b) Insert your ESC up inside the nose of the airplane, in the
area above the built-in plywood battery tray.
c) Pass the motor leads of the ESC through the firewall and
connect the leads to the motor. Operate the motor and check the
direction of rotation. If you need to reverse the rotation, refer to
the instructions that came with the motor and ESC.
❑
7) Put a strip of 3/4” wide hook-and-loop tape (commonly called
Velcro® - not supplied) on the battery compartment floor. Put a
strip of the mating tape on each of your battery packs. This will
keep your battery pack from shifting position in flight.
Note: Hook-and-loop “tape” has either the hook or the loop on only
one side of the strip. The other side is sticky back.
❑
8) Cut two 9” long pieces of 3/4” wide hook-and-loop strap ma-
terial (commonly called Velcro® - not supplied). Install the two
straps in the battery compartment as shown, running them
through the slots in the plywood floor. Anchor the straps to the
backside of the plywood with a few drops of glue. These straps
will keep you battery pack from falling out of the airplane.
NOTE: Hook-and-loop “strap” has the hook surface on one side
of the strip and the loop surface on the other side. You can overlap
the ends of the strip and stick them together, effectively creating
a strap to hold your battery pack securely in position.
❑
9) Mount the cowling to the fuselage with the four M2.6 x 10mm
PWA Screws provided. Note that four holes for the screws are al-
ready in the cowling - two on each side. Tape the cowling in cor-
rect position on the fuselage, using a low-tack tape. Use a 1/16"
drill bit to make a guide hole through one of the upper cowl mount-
ing holes and into the fuselage side. Install an M2.6 x 10mm PWA
Screw into the drilled hole and screw it in place - do not over-
tighten the screw. Recheck the overall fit of the cowl and make
any adjustments needed with tape to hold it in place. Then on the
opposite side of the fuselage, drill another 1/16" guide hole and
install a screw into that hole. Repeat this process for the remain-
ing two cowl mounting holes. Remove the tape.
❑
10) COOLING IS IMPORTANT!
With a fully cowled in electric motor, it is very important to make
sure your power system is getting proper cooling. You must have
air flowing into the front of the cowling and then out the back. This
air flow keeps your motor running cool. Previously in Step 3 of
this section we made 3 additional holes in the firewall to allow the
cooling air to flow from the cowling into the fuselage and past the
battery pack and ESC. In Step 4 we made a hole in the bottom
of the rear fuselage to finally let the air back outside of the air-
plane. This flow of air through the entire length of the fuselage is
vital to good performance of your electric power system.
The exact size and shape of the holes you should make in the
front of the cowling is a matter of personal preference, cosmeti-
cally. A round hole(s), square hole, or slots - it’s your choice. We
made three slots in the bottom of our prototype cowling, as shown.
The slots are approximately 3/8” wide and 1-5/8” long.
OPTIONAL SPINNER: A 2-1/4” dia. plastic spinner is included in
this kit. No doubt it will be used by almost everyone who is in-
stalling a glow engine. However with an electric motor you may
prefer to not use the spinner in order to allow additional cooling
air to flow into the cowling. The opening between the prop shaft
and the cowling (which a spinner would cover up) allows a signif-
icant amount of air to flow directly onto the motor.
However, this does not mean that you cannot use a spinner on
this airplane. Many people do successfully use big spinners on
fully cowled electric motors. You simply need to make some ad-
ditional openings in the front of the cowling for cooling air to enter,
perhaps a couple more slots in the top of the cowling, as shown.
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