RC Model Reviews

I took my AXN for its maiden flight yesterday. It flew fantastically. As a newbie, I found it easy to fly.

However, on my last flight I was caught short. The ESC cut the motor because of low voltage. I was taking off and it caught me by surprise. I lost control and it fell out of the sky. The only damage was the motor falling off. The glue let go. I found that the motor was only glued in one place – the vertical face of the foam motor pod. It was not glued in the top of the pod where the plastic motor holder has a fin which goes into a slot on top of the motor pod.

So my questions is, should it be glued both on the top and the vertical face? If I glue it on the top of the pod, will I be able to replace the motor if it dies – without badly damaging the foam motor pod?

Thanks,
André

Hi Andre,

I would glue all points of the engine mount, the engine can be replaced without removing the mount.

Dennis

Thanks Dennis
The engine has been bolted on and the nuts are inside the plastic mounting plate. So are these nuts glued to the plate? – i.e., I can simply unscrew the bolts to replace the engine?
Andre

The AXN motor is separate to the metal mounting plate. If you look closely, the motor actually has a spigot out the back that slides into the mount portion where it is retained by some grub-screws.

That mount with the four bolts/screws needs never come off to change the motor.

Thank you very much Bruce.

Your praise for the AXN was substantiated again by me. It flies easily and is great for a newbie. I lost control of it in a gust of wind about 200m away from me. It spiraled out of the sky and hit a wire strung about 20ft off the ground. It now has a 1 centimeter ding in a wing leading edge, but still flies well. Then it fell out of the sky when the ESC choked it. All that happened is a badly-glued motor falls off.

I had the same problem,Andre,and I just used leftover glue from the tube that came with the axn.
I glued both top and end,and I'm fairly confident it won't come loose again.If it does,the plane will be a write-off anyway.Dont get glue on the shaft though.

The glue that came with the AXN was rather nice. Unfortunately I used most of it up, so threw the remainder away.
So I'm wondering which glue to use. CA may be a bit thin.

Grab yourself a hot glue gun Andre, that and some fibre reinforced tape along with hot water will just about fix anything on your AXN. The hot water is good for repairing bruises and bends, I had a 15deg up angle on my nose, soaked it in hot water from a jug and everything returned to its original shape although bumpy like croc skin.
Cheers Dennis

great - I've got a hot glue gun, so I'll go for it, thanks.

I let hot water flow over the wing to fix the ding, but it only improved a little - I got the croc skin as you aptly call it. When it hit the wire, the foam in the leading wing edge split and then one side of the split rotated in, so i suspect it's jammed in. But its only about 10mm wide and 8 mm deep. I'm still learning and can expect much worse dents than this.

If you have a severe ding in the leading edge,you can always cut a square piece out around the ding.Then get a piece of spare foam(packing),cut a bit bigger than the piece you previously cut out,and glue in with gorilla glue or WHY,and let dry overnight.Next day,using very fine sandpaper(180 or higher),sand the repaired section back to wing shape.It'll be barely visible.