The model comes almost ready built. It just takes a few evenings to make it ready for flight. Since this was my first ARF and I seldom build any kits I am not sure but I think that the parts were of reasonable quality except for the covering which was lousy. I used all the parts of the kit, except the nose gear and the plastic clevises.
I removed the nose gear and placed the main gear a little bit further forward. I placed a small nylon skid under the tail as protection. The rudder and elevator servo was placed behind the rear former. This gave me more room to adjust the cg by moving the batteries around. I fastened the receiver and the speed controller on the side with Velcro. The receiver battery and the motor batteries ( 2x7 SANYO SCRC in series) are fastened on the floor with Velcro too.
The motor is bolted to a plywood former which is screwed to the engine bearers. The rear end of the motor is reaching into a cut out in the firewall. Cooling air is let in through a hole in the firewall and is let out behind the wing.
Before first flight I placed the batteries as shown on the picture, cg at the recommended position. It resulted in a very nose heavy behaviour. Today I have moved cg to a position 15 - 20 mm behind the original. I have also shimmed the leading edge in order to get better overall handling. The original wing incidence was -2 degrees which must be consider quite unusual.
Take off from grass, loops, rolls and high speed fly bys are all easy to make. It is possible to climb almost vertically, but flying time is greatly reduced then. Normal flying times ranges from 7 to 10 minutes. Longest flights so far has been 13 minutes.
If you are going to assemble a SKYWARD 40 ARF I would suggest that you replace the very soft landing gear with ones made of real piano wire or duraluminum. The covering does not strenghten the airframe like ordinary coverings do and it is rather ugly so I think you should consider replacing it.
Data: wingspan 160 cm (63"), wing area 47dm2 (730 sq in), length 113 cm (44"). Weight of the parts: wing: 0,5 kg, fuselage: 0,6 kg, stab and fin: 0,2 kg, undercarriage and misc.: 0,2 kg. Total weight: 2,9 kg
Motor: Plettenberg HP320/25/6 (HP320K/6), approximately 500 watt
Speed controller: Sommerauer Fuzzy 60, 30 cells, 60 A
Batteries: 14 Sanyo SCRC
Propeller: Aeronaut 12x7 with +5 degree yoke (folder), Falco 11,5x7 (folder), Kyosho 11x8, Kyosho 11x9, Master Airscrew Scimitar 11x8 and APC 11x8. Aeronaut and Falco results in best performance and flight times, perhaps because of their thin and stiff blades.
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