed in the long grass on the edge of the runway. The damage sustained was a testament to the kit. The firewall was broken and the covering on the wing basically shattered (from torsion I think). Anyway it's hanging up in my shop waiting for an overhaul (it's second in 20 years) I'll eventually strip the covering, and convert it to electric, that's the current bug I've been bitten by (pun intended!). Electric is so much more fun, no messy cleanup after a day of flying!
Anyway enjoy your PT-40! Make sure to join a club and get an instructor to teach you how to fly, you'll be happy you did!
I could tell you more stories about trying to teach myself how to fly.....ohhhhhhhh boy!!!!!!!!
Happy Flying,
Nathaniel