Throttle Servo
Probably the easiest servo in the plane to install was this one. The HiTec HS-311 is well suited for
this duty. It does not have to do a lot of work, so it has an easy time of it in the front of the fuse. However, it goes require
a 36" extension to make the trip back to the receiver which all the way in the tail cone.
The lone HS-311 throttle servo
Pulling Strings... and Wires
The fuselage
is long and the average guy isn't going to be able to reach clean through the thing to pull servo extensions, so I came
up with the idea of pulling strings in from various locations in order to ultimately pull some of the servo extensions from
back to front or front to back, as conditions dictated. I came up with a little tool consisting of a wood dowel and an o-ring
tool I've had for years. A couple wires ties hold it in place. It worked great.
The string and wire pulling tool - cheap and easy
There are quite a few extensions and Y-harnesses that have to pulled through on this kit. One of the
challenging ones was the Y-harness for the aileron servos. The connector ends must stick out through holes in the fuse so
you can hook up the servos after you get to the flying field. I pulled one string through each hole up front at the
wing root and pulled them both back.
I started by pulling two strings
back from the holes in the wing root to the tail cone. Then, I attached the Y harness ends to the strings. I then pulled both
strings forward at the same time and they popped out as shown below. 
Perfect!
All
of the remaining servo extensions were pretty easy. As you will see, I used the string trick to safely pull the EDI lighting
system lamp wires as needed. There is a lot of wire in this airplane.
A glimpse of the servo and lighting wires. There's some retract gear plumbing
in there as well. This is the most involved plane I've assembled and most of it was done when I got it. ARF airplanes
like this one require a great deal of time regarding what I call the "rigging" effort. It's got
to be right unless you want it to leave a smoking hole in the ground on day 1.
Speaking of extensions, when assembling the connectors, you need to make
absolutely sure they don't pull apart in flight. That can cause all kinds of problems. I forgot how many of the clips
I bought for this project, but I always have enough. These are made by Parsons Products. The ones for JR/Spektrum go by part
number JRP.
This is the Parsons JRP retainer clip available
at your local hobby shop for about $3.50 for 3 pieces. You NEED these for reliability.
After I got all the extensions and Y-harnesses pulled clean back to the tail cone, it was time
to mount the Spektrum AR7000 receivers. I picked up this idea from a fellow Yahoo! RC Propjet member from the pictures he
has on the group photo page. When I stopped to think about it, there really isn't much of a choice here for placement.
The following photos show the radio and battery with the fuse inverted.
Here's the business of the Spektrum radio. This is the
AR7000 receiver; standard on a DX7 system. The battery pack is hiding the rat's nest of wiring coming in from all areas
of the airplane. I need to make a battery retainer of some sort or the pack will fall out and rub against the tail cone. Not
good. Remember - it's upside down in the pictures.
The installation of the radio in the aft section of
the F16 is now complete with the installation of the receiver switch and charge jack. When upright, the position of these
is at the 7 o'clock position opposite of the oil spray from the engine.
For
me, the placement of these things was tricky and I ended up having the charge jack bumping into the plywood box that makes
up the radio installation area in the tail cone. Break out the Dremel with the sanding drum time! About 2 minutes later, problem
solved.
