Rafale

When the kit arrived, the photo on the box worried me. I didn't order a "Fantasy" Rafale.

But the kit inside was right. Much better color scheme in my opinion. Not a lot of pieces all packaged in 5 plastic bags.

All the kit pieces laid out for inspection. Mine was short 1 hinge but not a big deal.

The fan access hatch is held on with 4 small magnets. The fan installation is left pretty much to your imagination since there are no mounting lugs. The manual doesn't give even a hint either. I'll be using clear silicon adhesive to install mine.

The fan kits. These are the HET 6904's with Typhoon 2W motors and Tsunami 54 ESC's.
One arrived missing the impeller and that was just the beginning of "things gone wrong".

Motor installed in fan housing making sure cooling holes line up. A little Loctite 242 on the threads will keep the mounting bolts from backing out.

Fan 1 fully assembled. It will be a few days before the mising impeller arrives to finish the 2nd one.

ESC attached and fan run to make sure direction is correct. Wires then get folded back to tuck in behind the fan. Nylon zip ties will hold everything in place. It's a good idea to apply some heat shrink tubing over the wire connections to insure they don't come loose during flight.

The manual includes a template for making the thrust tubes and it's "just right" for this application.

This is something I did not like about the kit. (My personal opinion is that it should never have made it past quality control at the factory.) The shot from the rear doesn't show it very well but there is a split running the full length of the right side inlet ducting. It's more visible from the front but not nearly as bad as it looks to the naked eye. After a few emails and finding out I wasn't getting a replacement fuselage ran some medium CA down the split and continued with the build.

I used URCFG for attaching the ailerons to the wing. I'm just not comfortable with using thin CA in close proximity to foam.

For a little extra insurance ran a strip of hinge tape along the bottom to seal the air gap.

The round opening in the wing needs to be opened up a bit to allow a standard size servo lead to pass through it.

Wings are attached (per manual) with 30 minute epoxy. A 2" roll of painters tape was the right size to act as the wing tip support while the epoxy cures.

Canards come next. Just as a note of interest, the canards and vertical fin are also made of fiberglass.

The boxes the fans came in were the right height for supporting the canards while the epoxy cures.
I used a bit of tape on the tops to hold them tight to the fuselage and batteries to hold them down to the correct height.

Test fitting the fans made me wish the access hatch was about an inch (to the rear) longer. It's a tight squeeze getting them in.

But they will go in. Still waiting on the impeller so only one has the ESC attached at this point.
You don't want to permanently install the fans until after the elevon servos have been installed and the leads run through. (I know this from experience).

While waiting for some more needed items to arrive went ahead and took care of the canopy installation.

My version of the battery harness with UBEC soldered in. I also added jumpers between the 2 after reading a bit in RC Groups about keeping twins equal. Plans at this point are to use two 3700 ma 3s 25c packs.

Servos finally arrived. I used Hitec HS-65HB's as they were the most powerful I could find that would still fit inside the thin wing section.

Wires pulled through and taped to the fuselage to keep them out of the way when installing the fans.

The manual shows using a clevis on both ends of the control rods but, they supply 4 threaded clevis' and long rods that are threaded on one end. A "Z" bend works for me.

I used some scrap 1/32" ply to make servo hatch covers, then covered them with a bit of white Econokote. A strip of very thin double stick tape holds them in place for now. Screws in the corners will be added as a backup.

Wiring harness ran and location of UBEC shown. I used velcro for attaching the circuit board and clear silicon to attach the ferrite ring.

My receiver came in today so I was finally able to get back to rigging. It's easier to hook up all the wires before attaching it to the velcro covered 1/32" ply base in the top of the fuselage.

It's not an easy fit, but the thrust tubes can be gotten in. A wooden dowel used from the rear can help get them worked over the fans.
All the wire connections get a bit of heat shrink applied over them to make sure they don't come apart by themselves.

Then, the wires get tucked neatly into place. 3/4" wide clear packaging tape was used to secure the thrust tubes to the fans.

Since I'm "done" back here installed the fan hatch cover and added more hinge tape to the seams. Chances are the 4 magnets would be enough to hold it, but I'd hate for it to come loose in flight. That could make one heck of an air brake, and wih my luck, it would.

When I 1st saw and pre-orderd this kit one of the features I liked was that it had fixed landing gear. That was not the case in real life so did a bit of improvising. The end of the battery tray makes a good starter pattern and all you have to do is extend it up. I cut the mount from 1/4" ply and attached a 1/8" nose gear bracket to it.

To simplify things, I attached the servo tray to the bracket before glueing it into the fuselage. It's not visible in the photo but there is a support on the back side which also gets epoxied to the fuselage floor.

The mount is attached with 30 minute epoxy and more ply reinforcments added along the sides

Completed nose gear assembly from the top. I used a 1/8" wheel collar where the steering arm would normally mount to keep the strut in place and mounted the toller on the top for easy alignment with the servo.

And what it looks like from the bottom. A little thank you to robert@ejf.com for sending me a link to some Rafale plans he had which helped get me going in the right direction for the landing gear mod. Not shown in the photo are the 1/8" ply plates that I epoxied inside the fuselage where the mains mount.

With all the underside work completed, it's finally time to add the vertical fin. A bit of masking tape will help prevent scuffing up the fuselage while sanding the fin mount.

The manual suggests using a couple of balsa sticks taped together as a clamp to squeeze the fin to the stub mount while the epoxy cures. I added in a bit of wax paper to make sure I didn't wind up with the sticks permanently attached, and used tape to keep the fin in the right position.

What it looks like when completed. I still haven't applied the decals, still need to get batteries and balance it. Other than that, it's ready to fly.

Here you can see the positive angle of attack that's built into the way I set the gear up. If you look close you can even see the little pilot that I added in.

Although I had planned on using a pair of 3700 MA 3s 25c batteries decided that it would make it far too nose heavy, so opted for a single 5000 MA 3s 25c Flight Power EVO25. With this battery positioned as shown (and 2 oz. of lead just ahead of the steering servo) the Rafale balances at the recommended 2-1/2" from the wing leading edge. Using dual batteries would require placing them so far back that there would be no access for securing them in place. I have doubts that 2 packs would even fit inside the fuselage.

After the 1st flight decided to add some cooling for the battery. The hole for the nose gear was enlarged a bit into an air inlet.

And using a very long 3/16" bit added a couple of exit holes in each of the inlet ducts to pull the heat out. It helped. The battery still gets pretty warm, but winds up about 10 degrees cooler than on the 1st flight.