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Hey Mark thanks for soliciting suggestions. Having the wings ready to mate to the fuselage would be a nice step forward although I believe you are already doing that on your most current kits. I am about to tackle that and can guess it will be a real time sink to get it right on the money.
Based on the number of questions I have seen posted over the last few years on the Patrol I think it would be nice if Bob or yourself could revisit those design items that crop up a lot. Here is my list.
I have just finished building one wing and was surprised that I had to move holes in the ribs for the aileron cables to pass through without hitting metal. I would think by this point those hole locations would be fine tuned so the cables align well. I ended up creating doublers at a number of locations and elongated slots as one gets closer to the aileron bellcrank. These could easily be done by the factory so no fiddling is required to guestimate where the control cable is going to land.
Just about everyone mentions having to bend the arms of the fuselage mounted elevator idler arm to get the necessary inside clearance. It would be nice if this part could be redesigned so this step is unnecessary. An internal width of .750" is perfect. Why furnish a welded part and then tell people they really need to modify it to make it work?
The stick torque tube could really stand to be upped in diameter, the clearance inside is a bear to get the hardware to clear.
Overall I am quite pleased with the kit and think it is a good value for the money. Thanks for your support Mark. As I build, I have taken the time to create complete isometric assembly drawings for the Patrol which show all the required hardware. It takes a lot of time but I find this an invaluable reference when I take something apart and avoid having to figure out what the correct bolt length is again. I could build my next Patrol in 1/3 the time!! I do drool in envy when I reference the assembly drawings from VANS which they provide for any airplane for $10 on a jump drive. I would think a set of detailed assembly drawings would save you a lot of support time and everyone who builds a lot of head scratching.
Based on the number of questions I have seen posted over the last few years on the Patrol I think it would be nice if Bob or yourself could revisit those design items that crop up a lot. Here is my list.
I have just finished building one wing and was surprised that I had to move holes in the ribs for the aileron cables to pass through without hitting metal. I would think by this point those hole locations would be fine tuned so the cables align well. I ended up creating doublers at a number of locations and elongated slots as one gets closer to the aileron bellcrank. These could easily be done by the factory so no fiddling is required to guestimate where the control cable is going to land.
Just about everyone mentions having to bend the arms of the fuselage mounted elevator idler arm to get the necessary inside clearance. It would be nice if this part could be redesigned so this step is unnecessary. An internal width of .750" is perfect. Why furnish a welded part and then tell people they really need to modify it to make it work?
The stick torque tube could really stand to be upped in diameter, the clearance inside is a bear to get the hardware to clear.
Overall I am quite pleased with the kit and think it is a good value for the money. Thanks for your support Mark. As I build, I have taken the time to create complete isometric assembly drawings for the Patrol which show all the required hardware. It takes a lot of time but I find this an invaluable reference when I take something apart and avoid having to figure out what the correct bolt length is again. I could build my next Patrol in 1/3 the time!! I do drool in envy when I reference the assembly drawings from VANS which they provide for any airplane for $10 on a jump drive. I would think a set of detailed assembly drawings would save you a lot of support time and everyone who builds a lot of head scratching.
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