Building Instructions
General Tips:
We recommend that you follow the order of construction shown in this manual for the fuselage,
as it makes access to everything easier and saves time in the end. The wings and stabs can be
done at almost any point, and only need servos installing anyway, as we have already installed
all the control-surface horns for you at the factory.
The first thing to do is protect the finished paint on the outside of the model from scratches and
dents during building - so cover your work table with a piece of soft carpet, cloth or bubble-plas-
tic. The best way to stop small spots of glue getting stuck to the outside of the fuselage is to give
the whole model 2 good coats of clear car wax first,
but
of course you must be sure to remove
this 100% properly before adding any decals or markings. If you prefer you can cover the major-
ity of the fuselage with the bubble-plastic used to pack your model for shipping, fixed with paper
masking tape, which also protects it very well.
When sanding any areas of the inside of the fuselage to prepare the surface for gluing some-
thing onto it, do NOT sand right through the layer of glasscloth on the inside foam sandwich !
It is only necessary to rough up the surface, with 60/80 grit or equivalent, and wipe off any dust
with alcohol (or similar) before gluing to make a perfect joint.
Before starting construction it is a good idea to check inside the fuselage for any loose glass
fibres that could cut your hands, and a quick scuff over any of these with a coarse Scotchbrite
pad will remove them.
Note:
It is
very important
to prepare the inside of the fuselage properly, by roughing up and
cleaning the surface, before gluing
any
parts to it.
Landing Gear
Finished in 2 hours
The 1st job is to fit the landing gear legs and you can leave
these in place, as they will protect the bottom of the fuse-
lage during assembly. Wheel pants assembly can be done
later, but is shown here.
Composite-ARF developed a new carbon fibre landing gear
for the Extra. It consists of 45 deg laminated carbon fibre
cloth and a huge number of carbon tows inside, all made
under vacuum and heat-cured. However it is still light
weight, and retains enough flexibility to take the shock out
of any landings that are less-than-perfect!
To make it easy to replace or maintain the landing gear, the
undercarriage fixing bolts are installed from the outside,
bottom, of the fuselage, as shown in the photo here.
Mark the centreline on each landing gear, and drill 3 holes
with a sharp 6.5mm Ø drill as shown in the photo. The cen-
tres of the holes are measured from the bend in the leg that
will be flush with the outside of the fuselage.
Composite-ARF SuperXtra 330L
(3.1m span)
12
(above) The main legs are bolted
in place through the bottom of
the fuselage with 6 x M6 bolts.
