TF Cessna building review In the summer of '97 the french magazine 'Maquettes Volantes Magazine' featured the Top Flite Gold Edition Cessna 182 Q Skylane, scale 1:5,3, span 2,06 m, radio controlled aircraft. The author reworked the basic kit into a fully detailed scale model for the french nationals, by adding dents and protrusions, lighting, doors and hatches and so on.. This article caught my attention, and resulted in the purchase of the very same kit a few months later, including the reliable Saito 90 4-stroke engine. The contents of the kit is impressive, a tremendous amout of sticks, sheet balsa and ply.. Also included are ABS wheel pants, fairings and windows. All essential parts are included, except for wheels and fueltank. Since continental-european (metric) tools, bolts and nuts do not fit on the US standard, a lot of bolts must be exchanged. After having read all 'legal stuff' assembly started with the fuselage. It is built of 3 mm sheet balsa wrapped around formers and stringers, bottom half first. Balsa must be made flexible by applying water with a damp cloth. The one-piece wing and the tailplanes are a classic fully sheeted wood construction; they must be built as light as possible, as was learnt later. Summer of 2001, after numerous hours of building, the model finally resembled an actual Skylane aircraft, and was ready to be finished. Light glass cloth was applied with several layers of 1-component polyurethane laquer; epoxy resin could have been chosen as well. It has taken a lot of sanding an filling to acquire a smooth surface. No less than 320 strips of ABS have been put on the moving surfaces to simulate the embossed rudder control surfaces. All r1vets (couple of thousand..) are simply put on by adding Pattex Profix 100 D2 white glue drops directly on pencil markings on the surface. After some practice, this job is ready in 5 or 6 evenings' work. The selected pitch is 6 mm on the fuselage, and 12 - 15 mm on the wing surfaces. The model is finally finished with 2 component acryllic laquer (automotive/aerospace) by use of foam rollers. It only takes about 100 cc of laquer. The interior is not fully scale, though i did put some work in the instrumentpanel and seats, which consist of nylon cloth on a foam base.. The instruments are based on the template which comes with the kit, though it has been masked with a painted ply front. The dials are covered with epoxy resin to simulate the dial glass. The plane was balanced by means of two battery packs alongside the engine (remember the heavy tailplanes??). See Tech tips on this topic. Additional specifications: Current targeted empty (dry) weight: circa 6000 grams (weight decomposition can be found in the Tech tips). 9 servos (included: two eleveator mini servo, two 'fowler' flap servos and dedicated nose wheel strut servo) Saito 15 cc (FA90), 14x7 propellor. Unfortunately, the plane has crashed during maiden flight; details are in the gallery section. I've started to build #2 from scratch which will be shaped to the 2005 reworked turbo version of cessna, and will probably order a third kit soon. On this site all progress will be presented. Please note, egrandbuy is selling an ARF cessna using pictures of my all wood construction kit by Top Flite. Quite an honour! last edited 12 januari 2006 mail the editor